Greetings from Banana Shire

Firstly a few administrative announcements. I've got rid of the interactive map - although I thought it was cool to show a map of my route, it was causing a few computer issues to download a file showing every movement I have made at 30 second intervals... So there should now be a link on the side if you want to take a look at the map. Secondly, I've discovered how to email out my blog, so if you'd like to receive updates by email, let me know and I'll add you to the distribution list.

I'm currently in a town called Beloela in Banana Shire (yes, really), and I've got over 3,000km under my belt (but still less than 1/2 way to Darwin). After slogging my way up the coast as far as Noosa on the Pacific Highway, I got tired of endless dual carriageways and holiday towns packed with smug English tourists. A week of lounging by the beach in Byron Bay may be fun, but walking round in full riding gear (or spending 20 mins taking it off and securing it just to get a coffee) is not, and camping on the beach in Noosa was fun, but 100% humidity - no thanks.

So I left the coast and headed into the interior, ignoring all the warnings about deadly snakes, deadly spiders, paralysing ticks... at least the psychotic killers are well signposted.

The first road that I picked quickly turned to dirt, but thanks to Stookie's off road training, I was able to maintain a steady 80-90kph (OK - it was the smoothest gravel road I've ever experienced). Slowed down a bit when I saw the fresh skid marks on the road and a very broken looking car...

I camped for the night in Beloela - it's much easier and cheaper to find camp sites inland, plus you can get a counter dinner at the local RSL. No point getting the petrol stove out where it's not necessary - I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunity for that later.

Plan is to push ahead for Emerald, Longreach, Mount Isa and Darwin. First I need to find out which roads are open - I've not been getting any news recently, so I was not aware that Queensland has had it's biggest rains in 5 years, which has led to some of the big highways being closed. I had assumed that the flooding would be worse further north (rivers flow towards the sea, right?), but it turns out that there's a big dry lake in South Australia that all these rivers flow into, so I may yet need to head further north before cutting inland.