Luck, Angels and Ockie Straps in Nebo. - 28th July

It is a luxury to roll out of bed and onto the bikes without a tent pack up. 286km today to Mackay without the pack up; what a breeze. I thought WA was digging up the resources and shipping it out but when you see what is happening in Queensland it is a real eye opener. Coal mine after coal mine and multiple very long trainloads of coal heading for the port. Just as many empty trains returning the other way. Where ever you look there are new large camps of Donga accommodation popping up. Half the work force in Queensland must be doing the fly in fly out thing. Worst of all the traffic and in particular road trains and mining vehicles are tearing the roads to bits. For a State with so much mining going on how can the Queensland Government be in such a bad financial position with it claiming to be bankrupt? With all the wealth being ripped out of the ground but the infrastructure, in particular roads, crumbling. Something is not right!

There are sections of road that would make any rollercoaster look tame. Holes in the road that would swallow a small car. It was one of these holes that we both hit; I was leading and looked back to make sure Trish got through Ok. It was a really hard hit but both of us seemed to come through alright. It wasn't until we stopped for fuel at Nebo that the truth came back to bite us. A guy in a white mining ute pulled up next to me and was beckoning to me. My first thought was another person who wants to talk to us about our bikes but then from within his cab he held up one of Trish's panniers. A gasp for breath and a look at Trish's bike revealed a gaping hole on one side of the bike where the pannier should have been. A second look at the pannier that he was holding and what looked like a crazed Lion had been scratching at the front of it. It was now obvious that it had come off at the hole we had hit, the young guy who was following Trish at the time had picked it up once it finished sliding down the road and then had caught up to us at the Service Station.

This was our first Angel. If he hadn't been there to see it fall and pick it up we would have had no idea where to start looking for it. After lots of thank yous we took possession of the intact but badly scratched pannier. Bewildered but thankful, closer examination revealed that the bump had sheared off four pop rivets that held the locking mechanism onto the pannier. There is no way in a million years that I would have thought the pannier system on the Guzzi would fail. We have had some other troubles with little Gracey Guzzi on this trip but this? No way! Time to put the brain into resourceful mode and work a way around this. I'm already carrying Trish's top box on the trailer after the carrier failed so more stuff on the trailer was out of the question. As all the pop rivets had sheared off cleanly without damage to the mechanism it would be possible to replace them with small bolts but where to get some in such a tiny town. Enquiries led me to Nebo Rural Supplies at 12pm on a Saturday just as they were getting ready to shut. There were no bolts of the diameter I needed but the guy gave me some larger ones along with a drill bit and his cordless drill. Our second Angel. Without any hesitation he let me ride off with these to return when I had finished repairs. This was enough to carry out temporary repairs and then I returned to take back the drill. The guy would not take any money for the bolts or the brand new drill bit he had pulled out of a packet on his display stand. What an Angel.

With a few ockie straps around the pannier for good luck we completed the journey to Mackay.

Dave "I'm getting tired of all these repairs" Intrepid