Julie and I were supposed to be hiking the 5,000km Continental Divide Trail in the US in 2020, but COVID-19 derailed that plan. Instead, we will have an adventure in Australia, circumnavigating the country on our bikes, a distance of about 16,500km taking approximately five and a half months. We will use minor roads where possible and occasionally catch ferries across rivers and inlets to avoid busier inland routes. We will camp some of the time and stay in motels, hotels, etc, at others. There will be stretches of up to five days with no accommodation or resupply available, so we will need to be self-sufficient.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 024 - Townsville to Cardwell

Day:  024

Date: Saturday, 25 July 2020

Start:  Townsville

Finish:  Cardwell

Daily Kilometres:  167

Total Kilometres:  2601

Weather:  Mild to warm and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Mushy pea pie/Sausage roll

  Lunch:  Tuna, cheese & tomato sandwich/Chicken salad sandwich

  Dinner:  Chicken Kiev & vegetables, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Nothing in particular

Lowlight:  The last 40km dragged a bit.  It was quite warm and humid and the road surface was rough  making it seem like we had to work hard all of the time.  But, it was the end of a longish day, so not surprising we found it a bit tedious.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left our motel at 6:30am and pedalled out of a quiet Townsville in the early light.  It was mild and I was in a T-shirt.  Julie's concession to the milder temperatures was to dispense with her sleeves, but she still wore her jacket.

By 7am, we were back on the Bruce Highway, heading north with a slight following breeze, and making good time on our newly-serviced bikes and new tyres (which despite supposedly having greater rolling resistance, didn't seem to be affecting our pace).  There was a reasonable amount of traffic, but it was lighter than usual, being Saturday, and there were far fewer trucks.  We seemed to get a lot more toots and friendly waves during the day than usual, especially from motorbikes, who maybe think we have something in common (not sure what that is apart from having "bike" in the name).  The country was mostly forested, with occasional cattle grazing, and some small settlements.  Roads off to the right were signposted to various beaches, while to the left were densely-forested mountains.

We took our first short break at an attractive rest area that was full of caravans, RVs and tents who had overnighted there, then carried on, conscious that we had many kilometres left to cover for the day.  At Coobie, with 70 kilometres behind us, we stopped for a late breakfast at a small roadhouse, that turned out to have a very limited selection of food.  We settled for a pie and sausage roll and ate them at a table outside on the beautiful morning.

Another two hours of cycling took us to Ingham in the Herbert River valley, home to extensive sugar cane plantations in various stages of growth and harvesting.  As we passed through Ingham, we stopped at a bakery and ordered some sandwiches for lunch that took an extraordinarily long time to be prepared before we ate them at a table outside.  We were kicking ourselves for not having ridden around the next corner where there was a service station partnered with a bakery chain that we knew would have had good quality prepared sandwiches to go. Not really a big deal, but finishing the day at 3:30pm rather than 4pm is attractive to us.

From Ingham we crossed another 12km of sugar cane plantations before reaching a long climb that Julie had been eagerly anticipating all day.  It was a grind, and hot work, but not steep enough to get us into granny gear. From the crest, and on the descent, there were some dramatic views to the imposing mountainous Hinchinbrook Island just offshore, which is a National Park with limited access and some great hiking, I hear.  Another one for the "bucket list".

After the descent, the ride north was a bit tedious (see above), broken with a short stop on the roadside that elicited more good-natured toots and waves from passing traffic.  Eventually, we reached the very picturesque small oceanside town of Cardwell with lovely views to Hinchinbrook Island and others further out on the Great Barrier Reef.  As we rode through town, we attracted the attention of one of a pair of police officers using radar to check the speeds of motorists.  He crossed onto the median strip and pointed the radar gun at us as we approached before exclaiming "21 kilometres an hour!  You can do better than that!"

We checked into our motel right on 4pm and showered, before walking a few kilometres in the late afternoon sun along the lovely foreshore path and taking in the peaceful scene, which included signs warning not to swim because of crocodiles.  The water was actually quite muddy (not sure why), so wasn't very inviting anyway.

Back in the motel we had the usual microwaved dinner, satisfied with another enjoyable day.

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