Day  20:                                Muttaburra to Eversleigh (181m)

Distance:                             106.64km

Av speed:                            13.3kmh

Total Elevation:                   218m

Calories:                              3309 per person

Weather:                             Moderate tailwind and warm (28*C)

Nervous about the road ahead, but knowing that we only had a ‘short’ 105km day ahead of us, we took the opportunity to have a sleep in until 7am before raiding the local Muttaburra cafe for food and water.

Setting off at 8:45am, we were greeted by a south easterly tailwind and nice paved bitumen... how good was this! Of course, after 15km the bitumen finished and we were riding on a wide gravel and sandy road. Fortunately, the sand had been compacted under the weight of the passing road trains and the riding was much easier than we had feared. With the strong wind we were making great time and life was good!

After a further 30km, we hit the shire boundary and were greeted with an ominous warning ‘Welcome to Dinosaur Country’. There could be no an more apt description of the new ‘road’ which awaited us. Black as mud, flaky like volcanic scree and radiating heat like lava fields, we now knew why the locals had given us so many alternatives for a route to Cairns! Whilst the riding was tough, we were fortunate that the roads were actually in good condition (that’s saying something!) and we were generally able to zip along on a small sliver of baked mud on the shoulder of the road.

This allowed us to reach the property of Eversleigh around 3:30pm, creating the perfect mix of a ‘rest day’ – enough riding to keep the legs ticking over and enough R&R to soothe the mind and body.

Eversleigh is a 45,000 acre Droughtmaster cattle farm owned by Jenny and Roger Underwood, who when asked whether we could pitch our tents by the side of the road, told us ‘no, but we were more than welcome to have a bed and spend the night with them’. From the smiles on our faces tonight, its clear our stay with them has been the highlight of our trip. They welcomed us in to their home and lavished us with food and gave us great insights into this part of Australia and the issues its currently facing. We even had an opportunity to share a beer with them in their cattleyards to watch the  sunset amongst 300 weaners!! A thrill which will be difficult to beat and we look forward to being able to upload some photos to the facebook group from Cairns.

As rest days come, this was as good as they get.