The last Queensland ride from the Lonely Planet guide, this involved a 25km slog down the busy Bruce Highway, not a good road to be cycling, nor even driving, it has a very bad accident record and it's easy to see why, it's narrow, with lots of bends, little opportunity to overtake slow vehicles safely, and full of tired people who have driven long distances.
Anyway I made it safely to the turnoff for Alligator Creek which was about another 10kms along a quiet road. It's described in the Lonely Planet guide as a popular day use and camping area in the Bowling Green National Park, but when I arrived there was hardly anyone else there and the large car park and campsite were virtually empty.
Despite its name, Alligator Creek has no alligators, nor does it have any crocodiles. In fact I found it a bit disappointing, there wasn't much to see there. So I hit the highway again and detoured off east towards Mt Stuart, which involved a very arduous 10km climb, to a height of 584m:
Townsville and Castle Hill viewed from Mt Stuart summit. Magnetic Island is visible in the background.
Looking back towards Mt Stuart.
I then enjoyed a fast 10km descent, followed by an easy 15km cruise back to Townsville.
Distance today 95kms.
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