After riding my mountain bike from Adelaide to Darwin in 2005, I was keen for another such adventure, but one that returned to the kind of back roads I travelled when riding from Sydney to Melbourne in 2004. I hatched the idea of riding from the southernmost tip to the northernmost tip of mainland Australia, and rather than riding along the main (coastal) highway, try and ride a straight-line route that would necessarily take me on back roads and through a variety of terrains and climates.

Wilsons Promontory to Cape York by bike - Tidal River to Mirboo North

Day: 002
Date: Saturday, 29 July 2006
Summary: Riding from Tidal River to Mirboo North.
Start: Tidal River
Finish: Mirboo North
Daily Kilometres: 107
Total Kilometres: 128
Weather: Mostly cloudy, showery and windy.
Accommodation: With friends at Mirboo North.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  ?
  Lunch:  Souvlaki and chips
  Dinner:  Nice home-cooked dinner.
Encounters: I saw quite a few kangaroos and three emus as I rode out of the Prom, and later saw a fox on a quiet rural road.
Highlights: Being on the road at last and some very pretty mountainous rural and forest scenery in the Strezlecki Ranges .
Lowlights: Managed to break my brand new rear-view mirror in the first couple of kms when the handlebars swung sharply (there’s a lot of weight on them) when I was adjusting my panniers, and the mirror bracket broke when it hit the cross-bar.  Also nearly had a disaster with my pedals with 5km.  I noticed that the left one felt a bit strange and upon examination found that it had almost unscrewed itself and was in danger of stripping the thread.  I must not have tightened it enough when I reassembled the bike after shipping it to Melbourne.

Journal:
The weather was a bit ominous when I set out from Tidal River around 9:00am after having breakfast with Dad, who was about to drive back to Melbourne.  I had a few bike problems in the first few kilometres, having to adjust my panniers, managing to break my rear-view mirror and almost stripping the thread on my left pedal which had unscrewed itself.  It rained intermittently as I cycled out of Wilsons Promontory National Park, but not enough to spoil (and maybe even enhance) the remote alpine-like moors and olive green covered mountains.  I even spotted some kangaroos and emus.  There wasn’t much traffic and I enjoyed the ride.  Later, as I approached Foster through flat rural country on a back road, the northerly wind grew very strong and I struggled to keep my speed above 15kph.  I also started to run out of energy and began to fear I wouldn’t be able to make Mirboo North which is high in the Strezlecki Ranges for my scheduled night’s stay with old friends, the Yarntons.  However, I was revived by a lunch of chips and souvlaki and found that once I began climbing into the hills the wind wasn’t as strong.  The scenery in the Strezleckis is great with very steep grass-covered hilly farming country mixed with occasional forest and fern gullies.  The gradient wasn’t too bad and, although I was slow, I didn’t have to get off and walk.  Near the top of the ranges I passed Turton Falls on a wet gravel road that passed through lovely eucalypt forest.  I finally reached the Yarntons at 5:15pm as it was getting dark and had a very pleasant evening chatting and enjoying a wonderful dinner.
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