Day 6 - Mount Morgan (Leichhardt Hotel and Mine) to Emerald

This morning I booked into a tour to visit the mine that helped create the town of Mount Morgan. In fact the 'actual' Mount Morgan doesn't exist anymore. It was completely removed during the mining process and these days, where Mount Morgan used to be, there is a humongous hole that is now filled with acid water.

Here is the hole where Mount Morgan used to be... The one on the left...

I had a chance to sit at the gigantic desk of the Managing Director of the mine. It's funny how the desks used to get bigger to indicate status. This is the biggest one I've seen so far. It didn't even fit into the photo.

The next caption is in conmemoration of something that I find very strange. The miners had a period of rest (call it morning tea). When they came out of the mine to rest, there were all these children waiting for them; the miners gave them their billy cans (the ones usually used to carry food or water) and asked them to go to the  pub and get them some beer. So the children would run through the Cutter Lane to the closest pub, fill up the Billy can with beer and bring it to the miners, for a coin I suppose.

So, over the years, 'running the cutter' became an annual race and a town festival.

In remembrance of the Cutter Lane children

My friend Andrew Adam at the Leichhardt Hotel, with Sandy, the store manager.

Here we are, in front of the Leichhardt, if you ever go past Mount Morgan, I recommend it, great food, great people.

On the way to Emerald, my first encounter with a Road Train, scary things, and this is only a small one.

Finally arrived at Emerald at 7.30PM, unfortunately ended up travelling at night (again). It's hard to calculate travel times when there is so much work on the roads; there were many sections closed and others at a 40kmh max.

I met a nice bunch of people at the camping in Emerald, they gave me lots of tips for the rest of the trip

Resident possum at the camping, looking for a handout

Day 5 - Noosa to Mount Morgan

Day 5 - 10 June 2013 - Left Noosa with torrential rain. For the first 5 hours of the trip I could not stop thinking 'PLEASE SOMEBODY TURN OFF THE TAP!' and the whole idea of doing this trip in winter was because it supposedly it doesn't rain here at this time of the year. Well, yeah! somebody obviously didn't read the memo and turned the rain on.

Anyway, it's nature, it's an adventure and it's good for me.

The trip to Mount Morgan was fine, the rain eventually stopped near Bundaberg and the scenery was beautiful all the way, especially near Mount Morgan, with all the twisty roads we motorcycleheads like so much.




On a stop I noticed this reflection on a shop window front. I can see now why some people confuse me with a cop. By the way, the cops use the same bike as mine.

A town with a catchy name 'Gin Gin'. Very nice little town, I had lunch here in the park.

In Mount Morgan I met a very good friend of mine, he actually owns a Hotel there and graciously offered me free accommodation, dinner and a glass of wine, as well as a long catch up about our personal journeys in life.

The Hotel is called the Leichhardt and it is an antique in its own right. Most of it is original and a delight to see and enjoy.

This particular night, he was under-staffed, so I helped in the kitchen making pizzas.

Making pizzas at the Leichhardt, with Andrew Adam (Mount Morgan)

One of the finished products. Making pizzas is not as easy as I thought, there are a lot of tricks to it. No wonder at home mine never taste as good as the ones made by the pros.

This is the trip, so far

A - Sydney, B - Grafton, C - Noosa, D - Mount Morgan