DAY 172: Day 2 off Cape Tribulation
Sun 13th April 2008
Distance to date 10139 km (6337 miles)
As expected I felt slightly rough this morning, andsagely reminded myself of the folly of excessive consumption of alcohol. However it was a great night, and it's good to really let rip once in a while. As the day wore on I soon came back on form though. I spent a good while checking the bike over in preparation for tomorrow’s assault on what must be one of Australia’s toughest cycling challenges. Brakes especially will need to be spot on since after the 20% climbs there will be similar descents on rough gravel / mud / who knows what? There will be no coasting down such hills and I’ll probably be going little faster than going up. Anyway the bike is looking good and I felt better once I’d finished.
Most of the rest of the day was spent uploading text to the blog (no pics as too slow), riding on the beach again etc., but at 4 I went on a sea kayak trip around Myall Bay; the first time I’d tried this, and it was very enjoyable. The kayaks felt very stable despite some big waves, and I soon got the hang of the paddling, steering and balance issues. The guy in charge was very good and put all 4 of us at ease, and I even had a couple of cracks at surfing with the kayak - trying to catch a big wave then riding it into the beach; although I did fall out once I managed a couple of good runs. We were given waterproof bags for our cameras so carefully managed to take a few snaps, trying not to get the camera wet, which wasn’t easy as we were utterly soaked in about 5 minutes. I’d like to do this again sometime given the opportunity.
I didn’t get back to JK’s until 1835 and at 1925 I was due to be picked up for a night walk in the rainforest, so I grabbed dinner at the bar again and just made it. This tour was a bit of a let-down since we saw nothing interesting at all, and I didn’t have the right shoes for the very steep scramble up a rocky mountain path - I was glad when it was over.
I was pretty tired now, but was yet to suffer with some drunken louts nearby who were clearly winding up for a noisy party.
Distance to date 10139 km (6337 miles)
As expected I felt slightly rough this morning, andsagely reminded myself of the folly of excessive consumption of alcohol. However it was a great night, and it's good to really let rip once in a while. As the day wore on I soon came back on form though. I spent a good while checking the bike over in preparation for tomorrow’s assault on what must be one of Australia’s toughest cycling challenges. Brakes especially will need to be spot on since after the 20% climbs there will be similar descents on rough gravel / mud / who knows what? There will be no coasting down such hills and I’ll probably be going little faster than going up. Anyway the bike is looking good and I felt better once I’d finished.
Most of the rest of the day was spent uploading text to the blog (no pics as too slow), riding on the beach again etc., but at 4 I went on a sea kayak trip around Myall Bay; the first time I’d tried this, and it was very enjoyable. The kayaks felt very stable despite some big waves, and I soon got the hang of the paddling, steering and balance issues. The guy in charge was very good and put all 4 of us at ease, and I even had a couple of cracks at surfing with the kayak - trying to catch a big wave then riding it into the beach; although I did fall out once I managed a couple of good runs. We were given waterproof bags for our cameras so carefully managed to take a few snaps, trying not to get the camera wet, which wasn’t easy as we were utterly soaked in about 5 minutes. I’d like to do this again sometime given the opportunity.
I didn’t get back to JK’s until 1835 and at 1925 I was due to be picked up for a night walk in the rainforest, so I grabbed dinner at the bar again and just made it. This tour was a bit of a let-down since we saw nothing interesting at all, and I didn’t have the right shoes for the very steep scramble up a rocky mountain path - I was glad when it was over.
I was pretty tired now, but was yet to suffer with some drunken louts nearby who were clearly winding up for a noisy party.
Back to earthly reality!
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