Acknowledgement: Thankyou Megan Webb for your contribution.This is a brief account of my ride from Cairns, Mareeba, Atherton, Innisfail, Babinda, Gordonvale, Cairns. I wrote this after I finished. It might not be 100% accurate, so use with caution.
Sydney to Cairns
Monday 11th June 2001
Left Sydney between showers on Monday morning. The trip to the International Airport was easy. Used the Cooks river path, then a short on road section into the airport. The traffic was light at 6:00 am. Did see other bicycle riders out.
Sydney Airport: Used a Ground Effect Bike Bag inside a Qantas Bike Box for $16.50. It is a very thick cardboard box. I removed the left hand pedal, tapped the front wheel to the right hand side of the frame, and padded with my panniers around the derailer. The front forks I used a spare axel placed between the forks to stop them getting bent together. The rear wheel might also need to be removed for the bike boxes as the front forks broke the box when putting it in. I just added more tape and left it at that.
Cairns: Retrieved bike from the overside luggage section in good condition. The bike box looked just as I had left it in Sydney. I think the box gives more padding to the bike, and lets you stuff your gear in with it. So only one parcel to claim at the other end.
Reassembled the bike, loaded the panniers, and pedaled out into showers.
For my brief cycle about Cairns, there are a lot of on road cycle markings. Very encouraging. In the city center, it seemed a bicycle chained to every post. A lot of bike evident. Riding was easy - I used the marked lanes when available, and mixed with the little traffic without problems at other times. (Note: This was a Public holiday.)
Some areas that need improving - bike racks, road markings. All the racks I saw where the front wheel lock only type. The on road markings vanish when needed most. Would be good to have some continuity. The way they appear and vanish at times is amazing. On the good side, the roads in Cairns are wide.
Cairns to Atherton.
Tuesday 12 June 2001
6:30 am headed out of Cairns through Brindsmead towards Kuranda. I used the on road shoulder which was wide and smooth. Until I reached the Barron River bridge. The shoulder suddenly vanished for a few km.
There seemed to be a bicycle track along parallel to the road for most of this trip. I did not explore this as the road riding was smooth and straight. The bicycle track looked bumpy and has to be shared with walkers, dogs, skateboarders, etc.
Around the Smithfield I did jump onto the bike path, to cut the corner of a roundabout to go up the Kuranda Range.
The Kuranda Range does not have much of a road shoulder. In places the white line ended at the edge of the bitumen, with a drop to the drain beside that. My trip up was about 7:00am, and I encountered very little traffic for most of the journey.
There is a mountain bike track up to the lookout, but I didn't try that. Found out about it from council workers doing road repairs at the lookout.
If your going to do this ride, do it early when there isn't much traffic. I think the road would be uncomfortable later in the day.
Kuranda was still sleeping when I arrived - it doesn't start until the first tourist train arrives about 10:30am.
From Kuranda to Marreba, there is a road shoulder, until the last 15 Km into Marreba. At this point is it follow the white line. The traffic was light, but again in heavy traffic this could be stressful.
Marreba to Atherthon was difficult. Follow the white line for a 30 km gradual up hill ride. In places the shoulder widens out to about 60 cm, but in other places it shrank to about 5 cm. At the end of the day, with head winds this was a slow cycle for me. I left Marreba about 12:00 so had plenty of time. I had a lot of stops on this section and arrived in Atherton about 3:30 pm.
No rain, and plenty of sun. I carried two water bottles and filled them at every opportunity.
Marreba was the first comments about a "lack of engine", "Car is quicker", "when I lost my license I rode a bicycle". This is four wheel drive country.
In both Marreba and Atherton the roads are wide in the township, and I saw people getting about on bicycles. I didn't see any bicycle facilities though.
Stayed overnight in Atherton at the Travelers Lodge. It used to be the backpackers. Name change, but still good accommodation. Bike was stored in the Garage, for which Debbie opened it up early in the morning to let me have an early start. The place to stay in Atherton. Internet enabled also.
Don't go looking for Vege food though. Atherton is "Beef country" as several cafes told me - with perplexed looks on their faces. Disappointingly I shopped at the Woolworths and feasted at the Lodge.
Atherton to Innisfail
Wednesday 13 June 2001
6:30am left from Atherton in showers riding in the mist. The day stayed with a mix of showers, overcast and patches of sun. The sun after the showers made the humidity high.
A case of following the thin white line. The shoulder was minimal to absent. Rolling hills gave some change to the continual up hill ride. A lot of hills though with granny gear climbing.
Milanda - the disappointment of the trip. Arrived in the Wet Tropics Center. Quiet morning drizzling slightly. Bush sounds. Watched a worker bring out a broom and back - arh going to sweep the path I though. A minute later he started up a petrol leaf blower. Was blowing the leaves of the dirt walking paths and the grass. After several minutes of this I left and ate up the road near a servo.
Here also was my first get off the road and let the trucks though. The road was narrow in Milanda, so with a truck coming down the hill and one sounding behind me, a smooth grass area off road - I got of the road. I was to do this several more times during the day - on narrow roads with traffic coming towards me, and traffic behind.
In Milla Milla I was able to order a Vege burger from the restruant.
Lots of hills on the road down the Palmerston highway. There was not much traffic. On the section around the Beatrice Bridge, there are wide shoulders for the climbs. This section has a 8% and 10% gradient. With this there are some great downhill sections. Made it to 67km/h.
On one of the downhill runs I managed to get briefly air borne. Awesome. Unfortunately the downhill finishes quickly and it is followed by another hill climb. I didn't use the shoulders on the downhill sections:-)
The wide shoulders die out after a while and it is back to following the white line. I found the road edges very slippery, as this area is wet a lot.
From Belvudar (spelling?) to Innisfail, the road had a 60 cm shoulder.
Watch the train tracks as they are slippery and can catch the wheels.
I was cycling to Moresby (15km South of Innisfail) and got my first puncture within sight of my finish. A short rest on the side of a cane farm fixing the piece of glass that deflated the front wheel. For City Slicks, they held up well. I checked them every chance for embedded glass or rocks.
A fair bit of broken glass about, especially on bridges. I would use thicker tyres in future.
Most of the roads are rough. With a large size gravel used.
220 Km in 12.5 hours. It would be better to allow several days for this ride as their are a lot of scenic trips and lookouts that you can explore. I was on a deadline though, so no time to explore more.
Great ride. Not certain if I would do it again at this pace, as there was no time to explore the lookouts and points of interest. Day two only had short rests, jacket on or off, drink, eat - stops. I suffered from the cheap bicycle shorts with no padding and lots of seams in the bum. Going to pick up a pair of Ground Effect shorts in the next few days for a more comfortable ride.
The Mountain Design Gortex Jacket was great - wind shield and rain proof. I still sweated in it though, but the pit vents helped heaps. Sandles on my feet to give some unusual tan lines.
Innisfail to Cairns
Leaving Innisfail, the road has a usable shoulder. I was to find this the case for most of the trip to Cairns, except for a short section south of Gordonvale. The section is about 5 km long with no off road space at all. The white line is on the edge of the bitumen. I was using thin walled city slicks, so didn't want to even think about getting of the road. While I was there, there was a survey crew on the road, so maybe (fingers crossed) this section will be upgraded in the near future.
For me, the wind was behind me, and this section is mostly flat, so I covered the distance without having much traffic overtaking. The traffic was light, so there was no time when I had vehicles behind me, and vehicles approaching.
Tip: If you get an early AM flight out of Cairns, the airport opens at 4:00 am. Everything is locked inside the complex.
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