Day 356 | Ray's place, Speewah: hills, rain, fog

106 km | zzOz total: 9964 km

After the rain during the night everything is damp.

OK, let’s get real here, it’s wet. There’s been some water ingress from each end of the tent where my sleeping bag is prone to touch the end wall, ie, at the feet, and my pillow, filled with spare clothes, has been sitting in a pool. The tent is dripping and the floor, after 200 odd nights up during this transcontinental journey is no longer waterproof.

It ain’t a pretty sight in the morning.

But do I care? The rain has stopped and I’m off to Ray’s place, a roof over my head for tonight and the time it takes for some washing to dry.

It’s only about 60 km away, mostly downhill, and should be fun.

(There’s a few inaccuracies with that statement, perhaps 3, but that will become apparent as the story continues.)

I’ve known of Ray for 30 years but we’ve never actually met. In the funny way that life works out he’s heading off to Kiribati to continue his work on, err, not exactly sure, what in fact can you do in Kiribati, this very morning but he’s said make myself at home. The rain that stopped my progress in Hughenden and Mt Garnet has postponed our inevitable meeting, (I’m coming back this way, or can, on my way south.)

A sign about the 2 km mark announces that I have indeed reached the zenith of any road in Queensland, 1143 m high, gotta be all downhill from here, you sense I’m the optimistic type.

As it turns out I shortly rejoined the main road, no shoulder, it’s winding, too steep to enjoy the downhill with insufficient stopping power, I really need those back brakes at this point, the traffic increasing, and increasing scary and just as I raced down the decline the drizzle starts. Quite warm my glasses have fogged up and there’s nothing dry to wipe them with.

That’s really rain.

I get to the bottom of a big hill, the Barron River makes an appearance but this isn’t really rideable with all that precipitation. I see a side road: Mt Hypipamee National Park, what better time to see a waterfall than when it’s pissing down.

I’ve not really read up on this region, eyes and mind are currently on the coast, so it’s some surprise when I stumble upon a massive volcanic vent, known poetically as The Crater, from an eruption not so long ago, the sign doesn’t say. It’s 58 m down to the water level then another 87 m until the shaft makes a bend and no one has ventured, yet, beyond that point.

It’s a knockout but mostly from the combination of vertigo and the tropic vegetation, it’s real dense rain forest here. At least the rain has now stopped.

A few ridiculously steep rises, in the lowest gear I ever use, there’s two more with the granny cog but they’re so slow the bike is completely unsteerable, cars whizzing by and then it’s 15 km of downhill into Atherton, I arrive completely soaked by the combination of rain and sweat. I’m a pretty ugly sight, more than a little dishevelled, and no doubt, somewhat on the nose as I mingle with the locals out for a Saturday morning coffee. There’s about 12,000 residents and it’s the first place I’ve got to since Alice that has a degree of urbanity, I sense I’ll need a period of adjustment to ease back into standard issue suburbanity.

Can’t tarry, the road widens, now a decent shoulder, it’s a smooth, consistent cruise down the wide valley for 32 km to Mareeba, the fastest 32 km since I left Perth, now almost 10,000 km ago.

I guess I’m 60, 50 km from Cairns, that explains the insane amount of traffic, a regular parade, where are all those people going, and why? 3 out of 4 cars are in fact 4WDs, small diesel trucks, what do people need those for? That’s right, they need them to feel good about themselves.

At Mareeba I realise that I’ve made a severe underestimation of today’s distance, dodgy map, perhaps, but somehow I’ve left out the biggest figure from my calculations, I’ve already gone 70 km and it’s another 30 km to Speewah. On the other hand the road isn’t so bad, mostly easy grades, not much granny ring involvement, more decent shoulder, the sun is out and I feel good.

From Speewah it’s only 5 km but it starts feeling like a million miles, I’m pushing my bike up a series of short steep inclines. There’s a band of fog up ahead and then I’m in it.

Dense fog.

Misty glasses.

I’m pushing again, this time it takes a couple of rests to get to the top. These rises are steeper than those infamous Adelaide Hills and visibility, well, I can’t see much beyond 10 m let alone the bottom of the hill.

Humm, bike touring.

Hills. Fog. Big day.

You know, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.