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.