Rob 'n BOB on the BNT

From Collinsville I went to Eungella Dam, which contained water, but the wind was HOWLING that day and any illusions of spending a rest day there were blown out of my mind.  I hardly slept at all the night I was there, the tent made so much noise flapping in the wind.  From there on to Nebo and then a few campsites along creeks that were supposed to have waterholes, but didn't, or at least not obvious.  From a station owner I got directions on where to find a beautiful waterhole about a kilometer up a creek, and indeed it was well worth the effort.  Next morning I was woken by a couple of brolgas (a crane), making out on the water's edge, not far from my tent which was hidden amongst the

In St. Lawrence I took a day off.  Did some fishing off the railway bridge, which - of course - is forbidden, but it made me feel like a kid again, which was kind of nice, and I even caught a little fishy!  About 25 cm long, but I ate it anyway - 3 or 4 bites worth, but the satisfaction of knowing I caught my own appetizer!  The municipal campground was free, and well maintained.  The day before I'd ridden over the Connors Range, which was an incredibly steep, but paved, hop over the top, which I found barely "pushable", let alone rideabe.  From there on, down the other side, I was to follow "the old telegraph line", but this turned into one of these orienteering sessions, where the trail notes make very little sense and I had to depend more on my own common sense and on my compass.  The telegraph line then followed an old wagon trail, wich was unbelievably rocky and steep and I could hardly walk my bike and BOB down the track.  Under these conditions BOB behaves rather poorly, wanting to overtake me and take the lead, which I find very uncomfortable and annoying.  So I have to keep setting him straight and make him tow the line - my line. 

I can report that my gear - other than BOB's occasional sputtering - has behaved quite well.  Only about 7 flats so far (unbelievable I find this myself!) and only one spoke which had to be replaced.  In Marlborough I picked up my third care package, which contained two new tires, more chain lube and more water treatment stuff (chlorine dioxide).  In the last week we've been getting some rain, occasional downpours, and this has its good and its bad sides.  The bad is that what looks like beautiful smooth track or road can turn into instant snot, a mud so thick and sticky that within seconds you come to a complete standstill, no moving forward nor backward.  Scrape mud off the three tires, take ONE step, scrape mud, take one more step, repeat, ad infinitum.  The gravel roads are okay, but some of the sandy, clay station roads and tracks can be quite awful.  Luckily, on the worst section where I got stuck this way, a "ute" appeared as if by magic, with two blokes filling cattle feed troughs.  They gave me lift out of the muddy area and dropped me off at a junction with a gravel road.  On the good side: I've come across various creeks and rivers with running water!  It may be muddy, but you can hear the water flowing - it's magic!!  Some delightful campsites were the immediate results, and at one of them a few days ago, along the Fitzroy River, I met a couple from Rockhampton - Jason and Katrina - who invited me to stay at their place for a couple of days.  Rocky is not on the trail, but I wanted to go there anyway, to stock up on a few items that are generally hard or impossible to get in the smaller communities.