#3: [11-Jun-17]

#1: [06-Sep-01]

11-Dec-2012 -- The story starts at 43°S 147°E and continues from 20°S 146°E.

In the morning, I left the town Charters Towers at 4:45 AM and cycled to Ravenswood. Visiting this confluence point involved a deviation of 90 km on my way to Townsville, but the purpose of my bicycle trip was not to be as quick as possible, but to have a maximum of joy. And the deviation via Ravenswood was on roads with almost no traffic, making great cycling.

In contrast to the first visitor of this confluence, I can say that there is a shop in Ravenswood. The shop keeper would tell me her story of life within one hour (while no other clients entered the shop). But I understood well that this village sees little changes. After I had finally bought my groceries, I sat down in the nearby 'showground' for lunch.

After my lunch, I went for the confluence, which was 16 km beeline distance. Covering this little distance took almost 2 hours, since the road was a dusty, windy, hilly, and steep track. But therefore it was very scenic.

At 3:45 PM, I reached the confluence, which is exactly 100 m from the road. I walked over through a sparsely grown Eucalyptus forest and my return to the road was quicker than a pit stop. The ground cover at the confluence is coarse gravel that is normally used for railroads.

In continued the road further and reached the village Clare in the late evening.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to an asphalt road: 10 km
• Distance to a track: 100 m
• Distance of bicycle parking: 100 m
• Time to reach CP from bicycle parking: 1 minute
• Time at CP: 3:45 PM
• Measured height: 131 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 1 m
• Position accuracy: 3 m
• Topography: flat at the spot, but hilly in the general area.
• Vegetation: Eucalyptus forest, some dry grass
• Weather: sunny, 38° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Quick Pit Confluence

More pictures of the trip can found at mautz.net.

The story continues at confluence 19°S 146°E.