Gregory Downs

We got a lift to old Gregory Downs with a couple of folks from NSW. We chatted and bonded over things we had in common like all being from NSW.

The town has a cute pub. No beer on tap but they do sell milk and bread and that's how you can tell Gregory Downs is a real town. Unlike Burke & Wills Roadhouse which only sold postcards and stubby holder shaped memorabilia.


We had even more beers when we got here. It might make today our most drunkenly day of the whole trip.

We found a pretty caravan park with roos and sprinklers and ants and caretakers from Melbourne. One of them offered us one of the empty cabins if it got too cold. She said she wouldn't tell anyone else - presumably meaning her fellow caretaker and husband. It was quite lovely of her. It was about 35 degrees today.

As we settled down and started to reflect on our small-scale, high-mobility pack, I realised I'd removed every sort of dinner flavour from the kitchen bag. Alice was gracious and forgiving but insisted I never be permitted again to make serious spice decisions without supervision. I agreed that was only fair. Fortunately salt and olive oil are great even in fairly remote isolation from other flavours. And peanut butter on a spoon makes both an excellent entree and dessert. So the night was no Desert Dinner Disaster by any means.

We both like cycling almost 10.

Burke and Wills Roadhouse

We made it to Burke and Wills safe, sound, slightly thirsty and with a healthy hot chip craving. It's a funny place which seems to exist purely for tourists. There's nothing else for 150km but you can't buy milk. Or beer on tap.


Today was short - about 30km. But it was enough. Much hotter than the last couple of days. Luckily we had a glorious tail wind all the way into town.


We are trying to find folks who might want to give us a lift into Lawn Hill. Because we are lazy loafers and don't want to do the 300km side trip.

It rained last night, for about 10 minutes. Big desert raindrops. Alice put up the tarp and the rain stopped. But there were puddles on the road thus morning which I rode through fast with a splash.

There were a bunch of mosquitoes too last night. We are a but paranoid about Murray Basin Encephalitis. Alice put up the tent and the mosquitoes stopped. For me at least. I didn't get in the tent.

I have just eaten chips and beer so I like cycling 10 and I think Alice does too.

Second day to Burke & Wills

Our second day is not quite so impressive. By the time we'd finished eating our celebratory pancakes last night it was 11pm which meant there was no chance we'd be leaving at 4:30am. In the end we had a nice sleep in and left about 8am. It was funny to wake up and find we were sleeping just a few metres from the highway. But in the mornings and evenings we only see one or two cars an hour so they didn't wake us up.

Instead of belting through 70km happily before lunch as we traditionally do (once at least), we struggled through 40km. Nut snack stops at least every 5km or it really wouldn't be manageable.


We managed to lose our lunch time rest stop entirely. We're still not sure where it went. But luckily we found a lovely clump of trees in an otherwise barren stretch of road. We had a bit of a fire and cooked up some chapatis. We had them with some hot (hardly) mango chutney we found at Stop Shop in Normanton. What a treat it was.


This was also where we ran out of soy milk so no more cappuccinos for us (or me). I'll have to struggle by on short blacks only for the next two days. Fortunately we found water at one rest stop so I can now wash the percolator between bliss times.

Alice likes riding 10 today and I like it 8.

Slow and far

After 7 hours riding even macadamias can't totally cheer Alice up. It will be our slowest day and also our furthest.

Lunch out of Normanton

We had a tremendous morning. There was a foul head wind but luckily for me and Alice we are both totally tough and fit. Not to mention wholesome early riser sorts.

There were flocks of brolga about 40km out of Normanton. Heaps of them in bunches waiting by the side of the road. As we rolled past they'd take off and it was pretty great. They had about the same trouble flying south as we did riding south so I felt a little solidarity.

We crossed the Flinders River and I collected extra water without being eaten at all by crocodiles. Alice didn't collect any spare water so I anticipate I'll be faced with an ethical dilemma if her life is threatened by dehydration. One thing I've learned out here is that helping people survive doesn't help anyone so I believe it would be best to let her perish nobly with her independence and dignity in tact. Welfare gets you nowhere.

We did about 15kph (slow) throughout the morning and made it to a good rest stop for lunch. There are no shade trees in these parts so finding a shed is rather exciting. We'll probably sit happily under this fellow for quite some hours.



We had something of a spectacular satay pita bread wrap for lunch followed by freshly percolated coffee from my brand new middle-class gadget (or at least I did).



Alice lost some crosswords to a particularly vicious gust of wind. She ran down the road after them and I wondered if I should follow and help. I decided it was too hot so I stayed in the shed. Then I had images of Alice getting lost running around paddocks looking for crosswords and getting heatstroke or something. And it definitely seemed too hot to mount any sort of search and/or rescue if that happened so I was somewhat torn. Eventually Alice came back with most of the crosswords, interrupting my reflection time. She doesn't appear to have suffered any permanent side effects from her ordeal. The scars will be largely emotional.

So the plan us to sit around. Read books. Make more fancy coffee. Perhaps have a siesta.

Morning Starting

We finally left at about 5am after much daffing around by me and a longish detour to the post office to post some cinnamon to our friends.

We've just had a breakfast stop while the sun rises over some pretty Savannah grasses.

Normanton to Cloncurry

Alice and I are heading off in a few hours. For our epic desert trek. 200km of pure crocodile and grey nomad infested territory with no water save that from the greys campervan sinks. It will be some tough distance to cover to be sure. Asking people at rest stops for water and lunch biscuits because we couldn't carry enough for ourselves. Hard, sweaty and humiliating work. But it's all part of the genuine desert cycling tour adventure upon which we embark.

See you all on the other side. Or at least at the next roadhouse.

Location:Sutherland St,Normanton,Australia