Coddiwomple

The Lynd Junction Roadhouse - somewhere in the bush 85km Somewhere in the bush - Mount Garnet 84km The approach into Cairns via the west, meaning the Atherton Tablelands, implies some heavy gear shifting. I never really believed that we would get all the way to the Tropical North without a single pedal stroke on the Bruce Highway. But it looks like we will make it happen. Of course there is always a flip side, in this case some heavy lifting in the mountain climbing department. I often joked to people along the way that we Europeans have this false idea that Australia is a flat continent with a big rock in the centre. Well, this myth has been busted many times on this trip, including on the last two days, on which we climbed almost a 1000m over 164km. I know, that's nothing in Tour de France terms, but we are in Queensland!  We leave the Lynd Junction Roadhouse in weather that we do not really associate with Tropical North Queensland. It's grey and a little drizzly,...

From Truck Stop (1) to Truck Stop (2) 91km From Truck Stop (2) to The Lynd Oasis Roadhouse 102km We continue to be well entertained on this Gregory Developmental Road or the Inland Way. It's either the cows, the changing landscape, the lookout for caltrope or, a new addition, the traffic control workers at the many road work sites we are passing today.  It's just after seven pm and we have already retreated to our tent. With two big days throbbing in our legs, we feel it is totally legit to call it a day while half the nation is watching the seven o'clock news.  Yesterday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and the sound of nearby cattle making their first moves into another day out on the land. Louise is glad to be up at the crack of dawn after a bad night sleep, tossing and turning while the mind is racing. It didn't help that I enjoyed a fairly good night's rest but in my sleep kept kicking my leg which delivered undesired sound effe...

Charters Towers to Truck Stop, 70km North of Charters Towers! The Gregory Developmental Road might not be the most direct route to Cairns, but this Sunday it proves to be both peaceful and surprisingly beautiful.  We suspect the school holiday traffic is all on the coast, so it's just us and the occasional caravan or road train out here.  The road tracks NW out of Charters Towers, heading, well, to a couple of road houses, a lot of cattle stations and a few out of the way National Parks. The road is often closed by flooding, as it is crossed by multiple creeks and rivers.  We were shocked to ride past the 12m high post marking the 1946 flood level of the Burdekin River.  If we were here a month ago, this whole area was underwater.  Now we just get to appreciate all the green growth juxtaposed against the red rocks.  The colours of this place are gorgeous, and constantly change with the light.  I wish I knew the names of the trees, shrubs and grasses I ...

Charters Towers - recovery day 0km It's that thing with first impressions, you can never make them again. There is no second try. It felt a bit like that with our arrival at Charters Towers. Which wasn't the most charming and welcoming entrance to an anticipated town, with rude drivers and riding past construction sites for commercial estates. Quite a few travellers en route have raved about this place, how pretty and well worth a visit it is. When I wake up with a body signalling that some relaxation may be required, I look forward to exploring the town by foot and hopefully get a different perspective. We are both too tired to engage anything touristy (museums, guided tours), but are not afraid to take the 3km stroll into the centre.  It seems that the town has a few identities that are visible through different features. It's certainly a town that at some point suddenly had a lot of money running through its veins. The 'gold rush' era architecture is beautifully ...

Campaspe River Free Camp to Charters Towers 102km With such a long distance, the wind still against us and the QLD school holidays starting, the pressure was on to get to Charters Towers as early as possible.  This required the alarm going off at 0445, packing up camp, cooking and eating breakfast in the dark, cold (5C) and damp.  We were glad for the hills to warm us up as we rode into the dawn.  I can't decide what feels worse, the icy numbness of frozen fingers or the stinging when the blood starts flowing again!  So no sun rising photos today, it was too cold to stop pedalling. Recently my Aunty Fran, asked me about enduring memories of my mum, and her sister.  It feels appropriate, since today would have been her 70th birthday, to say that the skill to see AND appreciate the beauty in nature was certainly a lesson taught by mum.  The number of times we were forcibly shown a sunset, a tree, a leaf or flower... It all rubbed off and now Kerstin listens t...

Torrens Creek - Kimburra Rest Area (by the Campaspe River) 69km  There is a bit of a thrill to sneaking out of a campground at 6:30am. Others are still snoring in their fancy caravans or are shuffling in their robes and ugg boots to the first toilet stop of the day. And we are already on the bikes. So cool (literally). We are hitting the Overland Way (Flinders Highway) with all our lights flashing. A surprising number of road trains are already shifting their many gears while we are making our way towards the White Mountains and yet another crossing of the Dividing Range. We reach the highest point of today at 550m by 08:30am and stop at a nice lookout onto the Burra Ranges in the White Mountains NP. It's funny in a way: in our final days of the across the USA tour we also crossed the White Mountains! We often draw comparison between the US trip and this one, noticing certain parallels but more so, significant differences. Above all, we are eleven years older! But of course, certai...

Hughenden - Prairie - Torrens Creek 91km We stick to Plan B and ride out of Hughenden well before sunrise. We have mapped the route to Cairns a little more on the conservative side, not wanting to give it the feel of a 'final dash' or 'race to the finish line'. And with continuous easterly winds forecasted by the BOM for this region, as well as another crossing of the Great Dividing Range, we played it safe and only wanted to make it to Prairie today, a mere 45km from Hughenden.  We get to Prairie by 10am. A bit too early to set up camp. The eastbound travel on the Flinders Highway is less energy consuming than expected and we learn that heading straight into the wind is less draining than sidewinds (physics is clearly not my strong point). The traffic is picking up, more road trains, more caravans, more commuting locals. And there is the railway line, which for some reason, I always find reassuring to have nearby (there are often really good wild camping spots near tra...

Rest day in Hughenden 0km Not sure what it says about our rest day routine when the only photo we take is the one of the bottle of wine we drink? Anyway, here it is - well worth the mention and a picture because it certainly loosened muscles and mind. Some more thoughts about this wine are shared on the Adventures in Wine page. A jolly drop for happy riders The main activity today, apart from drinking and eating, was planning the final stretch of Coddiwomple 2022 to Cairns. Yes, you read that right.  At this point, and fingers crossed, it is very likely that we will wrap up the ride in Queensland's tropical capital. A rough estimate is that there will be 14 more days of riding, hopefully arriving in Cairns not long after Mick (Louise's dad) and Francesca have settled into their caravanning vacation up there. The route will take us via Charters Towers, then heading Northwest towards Conjuboy, Forty Mile Scrub, Mount Garnett into the Atherton Tablelands. And from there via Mareeb...

Stamford - Hughenden 65km Our plan B for the final stretch of the isolated and uninspiring Kennedy Development road into the town of Hughenden begins at 05:00am, when the alarm goes off. The BOM is predicting the exact same conditions as yesterday. So we decide to start early, hoping to get a fair chunk of the total distance done, before the worst of the easterly wind kicks in (around 10am). The spectacular ride into sunrise comes at the price of numb fingers and toes for the first hour but it is a surprisingly reinvigorating experience. Louise asks me whether this replaces the cold shower in my winter morning routine that I am currently missing out on... "Maybe it would if I rode naked!" I reply. But we won't go there.  06:00am @ breakfast 06:30am @ roll out Our plan works. Trying to keep warm combined with a sense of pride that we stuck to the plan packing up camp in the dark, freezing cold, allows us to speed towards Hughenden with a pace that I haven't seen on the...

Corfield - Stamford 68km The one highlight of the day came right at the end. Jo, from Cronulla, if you are reading this, please let us tell you that your kindly donated spaghetti bolognese delivered the best free camp dinner we could ask for on a day like today. It was delicious. Thank you again for your act of travelling kindness.  True grit in the middle of nowhere During some stretches, Jo's spaghetti bolognese was all I could think of. During others, I try the "travel down memory lane" technique, reminding myself of great moments in the outdoors shared with likeminded people, who also, every now and then don't fear a touch of "true grit". Today's distance would, under regular circumstances, not be a real challenge. But the wind made it horrendous! It takes us almost three hours to get to 32km - not even half way! - and our morale needs some desperate lifting. We resorted again to the upbeat effect of music. But both earplugs have to go in, otherwise ...

Winton to Corfield 86km It is not without trepidation that we roll out of Winton this morning.  Not only is Winton a fantastic little town, where we indulge in a pub dinner, beer (XXXX, of course), a visit to the library (which was hopping) and breakfast in a bakery.  Best coffee so far, made by an imported Japanese bloke.  As we leave we agree that we need to come back at some point. Art Deco on Main St Winton We are also embarking on the longest stretch without services we've ever undertaken, 214km to Hughenden, so we are heavily loaded with food and water.  Kerstin has the Bare Naked Ladies song, 'Odds Are' (the next line is we will probably be alright) playing in her head.  After an unfortunate incident with a documentary about bull riding, I just have that old ad jingle for the  Holden Rodeo  playing on repeat. The first 20kms are quite nice, there is some interesting geography to look at, and the wind is kind.  After that.... well the geogra...

Bush Camp at Age of Dinosaurs - Winton 37km Glad to report that we didn't get eaten by some resurrected Australovenetor Wintonensis overnight who would have been trampling around here some 95 million years ago (no, that's not a typo!). Almost at the same time as the first caravans are heading up the Jump Up (also not a typo) mountain for the Age of the Dinosaur museum, we are hitting the road as well, 10km to meet Mathilda and Ollie. On the way up there I am having similar feelings as prior to the Stockman's Hall of Fame visit. I am not quite sure what to expect and kind of wish I could have a quick live line to our nephew Eddie, who at some point in his young life was the number one expert on all things dinosaur I know. But then I remember our friend Juliette's enthusiasm about this place and how much she enjoyed it. And given that we pretty much like everything Juliette reads, watches and shares with us, I am hopeful this will be a good day. So we shift into a low gea...

Longreach to Morella 70km, then Morella to the Age of Dinosaurs 100km(!) Well it's only 7pm but Kerstin and I have retreated to the tent.   Not because we are so tired after riding 100kms but because we were being eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes.  I am not looking forward to that last pee before bed.    But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's go back two days to Longreach... The caravan park in Longreach actually had a section just for tents.   This is very unusual as mostly you are just wedged in between the massive caravans and associated 4WDs.  So we were loving having our own little bit of vehicle free fenced off grass, surprisingly there were quite a few other tent/swag users, and we were well pleased to be a part of actually sharing a shared space.  Now most parks have a camp kitchen, but usually Kerstin and I are the only people in there, everyone else has everything they need in the van.  So we were pleasantly surprised to be ...