Eclipse Journey - homeward bound

No alarms were set. It was a case of wake up whenever and go. We woke to bright clear skies and decided before heading off that it would be nice to start the day with a walk on the jetty.

The jetty is still in use as part of the Abbott Point facility but it is showing its age.

Rusty rails

Along one branch of the jetty four tugs were moored waiting for the next ship to arrive.  Access to the tugs' branch was authorised access only.

It was back down the highway to Sarina.  Our preference was to travel the old "Marlborough stretch". Rather than suffer the road works again, we took the old Marlborough-Sarina Road.  It was rough but the car handled it well.  We virtually had the road to ourselves.  We only saw about six other vehicles for the couple of hours that it took us to rejoin the Bruce Highway north of Rockhampton.

We stopped for a break in North Rockhampton.  From Rockhampton we turned inland to Mount Morgan.  The road climbed over the range.  The speed limit had been dropped to 40kph to allow for the steepness and the roughness of the road.  Nearing the top there was a pull-in where we stopped for our last look back to the coast.

Our destination for the night was Biloela.  We knew from previous trips that it's an easy run to Brisbane from there.

We found our usual motel and set ourselves up for the night.  Again, no alarms were set.

This morning we didn't wake until almost 7 am - very unusual for us.  The car packed, farewells to the motel staff and we were on our way home.  Monto was our next stop for breakfast and coffee.  It took a little while to find a cafe as the first one which looked really inviting but their coffee machine had malfunctioned. So we took the opportunity to walk up the main street and found a little place where they downsized their big breakfast for us.  Good thing the meals were downsized as when they came out, there was more than enough on the plate.

Back on the road, podcasts keeping us company, the kilometres rolled by.  We stopped for a coffee in Blackbutt after avoiding a couple of impatient drivers.  They were being obstructed by a camper van arrangement.  One car pulled out to overtake as did the one behind it.  They hadn't seen us coming in the opposite direction.  Good thing we had space to pull way over to the left to let them by.

The Blackbutt Range cutting is still one way traffic controlled on the half hour.  The signs advise that the works are scheduled to be finished in early 2013.  From what we're seeing now it will be worth the wait.  The earth walls of the cutting are being reinforced with concrete to save them from erosion.  The road has been widened and straightened.  Not so much fun for the motorcycles, but it should be better for the trucks.

The rest of the run was uneventful.  It was interesting that our speed was checked five times at various locations throughout the day.  Maybe the police had given up on the Bruce Highway and its road works, too.

We're home now, partially unpacked and sorting through photographs.  It was a good road trip in the car with the highlight of seeing what we had set out to see - the moon's total eclipse of the sun.