Day 55 - Mann River, New South Wales to Brisbane Queensland - 435km

Last night in a whiskey fuelled decision I decided I was going to take home a large piece of Blue Gum wood to carve into something. In the daylight it was much bigger and heavier than I expected but I'd already made verbal commitments to bring it home, which Shea reminded me of. I strapped that big piece of wood to the back of my bike and tied my swag on top of it. It threw the balance of the bike off a bit but made wheelies much easier. We explored the creek and waterfalls for an hour and found 50 foot cliffs, natural stone bridges with the water running under and lots of great views.

We didn't have any food with us for breakfast and it took nearly three hours to reach the next town that had a cafe. We had ordered and were waiting for our food when I noticed all the anti Oil & Gas signs all over the town. Then the locals next to us starting an overly loud and incredibly ignorant political conversation. I wanted to leave but my hunger won out so I stayed until my meal came. Tabulam in New South Wales is a town I will be skipping next time but the "Ban Oil & Gas" sign on the fuel station is amusing.

The entire day consisted of twisty dirt and paved roads through the forests with very little traffic. We followed a small dirt track through Yabbra (Australian for "yes brother") National Park and ended up breaking through branches that had grown over the trail. We got to a tree that had fallen across the trail. I couldn't find any way around so I went straight up to it with the bike. It was almost as high as the handle bars and the thought of lifting my bike and my piece of wood over it made me shudder. We decided to turn around and then I noticed that I was nosed into a very tight spot with dense brush on each side. I had to do a hundred point turn with my bike as Shea laughed and took pictures of me. I gave up half way and just tried to power through the brush. This just got me stuck and I had to pull the bike out of the brush. When I finally got turned around I was soaked in sweat and needed a break before riding again. I was wishing I would have just dragged the bike over the log.

We made our way back to Brisbane with two very dirty and damaged bikes. This was the first time in over two years that I've actually had them in my own garage. All my trail side repairs got the bikes around the country but they will need a good strip down and lots of new parts. I'm not sure when or where the next ride will be but it'll happen sure as rain.