Cairns marks the end of a great cycling adventure through Australia

Townsville was great. We met up with E's friend Alicia and her wife Lynda who were excellent, witty, and full of great stories. They picked us up just a few hours after we checked into our hostel and took us out on the town for an excellent dinner and drinks at a great local restaurant situated right on the Esplanade with a view of Magnetic Island and the waterfront. Z. was treated to his first dose of Kangaroo... which is a very lean meat and surprising has great flavor as well! We chatted until we were the last folks in the joint, hearing all about Lyndas copper stories (not copper like the metal - police officer) and Alicias Army stories.

They both suggested that we spend a couple days out on Magnetic Island, or as the locals call it "Maggie", which is where they had their wedding just a few months prior. We took them up on the offer, although we stuck around town for a few days before heading out, mainly because we found our awesome hostel and A/C room too comforting to leave right away. While we were in town we participated in one of our favorite off-the-bike activities, visiting the local cinema! We saw "The Wrestler" after catching some of the Oscar's and being convinced by it's nomination there that it might be worth seeing, a notion that was in direct opposition to our original feeling about the movie after seeing the previews. We were both nonplussed... but I'm not sure if the intense smell of industrial cleaner with undertones of mildew that prevailed in the theater might have had and effect on our experience of the movie? I feel for the business owners here in that it must be so difficult to suppress the moisture and ensuing mold in their shops because with as much rain as they get there in the wet season (average rainfall: 1143mm over just 90 days) there just can't be any avoiding it short of hermetically sealing the entire building... All in all Townsville CBD was a pretty quiet place with a lot of empty storefronts, a plethora of "For Lease" signs, and not much foot traffic in the pedestrian malls. The CBD is however situated just at the base of Castle Hill which juts out of the relatively flat landscape like one of the rock formations found around Sedona, AZ. With a hot and uncharacteristically arid afternoon, and the marked change in landscape on our arrival we almost felt like we were riding into Phoenix! After a few days of putzing around we loaded up the bikes and hopped a ferry over to Magnetic Island which is, as Lynda put it, a one beer ride across or about 1/2 hour. We arrived and having decided on Horseshoe Bay for our stay we took the only road out that direction. What anyone, including our new friends who recommended the trip, had failed to mention to us was the fantastic hill we would encounter on our way out there.

Needless to say we were unprepared when we hit the 1.2 km stretch of 12% grade with our fully loaded single speeds after having cycled the last 2 weeks on some of the longest flattest stretches we've encountered to date. We both walked some of the really steep and winding sections which were made that much harder by the intense afternoon sun/heat. We almost called it quits and headed back but decided to venture around one more steep curve to see if we were nearing the top. We were indeed just a few hundred meters from the top and a nice shady vantage point. After a rest we whizzed down the other side and found ourselves at the backpackers resort just a few hundred meters from an all but deserted stretch of beach in Horseshoe Bay. We camped two nights there enjoying the troupe of brush tailed possums who visited the camp kitchen nightly and even gave E. a light nibble on the foot when we wouldn't produce any scraps for them. We also got a shot at Coconut Bowling where E. scored 100pts and a free beer and Z. barely knocked down 2 pins for an exciting 60pts! We took a great hike around the Island, venturing out with snorkel gear in hand to check out the islands fringing reef. We donned the sexy stinger suits at all 3 beaches but found the visibility too low to see much and resolved just to enjoy the change of pace that hiking was providing. We had a lovely afternoon even after losing the trail for a bit and having to forge our own trail as well as a small estuarine stream to get back to our beach.

We enjoyed Popsicles on the beach as a reward for our hard work and watched the other beach goers enjoying a dip inside the stinger proof swimming enclosure which effectively turns a bit of the shore into a saltwater kiddie pool. After our second night we prepared ourselves for the trip back over the mountain to the ferry with the promise of a pickup for ourselves and our gear at the ferry on the Townsville side. We learned as we were heading out from our Maggie resort that a category 3 cyclone was whipping itself up off the coast of Cairns - our next destination just 300km north of Townsville. We spent the next two nights with Alicia and Lynda watching the storms progress as it grew to a category 5 and then passed right by Townsville and dipped south winding itself out after giving everyone quite a lot of rain and a bit of a scare in the Airlie Beach area! We said our goodbyes after a wonderful time (and a visit from the ladies in blue and their squad car!)

and set out for Cairns with blue skies and a favorable wind.

On our way North to Cairns we found some of the best swimming holes of our trip so far and spent 3 afternoons blundering our way down little rocky rapids, bathing ourselves in cool fresh streams, and chasing fish with the goggles we've been toting around since Byron Bay. Our first night at Rollingstone we hopped in the creek and managed to free camp at the great council run park situated right on the river.

The second day we hit up Five Mile Creek outside Ingham. When we got there the place was 2km down a dirt road and the place was deserted after the only other couple who were clearing out when we arrived had gone. We took the opportunity to jump in with just our skivvies on.
The water was deep and clear and we splashed around for a while before we noticed 3 guys standing around and rolling cigarettes on the stairs leading to the creek. We hopped out feeling refreshed and quickly wrapped our towels around ourselves and headed up the stairs. At the top we were met by the friendly stares of about 35 OZ Experience travelers with their music playing and the BBQ's fired up and packed into all the picnic tables except the one we'd chosen to lean our bikes up against. OZ Experience seems like a summer camp type experience for twenty-somethings where you tour around the country in a small bus with a group of other twenty-somethings and form cliques and alliances while you enjoy farm stays, learn-to-surf packages, and happy hour at all the popular backpacking destinations. Could be a fun way to travel but looks like torture to us. We donned our bikey outfits again and set off with The Killers singing us a farewell song from the OZ Experience bus. The next day we hit the pass between Ingham and Cardwell, which we'd been warned about but we found to be much more pleasant than the trek over the hills on Magnetic Island.

The gaurdrail at the top of the pass here is littered with signatures from foreigners who've stopped by the scenic lookout and we even managed to find one cycle tourist in among the crowd! The rest of the days ride was marked by flat stretches that undulated between eucalyptus stands and cane fields. In Cardwell we camped behind the great historic hotel Noorla that had done an amazing conversion on a shipping container,

creating two en suite rooms separated by a laundry facility in order to accommodate more guests. We were both intrigued and impressed and will definitely look into container living as an option in the future. E. took a bunch of photos of the simple foundation, great porch, and the great fitting done inside. In addition to the cool container conversion the place was incredibly stately with great antique furniture, a great bar with a library adjoining all done in dark woods and all very well maintained.

The following day we turned off the Bruce Highway for the last time in order to see Mission Beach. We unknowingly entered Cassowary country and were met by sign after sign warning drivers to slow down and be aware of the giant flightless birds that forage in the tropical forests and often cross the road
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We also got a good dose of afternoon rain as we got closer to town and rolled in with shoes sloshing and bikes dirty and dripping wet. We opted for a hostel room so we could dry ourselves and our stuff out. We also got a glimpse of about 12 skydivers floating down from the clouds and landing on the beach right in front of the hostel! Still doesn't make Z. want to jump out of a plane but it was fun to watch. Turns out drying out was futile as we pushed out in the morning in a pretty good downpour that quickly escalated into torrential rain as we headed to Babinda. We rode over our first bridge that was under water and saw quickly how the area could easily become flooded and the roads cut. We also ran into two cycle tourists heading south from Cairns to Perth! And I thought we'd come a long way! In Babinda we camped at the Babinda Boulders and had yet another great swim! The water was pretty high from the recent rain and the current was running pretty fast. Z. was able to swim in place against the current! We took advantage of the trails around the area and got some great views of the boulders the place is named for. Possibly the quietest night of camping we've had yet as we were the only people up at the campground. We let ourselves sleep late knowing we only had 60km to cycle into Cairns the next day.