cairns to the lions den

Today was a short day in terms of kilomtres but it also held our first lot of dirt riding so we were on the road early again. Although the skys looked menacing we were confident it wouldn't rain as we headed out of cairns on our way to port douglas for coffee and the on to the daintree. Port douglas is a really nice little spot albeit a little touristy but the coffee was great.

the main drag of port douglas 

the lovely village of daintree

Daintree is a sweet little place were we once again encountered ridiculously nice people who were very helpful and extremely interested in what we were doing, and as the conversation progressed, full of really interesting tales of their own adventures, like riding push bikes from cairns to broome. From daintree village and the mandatory photo with the the big barra, it was back down the road to the daintree river ferry and into the daintree rain forest.

big man, big fish

 waiting for the daintree ferry

Initially the road was tight winding bitumen through lush overhanging vegetation. This lasted a wee while but not that long. From then on we were on dirt, well mud really, we clay, firmish yet as greacey as.

myall creek, daintree rainforst

Although it was slippery everything was going pretty well and the bikes were great, until we came down a small incline and came face to face with our first creek crossing. Although it wasn't very deep, it was pretty rocky so we got off the bikes and walked across to check it out. It all seemed ok so the big fella went first and did it easily. Then it was my turn, i was well nervous but it hasd to be done, so i took it steady and got through. That was that, i was blooded. After much celebrating we were off again through the mud and up some of the steepest roads i've seen some of which were concreted and some not.

The second creek crossing we came to was a slightly different affair

deeper than my boots

After that the road changed from muddy to dry in the space of a river crossing, weird. It was nice to ride on dry dirt as we could pick up the pace a little.

out the front of the loins den hotel, definitely worth a visit

We finally arrived at the lions den, tired, covered in mud and with very wet feet. What a great place, an ecclectic blend of everything with stickers, graffiti, tee-shirts, flags and anything else you can think of hanging from anywhere there's space and if there isn't space then they hang it anyway.

inside the lions den

Ourexact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-15.7061,145.2226&ll=-15.7061,145.2226&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

We scored a small room and got cleaned up with a very welcome hot shower. Then it was into the pub for a much deserved beer and dinner. The dinner was one of the best we've had on the road and the pub was full of other travellers who are very keen to swap stories, very colourful locals who are also keen to chat and very friendly bar staff who all appeared to be from the north of england.

Tomorrow is another early start with the first stop cooktown and then onto musgrave.

townsville to cairns

We said to goodbye to townsville early and headed off to cairns. The weather was great and we were aiming for ingham for the obligatory fuel, coffee and muffins, all of which we found. the fuel was fuel but the coffee was great and so was the feta and spinach thingy that i had.

From there it was on the road again until we got to cardwell where we got crabs.

wal has a nasty, yet unobtrusive, case of crabsSure enogh it's a crap joke but it had to be done.

We were leaving the arid tropics and entering the wet tropics and the landscape was changing accordingly, gone were the wide flat expanses of tree studded grassland, replaced by incredibly thick, lush green vegetation. The weather was also changing, the skys were heavy with very dark, menacing clouds, like huge wool packs, heaped up in picturesque disorder. sure enough just outside innesvail it started to rain, the first time on the tour so we have don all right. It did howerver make the roads very slippery so headway was slowed a little.

Even so we still made cairns in good time, found our hotel and checked and again the service was brilliant and they couldn't do enough for us. From there it was off the the bmw dealer for a new set of boots for the bikes and yet more outstanding service. after tooling around for a while at the bike shop next door, getting goggles and extremely useful advice about the cape, the lovely people from bmw drove us back to our hotel.

Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-16.9391,145.7426&ll=-16.9391,145.7426&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

We picked the bikes up a few hours later and i have to say i was not impressed with riding with nobbies after my lovely anakees. However the nobbies are necessary so needs will as needs must. When we returned to the hotel we both removed the driving light sfrom the bikes as the hang out and are just begging to be ripped off if the bike gets put down and lets face it, they will get put down.

After that it was time for dinner and a reassesment of the gear we were carrying. We both decided we were carrying too much so we jetesoned what we wern't going to use on the cape, put it in a large bag which the hotel has kindly allowed us to store until we return.

Tomorrow sees us going from cairns to the lions den pub via cape tribulation and the bloomfield track.

mackay to townsville

Not such an early start this time.

The big fella had excelled himself this time in snagging the last room in the miner's lodge motel. The folks there were beyond helpful, when we asked if there was a good thai place, they recommended one (which was good), but then we found out it was too far to walk and we didn't want to get back on the bikes again, so the owner of the motel got her son to drive us in his car so we could pick up the take away. Nice.

So after a relaxing night in comparitve compfort and facing a relatively short hop we decided to have a bit of a sleep in and as a result we were pretty much the last to leave the miner's lodge at 9.00am.

doing it tough

Again the weather was brilliant and the first port of call was proserpine for fuel, coffee and cake which is becoming somewhat of a morning ritual. On the road the big fella observed that queenslanders appeared to be extremely nomadic given the inordinate number of caravans on the road. From that point (about 35km out of mackay) I started counting the vans. By the time we got to proserpine (about 75km) I had counted seventy five vans on the road. So after a short break we were off again and enjoying a great run with not much in the way traffic.

The only real excitement came when wal and a truckie decided to play out a few scenes from duel. We have no idea what the truckie's problem was but he came within a couple of metres of taking the big fella home as a hood ornament. The truck was behind wal who was behind a car and i was behind all of them so i saw it all unfold. The car slowed to turn left off the road, the big fella started to go round but the truck thought it was a great idea to go round all of them as close as he could across double white lines. Wal opened the taps to get the hell out of there and was left shaking his head.

When we got to bowen we saw a sign for the big mango so of course we had to stop for the maditory photo which was very kindly taken for us by a lovely woman from berlin. Natuarlly.

me and big wal propping up the big mango, a feat never none before.

Other than that the rest of the trip was uneventful. The country was wide, flat and brown, dotted with trees and flanked with mountains in the distance. It also looked a little depressed, and by that i don't mean economically, i mean it looked a little sad and in need of cheering up.

Townsville is a beautiful city with some fabulous old buidings and wonderful public spaces. We caught up with the big fella's sister at the rockpool which is a man-made facility with a park, swimming and a cafe all looking out to magnetic island. The strand, which runs along the shore line, is a fantastic boulevade of palm trees and parks which runs right along to the marina.

the rockpool

one of the great old buildings in townsville. no idea what it is but i like it.

fig tree roots, the strand.

So after a great afternoon of sightseeing we headed back to the caravan park (yes the irony was not lost on me) for dinner and an early night with a planned early start for cairns.

a waterfall on the strand

Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-19.272,146.7841&ll=-19.272,146.7841&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 

Craig if you're still following this, stop whinging, i'm updating as fast as i can! the furthernorth we go the worse the net connections get. you'ld think the government would do something about this.

The Tour de France is over for another year. Another great race, sadly now we must wait 49 weeks before it returns! Go Cadel and Michael in 2010. A special message to Andrew's friend Annie who is following our progress from her home in Northern France “Vive le Tour”.

bundaberg to serina

Ah the best laid plans of mice and men.

We new we had a long day ahhead of us so we were up early and on the bikes by 7.30. The ride out of bundaberg was great the weather was perfect, the roads were quiet and we were making great time.

Our first port of call was 1770 for morning tea as we didn't get there the night before. What a great little place, we had good coffee and great muffins from the cafe at the boat ramp and we met some wonderful people who were very interested in what we were doing and had done something similar through africa. I could have stayed there for a lot longer but we were keen to take advantage of the great time we were making.

the 1770 boat ramp parking area

Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-24.172,151.8833&ll=-24.172,151.8833&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

As we approached rockhampton the landscape started to change, the endless sea of cane fields gave way to vast expanses of open grasslands peppered with scraggly trees on our right and on our left, hills straight out of a fred williams landscape occassionaly punctuated by a splodge of violently mauve bouganvilia (i'm sure that's not how you spell it but it will have to do).

The road out of rocky was much the same only bigger. The spaces were bigger and the road straighter. There was plenty of time for your mind to toddle off on its own and when it returned and asked what it had missed, you couldn't answer as it was all so similar you couldn't remember whether or not you had given it any thought previously. So your mind would inevitably toddle off again in search of something else to do. Having said this, there is a stark beauty to the place which i think comes from the monochromatic colouring.

The straightness of the roads meant that we were making cracking time and we were looking at arriving in serina well before dark.

For quite sometime we were able to see a large plume of smoke in the distance and i was curious as to what was burning. It wasn't long before i found out. Almost exactly half way between rocky and mackay we were brought to a halt by a bushfire that was burning on both sides of the road. So we made our way over the the rest stop to rest and to wait. The rest area was very good, it had fresh drinking water, pretty clean toilets, shaded tables and chairs and a nice grassy area for our tents if push came to shove and they didn't open the road until after dark.

the waverley creek rest stop

However they did open the road and the big fella was ready before me and was in the second wave of traffic to be let through. I however was in the fifth or sixth so ended up about 40 minutes behind and approaching serina in rapidly failing light. By the time i got there it was dark and after a good game of phone tag i finally made contact with the big fella only to find out he was in mackay and had only just managed to snag accommodation, so it was back onto the bike and off into the dark.

the bushfire thatb held us up

By the time i got there we had been on the bikes for about 12 hours substantially longer than we had planned but after acouple fo beers it was all good.

Tomorrow is a relatively short trip to townsville, but i've said that before....

byron bay to 1770

For the first time on the tour we managed to get away on time. We left craig and miffy's having received incredible hospitality, only to stumble at the first hurdle. We had gone to the local servo to acquire a couple of stickers for the panniers only to find it was waist deep in splender attenders and the traffic was diabolical. To add insult to injury, my low beam headlight bulb blew. We rode to just outside the gold coast before calling the very helpful people at bmw roadside assist who put me in touch with a local bmw dealer, morgan & wacker, dodgy name, great people. They were extremely helpful and very willing to impart knowledge of riding the cape.

me reviewing the manual before changing my globe

So after farnarcling around for a couple of hours we were back on the road proper but well behind schedule which meant that I didn't have time to catch up with a good mate of mine in maroochydore, sorry mikey. If you're reading this, i will catch up with youin afew weeks. We did however make time for a quick visit to the big pineapple, it's big and it's fruit so why not? Leaving the big pinapple was another thing altogether, i had parked my bike on just enough of an incline that made it impossible to move backwards while sitting on it. So there was nothing else to do but to get off and man-handle it out of the car space, well at least i got my exercise for the day.

big wal,big pinapple, nuff said

We choked down a quick lunch at a truck stop somewhere just south of noosa and kept on going. Past noosa and on to gympie where the landscape started to change, there was sugar cane, lots and lots of sugar cane, and cattle, i think the go-betweens were on to something. By the time we got to childers we realised there was no way we were going to get to seventeen seventy in daylight so the decision was made to stay in bundaberg. The road to bundaberg was delightful, cresting a hill we came out into a sea of, yes you guessed it, sugar cane, bathed in late afternoon sunlight, that just spread out as far as the eye could see.The road was gently undulating with gentle curves and was a great deal of fun to ride on. I don't know whats happening in bundaberg at the moment but cheap accommodation was scarce and we just managed to snag the last little unit thing at a place on the main drag where we promptly collapsed in a heap.

The plan tomorrow is to get to serina, just south of mackay. Let's see how that goes.