May 26, 2024
Day 23: Yungaburra to Cairns
It rained overnight but my tent held up well. Everything was just very damp. I was keen to get out of there and head down the hill but Gabby decided he’d like another rest day.
So I rode out alone, into the rain and the hills. At least once I put some lube on my chain it stopped making an awful cranking noise. And they’d done some work on the road so the shoulder was much improved. Still it was a bit of a struggle to get to a vantage point and realise I wasn’t far from Yungaburra.
Still eventually I made it to Lake Barrine tea house.
There were people swimming in the lake and scuba diving. It didn’t look like I remembered which made me wonder if I had actually gone 4K down the road to Lake Eacham last time. I wouldn’t have thought I’d bother, given how wrecked I was climbing the range, but maybe I was harder core nine years ago.
As I left the lake, a guy who worked there stopped and told me about his family’s bike packing experiences and offered to shout me coffee except I’d already had one. That, plus the fact that there was only one more hill to the range, put me in a much better mood. I’d forgotten there was a good few kilometres winding through rainforest at the top of the range which was lovely before emerging quite suddenly on the other side into a eucalypt forest with views down into the valley.
it was getting less wet but I still took it pretty slow. There was not much traffic going my way, which was nice. And when I stopped at some traffic lights repairing the flood damage down the bottom I realised it was because about 20 cars were held up behind a boat towing car, so thanks for that, mate!
It is a long long hill but eventually rolled out to the steamy valley floor.
the traffic woes weren’t quite over as there were still a few kilometres of narrow rod winding around the bottom of the hill, so I got off that road as soon as I could for the back roads where all I had to contend with were the good citizens of Gordonvale on their ride on mowers.
I crossed the highway and followed google maps through back roads.
I was sceptical of the google map route just before Edmonton but there was a pedestrian path beside the highway so I got on that. It took me through an underpass that was actually a campsite for a group of Aboriginal people. We were all quite surprised by each other. Then I popped out to the brewery which made the ginger beer I’d had yesterday, because Australia is a country of two parts.
After eating some dumplings from a food truck, I followed the bike path from there to the city which was a bit confusing. I’m not sure I did it correctly although I did stay off the highway and I did get to pass some final transmission infrastructure.
I had really no recollection of where I was having never come in from the south until I realised I was on the corner of the street the hostel I’m staying in is on.
Another leg complete!
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,637 km (1,017 miles)
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