CAIRNS to CHARTERS TOWERS

DAY 1 CAIRNS to RAVENSHOE
After departing Cairns we travelled 12 km before the team attacked the 7 km hill. Man that was some hill! It sure took it out of the riders. There were no shoulders. There were no spots for support vehicles to pull off on the left to pick up or help riders. Well, there were a few but that was all.
The team consists of 14 riders – 13 bikes! That’s because Lindy, who is blind, rides on the back of a tandem. In fact she is a paralympian and has gold silver and bronze medals for her efforts at Athens and Beijing. There are four support vehicles – two Commodores, brother Alan driving his Prado and the Ford XR6 that I’m driving. Fay is my “right hand man”. All vehicles are towing trailers.
It was 143 km altogether for the day. An extremely big day. Yep, a BIG day. We slept in a small community hall… togetherness! We ate at the Tully Falls Hotel in Ravenshoe. They looked after us very well.

DAY 2 RAVENSHOE to UNDARRA
Man this was FLAT compared to yesterday. However, quite a bit of the day was done in 36 degree heat. That took its toll on quite a few of the riders. Unbelievably it was 143 km again. But this time we got in at 2:55 pm.

There were a few locals who wanted to join the ride here and there.

This was one of the two punctures we've had so far. Lindy (on right) is a blind cyclist. She can fix a puncture quicker than Liz can!

The morning tea and lunch breaks are really welcome opportunities for cyclists to get off their bikes.

Another opportunity to get off is when a road train comes through! Yep.... it's get right off. When you think about the "food chain", cyclists are quite a long way down eh?

A lucky break eh?

The ride to Charters Towers was 201! Awesome. The group did remarkedly well to get into town by 6:25 pm after 9:46 in the saddle. There was a welcome dinner prepared for them by the folk at Charters Towers. Thanks heaps Ian and Robyn etc.

Wish you were here Ian and Jeff!!!!