May 24, 2024
Day 21: Pinnarendi to Archers Creek
It was raining again when we woke up this morning. I packed everything up in the drizzle although it did get a bit lighter while we were having breakfast. We had ordered breakfast yesterday and it would have been a good breakfast anywhere.
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it was raining again as we left and headed up the highway towards the coast but the sun came out after a little while. We stopped at a roadside avocado stall, again $5 a bag but the avos felt so unripe we’d still be waiting for them to ripen in Cairns so we refrained.
We stopped for a break at a roadside rest stop. These have all been put in since my last trip here in 2015!
As we were approaching Mt Garnet, I saw the apparition of another cyclist coming towards us. It was Daniel from Sydney who set out from his house to ride to Europe with basically nothing. He had a roll bag, frame bag, back rack bag and two front cages. He was doing much greater distances than us but hasn’t camped yet. Unfortunately we were just chatting on the side of the road so had to keep going for the final push into Mt Garnet.
As I looked down the Gunnawarra Road that we were originally planning on taking I saw this sign! I think a side road connecting to the coast is closed not the part we wanted but it did make me pleased we’d played it safe.
We stopped at the BP for lunch and had a veggie burger with the worlds biggest veggie patty. For once I was glad it didn’t come with chips as there was enough fried potato on the burger!
Unfortunately then we had to ride up the hill in Mt Garnet. Turns out there’s a lot of the town at the top of the hill that I didn’t climb when I was here two years ago.
It started to rain again as we rode to Imnot hot springs and decided we had time for a soak despite not going very quickly at all today.
But it was lovely. Water seeps out of the sand in the creek at about 70 degrees. Some locals came down with shovels to build the perfect mix of hot water and cold creek water. We just had to use our hands. Despite how tempting it was to stay there forever, or at least the rest of the afternoon, we decided to push on.
By 4:40 we had made it to a roadside rest area, a bit short of the golf club we were aiming for but I called it early so we could try and get tents dry.
the camping area is right next to the road but there’s a place you can get down to the Millstream, but people had already setup there.
As we rode in, this guy came over and talked to us about how he loves riding bikes in NZ but only on flat land. Then he invited us over for pizza in their van. It’s actually his ex-wife’s van and he’s travelling from Cairns to Darwin with her. Turns out there’s two beds in the van and they seem to be rubbing along alright. She’s writing a book about her experience selling her house and living in the van as a solo woman.
At least we got out of the rain and cold, it was very convivial.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 1,490 km (925 miles)
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