Didn't wake until 6.15 am this morning and of course all riders were up and nearly ready to leave camp. It was going to be another long day or so they thought. Morning tea was arranged for 9.30 am at the 50 km mark so no-one really needed to leave before 7 am.
They had a lovely tail wind today and we made it to the 50 km mark by 9.15 am and everyone was there waiting for us. Ben said he had been there for about an hour but he likes to ride in the early hours. We had some chocolate balls left over, chocolates and cream biscuits (donated by Anna before they left) for morning tea. It nearly all went and John & Woody didn't stop so it wouldn't have been enough if they had.
The scenery was perfect and the road was mostly dual lane but often it was single lane. This is supposed to be the Number 1 highway, hard to believe but it is the cleanest highway in Australia. Some drivers are nutters and we had one who was desperate to pass us at top speed on the single lane spot. The amount of rocks he kicked up at us was unbelievable. The guy was towing a boat and was a total dickhead.
The group reported going through a swarm of bees and poor old Annie got bitten on her forehead by one of them. Lucky Jacquei was coming up behind her and was able to remove the stinger and give her some relief. I'm sure she did a fancy dance when it happened.
Pat had a large goanna walk across the road in front of her and has taken a lovely photo of it which I hope to get a copy to put on the blog. Also we passed a sign with a whole lot of stations listed and I was sure one of them said "mango plantation" but then looked around and decided I was wrong when all of a sudden we come across a large grove of mangoes. I also saw a herd of wild camels near the road.
Jacquei comes in at the end of morning tea and her "Go-pro" camera had broken off the new stand bought for it so she has to take all photos manually now. Also saw a flock of black cockatoos.
John & Woody didn't stop at lunch either but rode straight through and were in town by midday and straight into the pub (for John anyway). The rest of the group were in to town by 3 pm and most had had a swim by then as well. The highest temperature today was around 34 degrees which usually reads higher out on the road.
Annie was elected by Collis to do the briefing for him (he seems to be picking all the younger females to do this- first Fliss and now Annie, tomorrow will probably be Melanie). It was quite a controversial briefing with alot of heated discussion around the delivery of water (especially now that we are getting out into the hotter days) and the timings for morning tea. The group are not happy with the 2 cars arriving at the same time (neither are we) and suggested that one car goes earlier and then the other sweeps at a later time. This has always been our practice but there has been some objection up till now but there seems to have been a sudden change of heart after tonights discussion. Hopefully this will settle down this problem. Annie did a really good job with the briefing but for some reason one person took offence to us allowing the riders to have a bit of fun with the process.
Croydon seems to be a nice little town and the caravan park managers are very obliging.
Quite a few of us went down to the local for dinner and the special was a steak sandwich. Georg was not happy with his barramundi but everyone else seemed reasonably happy. A couple of them pigged out on Mango cheesecake and the rest of us hope they will suffer for their greed later tonight. (Not really- just jealous).
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