Cairns to Cape York by bicycle

68km. A day of head winds and another puncture. A couple of cats passed during the night, but generally it was very quiet. I got going at 8:30 knowing that I had to make it to Moreton because I was going to run out of water. I left Archer River with 10l, used 5l the first day, I had 5 l of wayer to get me the 67km. The Bamaga road is not as busy as the development road, its really only tourist traffic. No road trains. It was flat for maybe 20km, then it started get a little bit hilly. The problem with the hills is that is when the corrugations are worst. The Bamaga Road is narrower, so I can ride on the other side of the road, which is the side with the least corrugations going uphill. I stopped for a break in the afternoon, to find a second flat tyre in two days at the front. I carefully inspected the tyre, but could not find the cause. I will have to patch the two innertubes I now have with holes tomorrow. Further than I expected I crossed the Wenloc river, and arrived at Moreton Old Telegraph Station.

62km. I got up at 6:30am cooked breakfast, and then rode up to Archer River roadhouse to top up my water, connect to the Wi-Fi. So by the time I had done that and packed up, I didn’t leave until 9:30am. I knew it was bitumen all the way 54km to the Weipa Junction. People might think I get sick of cars passing me all the time, but sometimes there are long periods of no vehicles. This morning was such an example, after pulling out of Archer River it was 20 minutes before the first car passed. It was a nice road. I had someone pull beside and ask if I needed anything, and someone else who pulled alongside and gave me a thumbs up, drove on. I must wave at 50 vehicles a day, people that beep, wave, of give me a thumb’s up. The wind built up and started coming from the north, making it a struggle to ride. So I stopped for lunch, and after packing the bike up found I had a flat front tyre. I pulled stuff off the bike, replaced the tube (I am carrying 3 spare tubes). That all slowed me down. About 5pm, I got to the Bamaga Road junction. The Bamaga Road is much smaller, some corrugations, but not too bad. One car passed me, then nobody until I stopped to camp just off the road 8km in at 6pm.

25km. It was a warm night because it was so cloudy. It even rained overnight, although it was so light that nothing got wet. I cooked breakfast, and rode the 200m to the Born Creek, and filtered some water. I rode the 25km to Archer River, some bitumen, some dirt. I got myself a $20 burger with the lot at Archer River Roadhouse, and internet for $5. A woman from Weipa came up to me and sshe had some bike touring experience, and gave good info on the route ahead. I then loaded up with 8l of water and headed off. I rode 500m to the Archer River where lots of people camped, and decided it was too nice to miss and decided to camp there for the day. I went for a swim, and washed some clothes, and rested the afternoon away.

42km. Beer Count 5: After struggling to fit my 15 kg of food that I had collected at the Post Office onto the bike, I decided that something had to go. So I stripped 5kg of equipment that I hadn’t used, or didn’t think I would use, and rode to Coen PO and posted it home. So I didn’t leave until 12:30pm. It was bitumen for 20km, which ended at the biosecurity checkpoint. I had a good talk with one of the guys there and he gave me good information on the road ahead, and a place to camp at Born Creek.He told me it had got up to a maximum of 33C that day, even though it was fairly cloudy, and I was struggling to get much power out of my solar panel. Later on down the dirt road I got offered beer number 5! I stopped at Born Creek which is a fair way off the road and should be quieter. I finished at 5:15pm.

Rest DayI collected my parcels from Corn Post Office at 8:30am. It wasn’t open, I asked at the general store that adjoins. Then I tried to pack 15kg of food onto my bike, and ride the 1km to the bend free campsite, just out of coen. Then it was rest and relax. I looked hard at whether I was going to do my planned detour to Lockhart River, but I have decided against it, and I will spend more time on the telegraph track.

62km. I was sure I would not get to Coen. It was 60km, and if I was going to face the sandy corrugated road I faced yesterday, I couldn’t do it. I walked down the creek and found a couple of pools of water that I could filter water out of. I got about 3l of water, and cooked my breakfast. As a result of filtering water and cooking breakfast, I was not on the road until 9:30am. The road was more up down, and sandy sections in bottom gear, where I was doing only 5kmh. It was early afternoon when a truck slowly went past and stopped. He asked if I wanted any water, and I said no, but then he said what if its cold, and I said you have got me interested. He got out and from the passenger side he gave me half a litre of cold water, which was fantastic. We got talking, truck still sitting in the road, and then he told me the best news I had heard all day. He told be about 8km ahead it was bitumen for 30km all the way to Coen. I knew then I could do it. So I made the bitumen, stopped frequently because of my recurring sore leg, but I got into Coen and camped at the campground at the back of the Exchange Hotel around 5:30pm.

52km. What a day, Long stretches of new bitumen road, versus slow crawls up Bamboo Range, versus slow very hard slogs through sand. I dont think I slept well overnight, as the campground was pretty noisy, and I had spent the last 6 nights camped alone. I cooked breakfast in the very busy campground. I talked to French backpackers who had seen the accident I had heard about already, where someone rolled their camper truck on the very sleep slope on the Bloomfield track. I had my picture taken by other camper who wanted a picture of the crazy bike rider. I didn’t get going until 9:30am, and headed off through the roadworks north of Musgrave. Initially the road was dirt but recently graded, I made a good speed. Then it became new bitumen, and I found myself doing a long 8% climb up the Bamboo range to 291m. Then the road became a nightmare of corrugations or loose sand that sometimes I could only push through. At one stage a 4wd stopped in front of me and two army guys on a drive to fix a broken car got out and gave me a cold can of coke. It was great. I slogged on developing a sore left leg, that I have had before bike riding. It was my 7th straight day riding, and I really need a rest day. However I am running out of food, and need to get to Coen . I made it to the bed of the Lukin River at 5pm. I need some more water, and there might be some the other side of the road, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

51km. I was down to 3l of water, but I thought that would get me to Musgrave Roadhouse. I was on the road by 7am because I didn’t think I could use my woodstove for cooking breakfast at my stealth campsite. After about 15km I finally left Lakefield National Park. Its a big park.

The road was better, sometimes I was speeding along at 15kmh. I stopped for brunch, in the shade, and watched a large tour group of trail bike riders go past. I was going so fast, that I thought I might get to Musgrave by 2pm, and I did. So I put my tent out of the way, but by days end I was surrounded by 4wds, the place got pretty busy. I enjoyed a massively expensive Burger with the lot chips and a drink, $28!

 

50km. No offers of beer today. It was a foggy morning. The tent was very wet from dew. I skipped cooking breakfast because the place I had chosen to camp was infested with mozzies. I got on the road riding through the fog, with no cars about. After 15km I got to Hann Crossing. By this time the fog had lifted and it was sunny and bright. I collected a litre of water from the Hann River, and filtered it to add to my supplies. It was a slog. The road had got worse, it was hard to dodge the corrugations. However about 5 4wds stopped during the day to see if I was OK and offer water. As the afternoon wore on I started to get a head wind, which made my pathetic slow pace even slower, sometimes as slow as 7kmh. About 5pm I got to saltwater creek. I wanted to try to leave Lakefield Park, but it was at least another 15km. I found a little track of to the side that lead to a waterhole, I followed it further to find an out of the way campsite. Tomorrow I have 49km to get me to Musgrave Roadhouse!

57km. 15km east of Hann Crossing. Beer Count 4. New feature of the blog. How many times so far in this trip a 4wd has stopped me in the middle of the road and offered me a cold beer. I always thank them and decline, because beer gives me a headache when I am dehydrated, and out here I am always to some degree dehydrated.

I got up early because I wanted to try and access the mobile service at the rangers to see if it was working properly. I rode back a km in what was a dew laden cool morning, and tried again. I tried sending an email, and got an email, but I couldn’t get anything else to work. I rode 10km up the road to find a place to cook breakfast. I stopped at a campsite that didn’t look like anyone had used it the night before. I was running low on water any knew I would have to pull some water out of somewhere. So I took the 1 km detour to Catfish waterhole, but it looked much to dangerous to haul water out of, it looked like croc heaven. I continued northward, stopped 10km further on near a turnoff to the Mick Fienn campsites. I got my chair out under the tree and had morning tea. I was just thinking about getting moving when a 4wd came out of the campsite road and stopped, and asked me if I wanted any water. He kindly gave me 3 bottles of cold water, but more importantly told me there was water and cold showers at Kalpowar campsite about 13 km north of me, 3km off the track. So I headed there. About 5km north a 4wd tour bus stopped passing me and gave me 3 more bottles of water. I headed to Kalpowar, took the 3km very corrugated detour. I had a wonderful cold shower, lunch , and filtered 8l of water to boost my supplies. Then I headed back to the main road, did another 15km, before finding a dried out waterhole to camp in.