Day 19 - Sulieman Creek to Yappo Creek

Dawn greeted us this morning with an extra nip in the air. After 19 days pedalling and a cool start, it took a while for the muscles to warm up. A very chunky road surface also meant the first 20km passed by slowly. However, as the sun started to generate some warmth and our legs steadied into a familiar rhythm, our momentum picked up.

We passed through the little town of Dajarra a little after 9.00am and stopped at the roadhouse for morning tea. After Ric broke the coffee machine, the rest of us were left with pretty average instant brew. Ric enjoyed his coffee immensely and made sure to let the rest of the crew know how good it was.

Every shop or pub in each of these tiny towns seems to be staffed by a foreign back-packer. All of them are looking for three month employment to extend their visas here in Australia. Each of them has an amusing story about the moment they worked out just where the particular town is located where they've accepted a three month posting. One Scottish girl is now chief cook on a cattle station that is almost the same size as the whole of Scotland!

Good camp sites were few and far between us on this stretch. We don't know how they do it, but Alan and Julie again secured a great location for us to rest our heads, but it did require stretching the day out to 125km. The upside is that it has shortened our stretch into Mt Isa tomorrow. The food cravings are reaching a heightened state of anticipation. Hamburger with the lot seems to be rating high on the wish list with most of the team.