8th July - St Lawrence to Sarina

Nigel says... Watched the State of Origin match last night in the companyof Ron Coote, a many times capped Australian Rugby League player between 1970-1974. Ron was passing through St Lawrence with some friends en route to Cape York and was very interested in our trip. Much emotion in the pub and outrage from some customers that Queensland were not ahead by more points....

Slept well in my box room, in spite of visiting cockroaches, but awoke to the sound of pouring rain and a persistent cockerel at 0500hrs. The Sunshine State deserted us today as it was very overcast and dark.

We started pedalling at 0730hrs. Because of the amount of rain we gave the dirt track short cut a miss. Neither of us wanted to get covered in mud, besides I couldn't stand the sight of Gordon's quivering lower lip, so we went the long way round on tarmac.

The Bruce Highway was pretty good today. A shoulder all the way, quite a few stops and mostly flat. Today we cycled 130 kilometers (81 miles). Gordon suffering today. Much more pathetic than usual - have purchased lemsip. In a motel - upgrade from the pub. Pizza in front of the telly tonight - no disco - shirt in the wash.

Thoughts and comments:

• Vehicles had lights on most of the day.
• Saw two wallabies on the road this morning.
• Raining this afternoon.
• Pleasant "off piste" section along the seashore at Clairview - good views of islands.
• The countryside consisted of: bush...bush...cattle...bush...sea...bush...cane...cattle...bush...cane...cattle...cane...cane...cane
• Saw our first cane train today.
• Snack of the day: No award - all stops below par.
• Tune of the day: Jack Johnson - Breakdown
• Instruction of the day: Notice in Gents Toilets Kalarka Roadhouse -"Please help us to control the mosquito population by closing the toilet lid after use." (see snack of the day)
• Advert of the day: Poster promoting Sarina Beach shopping complex - "We have a medical centre, newsagents, pharmacy, bottleshop and much more....."
• Quiz Question of the day: What is the Queensland State Flower?

Long day tomorrow, but staying at a resort which should be good.

Gordon says ...I was looking through the list of books I could download for my ipod, mostly as a way of trying to distract me from the fact I've been coughing up blood for three days now. I thought about Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', but it seemed a little too close to my current circumstances - ie. a bizarre trip into nowhere that slowly descends into madness and death. Actually, come to think of it, it's more directly like 'Apocalypse Now', with me as Martin Sheen, and Nigel as an English version of all the other mad army bastards on the boat, rolled into one person, but unfortunately without the drugs ...

Didn't think I could ever get as sick as I was during the first week of the ride, but I'm almost there now - I'm so pathetically weak, even Nigel is cycling past me. In fact, Nigel is now nagging me to go and see a doctor - but I'm not sure I see the point - first, where? And second, they're only going to tell me to stop cycling, and I'm not going to do that - only 19 days to go to the top.

Tonight, I have very much been buoyed by the fact that Colin is going to join us from Mt Malloy onwards. As such, the part of the ride I have been dreading the most - the Cape -may well turn out OK. All joking aside, while Nigel's indefatigable nature has been crucial to us getting this far, I also think that he may have underestimated the difficulties associated with the Australian wilderness - I can picture Nigel saying: 'The surface of Mars? No problem, let's just keep peddling'. Colin is an experienced outback guy, he's sane, good company, and reeks of competence - unlike Nigel, who just reeks ...