No alligators but some hungry birds: Home Hill - Alligator Creek

Leaving Home Hill bright and early we arrive in Ayr and decided to buy some new super dooper water proof bags. They are what we have decided on instead of getting a trailer. They fit perfectly on the back of our bikes, will easily carry all the extra weight and they don't come with any fiddly bits. They do make our bikes look very overloaded and we could run into some issues with handling but HOPEFULLY they were a good investment.

Today we didn't cycle too far but went to Bowling Green National Park, which is right outside of Townsville, so we can have a quick ride into to Magnetic Island tomorrow.

The water at Alligator creek was a refreshing afternoon cool down and 100% free of any toothy reptile killers. Although the Brush Turkey got into our fruit and bread as I left them unattended to watch a little wallaby joey jump in and out of its Mumma's pouch (too cute and totally worth the wasted food).

No danger here!

Anyone know what sort of bird this is?

Groggy, quite literally: Collinsville - Gumlu

Today we road on some really beautiful back roads! My view all day was similar to this

Herding cows

Which I can't all complain about because it was really relaxing. It was good as well though since we both woke up with some sore heads from the wine the night before. We didn't have much but I don't think our bodies are used to the alchohol.

We did a lot of cow herding today and managed to scare the life out of most things that we past. At one stage it was like being in the middle of a stampede of cows! It would have been scary if the cows didn't seem so afraid of us!

Jake looking proud

We are starting to feel really strong and we are just pumping through the kilometres with less needing for stopping and resting. It's good.

And the crazy wins: Eungella - Exmoor Creek

Everything that goes up has to go down, right? But does it have to be on horrible dirt roads that hardly allow a bicycle to past.

This day was a toughy. The road honestly wasn't that bad but after 2 days in a tent we started to go a little crazy I think. It was a hard emotional day in all honesty but we made it through and we remembered that although this does get hard we always have each other the keep us going. We didn't get anywhere near as far as we wanted and we are honestly down to our last biscuit but we should make it into Collinsville tomorrow to stock up on supplies.

Putting on a brave face - Atleast the scenery is nice!

This night was also mark by setting up our tent a few times on funnel web spider traps! Really getting rural now, living life on the edge.

Going a little Stir crazy: Eungella Rain Days

Spent the last two day in the tent avoiding the rain.

All in all this is a beautiful place to be but it is just WET. Although we did get to see a PLATYPUS!!

This is a video summary of our days!

View from the top end: Eton - Finch Hatton Gorge

We flew in the morning towards a town named Marian and then Mirani (honestly confusing). We stopped at Mirani for some morning tea then flew on towards our destination.

Im sick of this I'm going home

We didn't stop once until we got to our campsite for the night. So. Effing. Beautiful.

Finch Hatton Gorge was a haven for beauty. Surrounded by rainforest the camp site itself was set up with no electricity (the water was heated by woodfire) and therefore is was not inhabited by any of the usual pest that come with camp grounds. The showers were open air and you could see the rainforest whilst you were washing yourself. There was a beautiful creek to swim in which (although cold) was a refreshing dip. 

Excited for a refreshing dip

We spent the afternoon climbing up to the beautiful waterfalls in the area where Jake and a icy cold dip and I just put my feet in. Met a lady who said she was happy to put us up at her home in Atherton so we made a useful connection. 

This honestly is one of the most special places in the world! So lucky to come here.

Waterfalls

First photo of us together

Another crazy person: Carmila Beach - Eton

Woke up to the sounds of the beach and looked out to find that the water (which was a few kilometres from the camp ground last night) had come in all the way to the foredune with the tides! Crazy amazing!

Beautiful Carmila Beach!

Aiming for Mackay we were happy to roll into Sarina and find that they had a big shopping centre so we could probably bypass Mackay. 

Getting erroneous advice from the information centre we headed to a town called Homebush for a free camp site but came to a very small and free-campless town so had to push on a little further (slightly painful after a big day) and just set up tent in the local park on advice from a local. Not the best camp but it was somewhere for the night.

Quite deep into the stretch: Marlborough - Waverley Creek

This is for our Trivia friends:

Good advice!

Riding was boring today so not much to stay. Stayed at a free camp outside St Lawrence I would suggest it for anyone!