Sunday: Bowen > Mission Beach
Madam had pencilled in an early start, and while we didn't quite manage what she had in mind we were well on the way by eight, delivering us into Townsville by way of the markets at Ayr's Plantation Creek around ten-thirty. The game plan here was a look at a couple of shopping experiences, with a visit to the Cotters Market in the old CBD followed by a trip out to Stockland.
The exact reason for including the former Nathan Plaza (or Nathan Plastic, as it's much smaller initial incarnation was known to certain early seventies uni students) was something I couldn't quite fathom, but it provided Hughesy with the opportunity to riff on the old 'Course, when I come here this was all bush theme.
That continued as we motored out of town along Nathan Street and headed north, where things, momentarily, went very close to going seriously wrong.
We'd rocked on through Deeragun and the turnoffs that take you out to the Northern Beaches, blown through Bluewater and debated the advisability of fueling up at Rollingstone, but rolled past due to confusion about the location of the cheap fuel distributor. Had we stopped there, as I pointed out later, we would have missed the following incident, but would have been stuck in a rather lengthy road closure queue that would have had further implications all along the rest of the line.
There was another fueling option at Bambaroo, but we were past it before it registered. There was, as far as any of us can recall, a green car ahead of us as we reached a crest, noticed a motorcyclist who seemed to be falling into our path, swerved, felt the impact of something and car and pulled up a tad further down the road than some might have liked.
That, in my opinion, anyway, turned out handy because once I was out of the vehicle I was able to flag down oncoming traffic. Given the scene behind me I shuddered to think what might have happened if we'd had anyone with an inclination to speed and an impatient nature heading south.
As it turned out the car's position gave us the chance to talk to a reassuring southbound traveller whose comments on the group of riders who'd become involved in the accident reinforced the belief that this wasn't our fault.
As far as we could make out, one of the bikes had hit the back of a southbound vehicle. There was, for some reason, a police car already on the scene, and you’d have to assume the green car had sighted the police officer or his vehicle, slowed down and that had caused the initial prang with the leading bike in a group that was, according to our friendly southbound traveller, travelling too close to the vehicles in front of them.
One bike seems to have hit the green car, another had swerved to avoid that, and, in the process may have come off. Someone or something, though we couldn't be absolutely sure who or what, had dented the side of our car, starting from the front of the driver's side door and running through to the back panel.
Fortunately, from our point of view, the damage was superficial and the car was drivable. From the riders' point of view, things were considerably more serious, with two ambulances needed to take three patients to the Townsville, rather than the significantly closer Ingham hospital.
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