June 20, 2024 to June 21, 2024
Ellerbeck
Thursday the 20th of June 2024
Up early and another couple of enjoyable hours at the wetland. It has been a good find.
Then we endured sixty kilometers on the Bruce. Local folk had warned us of an enormous and steep climb over "the range" but it was barely a hundred and twenty meters of net altitude gain over two kilometers. The general country between the hills along the north Queensland coast is very flat which makes this moderate climb stand out in these parts.
After fifty five kilometers we arrived in Cardwell, a little coastal town that provides access to Hinchinbrook Island. The entire island is a national park and access and the number of visitors is strictly controlled.
A few kilometers north of Cardwell is a simple campground at Muenga Creek. At twenty dollars a night it is less than half the going rate of other camping options in the area which are all north of forty dollars a night for an unpowered site. With the school holidays coming up accommodation options are going get tricky.
Friday the 21st of June 2024
We are only a few days away from Cairns but our flights back to South Africa are almost three weeks away. We considered changing them to an earlier date but with the school holidays that start tomorrow flights are hard to come by and it would have been too expensive. This means we have two weeks to spare. I'm sure we'll find ways to use the extra time.
So we decided, with so much extra time on our hands, to spend a rest day here. The only thing we did today was to cycle back to Cardwell to pick up some groceries.
Tomorrow we head for Tully where we have a motel room booked for the night. There are two big rugby matches on late tomorrow night and in the early hours of Sunday morning so this should provide a more comfortable place in which to stream them. The first match is an international between the Springboks and Wales which is purely a revenue generating exercise for the respective rugby unions given that it takes place at Twickenham in London outside the regular international window. The second is the final of the United Rugby Championship between the Bulls (Leigh's team) and Glasgow Warriors which takes place at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria, the Bulls getting home advantage after finishing higher on the table than Glasgow. This match starts at two o'clock in the morning so we're going to be somewhat sleep deprived on Sunday!
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 4,366 km (2,711 miles)
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