Day 1 Sydney – Cairns
Today we left Sydney on Virgin Airlines for Cairns – all packed with our gear and excited rearing to go!!!
We landed in Cairns around 5pm – just in time to check into our Hotel and headed out for dinner at a local Italian down on the Esplanade. WE haven’t really got the route planned out yet – but we have done this trip before and the thought of winging it and watching the weather seemed to be the way to go. Early to bed and get ready for tomorrow – pick up the bikes at 8am.
Day 2 Cairns – Townsville (350 kms)
Cairns – Townsville
Arrived to collect the bike from Brian’s just after 8am and set them up ready for our girlie ride back to Sydney. Put my comfort seat on and fitted the GPS units (one to each bike – gosh we would hate to lose each other but much worse – lose our way home!!!)
We had breakfast before leaving Cairns and then headed out of town just out of 10am – making tracks for Townsville. It was pretty bloody hot and humid – so our first drink stop was at a rest area in Innisfail – where we got some fresh fruit and a cool drink.
Back on the road again – we had to get to Tully to catch up with Ian (Selena’s Brother in –law) and not only did we find Ian – there was a bloody BIG gumboot with a tree frog on the side!!!! Check it out!!! The gumboot was a prize for the wettest area in the region – recording the highest rainfall. So then Di got it in her head that we could make this aBIG tour!
As we rode down thru Tully and Caldwell you could still see the evidence of from cyclone Yasi in the area.
Anyway we made it to Townsville, found a motel (Rainforest Motel) and couldn’t wait to get out of our hot riding gear and make headway to the pub (Sun Hotel) across the road for a nice dinner ( not to mention a wine!!!). It was a short days ridijng – but we have to work around the lack of accommodation at Mackay during the week. Mackay is a mining city – where all accommodation is booked out during the week making it impossible to stay there the night.
Day 3 – Townsville – Airlie Beach (275 kms)
Today was another shortish ride – we are still working around the accommodation issue of MacKay. We decided that Airlie Beach would be a cool treat for us 2 girls!!! An afternoon at the beach before heading home – would certainly hit the spot!! The sun was out and we pulled out of Townsville and made tracks for Ayr, where we pulled in for morning tea at Maccas.
We passed by a great fruit stop we found a few years ago at Gumlo where there is a Chevy truck fruit stand. Loved it last time we were there!
Rode through Bowen and got a shot of the BIG Mango.
We pulled into Airlie Beach around 2pm and found a cool motel (Whitsundays on the Beach) right on the beach in front of the lagoon for only $100 for the night. Checked out the town quickly and then found a really cool restaurant where we sat and soaked up the heat with a small breeze for a couple of hours.
On our way back to the motel – we splurged and brought some fresh tiger prawns and a bottle of wine to have by the lagoon. Very spoilt!!!
Day 4 Airlie Beach – Rockhampton (485 kms)
Airlie Beach to Rockhampton
After leaving Airlie Beach – the weather looked threatening, we thought we were in for a wet ride. However, by the time we got to Proserpine for Breakfast – the sun was out – woohoo! we were in for a great ride thru to Rocky! We started for the long ride thru Mackay, Sarina and pulled into a great rest stop we have been to before. Here we had a snack and fruit and even connected with the local birdlife (who were none too shy!!) It must have been a day for birdlife because when we pulled up at Marlborough for a cold water, there was a cocky who had a strange fetish for fingers!!
I noticed that my chain was loose this morning and made arrangements to get this adjusted at a bike shop in Rockhampton. So we pulled in at Rocky Harley Davidson and met up with Geoff & the gang. Merv fixed the chain on my bike, Glen managed to have his birthday the same day as we arrived and we shared cake and stories with everyone. It is a great dealership and both the people and the great service impressed us!!
We stayed in a motel on the north side of Rocky called True Blue Motel (makes you want to break out into song – doesn’t it!!)
Guess what – we found a BIG Bull to greet us coming into Rockhampton and another one farewelling us – very cool!
Day 5 Rockhampton – Maryborough (400 kms)
Rockhampton to Maryborough
We had been advised that the road works down the Bruce Highway were a problem, so we headed down to Miriam Vale for morning tea and then got off the highway and went to Bundaberg. Had lunch at a little pie shop in Bundaberg, found the BIG Bottle Bundaberg @ Bundaberg and got back on the bike again for the remaining part. Finally by the time we got to Childers we had a bucket load of rain – pulled into Maryborough a little damp, but still with a smile on our dials!
Day 6 Maryborough – Warwick (440 kms)
It is another beautiful day and the sun gods are shining on us big time!!! On the way out of town this morning we found BIG Ned Kelly @ Maryborough. We decided to do some back roads today and get off the highway – headed inland. Di spent half the night plotting out the route and we turned west before getting to Gin Gin and rode through this neat little town called Woolooga with a painted wall then to Nanango were we stopped for morning tea. The area is dairy farm country and had all the dairy farm smells! Then onto Esk, Gatton (which is Potato, broccoli, cauliflower growing country). I felt like I rode from one food source to another today – but it was BY FAR the best roads we had ridden all week!!! The highlight for Di was Hiefer Creek Cutting which is a cutting through a bloody big rock that was over 7mtrs high. I was a mammoth feat complete many years ago with much more primitive tools than we have today!!
As is Saturday – we thought we better ring ahead for a motel – just as well! There was a school reunion on in town and with 4000 people coming, all the motels were heavily booked. Luckily we found one off the main drag which was quiet. Even getting dinner at the local pub was challenging with all the extra people in town.
Day 7 Warwick – Tamworth (420 kms)
Bloody hell there’s frost on the bikes – the tempertare has dropped significantly since we left far north Queensland a short few days ago!! When we left town this morning – we had rugged up with all our extra layers of clothing and 8 degrees reading on the bike!! SHIT!! Still on the BIG mission – Di made sure we got a photo of BIG Apple @ Stanthorpe. I even found a Fruitisforus at Ballandeans local fruit shop. We pulled into Tenterfield for a coffee and found that the café even had a log fire going – gosh is this a sign of things to come!!!
The temperature for the day didn’t get much over 15 degrees all the way down to Tamworth. As we were making good time – we pulled into another little favorite of ours – Kentucky General Store & Café. It is a great little place about 3kms of the main road and is well worth the stop!! Rod & Deb do a great job at making you welcome!
On the way into Tamworth – Di and I decided to splash out a little on our last nights accommodation – so we stayed at the Quality PowerHouse Motel – it is very flash and had a very flash dinner. Next morning we had a very flash bill to prove how flash it was!!! Hehe… but it was all worth it!
Day 8 Tamworth – Sydney (405 kms)
Another frosty morning and chilly start to the day. We got to take a photo of BIG Golden Guitar before pulling out of town for home. Stopped off at Muswellbrook for morning tea and then Freemans Waterhole for another snack. We met Howard (Di’s husband) at the Kariong turnoff and unloaded all her gear so she didn’t have to drag it home on the train and made our way into the BIG Smoke in Sydney. Got back to the shop about 4pm having completed nearly 2800kms in 7 ride days.
Feeling very pleased with the success of our trip – no accidents, no bike dramas, only 1 patch of rain. As usual we met some fabulous people along the way, and enjoyed each others company to boot!!!
Life is worth living – don’t live in the past, Keep faith in your friends and laugh every day, Then your aches and pains will fade away.
Okay back to dreaming about that next trip. Take care my friends.
Ride safe & often – Selena