epic bike ride

Posted on | August 5, 2007 | 1 Comment

the weather has been perfect for a few days….clear, crisp, sunny, golden.
we have been chained to markets for two days, but vowed to get on our motorbikes TODAY and head for the coast.

we left at 10am and first we rode to mareeba and refuelled, then off to kuranda, (stopped at the lookout on the kuranda range and could see clear out to green island……it was so clear and sunny), then palm cove.
we stopped for lunch in palm cove, at VIVO…..it was divine.
it’s like being at someone’s fabulous beach house, with great food and an incredible wine list (glass of veuve, anyone? bottle of roederer cristal?)
it was quite breezy in palm cove, but very warm.
and absolutely stuffed with tourists and locals enjoying the sunshine and sea water.
we felt overdressed in bike gear!

after lunch we headed north, along what i think is the most beautiful piece of road in australia.
the road between palm cove and port douglas.
it winds right along the coast and the views of tropical sea on one side and rainforest on the other, are quite spectacular.
we stopped for a single drink at the cafe/bar at ellis beach.
the boss there is a good customer of ours, but he was out for the weekend.
the place was packed with motorcyclists and there were some amazing trikes parked next to us.

we steamed into port douglas (also heaving with activity) just in time to see the market packing up, around 3pm.
the fresh orange juice people are friends of maurice’s, and they plied us with the remains of their juice (delicious…sweet, fresh, chilled and very welcome at this stage of the day)and updated us on all the market gossip.

then we turned the heads of our trusty steeds homewards.
it takes a couple of hours to go a little further north, then turn left onto the rex range.
i simply loathe that piece of road…..it’s bendy and badly built….it’s cambered all wrong….and the trees over the road filter the light so everything is dappled light and treacherous shadows.
we got up there slowly and without mishap, but it was exhausting.
once you get to julatten, it is all open road, and huge long straights where you can open the machine up and roar along “going mach four with your hair on fire”….as long as you keep an eye out for the large kangaroos. (there are huge kangaroo corpses all along that stretch of road….it’s very sad).

we got home around 5pm, absolutely tired and exhilarated from our ride.
we are already planning next sunday’s outing……

Share and Enjoy: