June 25th -26th: Resting Up in Charters Towers
Day 255 to 256
Sometimes, one rest day is just not enough to do all the chores while having a “rest.” Since we don’t have a schedule, we took 2 days of rest in Charters Towers. We spent the first rest day working, as usual. Spending most of the day in town, trying to take advantage of McDonald’s free wifi to upload the pictures. Hours later, our patience wore thin by the incredible slow connection, we moved across the street to the public library, which promised 30 minutes free wifi. Half an hour later, only 3 out of 82 of our pictures were uploaded. It was a losing battle, so we decided to give up and head back.
The second day was restful, we spent most of the time reading and carb loading.
Chopper still had some bike maintenance to do, including pulling several thorns out of our tires. The Schwalbe tires did the magic again, our tires managed to stay puncture free even with all the thorns sticking in the foam padding. But we will definitely need some new tires when we reach Townsville.
After 80,000 km, the rubber was finally worn through to the foam padding
Over dinner, we met an old couple who were traveling every year to the exact same destination, staying at the exact same caravan parks. It was great that they were out and about at the age of 80, but knowing exactly what to expect takes the joy out of traveling. Of course, they expressed their concerns about our “early retirement” lifestyle, traveling around with no jobs and no home to go back to. After all, they worked for the same employer during their entire career, while such loyalty mutually owed between employees and employers are nearly non exist nowadays. We do have a wonderful time by throwing security and caution to the wind, but we might never be able to retire.
Curious bird visiting our trikes