Seasick Bike Sailors

Its official we're not invincible. After 2 nights at sea sailing through the Whitsunday Islands we came down with a stomach bug. After managing not to loose our stomachs during the rough seas we are surprised to be sick on land. We've been held up for 3 nights in Airlie Beach in a holiday apartment with A/C, watching copious amounts of TV on our 5! channels, taking long hard naps, and becoming very acquainted with our toilet. Tomorrow we continue the slow push North towards Townsville where we will spend a some nights with friends.

On the boat:

Our ride to Airlie Beach through the dreaded Marlborough Straits - according to most drivers and truckies the most boring stretch of road in whole Queensland. Our experience was much different by bicycle we found it long yes, but lined with beautiful lush green mountain ranges and plenty of Roadhouses (the Aussie authentic truck stops) to keep us entertained. We did find ourselves at times frantically avoiding approaching storms.

Marlborough Straits:

Approaching storm into St Lawrence:

Leaving Yeppoon we visited the Capricorn Caves. Our tour guide took us into the caves with two other adventurous souls. Thousands of bats flew around your head while walking through - darting just centimeters away from our eyes - a bit maddening, but overall it was refreshing to have someone else doing the tour guiding for us. Sometimes it just feels nice to be a tourist.

From Yeppoon to Mackay we camped at various locations along the road. From behind a pub, a rest stop, to probably our most interesting a cattle pen. Heading into the small town of St Lawrence with a small general store meagerly stocked with basics we watched the black storm clouds tumble in behind us. Taking refuge in the towns free camping at their Fairgrounds we set up our tent under the tin roof cattle stalls. We knew we were in for a big storm because St Lawrence was inundated with 9 inches of rain water the night before. In one night - 9 inches! Seattle doesn't even get 9 inches of snow in one year! Just after dark it rained extremely hard for an hour. It was raining so hard that 10 minutes into the storm we knew the water would wash down in rivers toward the tent. Although we picked the stall with highest ground we knew the rain channel couldn't hold this downpour. To add to this saga the thunder and lightening was deafening. Crawling out of the tent covered in mozzie repellent, shirts tied around our heads to keep the mosquitos off, and our only digging tools - our cutlery and a scavenged piece of hard plastic. Outside the tent the rain was just starting to wash down the channels. We frantically began cutting deeper channels and clearing out pools where the water threatened to flood over toward the tent. At this point we both start to realize, as the lightening is cracking, the rain floods in around us, and we're both on our knees scraping compacted cow dung channels into the earth in our undies, just how insane we must look. Looking toward each other with our bug collecting headlamps we break out in laughter. This remains one of our most trying and ridiculous nights of the entire tour. The moral of the story is if you find yourself sleeping in a cow pen during a severe tropical storm remember to cut deeper dung channels. Obviously we survived the night, even managing to stay dry, although we did smell a bit funny.

The day after:

The remaining trip to Airlie Beach was anticlimatic compared to our night in St Lawrence. We met many kind hearted and warm individuals at the roadhouses along the way. Heading into Airlie Beach we stopped at a bakery in Proserpine. Halfway into our sweets another cycle tourists rides by the window. Bounding out the door Elise runs after the cyclists yelling like a banshee. The cyclist is a young Japanese man touring from Cairns heading South, unfortunately not the direction we are heading. Our brief encounter was refreshing. To know your not alone out there on the long lone roads. Freeing the other cyclists from our barrage of questions we headed into Airlie with the wind and sun at our backs.

Elise and her new sunnies in Mackay:

Sunset for our beach camp in Carmila Beach: