Overlander Way & Stuart Highway

Well long time since I posted.  I suffered from very little internet access over the past few weeks.  Now I almost feel guilty writing an entry.

Road House Blues

Basically the only places to stay on the Stuart highway are road houses and pubs.  Each on tries to out do the other to attract the punter.  They are usually your only source of food, fuel, beer, and a shower. Me being someone on a bike all of those things are very important.  They are typically spaced every 200 k's or so.  The roads are amazing in their quality.  In NT they are now rated to 130kph.  I at best do 125kph.  Most of the time I sit around 110.  Lots of reasons for me going slower.  1. Call me Mr. Safety.  2. Call me Mr. Safety. 3. Call me cheap.

Note: I'm smiling under that helmet.

Now I've also started to keep my emergency water supplies strapped to the bike at all times now.  Turns out they make the bike handle much better.  I'm hanging them off the front crash bars.  The weight has moved forward and now the front tire has more presure on the road surface.

Barkly Homestead

My first NT stop was at Barkley Homestead, 241.28kms West of Camooweal. aka 241.28 km's between fuel stops.   This is basically a must stop for everyone,  They got nice little hotel rooms and reasonable camp sites.  Here is a tip for people pitching a tent in one of these places.  Always look for green grass ( yeah like you are going to find that. ) or puddles.  Both usually mean the ground is soft enough to put a tent peg in.  I pitched my tent right on top of a puddle.  Tent was up in a few minutes.  The poor bastard beside me chose flat smooth ground.  I've never seen a pretzel shaped peg before.

The bar and kitchen there are not bad.  Beer is cold which is the most important.

Big tip here.  When going to the showers.  Bring your towel.  I somehow forgot.  I had to leg it back to the tent half dressed dripping wet to get the towel.  Then leg it back to the showers so I could shower again because I was covered in mud.

On the day I left Barkly Homestead the wind had licked up.  Not just wind.  Gusting wind.  Steady wind is easy to deal with.  However Gusting wind is definitely not easy to deal with.  I seriously struggled to put down the K's.   I was doing a solid 80kph.  At least it was coming from just behind my right hip.  So I got a little push along.

I was however not quick enough to stop a woman riding alone going in the other direction on a Harley Soft Tail. We had met the day before.  She was headed in the other direction.  Into the wind.  She had an extra gas can,  but there was no way in hell she was going to get to the next stop even with the extra gas.

Rennier Springs

The ride into Rennier Springs from Barkly Homestead was rough but worse was yet to come.  Beautiful roads and fantastic scenery.

One the ride in I went through such glamorous places as Three Ways,  Banka Banka, & Elliott.  Actually that's all you will ride through.  There ain't much on this road.  Word of warning, don't stop in Elliott for the night. Unfortunately this place has some domestic issues with booze and crime.

The picture to the right is the springs.  Talk about a jewel in the rough.  You can't expect much on this road.  But what you will find is tons of character.

While staying here I got to know the locals.  I got to see this poor back packer kid that got off this bus to start his new job.  The look of pure horror on his face was priceless.  He was German, and always lived in a city. Now he's in a place where there is no phone reception and definitely no internet and the grass is mowed by goat.

Oh and yes I pitched my tent next to the unit block.  I was stealing power.

Daly Waters

The ride into Daly waters was possible the hardest ride of my entire life.  I had 0-60kph gusts coming from 45 degrees behind my right side.  It was down right dangerous.  I did not managed to exceed 80kph.  Most of the time I was hovering around 60kph.  This on a road that was 130kph limit.

Now for a little lesson in bad air.  Bad Airtm Mark Daku,  is turbulent air that thrown off by passing or leading vehicles. Many things affect how you as a rider will be affected by bad air.

1. Closing speed.  This is the sum of your speed and the speed of the approaching vehicle.  The larger this number the bigger the blast of air that will hit you.
2. Direction of prevailing wind.  Now this is Australia.  So for you American / Euro types this will be backwards.  If the wind is coming from you left side then the impact of bad air is reduced.  If the wind  is from the right hand side the impact can be dramatically worse.   For winds from the right hand side speeds of -0-30kph and not much of an issue.  30-60kph.  This starts to be very difficult.  Over 60kph.  Just get off the road.  In the 30-60 kph I strongly recommend slowing down as much as you can when trucks are approaching.
3. Steady vs Gusting.  Steady wind is manageable but needs to be treated as if it were a dingo.  Always be on guard.  Gusts however must be treated with extreme caution.  A gust can move you in a lane by a couple of metres.   If you are top heavy then the impact make your bike feel as if some is trying to kick the legs out from under you.  This is how you can go down.  Over correcting can result in you be laid down on the road.  Slow down in gusts.  Gusts only make bad air that much harder to handle.
4. The vehicle approaching.  Small cars that are built for speed are hardly noticed in the bad air scale.  As they are designed to have the air flow around them.  On the opposite scale is the road train with flat bed trailers with the ramps in the upright position.  The easiest one to spot is the road train.  A big square truck coming at you is going to toss turbulent air.  But take a look for a wind deflector on top of the cab.  These things actually smooth out the air a bit.  No air deflector means really bad air. Next take a look at the trailers it is pulling.  An enclosed trailer stirs up less bad air than an open trailer like a live stock trailer. The worst trailer is the flat bed with folded up ramps at the end.  These ramps act like battering rams in the air.  Now you also have to look for the movement of the trailers.  In windy conditions the trailers will actually snake behind the cab.  A snaking trailer is a trailer that is 1 affected by air and is 2 giving bad air.  Next down the list of bad vehicles is the caravan.  You can see the traits of these road trains in smaller vehicles as well.  So keep you eyes open and act accordingly.  As a general rule, slow down and move over.  Allow for the bad air to move you further towards the ditch.
5. Following a vehicle.  This is a smaller scale version of the approaching problem.  The more bad air you experience the farther back you should hang.  It's very tempting to come up real close to that caravan going 90kph and shoot out past it when the coast is clear.  Don't.  One you restrict your ability to see past it.  And Two when a vehicle passes you are now being smacked around by at least two sources of bad air.  Wait for a passing lane or wait for a clear spot on open road. Your on a bike you will still pass it very quickly.  You don't need to be riding it's bumper to pass.

Should probably make a section just for bad air!

Now this trip as I said before was the hardest ride of my life.  At one point I stopped on the side of the road.  I was basically stuck.  There was no way I could ride in the gusts.  Simply too intense.  I was also in a section of road where it was not possible to camp.  A large flood plain.  The road it self was raised fairly high up so that in the wet the floods would not close the road.  This just made the gusts worse.  I was for all intensive purposes, stuck.  I then glanced down into the ditch and noticed the old road.  It was like someone had handed me a get out of jail free card.  This road was still paved and in reasonable condition.  No matter what, I had to get off the road.  So down was my only option.  Well I get down on the old road and the wind gusts where basically zero.  I had no intention of riding this road.  But I did as long as it was good and as long as I was able to get out.  Well I managed to travel over 20km at about 70kph.  This got me through the worst part and at the end of the old road I was able to easily get back onto the Stuart highway.  I was now travelling on the main road at 60kph.  Yep slower.

I don't know where I learned this.  But I remember sailors avoided long lines of clouds in the sky.  Once you are under them the wind dies off.  For about 150km I watch this line of cloud in the sky.  Just praying to get under it.  It worked.  About 60 km outside of Daly waters I got under the clouds and the winds died off to nothing.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Daly waters is the oldest pub in Australia.  It also holds the record for the shortest amount of time a McDonalds store was open.  Yep.  McDonalds opened a store here for 1 afternoon.  That's it. Apparently they shipped in all the stuff it takes to run a store and they served burgers and what not for charity.

Daly waters has a dusty plain next door that serves as the caravan park.  There are definitely not enough dunnies to handle all the people.  I stayed in a cabin room. A real bed and a toilet that didn't have a queue behind it.

Katherine

Daly Waters to Katherine.  In my mind this is where the Top End starts.  From here on up is where I associate those incredibly hot summers and torrential rains.  The start of the beautiful vistas and really dangerous critters.  

One of my stand out memories of the place is this is where a train was literally washed off the tracks by floods.  Everything else in the region was smart enough to seek high ground and stay put. The roads where closed, live stock was moved, schools where closed.  But yet the rail companies thought the tracks where good even though they were under water.

The ride in was smooth and easy,  The winds of the previous days had died down to something that easy to handle.  I got a chance after the last few days to really take in the road and the views.  The Stuart Highway is a very good road.  With long slow curves built to handle road trains at 130kph.  This was a road built for cruiser motorcycles.  The Harley riders out there would love it, as this is the type of road a Harley can handle.

I had a little apprehension about staying in Katherine.  In the last few years the news would always paint Katherine as a town ravaged by high level of alcohol violence, low employment and high crime.  At first when I rolled into Katherine I turned into a neighbourhood to have a look around.  All of the houses are surrounded by high fences and the yards all had dogs.  My fears where looking like there were about to come true.  I then decided to find the caravan park.  On recommendation I was headed to SpringVale Homestead 

The Homestead was a great little place. It is a little run down. Loads of character. All sorts of critters are at the homestead. ducks, guineafowl, wallabies, cookatoos, turtles and fresh water crocs.  All of which beg for food.  The ducks are so fat I thought there were some kind of goose at first.  I've never seen turtles that beg. When you come up to the billabongs edge the turtles start to creep closer and will eventually come out of the water and look up at you waiting for food.  There are also some small crocs in the billabong.

Katherine Gorge & Night River Croc spotting

A complete surprise was the Katherine Gorge.  I'm sure I heard of it before but I complete forgot it existed. While doing some the what the heck do I do in this town information search one of the first things I came across was the Katherine Gorge.  An absolute must see I was told.  I thought it's just a gorge. Well it turns out it is no typical gorge.  The gorge was formed by the erosion of cracks in the escarpment over ohh lets say a few years.  The cracks effectively act like a grid layout across the escarpment.  This makes for very straight very long walls.  Now this is some 300km inland and salties manage to make there way up the river every year during the wet. Since it has become illegal to hunt salties they are expanding to their original territories again.  This includes Katherine and farther up stream.  So each year at the start of the dry the rangers and local councils embark on trapping and moving the animals.  Unfortunately the gorge was not clear of salties when I was there.  So I couldn't go for swim in the gorge.  I was able to spot some freshies however while I cruised around on the tour.

Pigs, P.I.G.S. and a Possum

Pigs

So I have started my journey into the interior of Australia.  I have started to head west for Townsville.  I'm taking the easy route through to Darwin. I wanted to take the Savannah way however I'm looking at the Calender and it doesn't look good.  I have to start pounding some miles and catch up a bit.  So onto the nice road with lots of nice stops and places to stay and easy to access fuel.

So they tell me there are a lot of wild pigs about.  Well holy molly are there ever.  There was one bit of the road where I saw 3 dead ones all very very close to each other.  These were big pigs.  Clearly there has been no shortage of food this year.  I actually saw more dead pigs than anything else on the side of the road.  The kangaroos where easily out numbered.

I was later informed that these dead pigs were most likely the result of beer, rifles and utes on the loose.  Translation for the Canadian's.  booze, guns and trucks.   No one really takes notice if you kill a few dozen pigs on the side of the road.  Fire away.

P.I.G.S.

Well no blog entry this week can avoid the issues we face in Europe.  Well as a result of Greece imploding and Spain trying to do a good impersonation of Greece, we have seen the Aussie buck loose about 7%.  This is really rather dramatic. It's not going to slow down soon either.  This is going to change a lot of things I had planned for the year. Yep even in the bush I am getting the news.  Sitting in the pub today for dinner everyone at the betting tables were talking about Europe.  Now to put this in perspective.  These are guys with cow shit on their boots, drinking small pots of beer and betting on dog races. 

Not much world news is every going to register with these blokes.  But this was a hot topic.

A Possum

A Possum made me return the coast today.  My tent has had some issues over time.  A small seam pop, a cracked pole, and the pan was a little thin in spots.  Last night however my tent was rendered useless.  At about 4 in the morning I wake to hear two possums engaged in world war 3 above my tent. ( They are most likely going at it like rabbits, they are very noisy in the sack. )  Well all of a sudden my tent is rocked.  I feel it move considerably.  Clearly something has fallen on it.   I pay no notice and go back to sleep.

In the morning a full hour later I wake and have a shower.  On the way back I notice the damage.  I have a busted tent pole and a rip.  The tent is now totalled.  It is beyond repair at this point and I can't use it again.   It was a possum that decided to jump on the tent.  

So immediate change of plan.  So I jump on the bike and blast back to the coast.  Some things do go my way. I have a new tent.  I have spare parts and a $25 gift voucher to spend in the future. 

I'm now back exactly where I was last night same camp ground.  Same tree above me.  All because of a possum.


I'll update with some photos in the next day or so.

A Lazy week.

I have to admit I have been exceptionally lazy this last week. Something about the tropics and the way it just slows you down.

It doesn't hurt that I have been staying in the Sheraton Mirage Resort in Port Douglas for 3 days. Nice resort worth a look. It's huge and the pool just goes on for ever. Actually it's several pools. The place is getting a bit dated but it's very nice still.  The resort is right on eight mile beach.  This beach is very nice but a tease at the same time.  You can't really go in the water here except for a very short window of three months a year. Six if you stretch it.

Interesting Fact

The Japanese bombed the Shire of Port Douglas.  I did not know this.  I knew they bombed Darwin.  I was unaware they bombed here.   

More interesting times ahead.

Well I'm about to embark on the most challenging portion of the trip. It's rather imposing. I'm going to take it one day at a time. I'm about to start the centre phase of the journey. This is where I go from Port Douglas into the centre and then down to Uluru then back up to Darwin. From Port Douglas to Uluru is 2800km alone. And there is not much between these two points. I'm allocating about 3 weeks to cover the track all the way to Darwin. Which works out to around 5000km. Which is about perfect as the bike will need a service and new tires by then. The tires are rated to have a longer range than that but I have a harder chance to change them after that.

Croc Farming & the Medicine Hat connection

I spent the day at a croc farm.  I've seen crocs before but I wanted to see the non-zoo version.  These cros are farmed ethically.  Any wild croc that is used is only used for breeding.  Only the hatchlings are used for product.  Products are varied,  Leather obviously, some meet, the teeth and skulls are also sold.

The big reason why only farmed crocs are harvested is that the fashion industry only likes a small scale pattern from the belly.  Which means these crocs are of non-breeding age.  So if the wild crocs were harvested then there could be an issue with hunting them to local extinction.

Oh these are salties, AKA Salt Water crocodiles.  Biggest baddest crocs in the world.  4.5 meters is average for a full grow male in the wild.  Put that in perspective you are not even 2 meters tall.  On the day I was at the farm they told us of a reported croc sighting all the way down near Brisbane.  In modern Australian times this has never happened before.  Look out people there coming to us.

Croc hatching. Yep saw that.

Pretty cool even if you have seen it on TV before. Basically this is a lazy croc. Once the nose starts to stick out the croc can hatch any time. A lazy one is one that doesn't try to hard to crack the outer hard shell. So in this case the handler does that for it. This leaves the soft leathery inner shell. This can be torn by the baby croc quite easily. It really is amazing how big these guys are. And those tiny teeth are SHARP. out of the shell it can give you stitches.

Croc Feeding

They took us out to the adult pens where the guide gave us a little run down of the farm. He also gave us a few tips on dealing with crocs in the wild. I'll sum up the tips here.

• If you see a croc. run
• If you see a croc nest mound. run
• If you see a croc slide. run
• If you are pitching a tent in a croc area do it up and over 100 meters from the water.

None of this climb up a tree B.S. or run in a zig zag nonsense.
As for the farm we were shown the adult pens. Where typically there are 1 male and 1 female per pen. However in one pen there were 14 male crocs. This was so that they fatten up and get ready for breeding. These guys are eating machines. Half a chicken in a chomp. And they could easily eat a lot more in one gulp.

Croc holding, Cause I can.

No visit to a farm would be complete without a little put of petting the baby animals. Cute little guy. Very docile. This one is very used to being handled by humans. So he was basically just hanging out there. Very soft skin. You could feel the power in the tail.

Even the little kids got to hold and touch it. Which was rather funny. Two grand mothers were having heart attacks watching the kids touch and hold the croc.

Medicine Hat Connection

This one is for the family. One this little trip around the croc farm I run into a couple travelling around the pacific region. Well to my surprise they are from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. It didn't take long to figure out that they actually know my brother Russell. Well know of him to see him.

Brisbane Flashback

Roman, my friend down in Brisbane where I stayed was kind enough to take a few photos on the day I left.  Roman and Gabriel I can't say thanks enough.  Having a 4th sorry 5th kid in the house was probably not your plan for the weekend.   I enjoyed staying.  This is a bit of a flashback post, to a little of a week ago, I think.  I have no idea how long ago.  I have long since lost track of time.

I highly recommend chateaux Hanousek to all weary travellers.  The kids are good ( sometimes ), the chickens are bad and the dogs are stupid. I didn't get to know the cows.  But they looked fairly spoiled.

On to some photos.

Moving the bike to firm flat land

so I can pack it.

Unloaded just waiting for

me to begin the strapping procedure.

I know this strap hook on somewhere????

BTW this is the tent bag.

Gab and her father in the background. 

He used to race bikes when he was 

younger.  I would have loved to 

explore that more but I only found

out on the last day.

Doing up yet another strap.  Note.  All straps are attached so that

they only attach to the thing underneath.  This means

things like I can open the boxes.  I can also unloaded a

stack by detaching only the bottom bag. 

Oops I think I'm actually doing up locks

not straps.  Each buckle has a lock.  I made

them myself. I actually bought 30 locks key the

same. 

Ready to launch. To be honest I was nervous.

Two reasons. 

1. What if I wipe out on the way up the drive way.  

I would never live it down.

2. I'm now leaving the comfort of the triangle.
Brisbane, Sydney Melbourne.

I'm now going unto unfamiliar roads.

The Rooster.   There are actually 2 but this one is the boss.
First day when I  got out of the tent .  I was greeted by this guy.  Apparently
I needed to be told what to do.   That was apparently to keep moving. The threat
of a peck on the bare foot was ever present.  

Blasting my way to Rockhampton

Sorry No photos today.

Today was a long long ride.  Not because of distance but because of the road.   8 hours in the saddle for a 4 hour trip.

The road up to Rockhampton is basically under a huge amount of construction.  Recently a major push in the area for mining.  What I'm not sure.  The government is turning the PoC ( Peace of Crap, TM Mark Daku ) highway into a proper split dual lane each way 110km road.  There was easily 150 km of continuous construction.  With all the construction comes very impatient people.  There were 4 major accidents being cleaned up.  One so bad  it resulted in a full 45km detour.  

The ride was however spectacular for it's views.  The table lands up here are amazing.  I am definitely checking these out tomorrow.  I think I'll set up here for a few days and look around.

However the big surprise of the day was a double trailer truck I was following. It was a bunker of a truck. This was the most well built truck I have seem. At one of the frequent stops in the middle of no where I looked up and read a very imposing sign. ( I did try and take a photo but the stops were not long enough. ) It read, "In case of accident call 000, or Army bomb disposal, or SES" All the numbers were listed. Then below that was Truck contains, Ammonium Nitrate. OK The bomb that blew up one of the American Secret service builds had a drum of the stuff in it. This was tons and tons and tons of it. After this I faded back from the truck. Then I did some mental math gazinkas and realised there was no safe distance.
View Larger Map
So I'm now in a place call Kinka beach at the Island View Caravan Park.  Very nice little Caravan park, bit pricey.  But it a good spot.  I even have a pet Peacock, male with all the feathers.  Also a ton of bush turkeys about.  Definitely not letting any food out of the tent tonight.  

Tomorrow I plan on taking some photos. Lets see what I can come up with. I also plan to see a Croc farm and possibly a Mountain view look out. The trip is starting to get interesting.

Mary Poppins, Groceries & Cooking in the wind.

My meeting with Mary Poppins

So did you know that the author, Pamela Lyndon Travers of Mary Poppins was born in the town of Maryborough,QLD? Neither did I.

So I'm asking the kind woman at the motel I stayed at for tips on where I nice place to have morning breakfast is.  She says or just right beside the Mary Poppins statue. My response, " Did you say Mary Poppins?" I of course had to go.  For anyone else planning to come here.  By all means take the walking tour. But I urge you strongly do not eat at the coffee shop near the statue.  Wow,  that was bad.  How can you wreck scrambled eggs?????

Moore Park Beach

So I have managed a full 200km up the coast today.  I had no intention of breaking distance records today.  The winds gusts were very strong.  So I spent the better part of the ride with a more than comfortable lean on the bike.  I did however get to have a little cruise around Hervey Bay and Bundaberg. Hervey Bay is basically one of the points where you can get on the ferry to go to Fraser island.   I decided to skip Fraser on this trip.  A few reasons, 1 The weather and 2 my skill level on sand is still horrible. I'll be back that I I'm positive of that.

Close up,  See the camera ball mount

How I carry Groceries

So I find this lovely little Caravan park, again on the water.  Moore Park is basically a sleeping town.  There are no actual services here.  So you do have to fend for your self here.  So I truck on up to get some fresh veg and other food stuffs.  Normally on these little trips I make sure I have free bag space so I can put the shopping somewhere.   I completely forgot to make room.   So I come out of the store and sit there scratching me head.  Where the hell am I going to put the food to carry back to the site?  Then I spot the camera mount point. Tada perfect bag holder.

By The way here is my cooking arrangement for the trip.  Gas bottle, Tiny little heating element.  Some backpackers cooking apparatus.  I'm using my bike as a wind break of sorts.  Also at the camp ground they have concrete pads for camper vans.   Perfect place to put the bike.  Absolutely level.

From the beach to the pasture. With a rain chaser

Kingscliff beach at night

Well I have to say that the Kingscliff north holiday park was a pretty cool place to stay in the tent.  I was basically on the water.  I exited my tent and there it was.  At night when high tide came in and started smashed on the rock retaining wall it felt like I was 2 feet from the water.   Good thing I covered the bike, as in the money there was a fine dusting of salt spray.

Great spot,  In the morning I just got up strolled across the road to a coffee shop grabbed a mug of coffee went back the site and slowly packed my gear.  Pausing to have discussions with passing neighbours.   I'm fairly certain we solved world hunger climate warming, Left un-resolved however is which is the better bike.  KTM, BMW or Harley.  So what should have taken 45 minutes took 3 hours.

Gold Coast on the main strip

So off to Brisbane I go.  General plan.  Hug the coast as close as possible. I've seen the news etc.  Man the gold coast has got a lot of investment dollars pumper into lately.   The whole place is one big development site. I'm still trying to figure out what the place looks like when the 1000's of teenagers descend on the place for schoolies week.   Great beach,   This is one of the worlds best beaches for a reason.

Only 4 Motorcycle spots?

So finally I have to head into Brisbane,  To my complete horror.  There is a broad 8 lane highway, 110 kph That feeds direct from the coast into Brisbane.  What no residential streets?  No driveways butting against the road.  Great ride in.

Seems the rain really likes me.
It's basically centred right on top of me.

A friend of mine Roman has graciously allowed me to sleep on his lawn.  Poor bugger,  Once I set up the tent it starts to rain.  I'm going to be sleeping here for at least 3 nights.  This is not helping put down miles.

Looking to put me in my place.

Roman enjoys a massive block of land 5 acres, chickens, cows, and a small pack of over happy Terriers dogs.

Yamba Day

Slow Day in Yamba

OK starting to relax.  I'm still way to city stressed.  So I decide to day is the day to bring out the camera. Starting with a little breakfast. Did you know the Vegetarian breakfast with coffee comes with, 3 fried eggs, bacon, and full cream milk in a cappuccino. Next time I check the definition of Vegi-breakfast more closely. So much for this low cholesterol diet.

After breakfast I'm soon confronted in the street by a very eager young woman. She wants to know everything about the bike. Not me of course, just the bike. This conversation quickly evolves into a little show and tell session with her and soon her partner as well. Again about the bike. Basically every detail of the bike is gone over. 2 hours pass. They are just in the early planning phase a cross Aus adventure ride.

I did however get to extract a little bit of interesting information about the local area. Some interesting spot for photos etc. I did manage to take this of a very interestinglittlepoint on the shore. Theinterestingpart of this shot is that the point is grass covered. I might just head back out there today if the rain lets up and try for another shot. The processing on this one is a little too intense. But I'm actually trying to make this a B&W shot eventually. That's the reason for the sharp contrast etc.

Hard day done time for a beer.

Note: My stolen invention. Attaching a camera mount to a board and thus using the tripod legs as table legs. Credit goes to: Mark from BikerBitsAUS. I did however change a few things. I used a cutting board as they are already water proof. They come with a handle already cut out. This comes in handy for tie downs etc. Mine is also screwed in. It doesn't leave the surface flush. But it also means it won't come off.

Cops, Sugar Cane & Fajitas

A day without surprises.

Is a bold face lie.   Today I spent 5-6 hours in the saddle.  I wanted to put some miles down.  So on the highway and shoot straight north.

It's a damn good thing I don't speed.   This has to be the most heavily policed road I have every seen.  I really did not know there were so many ways to get caught.

• Posted speed cameras.
• Averaging speed cameras.  They take two photo's X distance apart.  If your average is over you get done.
• The loan cop in a car on the other side of a rise.
• The unmarked super slow cop.  Using radar on passing cars.
• The roving team.  Cops on side of road tagging cars to be pulled over 1 km up by a group of cops.  Kinda like a breath test station.

Sugarcane

Maybe I once knew that NSW grew sugarcane.  But I found it surprising just how much.  It's not like northern QLD but still impressive.   Coffs Harbour up is cane.   My GPS took me on a short cut through some country roads.  At first I was getting worried that the GPS was leading me down one of those every deteriorating roads.  I needed miles not 40kph pot hole dodging.  At first I was annoyed and starting to debating turning around.  Then I started to pay attention to what was around me.  To the right Rain Forest to the left cane.  And everywhere water.  There is just simply so much water lying around.  I've been in Aus now I think going on 13 years.  I know Aus as dry, dusty, and brown.  But this year is the year of water.  There is just so much bloody water.

The Big surprise

Quite good Mexican style Fajitas.  Just some random little town on the Northern NSW coast and they have proper sit down Mexican food.  Granted some of it is not quite right.  For example the sizzling plate Just does not have enough onion or capsicum.   The black beans were a tad bland.   Missing was a decent jalapeño sauce.  They did however have a Habanero sauce that was very good.  Sol Cantina in Yamba NSW.

Bonus section

So last night and possibly tonight I am going to be working on a little bit of code to properly merge my GPS tracks.  All the tools I have found so far just simply don't work.  The problem boils down to and inherent issue with XML.  It's un-ordered.  So if you have a pile of saved GPS tracks from your adventures and you decide you want to merge them all and show them on the same map, you will be in for a surprise.  It's rather hard.  As the tools read the tracks and once they are merged they will actually be randomised.  It's actually more complicated than that.  But that will suffice.

There is also an issue with the GPS unit and it recording really poor data.   No time embedded on each point. They are just a random collection of points.  I know why.  If they did record that then the data could be used in court.   I'm sure Tomtom doesn't want to be there too.

Anyway as a result I will be able from time to time post a complete map of all of my travels.  You will see every road and track I have been on.  As well I hope each stop.  Trying to figure this part out tonight actually.  This is to augment my real time tracker that is currently having issues with displaying acquired data.