Day  18:                                Tambo to Barcaldine  (210m)

Distance:                             207.96km

Av speed:                            15.1kmh

Total Elevation:                   342m

Calories:                              5974 per person

Weather:                             Hot and Windy (30*C)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Once again we rose before the crack of dawn to make an early start and left Tambo at 6:30. The first hour of riding was quite pleasant as we rode along a ridge in the middle of the basin with nice views to appreciate.

Before departure Chris had checked the weather forecast, of course the prediction was for ‘light to moderate north easterly winds’. Within two hours of departure we’d hit the moderate winds and they stayed for the remainder of the day.

The struggle was compounded by some of the warmest temperatures we’ve faced so far.  The heat is strengthened as it rises off the bitumen and its really to starting to sap the energy out of us. On days like today we’re starting to consume upwards of 8 litres of water/Infinit each... which will make it interesting once we start camping and have to carry a number of days supply with us! Not sure where it’s all going to fit... with the cold mornings we haven’t even been able to ditch our warmer clothes yet!

Around lunchtime we struggled into the halfway town of Blackall and met up with Vera, wife of Joe, the local BP Reliance Petroleum manager. Chris’ Dad had organised for them to chat to us about the ‘roads’ we'll be taking in the coming days and their knowledge was great... Joe even stopped by the side of the road and met us for a chat!

The afternoon’s riding continued to be a struggle much like the morning. We soon realised that yet again we’d be arriving in the dark... but on the bright side, we get to add to our metallic ‘Welcome to X’ sign collection.

After completing the last 30km in the dark with even more roos than usual, we finally pulled into Barcaldine around 8pm, grabbed some takeaway chinese from the local servo and are about to fall into bed. Looks as though we rode past the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ without realising it though, so well have to go scope that out in the morning.

Were on SEN Radio at 5:07am, which will allow us to get an early start as we head to Muttaburra to see the dinosaur.