Rockhampton to Mackay 340km

A relatively short ride today, deceptively short.

Thinking that there was plenty of time, the decision was made to do a bit of sightseeing, in Yepoon. It’s a pleasant enough beachside village, a coffee was had, and then on our way again.

The road from Rockhampton to Mackay is quite straight and flat. This is sugar cane country – big time. The scent of sugar is in the air, there are huge processing plants and large trailer trucks hauling the processed product. In between the 2 towns there is not a lot else. We pulled into a service station about half way, a real dueling banjos experience.

Mackay, there is a sense of apparent wealth, lots of new construction in housing of the McMansion kind, enormous warehouses bulging with support systems for the mining industry. We arrived at 2:30pm, so I thought I would go and get some required items, unfortunately Mackay was shut.

The only sign of life was in the Shopping Mall, with its Backgound music of 70’s soft rock – giving a sense of sedation and crowd control. however most small shops were closed and only the majors, like Coles and Kmart were open. Fortunately for me the Chinese massage shop was open….and what a great massage it was, I sure was in pain.

Black Sabbath – “Paranoid” was playing in BigW as I grabbed some chili chips just before closing time….Lucky to escape.

Cruising