A good night sleep, no hurry to leave, breakfast, sunshine and crisp air, a bit of a bike check and shuffling luggage, I was on the road at about at about 10am. It was 100k’s north to Biloela and a fuel top up.
I took the local tip I was told at Monto last night and rather than keep going north to the T intersection at the Capricorn Hwy just out from Rockhampton, I turned left at Biloela to Banana on the Dawson Hwy. The guy in the servo where I just filled up said to watch out for the police going into Banana but after that I should be right. The road started to flatten and there was certainly less traffic along here. It was only a short 50k’s and just into the 80k zone into Banana, on the right was a highway patrol. Gotta love those local tips.
Once through Banana, the landscape and roads started to open up. It was time to get into 6th gear. I reached Springsure which is about 290k’s and my fuel light had not come on. It was another maybe 50k’s to the next fuel. Knowing I get around 40k’s with the fuel light on, I thought it to be a good chance to confirm a 300k fuel range. I could always turn around if I got worried this side of 1/2 way. The fuel light came on at 320k’s. I’m led to believe that I should get 40k’s out of it. I reached a Caltex servo just out of Emerald at 340k’s on one tank. I know the longest stretch on the whole trip is 296k’s without a service station, so I was pretty happy with that result.
After food and fuel I headed west on the Capricorn Hwy. Next fuel was at Alpha. I went to the only service station in town. When I turned to walk out after paying, the bloke said “watch out for the ‘roos up the road”. It was mid arvo and riding straight into the sun. With that tip, this was my stop for the night. I had the choice of the one pub in Alpha, the Gascoyne Hotel.
The guy behind the counter seemed a bit frazzled. I sorted out a room, $50, and put the bike in the barn out the back. Before I left he asked me if I was eating there. I said I would and he took a deep breath, wiped his brow and said “rito, I’ll go and turn on the kitchen.” I went for a quick walk up and down the only street. I saw some Murals on the sides of a brick garage and a train yard shed which to me, kind of looked out of place. I went back ‘home’ and into the public bar. It was only the frazzled barman and myself in there.
I had a beer and a bit of a chat. During this chat he said “We don’t normally get people comin’ here at this time so I wasn’t expecting ya”. I asked him about the murals. He said there were 22 of them around town and I should go check ’em out. He cooked up a good hardy rump and vegies for me and said he would stay open for as long as I was drinking. He stayed open for 2 more schooners. I would have only had 1 but he was a champion bloke to chat with.
Up in the morning at 8.30 and I went hunting for some food and sure enough there was a bakery. There are only 2 other shops and a little community hall in Alpha so scoring this made a good start to the day. I wandered around and there were murals scattered all around on any wall. A bit unusual to see this, let alone in a town that didn’t really seem to have a reason for being there and had less than 40 permanent residents. An elderly lady had set up a little stall with handcrafted goods for sale, outside of the little hall. She invited me to sit and eat my pie.
She was keen to chat and as she was putting jam on my scones that she had just sold me with the fresh brewed coffee, she said that someone came up with the idea and local artist painted murals. Now they have coaches stopping and tourists buying what she had just sold me, and more. The town used to be a bit of a logging area and a stop for timber pick up by rail, but those days were long gone.
Motorbike Touring 