Tuesday May 6, 2014

A lovely cycling day today, the weather was perfect and we got to see a lot.  Ralf picked up his bike from the bike shop, excellent service from Transition Cycles and Fitness in Ballina. Ralf is happy that there are no rattles and squeaks on his bike.  Mike gave Ralf the part numbers for the new hubs that he still needs to get done and two bike shops in Brisbane to contact.

We followed a quiet route to Lennox Head and watched the surfers.  This has a right hand turn break for surfers – whatever that means.

We walked up to this lookout, it is one of the areas where people launch themselves off the cliff for hang-gliding.  We didn\’t see any gliders, as it was quite windy.

There were some hills today, but nothing major.

We carried on to Byron Bay and Cape Byron which has the worst roads that we have encountered in Australia.  There were major potholes and ribbed roads, we saw one road crew – sitting around.

We cycled up to the lighthouse, then walked the short route to the most easterly point of Australia.

We also took the tour in the lighthouse.  The “character” of this lighthouse flashed every 15 seconds, one further up the coast flashed every 14 seconds!  Each lighthouse has its own distinct ‘flash’ and the coastal charts tell you which lighthouse you are looking at by the seconds it takes to flash.

The lighthouse keepers cottage is now a cafe and Information Centre.

We had lunch in Byron Bay which was quite a nice town but very busy with lots of surfer dudes and shops.  The route of out of Byron Bay had a nice wide cycle path which we followed for quite a way until we had to join the M1.  The motorway allows cyclists at this point, and provides a wide shoulder for us and crossing points.  I am not sure if we will be allowed on the motorway when we get closer to Brisbane, we will have to wait and see.

We stayed at a campsite tonight, the weather was good and it wasn’t too cold.  We chatted to Lonnie (I hope that is the correct spelling) and Michael who were touring cyclists as well, although not touring at this time.  They had cycled through South America, Chile (Patagonia).  We compared notes with what we carried and bikes etc.  I gave Lonnie my free samples of butt butter, and we recommended the Brooks saddles.  They are expensive but are well worth the extra money spent on them to prevent sadddle sores.