I managed to get an earlier start, around 8am, to avoid the worst of the heat. The route led north west from Lakeland along the Peninsular Development Road, which remained bitumen all the way to Laura, the next town and the destination for today.
Just outside Lakeland this sign showed that there was still a long way to go to the Tip:
The road remained flat for most of the way, and was quite scenic in places:
I reached Laura at 11 and chose to stop there for the night; the next services are another 76kms away and I really didn't feel like doing that much more, besides there were a few things to see in Laura, notably a good cultural centre where I spent an hour or so looking at the displays which told of the area's gold mining history, and also the local aboriginal culture:
Nearby are the remains of a railway bridge built across the Laura River to provide transport to and from the goldfields which lay to the west. Unfortunately, by the time the bridge was completed, the gold had run out and the track on the other side was never laid. The bridge was only ever crossed once, by a single test train. Many years later it was damaged by a cyclone and the remaining spans were removed for scrap.
There was a general store with a nice Austin 7 parked outside, similar to the very first car to make the journey to Cape York, in 1928.
The town's only hotel had recently been rebuilt following a fire, and was somewhat lacking in character, however it served good food and cold beer, and had a campground behind complete with termite mounds:
Distance today 65kms, total so far 434kms
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