A different day

Sitting at a rest stop half way between Cloncurry and Mt Isa waiting for the laksa to finish cooking. Ryan just had a lie down because he ate too many peanuts (or maybe more to do with riding a pretty hilly day in the heat and accepting a beer at a break in the afternoon I suspect), so I thought I would sneak in a blog while I can, as some have accused me of losing interest in my own blog (it's hard to keep up with these people with i-phones!).

Today we rediscovered a bunch of distantly remembered aspects of cycle-touring: freewheeling (ah you don't always have to fight for every kilometre!), hills (the upsides and the downs, half of which had us slightly regretting our enthusiastic shop in Cloncurry woolworths, the first supermarket we'd seen since Ravenshoe), tailwinds... We also met some generous folk who gave us water, crackers, and chocolate (the last of which I accidentally ate all of, woops) oh and then the aforementioned beer.

Yesterday we learnt that cycling into a headwind fuelled only by white bread and golden syrup (dwindling lunch and breakfast supplies after no food being available in Quamby or Burke and Wills) doesn't make for the most cheerful adventurers (surprise surprise).

There are a lot of ants here. Luckily they haven't realised all the good stuff is up here on the table, but they swarm our feet as soon as we put them down. Ryan tried giving them an offering of some of our beloved golden syrup (which we never squeeze straight into our mouths, I swear). They seem to be enjoying the golden syrup, but not enough to keep them away from our feet (and who could resist our unwashed cyclist feet really). There are also road trains stopping here every half hour or so, but we'll sleep through anything tonight I think. With the moonless sky full of stars shining on us.

Had a 5 hour rest at the lovely Corella river today, watching fairy martins building their mudnests under the bridge, and a young nankeen night heron peering at us from on high. Almost as nice as the Chinamans Gap dam outside Cloncurry where we stayed last night. Internet too slow for pictures.
Mmm time for dinner.