Day 128 - 129 Big Horizons (and millions of flies)

Longreach to Morella 70km, then Morella to the Age of Dinosaurs 100km(!)

Well it's only 7pm but Kerstin and I have retreated to the tent.   Not because we are so tired after riding 100kms but because we were being eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes.  I am not looking forward to that last pee before bed.   

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's go back two days to Longreach...

The caravan park in Longreach actually had a section just for tents.   This is very unusual as mostly you are just wedged in between the massive caravans and associated 4WDs.  So we were loving having our own little bit of vehicle free fenced off grass, surprisingly there were quite a few other tent/swag users, and we were well pleased to be a part of actually sharing a shared space.  Now most parks have a camp kitchen, but usually Kerstin and I are the only people in there, everyone else has everything they need in the van.  So we were pleasantly surprised to be joined in the camp kitchen by the other tenters.  A real mixed bag of people, parents with small children, families with teenagers, older people, and us.  We are often the ice breakers as people are curious about the bikes, how far we have ridden and, inevitably "how many flat tyres have you had?"  (Four so far...)  

I am quite nervous about getting to Winton it's 180kms of pretty much nothing inbetween.  No service stations, no camp grounds, just a rest stop every 50km and as we discovered, millions and millions of flies.  So we head out heavily laden with enough food and water for three days.  Which is really quite heavy, but the slow going on the first day out could also be the headwind (at least it helps keep the flies off your face) and the deceptive uphills which look flat.  We pull into the Morella rest stop with relief.  Park ourselves and our tent in the "trees" and watch the most spectacular sunset.   The sky is so wide, there is nothing but grass and floodplains in every direction, so the sky is just this massive dome above and to every side.  As the sun goes down in the west, the full moon rises in the east, and we sit on the ground and feel small and awestruck.

Sunset in the middle of nowhere 

Despite being just off the highway, with the road trains and cattle trucks thundering past we both sleep well.  And wake to the wind in just the right direction.  It stays that way all day, and we fly along at an average pace of 20.3km/hr, fastest yet!  We only need to stop to eat, drink and get out of the way when a road train needs to pass and the road is narrow or blind.  There is a surprising amount of bird life out here, emus, budgies, hawks, harriers, even a pelican!  But the animal stars of the day are a curious herd of young droughtmaster bullocks, who all come over for a look see when we stop for a drink.  

The kilometres speed by, and we pull into the Age of Dinosaurs driveway, it's 11km long, and includes a big hill.  The plan, a sneaky camp site somewhere off the road, and first thing tomorrow we ride up to the dinosaur park.   Another awe inspiring sunset, before we hide from the bugs in the tent!