Mareeba - Musgrave 384 km
Total 13776 km
Average 551 km/day

Left Mareeba this morning in heavy tropical fog. Had best breakfast yet in the Loboloco at Mt Molly.

Found a place at Lakeland to leave panniers so as to lighten up the bikes ready for the challenging conditions ahead on Cape York. Unclipped all panniers and tankbag, packed essentials into a PVC dry bag and strapped it onto the topbox pannier frame. There will be no more tar seal from here to the top of Cape York and back. It should take about a week.

The roads are now gravel, very dusty, corrugated and full of bull-dust pits. The rainy season has just finished so the tropical vegetation is now green and lush.

Henk & Mike started out quite quickly then slowed up in a hurry when all they could see was a tornado of dust getting closer and closer, the roar of the wind and rolling thunder were frightening and yet puzzling. It seemed odd as the weather was fine, not a cloud in the sky, no wind and the forecast was good. As the tornado approached Henk & Mike stopped in the middle of the road unsure of what to do. Then the penny dropped......................this was no meteorological phenomenon, the roar was not the wind, but the noise of a 700 hp Cat diesel engine under the bonnet of a Mack truck. The rolling thunder was not in the sky above preceded by lightning, but the noise 96 wheels of a 4 trailer road train make when dragged through the corrugations and bull-dust pits at 90 km/hr by a Mack truck.
Road user etiquette up here is not about "giving way to the right" and "keeping left". It's about the "larger vehicle having right of way" and the larger the vehicle the more right of way they take . The 54m long road train driver was in no doubt that he had right of way over the insignificant motorbikes. Henk and Mike quickly learned the rules of this jungle.