|
Day: |
022 |
|
Date: |
Friday, 18 August 2006 |
|
Summary |
Riding from The Lynd Junction to Ravenshoe. |
|
Start: |
The Lynd Junction |
|
Finish: |
Ravenshoe |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
201 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
2963 |
|
Weather: |
Cool and foggy early but warm to hot and
partly cloudy for the rest of the day with easterly (head) winds. |
|
Accommodation: |
Motel in Ravenshoe , Queensland . |
|
Nutrition: |
Peanut butter roll for breakfast, pie,
pastie and milkshake for lunch, and for chicken stir fry for dinner. |
|
Encounters: |
None really. |
|
Highlights: |
Passing through the recent volcanic area
near Undarra National Park , with the extinct volcanic cones all
around and the black volcanic rock in abundance (the Byrnes’ family
visited Undarra in 2003 and saw the fantastic lava tubes and climbed
some of the extinct cones). |
|
Lowlights: |
The road, which was generally just a strip
of bitumen wide enough for one vehicle, was busy with tourists and
road-trains today. This meant that I was always having to dive off
onto the gravel verge and constantly getting sprayed with dust and
gravel. |
|
Journal: |
I got up at 4:30am after left at 5:00am in
the hope of getting a good early run with minimal traffic and
wind. It was cooler than I expected and it got to the point where
my right hand, which has been experiencing some numbness, was
incapable of changing gears using my twist grip. I had to reach
across and chane gears with my left hand. As the sun rose, the dawn
was made more spectacular by and eerie fog which extended across the
road in parts and made the trees ghost-like. Progress wasn’t as
fast as I had hoped but I couldn’t work out whether it was the cold
or maybe the road was gradually climbing. I knew that during the
course of the day I would be climbing up onto the Atherton
Tableland.
By 8:00am the road had started to become quite
busy with a lot of road trains carrying ore of some description and
many tourists. I was constantly getting off the narrow strip of
bitumen onto the gravel verge to avoid traffic coming from either
direction, although I couldn’t always hear the traffic from behind
until it was almost on to me. (Someone later told me that touring
cyclists hate this piece of road and I can understand why.)
Unfortunately, the bad traffic conditions were a distraction from
the marvellous volcanic area scenery. Extinct cones could be seen
in various directions and black volcanic rock was all around.
Later in the day, the road began climbing onto the Atherton
Tableland. It would have been good if it was a steady climb but, of
course, it wasn’t. It was a constant series of ups and downs with
each succeeding “up” a bit longer than the preceding “down”. I
could feel my quads using every last bit of the strength they have
acquired in the last three weeks.
Finally I reached
Ravenshoe, the highest town in Queensland (believe it or not), at
6:00pm after a very long day (yet again the map distance
underestimated the true distance as marked by road signs and
measured on my odometer). I was lucky to get the last motel room in
town and felt pleased with the kilometres covered and metres
ascended for the day in difficult conditions. I should have an easy
run into Cairns tomorrow and a day off on Sunday staying with my
cousin, Phil and his family. |
|
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|
