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

Days 1 to 4 - Sydney to Grafton, then to Noosa

Day 1 - Thursday 6/6/13
Reached Grafton at 6.30PM, some 700 km's. This is 1 hour after dusk, which is 1 hour more than I am comfortable driving. Thankfully the new LED floodlights that I installed are great, they really make a difference.

During the trip, I discovered some strange behaviour from the other road users; they reduced the speed when I approached them from behind and then they moved over and let me through. I had no idea why this was happening. Then at a service station, somebody asked me if I was a cop. I asked him what would give him this idea and he said it's because of the lights that I have under the front mirrors. Then it hit me, the reason of the evaporative behaviour of the other drivers is because when I approached them from behind, they see all the lights on (I keep them on all the time to make myself more visible) and they think I am a cop. Interesting, ha?

Anyway, I installed my new tent and spent the night in it. This tent is designed to park the bike inside, but I was so tired that I left it outside; it is really heavy to move, especially on the grass.

At night, I woke up hearing noises of somebody touching the bike; very carefully, I opened the zip of the tent and I shone my torch onto it to find the most spectacular sight. There was a possum sitting on the bike seat (I covered the seat with a lamb fur to make it more comfortable) and he was purring like a cat, moving his paws over the fur, opening and closing the paws the same way cats do when they like something. It was incredible; he kept doing the same while I was shining the light and at the same time, looking at me with huge eyes, he really was on cloud nine and I decided to let him be and I went back to sleep. Unfortunately, I did not have the camera with me to record it.

The next morning, the seat just smelled a bit funny, not bad, just funny. I cleaned it with a bit of detergent and it is now fine. I just have to make sure than from now on, I keep the bike inside the tent.

Day 2 - Friday 7/6/13
Travelled from Grafton to Noosa, where I met with Mary at a resort. The plan is to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday together, then we will part on Monday, when she'll fly back to Sydney and I am back on my trip.

This Friday I popped the question to Mary and she said YES. I am very happy.

Day 3 - Saturday 8/6/13
Spent the day visiting Noosa Heads, incredibly beautiful place.

Day 4 - Sunday 9/6/13
Today we visited Fraser Island and Mary swan in Mackenzie Lake. this place if beautiful, it is the biggest sand island in the world and the roads are all (obviously) made of sand, even the beach is a road, some 120km long and with a max of 60km/h.

A Dingo patiently waiting for food 

Sirens in Fraser Island