Day 23 - Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Bang Bang

No need to set alarms on this day. The peaceful sounds of sunrise were shattered at 5am by the symphony of sixteen 600 horsepower Kenworth road trains each starting up and clearing their pipes of dust and diesel sediments. Nonetheless, Ric did his dutiful morning rounds, "AP, 6am rise and shine city boy". Greeting each of the others in a similar fashion, his tone lacked the customary undercurrent of excitement and anticipation around the day ahead.

With the coveted maillot noir et bleu (black & blue jersey), for most stacks, safely in Ric's keeping, and the race for most punctures looking safe with Puncture Pete, the day before the penultimate stage was not expected to be a remarkable one.

As the crew bade farewell to the roadhouse, and rolled out: direction Normanton, 90km up the road at Bang-Bang awaited the last bush camp and camp oven bread, providing much needed incentive to get the weary legs moving.

The highlight of the day was the amazing landscape littered with thousands of ant hills measuring 60cm high. These vast grassy plains, more like one of those microscope images from high school biology, have to be seen to believed.

The peleton cruised into Bang-Bang around 12:30, happy to call it a day. Lunch was taken, then onto the usual camp routine of pitching tents, setting camp kitchen, camp fire, and bush showers.

Less than 200km to go with the epic journey drawing to a close, the camp mood is a little more subdued than normal.