Was another fast day into Longreach , 107 km and the bonus of a coffee stop at the 80 km mark at an interesting little town of IIfracombe. Not used to finding any civilisation between destinations. Great coffee.
With only a further 27 km to Longreach it was a bit of a doodle.
Reaching the last couple of km you can see the distinctive tall rear tail of a qantas plane at the airport . Turns out that this is actually a gifted , by Qantas , an asset for a museum about qantas at the birthplace of this now famous airline. It landed here in 2002 , retired after something like 18,000 cycle ( landings & takeoffs) I’m guessing that Barbs uncle George would have been one of the pilots who flew this plane , a much loved by pilots jet .
After finding my digs I walked into town to AU post where awaiting we’re several packages including my new replacement wheel . Spent an hour or 2 sorting this out including fitting a new rear tyre. Unfortunately the new wheel was not supplied to the agreed spec. And this means that It can’t used to tow BOB when I get up to The ISA.
No easy solutions apart from waiting about 5 days till they build and supply another wheel. A bit frustrating as I will now finish this ride off at The ISA. On the brighter side I’ll be back with Barb ( and Henrietta) sooner 😉 and other adventures.
Fitting new wheel , a strong 40 spoke tandem style hub
The wheel is fitted and tested and I am confident that it will do the immediate job of getting me safely to The Isa.
Spent time today looking at the Qantas Museum 
On the 747. 200 series
whatisbruceupto 
Hi Bruce, curious to know why the new wheel can’t handle Bob? It looks like a tough one from the photo.. What did thry miss?
The spec was for the traditional skewer type axle for the longer BOB skewer replaces the factory Skewer . The Victoria based wheel builder thought he knew better , made an incorrect compatibility call . He used a particularly robust hub – common on tandems but downside was it has a 10 mm odd ball thru axle . Super strong 💪