Wilsons Promontory to Cape York by bike - Ravenshoe to Cairns

Day: 023
Date: Saturday, 19 August 2006
Summary: Riding from Ravenshoe to Cairns (Brinsmead).
Start: Ravenshoe
Finish: Cairns (Brinsmead)
Daily Kilometres: 140
Total Kilometres: 3103
Weather: Cool and cloudy in the morning and warm and sunny for the afternoon with south-easterly winds.
Accommodation: Staying with cousin, Phil, and his wife, Denise, in Brinsmead, a suburb of Cairns ,Queensland .
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Pastries
  Lunch:  Two pies and a milkshake
  Dinner:  Barbecue
Encounters: There was the drunk who staggered out of the pub in Gordonvale while I was having lunch outside of the adjacent bakery in my biking gear who thought I was there (and dressed for) the annual race up the Pyramid, a nearby mountain, scheduled for that day.
Highlights: Firstly, the ride across the Atherton Tableland was very enjoyable (apart from the hills). The road wound around through little rural valleys with dairy farms and occasional plantations punctuated with patches of dense tropical rainforest, occasionally climbing over high ridges that gave spectacular views to the surrounding high mountains.  Secondly, arriving at the coast again was a major milestone in my trip.
Lowlights: There were some long and tough hills as I crossed the Atherton Tableland, and my quads and right knee were very tired/sore by the time I got to the final descent.  Also, sometime in the first hour, my groundsheet, which I strap on top of my panniers, somehow slipped out without me noticing and was lost.  Not a critical piece of equipment, but I’ll try and get a replacement in Cairns .

Journal:
I got up at 6:30am and was about to leave at 7:00am when I got a phone call from Aaron from the US.  It was the first time I had spoken to him in a month, so it was a welcome start to the day to hear about how his Gap Year travels are going and that he is enjoying himself.  He flies out to Europe tomorrow.

There were several choices for routes across the Atherton Tableland to Cairns and I opted for what seemed to be the shortest, which also used relatively minor roads.  It proved to be a good choice, traffic-wise and scenery-wise, particularly for the first 30km when I had the narrow winding and steeply undulating road almost to myself.  The hills were tough but the scenery was a stark and welcome contrast to the last few weeks with verdant dairy farms and lush rainforest.  It reminded me a bit of the Strezlecki Ranges I had crossed back in Victoria at the start of the trip.

At Malanda, a popular tourist town, which was buzzing on a market day Saturday morning, I found a bakery for a late breakfast at around 10:30am and ate a couple of pastries, read the Saturday paper and watched the world go by, although there was a coolish wind.  I then continued on, up some more massive hills, which I don’t think I could have ridden up early in the trip, to the Gillies Range , which marked the crest of the Great Dividing Range .  Several people’s ears had pricked up when I said I was going this route, which apparently has a long and dangerous descent.  The Gillies Range was crested with beautiful tropical rainforest and, although the road was very winding, it was quite easy to ride (it would have been slow and tedious in a car), and there wasn’t too much traffic.  Finally, the long 16km descent began to the coastal plains and I barely touched the pedals the whole way.  It was great!  The road wasn’t so steep that I had to use the brakes excessively and most of the time I just rolled along at about 30-35km looking at the fabulous scenery below which included sugar cane and grass farms on the flats and lushly forested mountains all around.  It also got noticeably warmer on the descent and for the first time in the day I started to warm up.

Once I reached the bottom I pedalled to Gordonvale, an old sugar town, and found some lunch, before riding the last 23km to Cairns in warm weather with a much-appreciated strong tailwind.  The journey was capped off by finding a radio station I could listen to which was broadcasting theGeelong football game.

As I rode into Cairns I checked a couple of camping stores I needed to buy a few things, but they were all closed.  I had some time to spare, so rode into the very touristy city centre and walked around the shops and beach area for a while and enjoyed a thick-shake at a café.

Then I rode about 12km out to where my cousin, Phil, and wife, Denise, and family live at Brinsmead and received a warm welcome.  I plan to have a day off tomorrow to rest up, catch up with the relatives, and purchase some food and small bits of gear to see me through the last 10-11 days of the trip, which will probably prove to be the most challenging, logistics-wise.