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 030 - Cooktown to Laura

Day:  030

Date: Friday, 31 July 2020

Start:  Cooktown

Finish:  Laura

Daily Kilometres:  138

Total Kilometres:  3189

Weather:  Mild to warm and mostly sunny, with a few spots of rain mid-morning

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Curried egg & lettuce sandwiches

  Lunch:  Silverside, cheese & tomato sandwiches

  Dinner:  Rissoles & vegetables/Chicken parmigiana & vegetables, ice creams & mangoes

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  We both had falls during the day.  Mine was a run-of-the-mill hitting soft sand unexpectedly and unable to get my foot out of the cleat in time as I went down.  Julie's was an attention-seeking dive as she tried to give room to an oncoming vehicle and hit soft sand on the roadside.  The 4WD stopped and the occupants got out to make sure she was OK.  The rescue mission soon turned into a long social chat by the roadside.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left Cooktown at 6:45am with legs still tired from yesterday, brought home to us by the climb up the relatively small Four Mile Hill on our way out of town.  Fortunately for us, that was the only significant hill for a while and a tailwind helped us make good time through the flat Endeavour River valley passing a mix of agriculture and grazing land.  As usual in the mornings, we saw school buses making pickups and the occasional child waiting on the roadside for the bus.

We stopped for a breakfast break after two hours at the junction where we left the road to Hope Vale and turned west towards Lakefield National Park.  We were happy to see the sealed road continue, knowing that, at some point, it was going to turn to gravel, but it became hilly as we crossed the Great Dividing Range.  It was hard sweaty work on tired legs.

The sealed road ended and our pace slowed.  Apart from two random sections of sealed road, the rest of the day was on unsealed road of varying quality.  At best it was hard-packed bumpy clay, and at worst it was a mix of jarring corrugations and insidious soft sand, that was exhausting to navigate.

We stopped for a lunch break at the entry to the remote Lakefield National Park, but there was little change to the timbered scrub on both sides of the road since we crossed the Divide.  It felt remote and endless, although every so often we were passed by tourists or locals in 4WDs, some slowing to wave and minimise their dust, others flying by with no acknowledgement. By the end of the day we were cached in red dust.

We took our last break at the Old Laura Homestead, dating from the 19th century and still seemingly in good repair, though not occupied since the 1960s.  It was a very remote property, more so in the days before the internal combustion engine, and must have endured some weather extremes.  Tough people.

The last 28km was on slightly better unsealed road, with sections under repair, but it was hard work at the end of a long day and we were both very glad to reach our motel in the remote, mostly aboriginal, settlement of Laura.  I bought some microwaveable dinner and drinks from the small general store across the road, managed by the same people who managed the motel, and witnessed the nightly feeding of the local galah population which resembled a scene from Hitchcock's  "The Birds".  The proprietress also gifted us some frozen mangoes grown in her garden which hit the spot after a very dehydrating day.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 029 - Cape Tribulation to Cooktown

Day:  029

Date: Thursday, 30 July 2020

Start:  Cape Tribulation

Finish:  Cooktown

Daily Kilometres:  106 (Click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  3051

Weather:  Warm and sunny in the morning, partly sunny in the afternoon

Accommodation:   Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Muesli bars

  Lunch:  Egg & lettuce sandwich/Ham & salad sandwich, ice-creams

  Dinner:  Fish & chips/Hamburger & chips, ice-cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  There were skeptics and people who thought we were insane in the Cape Tribulation campground when they learned we were planning to ride from Cape Trib to Cooktown along the Bloomfield Track in one day.  We were starting to doubt our own sanity and carefully reviewed my blog from when I rode the same route 15 years ago.  It didn't fill us with confidence.  But we did it …. not comfortably, but in good time.

Lowlight:  Multiple hills, some with grades up to 31%.  We had to drag our heavily-laden bikes up with brute force, pausing every 50 metres with brakes jammed on, to regain our breath and composure.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We knew we had a big day in front of us, and were apprehensive (see above), so made sure we got a good start by rising at 5:30am, quietly packing up in the darkened campground and hitting the road soon after 6:30am in the pre-dawn light.  We had the road to ourselves, as we pedalled through the dark rainforest, first on sealed road, but soon on dirt road with signs warning that 4WD was required for the road ahead.

The hills got steeper and longer as the morning went on, as we climbed over several mountain ranges, but there were relatively flat rainforest sections in between, some creek crossings where we got our feet wet, and a brief stop at the picturesque Cowie beach.  The worst of the hills were dramatically steep, paved in concrete to prevent erosion, and we struggled to make forward progress as we pushed the bikes up.  The downhills weren't much fun either, because rough road, loose gravel, and unwieldy heavy bikes, had us sitting on the brakes to maintain a manageable speed.  But it was also satisfying to overcome what the famed Bloomfield Track challenged us with, and to prove the doubters (see above) wrong.  A few vehicles passed us during the morning, and gave us a good cheer, and in one case, applauded as they went past.  We finally reached the Bloomfield River, signalling the end of the track, after taking four hours to cover 32 kilometres.

We passed through the small aboriginal town of Wujal Wujal at the Bloomfield River.  It was much changed from the last time I visited, with many fine new homes and a well-cared look.  We were now back on sealed road and after a few more kilometres stopped for an early lunch at a small roadhouse, eating at a table in their lovely flower-covered outdoor area.  Only five kilometres further on, we came to a small grocery in Ayton and treated ourselves to part two of lunch, an ice-cream and a flavoured milk. We felt we had earned a treat.

The hill challenges for the day were not yet over as we had to climb over yet another mountain range on our way north to Helenvale from Ayton.  Although the road was sealed, the hills were relentless and we found ourselves pushing the bikes again in a few places.  It was a warm afternoon and we were sweating big-time.  On the other side of the range, we enjoyed some really long high-speed downhills, but there always seemed to be a short granny-gear climb after each descent to keep us honest.  Our legs had had enough.

Although there were still pockets of rainforest, the country had become drier and more open with some cattle grazing.  Eventually, we reached the main road to Cooktown, the Mulligan Highway, and shortly after took our last break at a lookout over Black Mountain, an eerie seemingly massive pile of black forbidding rocks.

From there, we had only 23km to Cooktown.  It was mostly gradual downhill with a following breeze, so we made good time and felt we deserved an easy run to our destination, though there was a sobering climb over the shoulder of Mount Cook before the final descent into Cooktown, where we reached our motel at 3:45pm.

Later, we walked into town and the peaceful and scenic Endeavour River foreshore, regretting that, if we had only been exactly 250 years earlier, we would have found Captain Cook there repairing the damage his ship, Endeavour, had sustained on a reef just off Cape Tribulation from whence we came today.

On the way back to the motel we bought some dinner and supplies for tomorrow.  We leave the east coast now and begin our journey across the top of Australia.  We had hopes of riding all the way to the tip of Cape York, but have decided we simply don't have sufficient time if we want to be home before Christmas.  It was always doubtful that we would have time after our start date was delayed by the closed Queensland border, so it's not a big deal.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 028 - Cape Tribulation

Day:  028

Date: Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Start:  Cape Tribulation

Finish:  Cape Tribulation

Daily Kilometres:  0 (Click to see Julie's Strava for our walk and photos)

Total Kilometres:  2945

Weather:  Mild to warm and sunny all day

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Roll & peanut butter

  Lunch:  Pies

  Dinner:  Pea & ham soup, canned Irish stew

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  As we were following the Dubuji boardwalk through pristine rainforest around noon, we rounded a corner to find two girls sitting quietly on the boardwalk.  At first we thought they were just having a quiet moment of contemplation, but then realised that they were watching a large brilliantly-coloured cassowary a metre or two away that also seemed to be having a quiet moment of contemplation.  A few metres away was another, making its way very slowly through the forest towards us.  The birds did not seem at bothered by our presence, nor did they seem aggressive (cassowaries have a reputation for aggression and can severely maim with their powerful legs and talons).  The girls moved on quietly, and we had some special time with these magnificent and quite rare birds letting us take as many photos as we wanted.

Lowlight:  Not really a lowlight, but while we were eating dinner in the airy camp kitchen last night, a car pulled up in the site next to our tent and a guy got out of the passenger seat and unloaded some camping gear next to our tent, saying goodbye to the female driver who then left.  A bit strange we thought.  Stranger still was that rather than set his tent up in the designated numbered site, he pitched his tent right next to ours.  Later, he came over to the kitchen, and while he ate a can of tuna emptied on to a slice of bread, explained that he had been given a lift to the campground by one of their employees after catching a bus to Mossman and was planning to stay for a few weeks.  It all looked a bit odd (I think he has an English accent …. which might explain it).  Today he has been walking around the campsite and beach wearing a black sock (with no shoe) on one foot, and nothing on the other.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We both tossed and turned a bit last night, as was to be expected for our first night of the trip camping and sleeping on our thin air mattresses, but we did OK and woke in time to walk the short distance through to the beach to watch the sun rise over the Coral Sea as a freighter slowly plied its way north.  Beautiful.

After a leisurely breakfast in the camp kitchen (it is a very well-maintained campground with excellent facilities), we set off at 9am to walk along Myall beach a couple of kilometres north to Cape Tribulation on a simply superb morning.  Nearing the Cape, we followed a path that wound through the rainforest and along the north side of the Cape to a lookout with a spectacular view north along Cape Tribulation beach where we just sat and enjoyed the view for some time.

From there we walked down to the beach and then to its northern end and back.  Golden sand bordered by dark green rainforest, towering mountains behind and a gentle surf breaking from the sea.  It was a special place and there was a sense, shared with the few other tourists there, of awe and privilege.

We then walked along the road back to the hamlet of Cape Tribulation, where we bought some supplies from the sparse pickings in the souvenir shop/grocery as well as a couple of pies for an early lunch which we ate in a lovely nearby picnic ground.  After eating, we walked the two kilometre Dujubi rainforest boardwalk which was a special experience, showcasing giant ferns, strangler figs, staghorns and all manner of exotic vegetation, before surprising us with a couple of cassowaries (see above).

We returned to the campground along the beach, by which time it was early afternoon.  With nothing else on the schedule, we took a groundsheet and our air mattresses to the southern end of the almost deserted Myall beach and spent a few hours sunbaking on the sand in the lea of a giant spreading mangrove tree adorned by scores of staghorn ferns.  It was magic, just lying on the beach in perfect conditions with a light breeze, the sound of lapping waves, and looking up through the leafy branches to a cloudless blue sky (zoom in on the last beach photo to see Julie sunbaking next to the tree).

Later we returned to the camp kitchen for some more lazing around, before showering, having an dinner, and retiring early in anticipation of a challenging day's riding tomorrow.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 027 - Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation

Day:  027

Date: Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Start:  Port Douglas

Finish:  Cape Tribulation

Daily Kilometres:  84 (Click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  2945

Weather:  Warm and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Savoury rolls

  Lunch:  Pasties

  Dinner:  Chicken & sweetcorn soup, instant noodles, bread roll & peanut butter

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  The Daintree National Park, a world heritage-listed site, is a very special place.  Dense dark rainforest-cloaked mountains meet the Great Barrier Reef (also world heritage-listed) at coconut palm-fringed sandy beaches.  It was a beautiful ride through the forest (apart from the hills) and visiting some of the beaches and lookouts.

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left Port Douglas at 6:45am and rode for an hour through mostly cane fields to Mossman, where we shopped for food for the next 24-36 hours, knowing that we couldn't be sure of what stores and food would be available in the remote Daintree region where we would be spending the next two nights.  While there, we also bought some rolls for breakfast which we ate in a town park.  

We knew we didn't have a lot of kilometres to ride to Cape Tribulation, our destination for the day, but we also knew there were a couple of big climbs, which once again, Julie was eagerly anticipating.  Because of a lack of time pressure, we rode shorter legs for the day, taking a break at Wonga Beach and also having a rest while we waited for the Daintree River ferry in the late morning.

Not far into the darkly beautiful rainforest on the northern side of the river, we began the difficult climb up to the Mount Alexandra Lookout on the narrow winding road.  It was granny gear most of the way, plus a few short stops on flatter sections to regain our breath, but we made it to the top, impressing some of the tourists also enjoying the spectacular view south over the Daintree estuary.  Needless to say, the descent was a lot quicker, though I made an unscheduled stop after a branch fell from a tree without warning just in front of me and a piece flew up taking a small chunk out of my left shin.  Just a little blood.

From the bottom of the hill we rode through green rainforest tunnels, crossing crystal clear creeks and ever watchful for the famed but rare cassowary.  No sightings.  It was notable that many of the accommodations and other commercial tourist spots that we passed along the way were closed, apparently due to the pandemic business slump, which was kind of eerie in peak season, as it is now.  We stopped for lunch at the Daintree Rainforest roadhouse where we got the last two pasties (no pies) for lunch and ate at an outside table.  We also bought four litres of Coke to see us through the day ahead!

The last hour involved more beautiful rainforest, a visit to the lovely Thornton Beach, and a tough climb over the Noah Range, before we reached the campground at Cape Tribulation, just behind the palm-fringed beach, where we had booked a site for two nights.  After pitching our tent, showering, and putting a load of laundry into the campground washing machine, we went for a stroll along the tropical beach, and then had a lazy evening anticipating a relaxing day off tomorrow in paradise.

Apart from the two main climbs (and you have to pay a price to reach some of these exotic places), we had a great day.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 026 - Babinda to Port Douglas

Day:  026

Date: Monday, 27 July 2020

Start:  Babinda

Finish:  Port Douglas

Daily Kilometres:  134 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  2861

Weather:  Cool early then sunny and warm

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg, bacon & cheese jaffles

  Lunch:  Beef, cheese & pickle sandwich/Chicken, cheese & mayo sandwich

  Dinner:  Bangers & mash/Pad Thai, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Our late afternoon walk around the Port Douglas headland and town.  At the end of a beautiful day it was lovely to stroll past the vast hard sand Four Mile Beach, populated with walkers and some swimmers, then follow the path up around the rainforested headland with many lookout spots, before descending to the beautiful parklands by the river.  Small groups of backpackers, grey nomads and others were gathered on the lawns beneath the palms, playing games, drinking, chatting and playing music while they waited for the sun to set behind the mountains across the river.  Perfect.

Lowlight:  The trusty Sony hardcase/waterproof camera that has accompanied me on many adventures over the past five years was used for the last time today.  It had developed some idiosyncracies in the last year that made me ponder its future, then two days ago it bounced out of my handlebar bag as the bike jolted across a cane railway line and crashed onto the road.  It lost part of its shell in the impact, and although it still worked, more or less, I got a replacement camera as we passed through Cairns today.  Hopefully, it lives up to the service provided by its predecessor.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We cycled out of a sleepy Babinda at 6:45am, shortly before the sun rose, and joined the Bruce Highway, and many Monday morning commuters heading towards Cairns.  The road was undulating through the now-accustomed lush green farmland and sugar cane plantations beneath the towering Bellenden Ker, Queensland's second highest mountain (1,593m).

After a breakfast break at a roadhouse on the outskirts of Gordonvale, we continued on into the sprawling tropical city of Cairns where we hoped to take care of a few mundane needs - a more powerful bike pump, a new cycling top for Julie, a new camera for me (see above), and a post office to mail home some more unneeded gear.  Despite some shopping around, we failed to get the pump or the cycling top, and as expected, it did cost us some time.

We did, however, have time to detour around the attractive Cairns waterfront (if you ignore the mud flats) before continuing north towards Port Douglas, our goal for the day.  On the northern outskirts of Cairns we bought some sandwiches at a roadhouse, which we ate at a shaded picnic table in an adjacent park, before riding along the spectacular Captain Cook Highway that hugs the coast, passing by beautiful beaches, through patches of rainforest, and touching spectacular lookouts.

It's a scary ride in some places, with no road verge, blind corners, and fly-in tourists who have just collected their rented campervan from Cairns airport.  Friend, Meredith, had warned me of its dangers, and originally we had thought of riding it first thing in the morning.  But that's also the time all of the day tours and casual tourist workers head north, so we decided mid-afternoon might be better.   It wasn't that bad, though we had some occasions where a nervous driver was reluctant to pass us, yet we had nowhere to get off the road, so chains of following vehicles built up behind us as we pedalled furiously uphill on the winding road.

The last 15 kilometres left the coast and passed through more cane sugar country before we took the side road to Port Douglas, one of Australia's premier resort towns.  The last few kilometres passed resort after resort along a lush palm tree lined road, until we reached our motel near the centre of town.  After checking in and showering, we went for a lovely walk (see above) past the beach and around the headland and town, buying some microwaveable dinner on the way back to our room.

Another good day.  We will now be in more remote areas, with limited internet access, so the daily journal reports may not arrive daily!

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 025 - Cardwell to Babinda

Day:  025

Date: Sunday, 26 July 2020

Start:  Cardwell

Finish:  Babinda

Daily Kilometres:  126

Total Kilometres:  2727

Weather:  Mild and misty early, then warm and sunny

Accommodation:  Guest House 

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Curried egg sandwich/Chicken, cheese & avocado sandwich

  Lunch:  Roast beef, cheese & pickle sandwich/Corned beef, cheese & pickle sandwich

  Dinner:  Aussie pizza, cheesecake.

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  For the first hour of the day, there was little traffic as we rode through misty fields and rainforest as the sun rose.  Eerily beautiful.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left our motel shortly after 6:30am and detoured via the Cardwell waterfront on our way out of town to take a look at the magnificent dawn vista.  Then it was northwards on a quiet and misty highway (see above), making the riding very enjoyable and interesting.  Everything was exceptionally green, as might be expected in the region that experiences Australia's highest annual rainfall.  Cattle were silhouetted by the rising sun in their misty paddocks, while the many creeks we crossed were crystal clear and bordered by dark dense green rainforest.

As we neared Tully, our planned breakfast stop, the mist cleared and sugar cane plantations, some of them being harvested, surrounded us.  Columns of steam, pumped high into the atmosphere by refinery chimneys, seem to be the trademark of sugar towns, and we could see Tully's many kilometres before we reached there.  We stopped at a busy little town roadhouse and ate our sandwiches at an inside table (all of the roadhouses we have visited have been strict about signing in with our contact details if we eat at any of their tables) as people came and went on their Sunday activities.  It was, by now, a beautiful sunny morning.

From Tully, it was 53km to our planned lunch stop, Innisfail, and we took a short break about halfway at another roadhouse where we bought some cold drinks on what had become a warm morning.  At Innisfail, we detoured via the attractive Johnstone River waterfront before getting some sandwiches at another roadhouse on our way out of town and riding a short distance to the town railway station where we found a nice shady spot to eat.  Not too many trains pass through Innisfail, and my reading of the timetable indicated that the only one for the day had passed through two hours ago.  We had the place to ourselves.

On the way out of the town, it was nice to see several local cricket games in progress in a large park.  Further out, banana palm plantations, their fruit clusters covered by colourful plastic bags, joined sugar cane plantations and mango tree orchards alongside the road in the verdant tropical environment.  At one point we passed a cane train whose two engines had been derailed in some kind of bizarre concertinaed accident.  The driver was sitting by the engines apparently waiting for help, while the long train itself was stretched across two side roads preventing access and exit.

The remainder of the ride was undulating with much more traffic, dominated to the west by the looming bluish mass of Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain at 1,611 metres.  We reached the small town of Babinda around 2pm, riding up the short main street and past its closed supermarket to our guest house which had originally been the nurses quarters for the adjacent hospital.  It was an atmospheric and well-kept solid period building, with the downside that we had to drag our heavily-laden bikes up a number of steps to get anywhere near our room.

After dropping our bags in our room, we rode 6km along a side road to the beautiful and popular Babinda Boulders swimming hole on a crystal clear stream amongst jungle-like rainforest.  We didn't swim, but others were, while others enjoyed the lush picnic grounds.  Very pleasant.  Then it was back to the guest house to relax.  With the supermarket closed Julie later walked into town and bought some pizza for dinner.

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.