Sunday May 18, 2014

Ralf woke up with a migraine today.  It isn’t very often that Ralf gets a migraine.  I decided to stay at home with him while Mat went to help his mates get the boat ready for its maiden voyage.

Ralf felt better by around noon time.  I updated the blog and Ralf worked on his photos. He has to clear some of his camera, so that he can get the photos of Uluru on his camera.  He is keeping separate memory cards for each country we are visiting.

Sunday May 11, 2014

Mat took us to a local farmers market this morning.  It was at the race course and had lots of good food stalls where we had breakfast.  Mat bought some sausages for the BBQ tonight.  We also spotted this stall and wondered how we could dress Mat’s friendly possum.  I thought he would look very cute in these dungarees.

Mat then took us to the Breakfast Creek pub, an institution in Brisbane. The main bar has tiled floors and a tiled bar – almost like a public toilet in England.

It has been flooded on several occasions, the most recent in 2011.  Mat was in the pub at the time and said that in typically Aussie fashion, they announced that the river was rising, so patrons would have enough time to order a couple of more beers before they would have to evacuate the building. !

Monday May 12, 2014

Mat took us to a couple of bike shops today to see if we can get Ralf’s bike fixed.  Unfortunately, because there is not a big “touring” culture here, we couldn’t source the parts.  One store suggested that they could build new wheels for him, but my concern was that they are not familiar enough with touring bikes to ensure that the wheels will stand up to the weight that Ralf carries.  We have decided to wait until we get to the UK and then get new wheels.  The repair that was done to the wheels in Ballina is holding up well.

After the bike shops we headed into downtown Brisbane and went to the museum and a wander around the downtown. The museums are free, although when they have a special exhibition like the one on the Deep Oceans, you pay an entrance fee for the special exhibition, but not the rest of the museum.

In the museum we spotted this information, and laughed when we spotted the resemblance between George Kiprios and Mat’s Dad – Baz.  Wendy (my sister) and Baz now live in Cyprus and Baz is often mistaken for a Cypriot not a fella born and bred in Stoke on Trent.

Mat and I also decided to move some of the street art. He got one end and I got the other, I think you can see I was carrying the heavier end.

We had a very nice lunch on the river then headed home.

 Tuesday May 13, 2014

Mat had to attend some meetings today at work, so we are on our own.  We are doing household chores and I will surprise Mat by doing all his ironing for him.  Ralf is doing yard work.

I miss ironing, I wonder if I could take an iron with me on the next leg?

In Mat and Kelly\’s garden are a pair of stone curlews.  Ralf got this great photo of them, they can be difficult to spot – one is standing, the other is close to the ground. When they are scared they stand stock-still and make a strange call almost like a baby crying.  They are endangered in parts of Australia, and under-threat in other areas due to habitat loss.  My guess is that by standing stock-still instead of running or flying away might contribute to their predation.

Wednesday May 14, 2014

Mat had a great day planned for us today, but, I needed to book flights etc.  We now have our trip booked for Alice Springs and Uluru.  We leave for Alice on Tuesday May 20, 2014 and return on Sunday May 25, 2014.  We have a three day, two night tour to Uluru (Ayers Rock), we will have an extra day in Alice.  There is a 25 km cycle route into the desert we might take if we can rent some good bikes.  I also want to go to the Flying Doctor Service Museum.  We then have a couple of more days with Mat and Kelly before flying to the UK on Wednesday 28 May, 2014 and arrive in London on Thursday 29 May, 2014.

Tomorrow Mat is going to take us on a drive north of here.

Thursday May 15, 2014

We had a wonderful day today.  Mat took us to the Ettamogah pub, again this is for historic reasons not to drink at 10:30 in the morning.

The Ettamogah pub started its life in a series of cartoons drawn by Ken Maynard and published in The Australasian Post for 40 years. The Ettamogah pub was an important part of his cartoons as it epitomized life in Australia at that time.

Mat and I felt sorry for the delivery man who was hauling his delivery up these stairs, there has to be a better way.  We didn’t drink but we did have a good wander around the pub and other shops.

I asked the fella in the wood shop if the wood for a didgeridoo made a difference in the sound.  He explained that the original didgeridoos were made from a hardwood and the sound depended on the size of the hole, the size of the didgeridoo and the player.  Apparently women were not supposed to play as it either made them sterile or fertile, depending on which tribe they were with.

After the pub we went to the Giant Pineapple, unfortunately we couldn’t go inside it as there is going to be a big music event happening this week-end and they were getting prepared for it.

We had a lovely drive through the countryside north of Brisbane to a village called Montville.

It was quite busy, even in the off-season. I cannot imagine what it would be like in the height of the season.  There were some lovely little boutique shops which, if not riding a bike I could probably have bought some souvenirs. However, we did buy some fudge.  I hadn\’t realized what a chocoholic my hubby was until we started this Grand Adventure.  I think this was written for Ralf.

We had lunch in Montville and then carried on to the Glass Mountains.

We spotted camels, (for Andrew) but no Alpacas for Melinda.

The Glass Mountains are incredible.  Mat said this is how he had always imagined Australia to be, with mountains and bushland.  I had always imagined it to be more of the bush land that we have cycled through and not these types of mountains, with the exception of Uluru.

The Glass House Mountains were once lava plugs within volcanic cones.  The volcanic cones and surrounding Landsborough sandstone were eroded by wind and water over 25 million years to reveal the lava plugs which can be seen today.

Mat and I took the circular walk which was very nice.  We were looking for koalas but no, we still haven’t spotted any in the wild yet.

Friday May 18, 2014

Another lovely day with Mat.  We had brunch and then went over to his friends place where Mat’s boat is moored.  Mat has bought a small boat with two of his friends (Will and Digger) and it needs a bit of work doing to it.  Mostly cosmetic, cleaning, new cushions etc and some electrical work.  Fortunately one of the three is an electrician.  Tomorrow we have promised to help with the clean up so that we can go fishing on it on Sunday.

Discussing work to be done and naming of the boat.  Three English guys from Burton, Stoke and Bristol – any suggestions.

Saturday May 19, 2014

Boat cleaning day.  Ralf and I spent most of the morning cleaning the inside of the boat, what a brilliant job we made of it too.  Mat and Will went out to get fabric and other stuff needed to clean the boat and Digger worked on the electrics.  By the time Mat and Will got back we were almost done inside.  After a bit of lunch Mat and I covered the benches for the inside with the fabric they had bought and again we did an awesome job.  Although, I hate the fabric.  It is the kind of fabric that when you sit on it leaves a pattern so I had to keep brushing it to make sure the nap all goes in the same direction.  I could never have a sofa made of this stuff, it would drive me insane.

When we got home, Mat and I then attempted to use Kelly’s sewing machine to make the curtains.  We managed to get 3 out of 6 done.  Eventually we gave up and went to bed at well past midnight.

Saturday May 10, 2014

Mat had to work today.  Ralf and I spent the day organizing our stuff, nothing to send back to Canada, we have everything we need and nothing more.

We got all our washing done, I cleaned the bikes, Ralf cleaned the tent.

It was a good day.

Friday May 9, 2014

We had called Mat last night to let him know that we should arrive around 1:00, all being well.

Once again we attempted to follow Veloway 1.  Once again the route was really badly signposted.  After about the 4^th time we turned around trying to find the right route, I told Ralf that if we had to turn around more than 10 times I was finding the nearest train station and catching the train to Ferny Hills, it was incredibly frustrating.  Ralf checked his garmin and the map that we had, and decided to abandon trying to follow the V1 and took Highway 95 north into Brisbane, we made a couple more turnarounds but eventually we were able to find our way through Brisbane and north-west of the City to Mat and Kelly’s place.

Brisbane is trying to be bike friendly. I just don\’t think the engineers are cyclists and therefore do not know what a cyclist needs with regards to road signs.  All it would take is to put the V1 sign on the road signs along with the other directional signs.  For example, when coming towards a roundabout there is a road sign indicating which exit to take.  Add the V1 sign next to the correct exit, also when the next road sign indicates what road you are on add the V1 sign as well.

Mat and Kelly bought this house in February.  After we had commented about our warm shower’s hosts living up big hills.  This house is in the Ferny Hills area and up some big hills, yes we had to walk up a couple.  Mat was waiting for us when we arrived and was disappointed to see us not cycling up his driveway, which I even had difficulty pushing the bike up, it is so steep – 27 degree incline.

Mat took Kelly to the airport, she is away for two weeks visiting her brother in South America.  Mat has a week of vacation and he will show us the sites of Brisbane and surrounding area.

We also have a few days to organize flights to Uluru, possibly Cairns and the UK.

After dinner we sat outside and chatted for a while then the possum came to visit us and Ralf and Mat fed it bananas.

Mat had some possum repellant on the deck, it obviously does not work very well.

Thursday May 8, 2014

We followed the recommended route out of Tweed Heads to Surfers Paradise. The route was primarily on off-road cycle paths following the coast.  We had a couple of turnarounds due to poor signage when the off-road cycle route came to an end and no further signs were there to show us which way to go.

Along this section of bike path we spotted the giant koala.  Very difficult to spot as he was in camouflage garb.  The koala was one of 21 sculptures produced for the \”Animals with Attitude Gold Coast Sculpture Trail\” to raise awareness and funds for the Currimbin Wildlife Hospital\”.

We had lunch in Southport and once again picked up the Old Pacific Highway all the way to Helensvale and the Warner Brothers Studio (Movie World Park).

Robyn had given us a couple of maps from Brisbane Transport and I had picked up an updated Gold Coast Cycling Guide at Southport which showed the V1. The V1 is Veloway 1 from Warner Brothers Studio (Movie World) all the way into Brisbane following dedicated cycle ways – some of road, others on-road but dedicated cycle paths.

We managed to get to the start of the V1 relatively easily and picked up the signage for the V1 straight away.  Yeah we could stay off the motorway – actually we had to stay of the motorway as bicyclists are not allowed.

Then the problems started – the first major roundabout, no signs as to where the V1 continued.  We eventually found another sign and we were off again.  We had to go under the motorway to pick up the V1 and again there were no signs as to which way to go.  This continued for the next 22 kms.  We would head off on the cycle way, see the signs and then they would disappear.  At major intersections there were no signs, but if we carried on up the road for a while we would find them again.  Or, discover we were on the wrong road and had to turnaround, it was incredibly frustrating.

We eventually got in to Beenleigh at about 3:30pm.  Beenleigh was supposed to have a caravan park.  No, it closed down 8 years ago.  We found a motel that had no vacancies.  However, the owner did call another motel which was on our route and they had vacancies.  We had to cycle another 5 kms to get to this motel.

We were both getting tired and very frustrated and this is where Ralf came of his bike.  We were trying to negotiate a big roundabout, I was about to set off when a van came onto the roundabout and indicated that he was going to take the next turnoff (after ours).  I stopped and Ralf ran into the back of me, bounced of my panniers and landed on the road in front of the van.  The van driver checked to see if we were o.k. and then carried on his way.  Ralf was annoyed at me because I had stopped, but as always it is the person that does the rear-ending that is at fault, not the person that has been rear-ended.

We stayed at the McNevin motel, it is on the Old Pacific Highway and parallels the new motorway.  It has a restaurant but the food is very expensive, so we ate our emergency rations of freeze-dried chicken masala, yumm.  We are having breakfast here (room service), as we really can’t start cycling without breakfast and we don’t know where the nearest café is for breakfast.

As we are cycling along we often see road-side crosses.  Most of the time it is only one or two a day, sometimes we don\’t see any at all, then occasionally we see something like this.  Five crosses (a memorial) three with the same family name.  It is very sad to see this kind of thing.  This memorial was set up on the Old Pacific Highway.

As we cycled a couple of days ago we counted a total of 12 crosses, but the highest number of crosses counted in one day was in New Zealand on the A1 coming from Ashburton to Christchurch – 16 in one day, very sad.

Wednesday May 7, 2014

A lovely route today, undulating hills following the Tweed Coast Way for the most part.  We are staying at a warm showers tonight and they had emailed us about this route. After leaving Brunswick Heads we found the Old Pacific Highway and followed it for a short while before finding the Tweed Coast Way.  The Tweed Coast Way took us through some more sugar cane fields and rural farmland area, then followed the coastal road for about 45 kms.  The weather was perfect cycling weather and a bit of a tail wind.

They named a beach after my nephew!

We had to join the Highway for a short while into Tweed Heads and it was very busy with lots of interchanges to negotiate.  I came off the Highway at the first opportunity – Tweed Heads South.  Ralf punched the address into the Garmin and as usual I didn’t trust the route.  I popped into a bike shop for directions – he didn’t know the address because it was in Tweed Heads not Tweed Heads South.  So we followed the directions for the Garmin which turned out to be bang on, even taking us through the short cut to our warm showers host’s house.

We arrived just after 1:00 pm, we had some lunch and settled in.  Kevin and Robyn are experienced touring cyclists and have toured extensively in Europe.  They told us about cycling books that we could get while we were in England which had excellent maps and descriptions of the routes.  Definitely pick these books up when we are there.

We exchanged a lot of information about Canada and Europe, as Kevin and Robyn are going to Canada in June for five months.  We had a lovely time with them.

They took us for a drive before dinner and we walked along the coast path and saw Surfers Paradise from Tweed Heads.  I was expecting a Town similar to Byron Bay not a skyline of high-rises.

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.

Monday May 5, 2014

We had a lovely relaxing breakfast and then headed to the big camping shop we had spotted on the way into Ballina yesterday.  I need a new KFS set (knife, fork, spoon) and we need to replace our dehydrated food supply.

We took Ralf’s bike into the Trek bike store.  Ralf wanted a quote on the cost of replacing the bearings and had noticed that his back wheel had some loose spokes.  Initially, the mechanic (Mike) said he couldn’t get the work done until Wednesday.  Ralf explained that we were leaving tomorrow and only needed reassurance that it would get us to Brisbane.  The back wheel would probably not get us to Brisbane, with the weight Ralf carries on the back.  Mike generously said he would work on the wheel tonight after the shop was closed. The wheel needs a good service and he will grease the bearings to make sure there is no damage on the front wheel. The bike shop in Sydney was supposed to have given Ralf’s wheels a service, but they said they were fine. It will be ready tomorrow morning at 8:00 am.  Ralf has to pick it up before the store opens. What great service.

A very relaxing day today.  Tomorrow will be a short day to Brunswick Heads, stopping in Lennox Head and Byron Bay – the most easterly point in Australia.

Sunday May 4, 2014

This is the start of our last week of cycling in Australia, we should be in Brisbane by weeks end.

Today’s ride was a highway ride and for the most part not too bad.  There were some areas where the shoulder was none existent but on the whole it was quite a nice ride, although quite windy. We were surprised at the amount of trucks that were on the road.  However, I am sure it would have been busier on a week day.

We stopped at a rest stop called New Italy.  This area was founded by Italian immigrants, The New Italy story began in 1880 when farming families from Beneto in Northern Italy were beguiled by the Marquis de Rays to purchase land and homes in the phantom paradise of La Nouvelle France,  (an imaginary kingdom in the Bismark Archipelago). They eventually found themselves in Australia in this area.  Most of the families only lived in this area for about 8 years, but their descendants built this rest area to commemorate their arrival in Australia.

We passed through the Town of Woodburn and had some lunch.  Woodburn has a very large sugar mill.  This area is primarily sugar cane farming.

On arriving in Ballina, we spotted the Big Prawn and headed for the Information Centre.

The lady at the Information Centre was really helpful, calling the caravan parks and a motel for us to check on prices and availability.  There was supposed to be a hostel/backpackers in Town, but unfortunately it is at Lennox Heads – another 12 ks up the road.

We decided to take a rest day in Ballina and Ralf has decided that our rest days should be spent in a comfortable setting.  Motel tonight, although it does have a communal kitchen and television room.  We think this used to be the Youth Hostel, because of the way it is set up.

Ballina is another seaside coastal town, most of the shops were closed, I am sure in the height of the summer they would all be open.  However, we have tomorrow to have a wander around and explore the Town.  We have spotted a couple of bike shops and camping stores.

Saturday May 3, 2014

A lovely ride from Grafton to Maclean.  David had recommended we cycle up to Casino to avoid the highway and see more of the inland area.  We decided to go back towards the coast as I didn’t want to do another 100 km day.  There wasn\’t anywhere in between Grafton and Casino where we could split the distance and stay the night.  We found a road that paralleled the highway all the way into Maclean.  However, by taking this route it means that we will be on the highway all the way to Ballina tomorrow.  I figure that tomorrow being Sunday it may be a quieter road and not so many transports on the road.

The route today followed the Clarence River for the majority of the way.  As it was along the river valley it was a flat ride, very rural with small cattle farms.  We had to stop and take a photo of this massive tree – it is a Fig Tree. We chatted for a while to the farmer and his wife who lived opposite, they called it a Murphy Fig Tree and said you couldn’t eat the fruit.

To give you some perspective of the size of this tree, here is Ralf amongst its root system.  Even though he is a shadow of his former self, he looks like an elf in this picture.

We had to take the ferry across the Clarence River at Lawrence.  After Lawrence the farmland changed from cattle to sugar cane.

We arrived in Maclean at 11:30 half an hour before it rolled up the sidewalk – all the stores close on a Saturday afternoon.  We have noticed this through out Australia that most of the smaller towns close at noon on Saturdays and closed all day on Sundays.  Fortunately the grocery stores are open.  We sat down for a nice lunch at a small café then continued on to the caravan park.  Although the weather was warm, we decided to stay in a cabin again, because it is getting quite chilly at night.  We settled into the cabin and then went for a walk around the Town.

Every power pole in Maclean is painted with the patterns of a different tartan.  Each year at Easter it holds a Highland festival. I assumed that the Town was founded by a Scott.  That was not the case, although a lot of Scottish people lived in the area at the time (1850’s) the original name was Rocky Mouth.  It changed its name after being surveyed by the Surveyor General who was called Alexander Maclean.

Maclean is a lovely Town located on the Clarence River. We both liked the feel of the Town as soon as we arrived.