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 a 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