Day 8 Charters Towers to Cape River Rest Stop 110 km

Was awake and packing up at 5:45 am. With 200 km to Belyando Crossing I wanted to make sure I covered as many kilometres as I could before the wind got going.

It was cool morning there was quite a bit of mist  in the fields across the road as I exited Charter Towers. A couple of clicks up the road there was a left hand turn onto the Gregory Development Rd. Looking back towards town Towers Hill is shrouded in mist.

Heavy air and rolling hills for the first hour but after that riding was easy for the next 4 hours. There was either no breeze or a slight tailwind most of the time. By 9:00 am I had covered 30 km and stopped for a break at Policeman Creek. As I stopped I could the sound of bees and looked over to a flowering gum in bloom. Just down the road there was a collection of bee boxes.

At 10:00 am I had covered 60 km. The scenery was pretty much the same the whole way - scrubby bushland. There was some variance as in some areas there were some eucalypts while in other just smaller shrubs. There were some areas with cattle and  I passed a couple of access roads to gold mines including Pajingo where Mic who I met yesterday works.

I pushed on to the 80 km before pulling up for a long lunch break. I set out my chair and stove in the shade by the side of the road and brewed some tea and a cup-a-soup to go with cheese and crackers while I read my book.

At 1:30 pm I got back on the road and kept going until I saw a a Rest Stop at 110 km.  There was a good shade shelter and toilets so although I was tempted to keep going
To shorten the day into Belyando I decided to call it quits for the day. At worst I can sleep under the shade shelter.