Long Ride - Day 14 - Dalby to Barraba

Long Ride day 14 - Dalby to Barraba

Oh goodness what a night last night turned out to be, something I had eaten didn't agree with me and I'd spent most of the night with an upset stomach and being ill.  It meant little sleep especially when we had an early start to try and get to Tamworth before dark.

 

I'm pretty certain Dalby is the bogan capital of Queensland.  All night there were the sounds of Commodores doing burnouts, the people also don't seem as friendly as they do in other places in Queensland.  Maybe it's because it's close to the border with New South Wales.

 

After a quick feed we refuelled at the local Shell service station where an ancient looking military bike rolled in.  I went over for a look and was surprised to find it was actually a modern Kawasaki cruiser.  The guy had built it himself, and had done a brilliant job with it.  From a distance you'd swear it was an old Harley or Indian bike of the 1940's.  He was keen to join us for the ride out of town but wasn't too fussed about riding south with us.  It's a pity I would've like to have learnt more about his bike.

Checking out the cotton fields.

The first leg of the ride would take us to Millmerran, a ride of about 90 kilometres through mostly cotton fields.  Like the cane fields further north these are really something to see however, they leave a bit of blight on the landscape when the cotton is picked.  There's dropped cotton buds everywhere and it actually looks quite trashy almost like rubbish, I guess the good thing is that it is totally natural and would breakdown quite easily.

 

The ride through this area was pretty straight forward however, a strong head wind made it a bit of a pain in the bum.  It was gusting quite strongly, fuel consumption was well up on what it would normally be.  It also slowed us down somewhat.

Miles of nothing, straight into a very strong head wind.

From Millmerran we continued directly south and headed for Inglewood.  The land was now starting to change again and become a little hillier and had farm land much more similar to Victoria.  It was mostly cattle farming although there were still quite a few farms growing some sort of grain.

 

Inglewood actually saw us take what was probably a wrong turn as we could've continued directly south and head for Texas, yes that's right, Queensland has a place called Texas.  Instead we followed the suggested route from iPhone Maps and headed towards Yelarbon, which in turn was taking us closer to Goondiwindi, which was now not really the way we wanted to go.  It wasn't until we got to Yelarbon that we realised we were headed in the wrong direction and so had to double back about 10 kilometres to take another road to Texas.

 

The ride into Texas was quite interesting and is obviously a favourite for riders from the area.  There were quite a few groups of riders all going in the opposite direction.  The roads were quite good and were mostly through national park, so had plenty of twists to keep things interesting.

 

Once arriving in Texas there were plenty of signs stating what was in the town.  Obviously there were a few things based on cowboys and stockmen, but the funniest thing I saw was a pub called the Yellow Rose ... and it was painted completely yellow.

 

Texas is also a funny town as it sits right on the border with New South Wales.  Unlike many of the towns we Victorians share with New South Wales, Texas is purely one town and not a twin town like Albury-Wodonga or Echuca-Moama.   It was actually a little strange to see how it worked.  It was a pretty town, nevertheless.

Eventually we found the border.

We did have a little trouble finding our way through Texas and to the border but once we found the Dumaresq River we knew we were at the border.  Although for the most part the Queensland-New South Wales border is the 29 degrees south parallel, some of the border is marked by a river similar to what the Murray River does down south.

 

Crossing the Dumaresq we headed for the Bruxner Highway and headed west towards Yetman.  We were now out of Queensland after eleven days.  This was pretty much the first time I had ever been there except for Brisbane and I've got to admit it was very different to what I was expecting.  In fact I would say that Queensland represents a greater cross section of our country than any other state. It has so many different varied lands, it really is a beautiful state.  And for the most part the people are really friendly and receptive.  I'll certainly be back.

 

By the time we had reached Yetman the temperature had dropped considerably and was now actually becoming quite uncomfortable.  We still had around 200 kilometres to reach Tamworth and as it was already 3pm we decided we would go as far as we could before it got too dark and too cold.

Lunch in Yetman.  They even brand their pies up here.

We got as far as Barraba before the cold was starting to really take it's toll so we pulled into town to see what was around.  There were a few grand old hotels unfortunately neither that were still pubs offered accommodation.  Another was purely a hotel now and looked far too posh for a few bikers, so we headed back the way we came and tried the caravan park.

 

At first it seemed there was no reception just a door bell type thing that I pushed and an almighty siren went off, yet no one came.  Eventually an elderly bloke, on his way to the toilet, approached.  I asked if he was the caretaker, he said no and explained where I could find him ... over at the bowls club in his usual seat.  He offered to go and fetch him.

 

A short stocky bloke approached and immediately started talking about what he could offer us, he wouldn't shut up.  He showed us to a cabin that he charged us just $100 for, so the remainder has gone into the kitty as a donation to the PCFA.  The cabin was very nice and certainly much better than the dump we stayed on last night.  The main thing is that it was warm.

 

We unpacked and headed off to the Chinese Restaurant that was a part of the bowls club.  I'm not much of a fan of Chinese food however, this stuff was really good and cheap.  The funny thing was the service was a bit poor and there as seemed like constant bickering coming from he kitchen.  We over heard a couple of locals saying that the 'mum' was on holidays in Hong Kong and so the kids were left to run the restaurant.  It seemed they couldn't agree who was cooking and how was washing.  It was pretty funny.

 

On the way out we noticed that the caravan park owner was having a drink with two younger blokes.  It turns out his name is Bob Richards, or Richo to his mates, and his drinking partners were two firemen from Sydney who travel country NSW teaching the Rural Fire Service how to undertake rescues and so on.

 

It was a great laugh listening to Richo's jokes and the tales from the firies and how they get cats out of trees.  They also told us about some great riding roads in the area.

 

We showed them a few photos of our ride so far, and they were amazed at what we were doing.  Richo was particularly interested in the 'penis' trees from Bowen, and said that he had one that could better it.  He was very keen to show us.

Richo's prickly penis.

At 72 Richo is a real character and is exactly what makes these country towns so great.  He didn't care who we were, he just wanted to share his stories and listen to ours ... although it was pretty hard trying to get a word in.

 

We all walked across the road to the caravan park, Richo told us to be careful of the traffic, I'd bet that five cars a day go past here, so there was too much to worry about.  The firies wished us good luck and a safe ride home.  Richo showed us his prickly penis, we had a good laugh and bid him goodnight.  What a great old character.

 

Today we rode a total of around 537 kilometres, taking the total ridden up to 5,668.  The total raised is still creeping higher and towards $13,000.  I hope we can make it to this total before the ride if over.

 

Tomorrow we will head for Tamworth before trying to reach Bathurst.  At nearly 500 kilometres again it might be a tough ride, but we'll try.

Long Ride - Day 13 - Hervey Bay to Dalby

Long Ride day 13 - Hervey Bay to Dalby

Day 13 of the Long Ride was supposed to have been a considerably long one, the planned destination was to be Goondiwindi.  It didn't happen, for a number of reasons.

After the great dinner the night before we treated ourselves to a bit of a sleep in before being served one of the best breakfasts you could imagine. With such great food on offer the morning was already a bit of a write off, a 9:30 start now turned into somewhere around midday.

Again I can't thank Kat, Damon and little Georgia for the hospitality, and along with Jim and Adam for their donation.  Thank you very much.

After saying our goodbyes we set off for a ride along the Esplanade in Hervey Bay.  I'd also been told in Cairns that Hervey Bay has more people with missing limbs than anywhere else in Australia, so I had to check this out.  Apparently if the people do have all their limbs then they are generally missing a digit.

As we rode along I nearly ran into the back of a car while checking everyone's legs and arms.  Bugger, I couldn't find one person with a missing body part, it was actually a bit of a let down, all I asked for was just one missing toe or thumb.

We continued to ride around and the thing that struck me the most was just how much the foreshore area of Hervey Bay looks like Torquay, then to my surprise we came across a suburb called Torquay, although it wasn't as tacky as ours.  I then wondered who got in first.  Did we Victorians rip off Hervey Bay, who in turn ripped off Britain. 

This whale was massive.  The tail was about a
kilometre away.

One really impressive things with Hervey bay is a stainless steel and wooden whale that is breaching out of the concrete, it really was something to behold.  Even more impressive is it's tale sticking out of a roundabout about a kilometre down the road.  Fuck me, that was modelled on one hell of a whale.  I'm sure there's a stature somewhere in Hervey Bay of a grumpy old prick with one leg, crying "there she blows, the great white whale".  Now the whole limb thing was starting to come together.

We headed out of town to the first place we would come across, Maryborough.  Bloody hell, another place ripped off from Victoria, you'd swear these Queeslanders had no sense of imagination.

Only about 30 minutes down the road Maryborough was an easy ride except for the knob in the blue Mazda 626 or whatever crap it was.  He came up behind me at about 170 kph, while I was doing the speed limit.  He pulled to the right at the very last minute as I ducked left, almost running off the road.  He almost did the same on the other side of the road.  Friggin' idiot.

Anyway, Maryborough is a beautiful town.  Very green and tropical despite being considerably below the Tropic of Capricorn (near Rockhampton).  There's beautiful old Queenslander style houses everywhere, you know, the sort that are on stilts and have wooden lattice work everywhere.  Beautiful.

The one thing that let the area down was all the bloody cane fields still, but these were starting to thin.

We refuelled at a BP were the guy working the till looked like he was about 12 years old and had a voice like a young Taylor Swift.  I almost died laughing when I noticed a wedding ring on his finger.  Is it legal to marry so young in Queensland?

From here we set off towards Gympie where the turn off for Kingaroy would be.  All of this way we would still be in the Bruce Highway, but it was starting to become a little more interesting.  We actually missed the turn off so went right through Gympie and had to turn around too find the Wide Bay Highway.  Once on here the road became very interesting as we headed into what must be Queensland's high country.  The cane fields were now gone and replaced with cattle farms, similar to what the Victorian high country has.  The numerous little towns were picture perfect, it seems while Queensland is very progressive with it's larger towns, it also takes great pride in keeping its heritage in place in the smaller towns.  I really love the contrast.  Some of these towns look like they have changed in 100 years.  It was a great pity we couldn't stop to have a look at these places but it was getting late in the day and we still had to at least make Kingaroy, the peanut capital of Australia.  It's also the home of former Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Peterson and pumpkin scone making wife, Flo.  Like I said the peanut capital of Australia.

We arrived in Kingaroy at around 4:30pm and it was already starting to get very cold.  I thought Queensland was always supposed to be warm?  That's what the advertisements tell us.

There was no time to look around, as it was already starting to get dark.  That's the one thing I really have noticed with Queensland, it really seems to get dark quite early.  The refuelled and had a quick drink before heading on for the last 110 kilometres to get to Dalby, we'd set this as the goal so that we could try and keep on schedule the next day.

As we rode out of Kingaroy and tow-plane was taking a sail-plane up to altitude before releasing and turning away.  This was all very impressive and quite graceful.

We plugged on as the light started to fail.  The sunset was spectacular.  And now the temperature was becoming quite low, apparently the forecast was for a very cold night and frosts the next morning.

Has anyone seen Ewan?  Is he still diving
for his suppository?

We pulled into town and checked into the Windsor Hotel.  Sounds flash, but it's not, it's just a run down pub.  It's probably the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, and at the moment it's full of road crews working alternating day and night shifts, so at least they are quiet.  The rooms remind me of the accommodation in the TV show Prisoner, just not as welcoming.  The bathroom area is all open, so there's not a lot of privacy and the toilet looks like the one in Train Spotting, I see Ewan McGregor in the room tonight, I know where he's come from.

The great thing was at least one of the workers staying at the hotel was interested in what we are doing and thought it was great that we are doing this for men's health and the PCFA.  I got the impression that perhaps he had gone through something similar himself but didn't know how to talk about it.  Again we might have made a difference with at least one person.

 

As I type this the netbook has started beeping and the powerpoint is hissing, me thinks its time to go onto battery power.  I'd better check the fire escape plan just in case.

 

On that note, I'll head off to bed, hoping the smoke detector works.  Hmm actually there isn't one.

 

The total now raised is $12,868 and still climbing.  We rode 485 kilometres today taking the overall total to 5,131 kilometres.  Tomorrow we cross over into New South Wales and head towards Tamworth.  It's an early start ...

Long Ride - Day 12 - Rockhampton to Hervery Bay (via 1770)

Long Ride day 12 - Rockhampton to Hervey Bay

Waking to bright sunshine day 12 of the Long Ride was looking to be a good one.  It was going to be a long day on the road, but it would be worth it, at the end we were looking forward to a home
cooked meal.

We set off from Rockhampton as early as possible, anything to get away from the monster we found hanging in the tree across the way, one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen.

We road through some of Rockhampton's suburbs and again like so many other cities in Queensland I was taken by how pretty it was.  Every city in Queensland seems like this, that is until we got to Gladstone.

Oh my god, what a poo hole.  The approach to the city from the Bruce Highway takes you right past a dirty great hole in the ground, then an aluminium smelter,  it wasn't the prettiest of sights and the

Monster.  This spider was as big as a mans hand.

smell would take the paint off a battle ship.

The city itself wasn't much better, don't get me wrong it wasn't the worst place on earth, but no matter where you looked there was some sort of mine or smelter.  In fact I think we stopped at the only nice place in the entire city for a quick break, the park and beach, only to find that there was sign saying not to swim - stingers present.  It was also surrounded by factories.  It sort of reminded me of Corio Bay in Geelong.

In complete contrast was the next place we visited and one of the most significant place in Australia.  The town of 1770.

1770 was the place of the second landing on Australian soil by Lieutenent James Cook in 1770.  It

The pub at 1770.

was originally called Round Hill but was renamed Seventeen Seventy in 1970 to commemorate the bicentenary of Cook's landing.

The town now caters mostly for tourists and is one of the prettiest places around.  We had a quick lunch at the pub, I could've sat there for hours, maybe even days, enjoying a beer and watching the world go by.

It was a pity we had to leave but nevertheless we did, and set off for Bundeberg, a place I really wanted to visit for obvious reasons. 

The marker errected in the 1920's to honour
Captain Cook.

The road to here was great, plenty of twists and surrounded by beautiful forests, that is until we reached the outskirts of Bundeberg where the forests were replaced with cane fields.  Here we go again I thought.

Unfortunately we were a little behind schedule so we didn't have time to stop.  It was quite a disappointment as I really wanted to visit the Bundy distillery, oh well a home cooked meal wasn't far away so we pressed on.

On arrival in Hervey Bay, again I was taken aback by how big it was.  We arrived at our destination and were greeted very warmly with a beautiful meal and beds to stay in.  It was a great difference to hotels and caravan parks.  We had the meal, enjoyed a few drinks and laughs before heading to bed.

Thank you Damon; Kat; and little Georgia for your friendly hospitality.  It was really appreciated.

A few more donations have nbow taken the total raised to above $12,800.

We rode for a total of 493 kilometres taking the overall ride to 4,646 kilometres.  Tomorrow we should click over 5,000 kilometres.

Long Ride - Day 11 - Mackay to Rockhampton (Yeppoon)

Long Ride day 11 - Mackay to Rockhampton

Heading to bed last night the plan was to go beyond the planned destination of Yeppoon to the town of Seventeen Seventy, to allow us enough time to look around and also to get to Bundaberg with enough time to visit the distillery before heading to Hervey Bay.  What happened was almost the

complete opposite.

 

Setting off bright and early we had breakfast in Mackay, I for once went the healthy option, trying to stay away from bacon and eggs.  The fruit bowl and banana smoothie was delicious but would it be enough.

 

We refuelled, checked the tyres and then hit the road.  And almost immediately the bloody cane fields started, oh well, we plugged on.

 

Heading down the Bruce Highway, the skies began to darken, a quick shower but nothing to bad to complain about.  We continued on with the idea that we would put the wet weather gear on if it looked like getting worse, it actually looked like it might clear.  With this in mind we stopped at St Laurence for a quick refresh, I needed some food, the fruit bowl was delicious but nowhere near enough.  The rain was holding off.

 

We continued on and within ten minutes a rain storm of biblical proportions was unleashed.  Crocodiles were climbing trees to get away from it, some bloke called Noah was turning his fishing trawler into the almightiest of cruise liners.  Stupidly we continued on.  Within minutes we were soaked to the bone, thankfully it wasn't too cold, just yet.

 

My jeans were soaked all the way to the crutch, my seat had formed a puddle, and at one stage a tough of flatulence squelched, I prayed that it was nothing more than the moisture in my pants and not a wet fart brought on by the fruit.  Could this day get any worse?

 

A few kilometres on, and the almightiest of road kills was on the side of road.  Even through the rain it's odour was so pungent that it made us gag, it was the worst I have ever smelt.  Oh please don't let that be my bowel, I thought to myself.

 

We fought on and eventually reached Marlborough, we needed fuel so pulled into the service station, absolutely dripping wet.  A decision was made to look for accommodation, this day was a write-off, it was becoming unsafe to continue on.

 

We rode away from the servo and headed back to the road to Marlborough, immediately this seemed wrong, the road was rough, in fact I don't think it had been touched since it was built, at a time when Henry Ford was still pumping out the T Model.

 

The town was no different.  As we rode through looking for some place to get dry curtains fluttered, eyes appeared from behind blinds, door closed quickly.  It was a strange place, the real village of the damned.  There was no place to stay so we agreed to refuel and then make the final 100 kilometres to Rockhampton.  Are we bloody stupid?

 

Bloody rain.  It was relentless.

I stayed at the rear and could barely make out the taillights in front of me, my Ugly's had filled with water and if my eyes weren't watering the damn bloody goggles were fogging up.  I couldn't see a thing which, was probably a good thing considering the condition of the road and the trucks hurtling towards us in the opposite direction.

Battle scars ... a rock hit me right in the
middle of the head.  And is my hair still
rubbing off?

By now I'm pretty sure hypothermia was setting in, despite the misery of the rain and cold I was starting to fall asleep, then 'thwack' a bloody great rock hit me right in the middle of the forehead.  Shit, it hurt but woke me up immediately.  Right lets get to Rocky and stop whinging.  After all we are doing this for people who, or could, go through much worse.

 

We pulled into Rockhampton and went straight for the nearest caravan park.  The one we chose is a corker.  It's set in like a topical rainforest and has the best cabins I have ever seen, you could actually live here.

 

Local flooding was forecast for Rockhampton.

Standing in a pool of water we checked in, the receptionist couldn't help but laugh but was good enough to get through the process quickly so we could get out of the wet gear and warm up.  The shower was one of the best I have ever had, so hot my hands tingled.  Other body parts returned to normal pretty quickly.

Trying to dry.

There was no time to talk to people today, the plan was just to get to our destination safely.  Tomorrow we will head towards Hervey Bay, via 1770 and Bundeberg, the weather forecast is looking much better.

 

We only got as far as 330 kilometres today taking the total 4,483.  But we did make it safely.

 

Long Ride - Day 10 - Ayr to Mackay

Long Ride day 10 - Ayr to Mackay

Today was supposed to be a short run down the coast to Mackay on what we thought was a coast road, it turns out the Queenslanders have no idea what a coast road is, in fact this road only caught a glimpse of the ocean once or twice in 300 kilometres.

 

While packing the bikes three old ladies in the Barcaldine Cascades Caravan Park stopped for a chat, they were really impressed with what we had done and were continue to do.  It almost seemed that they were jealous of us and would like to have done something similar.  One was the owner of the park and told us about a time when the Rebels MC once stayed at a hotel she used to own.  She said after setting down the laws they turned out to be "lovely young lads".

 

It was a late start in Ayr which was fine but once hitting the town we couldn't find a single place for breakfast except the local McDonald's which, was packed.  A quick feed and we hit the road heading south towards Home Hill.  In fact it seemed that these two towns were one in the same, they were so close together, perhaps suburbs of another town.

 

Home Hill was like everything else in the area and surrounded by cane fields.  The sight of them do amaze me, but come on, it's starting to wear thin, even the little train networks that run around them.

The view at Home Hill was amazing.  This whole land is
amazing.

At Home Hill we found a look out that gave the most amazing 360 degree view of the area.  This part of the world is quite amazing.  Vast flat plains with massive mountains sprouting from them here and there.  From the height of the lookout the whole area looked quite surreal.

 

From here we headed off down the Bruce Highway towards Bowen, the town that was made to look like 1930's Darwin for the film Australia made by Baz Luhrmann.  It was quite amazing to see what they did in a display at the local information centre, but I still couldn't see how it looked like Darwin, to start with the harbour was completely different.  Anyway, it didn't matter, it was a great place to have a mango sorbet ... delicious!

 

While sitting in the shade, by now the temperature was well into the 30's and the humidity must've been in the 90's, we noticed something a little odd.  Some sort of palm trees that had sprouted appendages. 

Good God.  Bowen's trees are well hung.

It was at this time I noticed something else.  Tug boats, and lots of them, moored at the end of a pretty old looking pier.  I took a walk to see what they were doing, as there were no ships in the area, and I doubt whether anything that would've needed a tug would've fit in the harbour anyway.  It didn't matter, I do love a tug.

 

After a bit of a look around Bowen we set off for our destination, Mackay.  Along the way we met up with a few others riders who had stopped to see what the whether would do.  We had been told that this area was expecting 100mm of rain in the next 24 hours, bugger, we still had over 100 kilometres to go.  No wonder the cane grows so well, and yes, it was still down here.  It's bloody everywhere.

 

We followed the other bikes to Prosperpine in the area around the Whitsunday Islands, they were staying there for the night, we continued on as by now it had started to rain and quite heavy.

 

Big or small, I love a tug.

A little further down the road, we started to go into the hills, at least the road was becoming exciting, maybe a little too much.  Rounding a left hand bend my rear wheel spun up and slid towards the outside of the corner.  My first thought was to back off, I didn't, I held the throttle and powered through the slide.  My bum had taken a fairly decent bite out of the seat ... that'll need repairing.

 

The rain was a bugger and almost cost me the lot.

I was thankful that over 500 kilograms of bike, gear, and rider had stayed upright.  It felt pretty close, so I backed of to around 80 kph until the rain cleared a little.

 

It was nice to get into Mackay however, as we pulled into the motel (the Bona Vista), I couldn't help think about some of the motels I stayed in during the last Long Ride.  If the reception had a few stuffed birds and a wombat of something on the counter I was out of here.  I'm sitting here with the feeling that someone is peeking through a hole in the wall.  Does Bona Vista mean Bates Motel? 

 

Once settling in we received some pretty distressing news that one of the riders who had spent some time with us had been taken to hospital in Charters Towers.  He had been hit by a kangaroo that had jumped into the side of his new Harley.  The bike wasn't too badly damaged but Bob had suffered a broken leg.  There's no doubt that the lovely people of Charters Towers will look after him.  Bob our thoughts are with you, and hopefully you will be back in Swan Hill pretty soon.

 



I'm sure there's a guy dressed as his dead mother somewhere
around this place.

We took a walk to the local pub, the Mt Pleasant Tavern, where the food was pretty good and reasonably priced.  What's better they gave us a meal for free so that went into the kitty as a donation.  It's only small but it all helps a great deal.

 

Today we covered a total of 358 kilometres, taking the total up to 4,153.  Tomorrow is planned to be a much longer day that will see us head down the coast road, that doesn't actually follow the coast.

 

The total raised is now just short of $12,800.

 

Long Ride - Day 9 - Cairns to Ayr

Long Ride day 9 - Cairns to Ayr

Well back on the bike, the 9th day we are riding, and basically it's all down hill from here.  Well that was the general plan.  What should've been just over 5 hours of riding turned out to be much longer, a few issues slowing us down, and mostly all my fault.

 

The morning started with a bit of sleep in before we started packing the bikes again.  Checking out of the Pullman's International we set off through Cairns and down the coast road we didn't take on the way up, picking up the road at Innisfail where we had been a few days earlier.

 

The views this time were magnificent, previously we only got to see misty rain, now we were in glorious sunshine, but shit it was humid.  Crutch rot was starting early today.

 

We stopped at Innisfail to refuel and get a coffee, only to be accosted by a guy riding a BMW Adventure bike.  He was really keen to have a chat to us about what we were doing especially after seeing the ride on the local news.  He pointed out a few things we should do on the way down the coast.  The local baker also said he had seen the ride, so it seemed that the word was getting out there and the message was working, at least in some part.  The lady who was working at the servo also gave us her Coles 4c docket so we could save some money.  It was only $1.50 but we put this in as a donation.  It was a small gesture, but one that showed people are aware of what we are doing and was willing to show some support.

 

Not far out of Innisfail I noticed there were no bikes behind me so turned around to see what had happened.  To my horror my beloved water bottle had fallen off my bike but thankfully had been retrieved.  It was a little worse for wear, but I think the battered look suits it better.  At least I can still have a drink when I need it.

 

Resting in paradise just before the phone went
flying.

Exactly what I needed an hour or so later as we rode through Cardwell near Hinchinbrook Island, the humidity was becoming unbearable.  It was funny, we passed the pub we had stopped at on the way up and the same bloke was sitting in the same spot on the balcony.  He gave us a wave as we went by to find a spot a little further down the road.  We stopped in the driveway of a gated community and basically passed out.  I drain what was left of my water and after a short lay down in the shade we geared up ready to leave.  I knew my phone was on top of my topbox, must remember to put it in my pocket I thought.

 

I took off only to notice that no one was following, the phone had come off the bike.  It was retrieved, and although a little battered I'm hopeful it will still work.

 

We got going again after a bit of a laugh and headed for Townsville.  We didn't get far before trouble struck again.   The roadworks we had encountered on the way up were still there however, now we were having to stand with the bikes running in stifling heat.  As we got closer to Ingham, where I was hoping to get to a local pub and have a decent feed, I noticed that my gear shifting was becoming more difficult, eventually the bike was stuck in third gear.

 

Entering Ingham I was able to get it changed down into first but it would go no higher than second.  Shit, thousands of kilometres from home and no gear higher than second.  Anyone who knows me well will know what happened next.  I had one of my usual tantrums before thinking things through and making a decision.

 

That decision was to ride it back about a kilometre to a place called Ingham Motorcycles and Mowers for them to assess.  The guys there were great at first they thought it was a damaged gearbox, maybe a jammed selector.  They took the bike too the workshop and began the assessment. 

The workshop in Ingham, these guys were good!

Thirty minutes later they had it fixed.  It was nothing more than a dirty input spline.  It looked like it had never been greased and had become slightly damaged they repair it and got the bike going again.  Thank God, we hadn't even got as far as Townsville yet.

 

Once in Townsville we refuelled and headed off towards Ayr, as darkness started to fall. In the mirror I could see one of the greatest sunsets I have ever seen fall over the hills we had just passed.  This is truly a beautiful part of the country.

 

We arrived in Ayr on nightfall and were all pretty exhausted.  We checked into the caravan park and then went to the Burdekin Hotel, that came highly recommended.  It was an old school pub, mainly for backpackers.  The food was reasonably priced and was absolutely delicious,  I'd recommend it to anyone.  The downside was watching 2 smokers.

 

The first was in the designated smoking area.  He had an ashtray on his table and yet still made the effort to get up out of his chair and walk to the footpath before flicking the butt onto the road.  The second was a woman who pulled up out front of the pub in her baby four-wheel drive.  She lit up a cigarette, got out of the car, took 3 drags and then flicked the butt on the road.  This really pisses me off, the blatant disrespect for others and this great country we live in.

 

The good thing about this pub was an old 'duck' sat at the bar who asked what we are doing.  Where we had come from and where we were going.  She said it was a great thing we were doing and said she was disappointed that the media hadn't got behind it more.  Again we were getting the message out there.

 

Anyway, an early night tonight as we continue down the coast and try to spread the word of what we are doing tomorrow.  It was a bloody tiring day.

 

With 436 kilometres covered today we had now completed 3,795 in the Long Ride.  The total raised is now $12,778.

 

 

Long Ride - Rest Days - Cairns

The Blue Meanies ... all three should've won
the Ugly Fish glassess but were happier to see
them auctioned to raise more money.

Arriving in Cairns signified the end of the 'official' Long Ride but certainly not an end to the journey, in fact it is only the halfway point of the physical ride and the start of the metaphorical journey to end prostate cancer.

This started with a gala dinner for all riders at the Pullman's International, one of Cairn's premier hotels, and a place where a great deal of us were staying.

The dinner was a fairly relaxed affair with everyone being encouraged to wear blue, obviously.  Then gents were encouraged to wear a blue bow tie which, some of us took very seriously.  Some even went a step further with the blue.  Painted nails were the order of the night, something which paid off later.

Although the dinner was informal and mostly a way of saying thank you, it was also an opportunity for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia to say thank you for the effort we had all put in and the money that had been raised.  We were also addressed by Mayor of Cairns, Cr Bob Manning OAM, who thanked us all for choosing his city for us to finish the ride in.  Then the real festivities began.

The blokes were quick to paint their
nails.  It got people in Cairns asking
questions, and that's a good thing.

It was a massive night that finished with a monsoonal type downpour but that didn't dampen the spirits of the revellers who retreated to the hotels bar before heading off across the road to the Cairns casino, a small and strange place.  The highlight was a weird bald bloke, shirtless and dancing like Peter Garret.  The rumour is that it's his job to start the punters partying.

The night ended reasonably late, and the next day started even later.  Yes, I was hungover, no I didn''t vomit, but God I felt terrible and spent most of the day in bed recovering.  The sleep was actually good so that I could get on with the sight seeing today, but not before a quick look around Cairns and dinner at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant.  Essentially it was just heaps of meat brought out on skewers, and oh my, it was some of the best meat I have ever had.

The night ended watching the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix, before waking up just 3 hours later to be picked up for a balloon flight out of Mareeba, sort of between Cairns and Port Douglas in the Atherton Tablelands.



Watcching the balloons fill with hot air.

The flight started at around 7am after chasing the first flight around the area before our chance came.  I've got say this was one of the most amazing things.  It was so serene up their as we climbed to around 1000 metres.  The air was so still and warm and then we drifted into a huge cloud stretching right across the sky from horizon to horizon.  What happened next was simply stunning.  Thee shadow of the balloon was being projected, almost tunnel like, through the cloud.  As it bent the sunlight it created a perfect circle rainbow around the shadow of the basket.  It was a fantastic site, so much so that the pilot took a photo of it.  He had seen this before but never so perfect.


Jay, the pilot at Hot Air Cairns, asked us about the Long Ride and said it was amazing what we were doing and would love to do something similar himself.  He's a rider himself.

The flight in the balloon was a little weird as the air was so still that we probably only travelled 1 kilometre and in a circle yet it was a great way to see this beautiful part of the world, the ride didn't last long enough and we were soon drifting over farm houses before landing in a paddock.  The landing was hilarious.  We hit the ground once, and bounced for a second landing before the basket tipped over. It was extremely gentle and we all had a great laugh.  We then helped the crew pack up the balloon.  I was surprised to learn that the balloon itself weights 350 kilograms, the same as my bike and yet it is only made of material similar to a tent.

After being wished well on our ride by Jay, we were driven to Kuranda to check the place out before catching the train back to Cairns.

After a quick breakfast I had to use the loo.  To my amazement they have the same issues with toilets here that we have in Melbourne, especially in some work places.  I had a chuckle and couldn't but think of Carl Pilkington, oh the simple things in life.

Next on the cards was a visit to three small zoos, located near the Kuranda Markets.  The Butterfly sanctuary, Bird World, and Koala World.

The rainbow in the clouds.

All three were great although, I think that the butterflies and birds were the most impressive.  The butterflies were simply beautiful, and it was amazing to learn about these creatures especially the Emperor Moth that can take years before they turn into a flying creature from a caterpillar.  They are then released to the wild in the hope that they can breed as they only have a few days of life.

 

Bird World was just a laugh as the cheeky little buggers would land on you in the search for food.  At one stage I had 2 of them one me making a mess, dropping crumbs all over me from the peanuts, before one shat on me, dirty bugger.  But apparently it's good luck.  Maybe that was seeing a customised XV1600 like mine.

I giuess the same problems are
everywhere.

Speaking to the owner it was clear he was a wanker, thought he was Clay from Sons of Anarchy.  My god he went on and on about how he had spent $15,000 on his bike and rode it all the way to Darwin at 160 kph, with his missus on the back.  Bullshit!  It was good to know that the bike was just about to tick over 200,000 k's, so there's still plenty of life in mine.

I did finally get to see a dinosaur skeleton at a small museum near the markets.  I was impressed.

The next part of the day consisted of a boat trip down the Barron River to learn about the rainforest and how it formed, the indigenous people and where they came from (believe it or not, the aboriginal people of the area can trace their DNA to that of people from Bangladesh), and how white people changed the land in various ways.

I've got to pracxtice my selfies.  Not so much
smiling and more pouting.

It was very interesting, and along the way we were able to feed turtles and a number of species of fish

(big buggers too) before we went further up river and saw a crocodile sat on a log and two others swimming.  This in a river 300 metres above sea level.  Apparently this is quite common for fresh water and these are the ones that supposed won't attack humans. At 2 metres long, and with razor sharp teeth I wouldn't take that chance.

As we were getting off the boat, we saw a snake in the water, it wasn't large but very long and fast.   It was actually a little frightening.

The next part of the day was just as impressive as the way it started.  The Kuranda Scenic Railway.



This railway started construction in 1886, and had anything up to 1500 men working on it at anyone time.  Officially opened in 1891, around 3 million cubic metres of earth were removed to construct the 37 kilometres of track.  It was built to serve the goldfields of the area, and consists of 15 hand-made tunnels, 55 bridges and 98 curves.  It's truly one of the worlds great railways, as it winds its way through some of the oldest rainforests on earth.  You can't believe the nature of this railway and where it goes,  it's certainly worth a look.

One of the most scenic railways anywhere.

The final thing of the day was a dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant.  A great meal with lots of laughs, and with some great people.

It's sad that we are leaving Cairns, I'll be back to this beautiful city that has really taken me by surprise, but the real adventure is now just beginning ... The Long Ride home.