Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005
To: touring@phred.org
From: “Michael Ayers”
<michael@terminalia.org>
Subject: Gondwana - Cruising Quickly up Coastal
Queensland
G’Day Phreds,
Well, I knew it would happen eventually, on a long
tour it always does, that the feel of this trip has changed 180 degrees over
the past couple of weeks. All of the tough aspects, the weather, tough terrain,
mechanical failures, and short days, which all seemed to be present simultaneously,
have disappeared, or at least lessened, recently. Consequently, a little more time for fun and
rest has crept into my daily routine which is nice. It’s about time.
However, the first few days in Queensland, the large, tropical
state in the northeastern corner of Australia, were not much better than previous
weeks. The large city of Brisbane was the first issue. I had originally planned
to bypass it by heading inland, back into the hills, for a few days. However, the
rain that soaked the last couple of days in NSW continued for the first three in
Queensland, even increasing in intensity such that there was some minor flooding
in the area. After being snowed on in Glen Innes the previous week, I decided that
I really had no desire to head back into the hills under the circumstances. So,
I started on a route that would take me a little closer to the city than I would
normally go. Unfortunately, the area to the south of the city is filled with sprawl
that would fit right in around southern California or central Florida. That meant
a little riding on some horribly unpleasant sections of highway. Since it was still
raining hard, I diverted to where I could catch the local commuter train and took
in all the way through to the northern edge of the city. I had to wait until the
off-peak hours of mid-day before I could board with the bike, but that still allowed
me to get through town in a few hours and actually put me back on track with my
original schedule.
Finally the skies cleared as I approached my next destination,
Fraser Island. Fraser is a huge island composed entirely of sand, but covered with
lakes and rainforest, just a few km off the coast near the town of Hervey Bay. It
was one of the places high on my list of sights to see, but unfortunately, due to
earlier delays, I had only 1.5 days to spend there instead of three, as I had hoped.
That made it a little tougher to visit, since there is no real way to ride on the
sand roads of the island. I instead hid the bike and gear in the woods and took
one of the bus tours given by the main resort on the island. It was a little pricey
and zooming through the forest and along the beach as fast as possible is not quite
my style, but at least I was able to see the main sights. The next day I returned
to the mainland and continued the ride north up the coast. Unfortunately, our schedules
didn’t match up well, and I didn’t get a chance to say G’Day
to list member Dave Mac, who lives in Hervey Bay. Cheers, Dave.
For the previous month all I wanted was to string four
or five relatively pleasant days together in a row. It seemed that I could never
get more than one or two up till that point.
Well, I suppose I hit the jackpot, because the next 14 days saw sunny skies,
warm temperatures, mild terrain, and some really nice tailwinds (though they were
not as helpful after the first few days). The length of the day has now reached
11 hours, not spectacular but adequate, which has helped tremendously. (Next week,
I’ll have close to 12 hours. Wow, what an unbelievable luxury! From now on, that
should no longer be a problem, so the Ride to Daylight is now over. Whew.) So, I
was finally able to settle into a more normal (for me, at least) touring routine,
and take the long mid-day rest breaks that I enjoy so much. The terrain was generally
flat or lightly rolling for the entire 1,600 km up the coast. Though for the last
half of that there were numerous small ranges which were so widely spaced that the
road never rose up from the broad valleys in between. They added a bit of visual appeal to what could
otherwise have been a rather monotonous landscape. The area is also a major sugar
cane region, and the harvest is just underway. I have not seen so much cane since
my Cuba tour in ‘02.
There was also time to do a little more sightseeing without
feeling that I would be falling behind. I took a day off in the pleasant town of
Rockhampton, which has some fine old buildings, and another
later on at the small beach village of Lucinda. The latter was a little frustrating,
however, as just a couple of kms off shore from the village
was Hinchbrook Island, another large, forested island
that is a national park. It looked really beautiful and I wanted to go over for
a while, but the only place that I could rent a small boat to go over would not
let me have one because I don’t have a “boating license”. Crickey!
Now I’m in Cairns, the northernmost city on Australia’s
east coast. It’s quite nice, though while the whole Queensland coast is “touristy”
this is where the tourists actually are. Consequently, it not a particularly inexpensive
place to visit. Nevertheless, I am going to let the budget bend a little and enjoy
the place a little (or more likely when I return in a couple of weeks.)
That’s right; it’s time for my first excursion outside
of Australia. It’s a beautiful country, but Australia is absolutely a “First World”
kind of place. These days my tastes lean towards worlds of higher numbers, however.
And so, in a few hours I’ll be boarding a plane (Booo!)
heading for exotic Papua New Guinea. That should really be something,
we’ll have to see how it turns out. I have a feeling that I may be one of the first
ever to tour there, at least up into the highlands, where I plan to go. But, everything that was broken has now been repaired
and I feel good, if a bit thin, so I’m hoping for good fortunes this time. If all
goes well, I should be back in Cairns in a couple of weeks. Until
then.
No worries,
Mike
--
The Tour of Gondwana
May 02005 - Oct 02007
http://www.terminalia.org/tour