DAY 25
Today was going to be something different for Chiller (Steve). He wanted to tackle the dirt of the Western Explorer up to Arthur River and back. I had ridden the W.E. a few weeks back but was happy to go again.
We set off from Queenstown at about 0930 as it was getting a bit cool early in the mornings. We enjoyed the twisty road across to Zeehan. I stopped for a quick photo of the church as we entered town.
DAY 10
During the night the wind picked up and was fairly howling. Remember those sheltering trees to the west that I mentioned yesterday? Yeah, well the wind was an easterly so they did absolutely nothing to stop the tent being shaken like I was camping on the ice shelf in Antarctica! Throw in a few showers of rain and the shaking of the trees behind me as each gust tore through their branches and you can probably imagine how many times I woke up that night !😳 Eventually I shoved some ear plugs in and managed to sleep until about 7am but the damage was done.
DAY 9
Well, I have had leave booked from mid last year for late February/early March so what better way to use it than to go back and ride my bike?! Especially as we were having biblical amounts of rain here in Brisbane. Try ~ 500mm per day, for the last four days in a row. My flight to Launceston was delayed two and a half hours because of rain induced carnage to the network, plus a tarmac shutdown because of lightning. When we did eventually start to taxi it was via a circuitous route because 01R/19L and it's associated taxiways were flooded! Yep, if the new runway hadn't been there Brisbane Airport (BNE) would have been closed!
That is the Prime Minister's air force VIP jet being towed from the international terminal, through the floodwater to dry(er) ground before it could start it's engines and taxi safely under it's own steam. Yep, it was WET and I was happy to be bidding it good riddance!
