Long Ride - Day 8 - Atherton to Cairns

Long Ride day 8 - Atherton to Cairns

The final ride to our destination came 8 days after we started and although it was only a short one of around 174 kilometres, it could prove to be one of the toughest for many riders.

As soon as we prepared to leave Atherton the weather was looking like it was closing and would start to rain, this was not a good sign as the roads we were about to embark on were the twistiest of all the roads we had seen so far.

 

The bad news from Atherton was that the envelope I had with me the night before with the weeks worth of donations had gone missing.  I'm pretty sure I had missed placed it the night before however, no one had handed it back into the Atherton International and therefore a considerable amount of donations had gone missing.  I replaced this out of my own pocket to ensure that the PCFA wouldn't go without.

 

I put this behind me as we headed for the meeting place in Atherton for breakfast but as the rain started to fall the bike started to play up, as well as my sunnies starting to fog up.  Not only could I not see where I was going but the bloody bike kept stalling.  In the end we agreed to ride on and perhaps have breakfast at Port Douglas, this would kill me, I pass out if I don't have breakfast.

 

The Ugly Fish clear goggles were a god send.

I changed the sunnies to the clear Ugly Fish and what a god send they were.   Not only not fogging up but also brightening the day enough to see.

 

We rode out of town through what seemed like endless fields of bananas and cane, very picturesque.  We started to climb up through the hills and on to the town of Mareeba.  Many riders had stopped their for fuel for themselves and their bikes however, we decided to ride on and see what happens.  The roads were starting to get very interesting especially as we rode on the banks of Lake Mitchell.  This by far is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen, it actually looked like it was a lake in the European Alps somewhere.  I actually wished we could've spent more time there to have a look around.

 

A little further down the road we came upon a small town called Mount Molloy ... the place where I will retire.  Hopefully they will have done something about the humidity by then.

The cafe at Mount Molloy was enough to make me want to
live there.

 

Mount Molloy is a small place nestled in the hills, it has a cafe a fell in love with immediately.  It has a Spanish or Mexican fell, with a tiny kitchen that you can see, and a dining area that is almost completely open allowing to watch the world go by.  The only person working was a guy probably in his 50's and of Mexican background.  He did well to keep with all of the orders but said he was "shitting himself" at the potential of possibly 300 bikes all stopping.  The breakfast he made for us was delicious and very cheap.



 

After a debate around wet weather gear I decided to push on without them, there was a light rain but it soon stopped and my gear quickly dried out.

 

From here we turned on to the road to Mossman, a road that soon became very twisty, it was about time.  The road was extremely well kept, almost billiard table smooth and although a bit wet in areas in had plenty of grip.  It was a great ride but didn't last very long before it opened up into more farmland before turning into the Captain Cook Highway.

The road to Port Douglas was a cracker.

This lead into Port Douglas, which I envisioned to be something like Broome.  It was nothing like Broome and was actually a very pretty place despite the tourism aspect.  Yes it was a little commercial but not enough to be gaudy, I liked the place.  It was here I spoke to a guy who had a similar bike to mine, he said he was really impressed with what we were doing with the ride and men's health.  He mentioned that road from Port Douglas to Cairns was one of the best in the world.  A massive call.

 

We soon got onto this road it was clear it would be good, but best in the world?  Not even close.  In fact it was nowhere near as good as the Great Ocean Road for even scenery or interest of the corners etc.  I've got to admit I even dosed off at one stage and found myself on the wrong side of the road, the poor tourists behind me in the campervan must've wondered what the hell was going on.

 

I pushed on and couldn't wait to get to Cairns for the meeting place of the showgrounds. 

Port Douglas is a very pretty place.

The group I was in were running late and we only just made it to drop on to the end of the queue of the parade through the town.  We made our way through the Cairns city without a police escort to the esplanade area.  While people were looking at us there seemed to be no real interest, I've got to admit it was disappointing and nowhere near as spectacular or emotional as the ride into Darling Harbour during the last Long Ride.

 

After we all congratulated each other a reminisced about the ride to Cairns we went and got a well earned cold drink and icecream before heading off to the hotel.  There was certainly a feeling of disappointment, at least from my behalf.

 

For those of us staying at the Pullman's International we unpacked out bikes and went to our rooms.  It was certainly nice to be staying at a swish hotel and where we would be having our gala dinner that night.  The only let down was something I found in my bed ... a short curly hair, how they hell does that get into a freshly made bed in one of the best hotels in town ... hmmm!

Oh no ... is that what I think
it is?

After a few drinks and a quick refresh we were ready for the dinner.  I'd donned my 1970's velvet bow tie and was even convinced along with a few other lads to have our finger nails painted blue.

 

The night was a huge success with a visit from delegates from the PCFA as well as the mayor of Cairns, but more on that in the next post.

 

To this date the total raised on my Long Ride is $12,776 still a little short of the target of $15,000 hopefully that will change in the next few weeks.

With the 174 kilometres travelled during day 8 a total of 3,359 had now been covered.