Wednesday 16 august Route Map
It was still foggy when I left my campsite in the village of Aramara at 7.30am. The road condition was even worse than yesterday’s for the first 20km, but I made good time into Maryborough with only a few scares. The chain kept coming off too.
Into sugarcane country now
Wilcox Cycles in Maryborough were a bitter disappointment after so much anticipation. They either couldn’t or didn’t want to help me re the chain. At least I bought a new tube off them – a robust-looking puncture-resistant one. And just as well too!
I commenced a love affair with KFC (“3-piece pack, coleslaw instead of mash, Solo instead of Coke please, and no, I don’t want to upgrade) and pushed off north on to Hervey Bay in the face of a raging gale – OK, maybe just a stiff breeze, but a brain-rattling one.
15 km short of destination, I encountered a vicious roofing nail in the rough that I couldn’t dodge when I had to dive off the road when some yob in his souped-up shitbox thought it might be funny to zoom by real close. The nail stabbed in through the rear tyre and out again – looked like snake bite.
Damn! It was hot old work there in a forlorn and windswept layby trying to fix that 
puncture. I gave it 3 attempts, then bit the bullet and took the wheel off to install my newly-bought tube – I’ve got the hang of it now, and it was surprisingly easy this, the second, time.
At least I was able to make an international gourmet picnic out of my supermarket purchases in Maryborough; pumpernickel bread from the Netherlands, Kerry butter from Ireland, Crackerbarrel cheese from Australia, dried tomatoes from Turkey and dill cucumbers from India.
So, my second mechanical replacement since buying the bike new was another new tube, at 4,022 km on the clock.
I slogged on to Hervey Bay and booked into an El Cheapo motel at $100 per night for 3 nights. I worked on the bike, too, and think I managed to do some good in tensioning the chain a little.
I woke up bright and early (thanks for the call anyway, Molly! ) and went for a 34km ride along the esplanade bike path, had a nice steak sandwich for breakfast and then went to Bike Tech bike shop in town where I got a much better reception than I received at Wilcox cycles in Maryborough. I bought a bright, flashing, rechargeable battery-operated rear light (NR Sabre) since I couldn’t fix or replace the original light that had vibrated its connection pins off way back in Carnarvon Gorge, and a set of torc spanners, since most of the bike’s bolts are of this type. Richard, the manager, also replaced the rear disc pads, which had completely worn through to bare metal.
I am quite liking Hervey Bay in spite of the incessant northerly gale. I have Italian, Indian, Thai and Japanese restaurants all around to choose from, but I settled on the Japanese “steak bowl” dinner for $16 three times in a row anyway. I also acquired a “Power Wall” storage battery/charger to keep the rear light and phone functioning, and a small “world band” radio to listen to night-time talk-back radio in the tent.
