OK, we lost Friday due to work issues & started riding up to Cairns on Saturday in what turned out to be perfect riding weather. We had a pitstop in Townsville to feed & refuel, & then again in Cardwell to top up, stretch our legs & relieve our aching joints.
A few kms further north we passed a red ST1300, leading a pack of other breeds, & got a great wave from this lead STeed. A surprise phone call a short while later revealed that it was in fact StinkyPete, on his way south, having spent the previous night in Cooktown.
The sun was going down in a spectacular fashion behind Pyramid Mountain when we got into Cairns. After dumping our bags we headed over to Tandoori Nights, where we’d arranged to meet Bikebear & his missus for a curry. It wasn’t hard to recognise Bikebear, aka Craig, & a pleasure to meet Leonie as well. The food, a bit of rehydration & meeting up with fellow OzSTOC members were all great. We found out then that Port Douglas would be crowded with a Sunday carnival happening, so we’d modify things a little & run the Saturday RTE route instead.
We met Bikebear at 9.00am beside the Big Marlin & headed out for the Gillies, on our way up to Tolga. We had to adapt quickly to the fact that being two up, we had to take different lines to Bikebear, who was riding solo. We scraped our pegs a few times & went in deeper to some corners than we’d have liked... but it was also brilliant fun trying to keep up with Bikebear who was doing it so smoothly up the front.
Tolga Woodworks was our smoko stop, with great coffee, fantastic food & a really interesting display of woodwork artistry in the workshop gallery. Well worth a visit.
The return ride back down to Cairns went the way of McHugh's Lookout, near Millaa Millaa, to check out how the weather looked. This would give us a good idea on which way we’d return to Cairns. We decided haze, not rain, so then we went down the Palmerston Highway towards Innisfail, enjoying some more beautiful sweeping curves. We bypassed some of the highway on the way back, using Bikebear’s local, lesser known back roads, knowledge – a different way to sidestep some of the Bruce Highway traffic.
Our one day (280kms) RTE was done & dusted by 3.30pm. Now only a litle bit of a rest, a second helping of curry for the weekend (yes, we DO like curry) & a spot of packing should see us ready to hit the road early tomorrow for our trip back home.
We’re looking forward to catching up with those of you on the FarRide East#35 Eungella, next Saturday. We’ll see you at the Eungella Chalet.
Now, where’s the work roster. When can we ride again…?
John, Kate & Miss Scarlett
