Day 470 Mckinlay – Longreach (Australia) / motorbike GS Dakar RTW overland adventure traveller

• Left – 8.45am
• 18th July 2015
• Miles rode – 269 (430km)

Again it was cold last night but thanks to Andy & Vicki who gave me the blanket I was warm. As I ventured outside my cocoon the cold morning air hit me like a roadtrain!

As I headed further southeast into Queensland the landscape was bleak, the vast cattle stations were either side and the soil looked starved of goodness, although there aren’t many cattle per acre they seem to have taken what goodness there ever was.

I stopped for lunch in Winton and saw a message on my mobile from Noel saying he was on his way to meet me (Noel and I had been communicating on-line for over a year and he said I could stay at his house and rest for a while), he travelled over 400km west and I traveled the same East and we met in Longreach late afternoon.

Roadkill was all over the road again and the eagles & hawks were tucking into a free meal again. I wonder how Aussies feel about this mass killing?

For the past few days the cold front has been blowing a cold wind straight at me so progress was hard work. I arrived at the campsite and thought without the blanket I had the previous night I would be cold tonight then Andy (who was at the campsite last night) came over with the blanket for me, what a coincidence us both at the same campsite.

Noel and I went to the pub in the evening and I gave him a present that Gohar, a biker from Pakistan gave me in Lahore a year ago to give to Noel when we met. I had carried the cap and ‘Pakistan Biker Association’ sticker 30,000km across 13 countries for 1 year. It was a pleasure to give it to Noel.