(written by Dave)

Sorry about yesterday’s post being late. We had no mobile signal at Kin Kin – we posted at our lunch stop today after writing up our notes up last night.

Great night at the oval, all quiet by 9PM and pretty much no noise from the pub – no repeat of the rowdies we had in Kilcoy. We had a very nice golden retriever visit us during dinner prep and the kids all when home early. When we got up for a comfort break, the stars were amazing – not much light in Kin Kin overnight.

The sun tried hard to come out in the morning but some clouds held firm until we were done with brekkie. The tent was put away “mostly” dry, making everyone happy. We stopped at the pub for a photo, plus a bonus shot of the bamboo just outside. That has to be the biggest bamboo we’ve ever seen. Can’t imagine it staying in a container garden in Oregon but it would make a dandy screen.

The road from Kin Kin was great, another grey line on the map special. There was 3-4k of unsealed which merited a “very steep hill” warning sign on the road and a notation on the state map. It was steep but not close to the hardest we’ve ridden – we have had many, including some in Queensland, that were much harder but did not merit a sign. Must be something political about getting a warning sign. Anyway, a bit of wasted energy worrying about it as it turned out fine. We stopped at the only store on the road for a chocolate milk and chin wag. Turns that a prominent local had passed away and the funeral was today – which probably helped take the traffic to near zero. Not the best reason but empty roads are always nice.

All the traffic we didn’t have riding from Kin Kin to Tin Can Bay Road suddenly appeared on that Tin Can Bay Road. We learned later that there is a large construction project at the nearby army base and they are logging a state managed forest – making for lots of trucks. And unfortunately, the shoulder was pretty choppy, when there was one. It was 40k and lots of white knuckle riding. We stopped half way for an egg and bacon roll – it helped refresh us but we were still pretty tired when we arrived at Tin Can Bay.

We planned on staying at a caravan park but we checked out the tent sites at both of the caravan parks in town and neither appeared to be all that great. We plan to have an early start tomorrow morning to feed the local dolphin school so we broke down and got an onsite caravan at the first caravan park. They have lowered their rates after Easter holidays and we won’t have to discuss tent packing in the morning, making the start faster. Don’t be mislead – it’s not really luxurious – plastic paneling on the walls, linoleum floor, no ensuite – but it will give us a place to leave things when we go feed the dolphins and hopefully give us an early start on the day.

We went for a walk around the harbor and what there is of town. We got some great photos, though I think Nancy would have preferred to have her feet up and/or to be taking a nap. We were almost back to the park when we stumbled across a fish and chip shop that was selling true catch of the day – right off the boat. We had dinner planned but couldn’t resist – how often do you get fish and chips that are that fresh? We got snapper and red emperor – both were fantastic. We are now back in the onsite van resting. Not sure how long we’ll make it tonight – we polished off the second half of last night’s red – life is good.