More Fundraising News
Donations have continued to roll in and we are now up to around $84,500 which is a remarkable effort.
Fundraising Update, Thanks and Hello’s
Before we left we raised donations totalling $72,890.00 for the 2 Charities, being $55.040 to the RFDS and $17,850 to UWA. We thank all of you for your generosity. On the way we were given more donations from people we came across and we would also like to thank these people for their kindness.
The team would like to thank David Okeby for his efforts in setting up and managing this website which meant a lot of people, especially families were able to be informed on what was happening, who was crashing, breaking bones and so on.
And a thanks to families and friends who put up with “this” and “us” for months. “This” being once described as a Mid life crisis and “us” as being mad or worse grey nomads.
A special mention for Macca ( the only starter who did not make it due to his broken leg) and Claire, who has had to deal with the impact of his broken leg, now with a plate in it. His bike is for sale!
As for families, thanks for support from Blaze O’Byrne, Lisbeth & Susannah Goedhart,the Kennedy clan, Jan, Jason, Luke and Tam, Liz, Desiree,Jacqueline and Nannette Allen, Rose, David, Sam,Sophie, Jon,Sally, James, Jack, Jasper, Beth, Fred and Dinah Okeby, Jen McFadden, Bill Lake, Racheal Mason and all of Clarkey’s family in NZ, Colin Ingham and Fay and the Kenny family.
Thanks also for the support to Aisha Kimberley and Classes 11 and 12 at Mindari Primary School. We came across lots of school children on the ride, mostly aboriginal, very polite and all very interested in starting and revving the bikes, and apart from one boy all requesting wheelies, the one boy at Normanton wh did not want to see a wheelie said he did not want to risk someone getting hurt.
Day 25 – Cooktown to Cairns 243k’s (The Final Day)
The day started with dark clouds and rain in Cooktown, but with the Bureau of Meteorology maps showing only spotty rain, we set off hoping that we would not get too wt.
Before we left we had a quick rendezvous with Narelle, the reporter for the Cooktown Times and then we headed out of town towards the Bloomfield Track. The trip was uneventful as we headed into the rainforest around Rossville apart from encountering road works and a number of vehicles on the track. We made good time to Ayton and then turned up along high above the Bloomfield River as we headed for the river crossing. We had been told the day before by the road workers at a major ford on the Battle Camp Road that there was not much water in the Bloomfield River and that was the case with the dry Irish Crossing.
From there we headed up into the Daintree National Park towards Cape Tribulation. By now it had started to sporadically rain and the steep track was quite slippery with some of the water crossings rocky and deep which made them a quite different experience then what we had previously encountered. For Liam one water crossing turned out to be a very different experience when he came across half a dozen Scottish backpackers wandering along looking for a special pool that they had been told held turtles. When we caught up with Liam he was off his bike entertaining them with stories of his travels, which no doubt sounded heroic to his audience. We headed on, led by Clarkey to discover Miles had fallen in the next river crossing and was pinned under his bike. We rescued Miles and his bike, which would not start. We waited for Bruce and the tools to turn up and when they did much to our surprise Bruce had “rescued” the Scottish backpackers and they were riding on the Ford.
Despite the distractions Bruce and Liam soon had Miles’ bike running and we all headed off towards Cape Tribulation. The rainforest was very dense and the topography rugged with steep slippery slopes with tight bends and rocky river crossings thrown in. Liam managed to fall off but did not hurt himself.
We eventually got to Cape Tribulation for lunch, by now it was raining and the Cape did not look its best.
From Cape Tribulation we were on the bitumen and in wet riding conditions wound our way to the Daintree River ferry. From the ferry we headed South in what was now pouring rain which made riding difficult. However despite the conditions we reached Cairns late in the afternoon although we had one more mishap when Clarkey hit a patch of oil on the road and came off.
And so it was with much relief that we arrived at our final stop in Cairns.
Day 24 – Archer River Roadhouse to Cooktown (451k)
There wa a heavy dew on the ground overnight and we left Archer River early in cool still conditions. As we had a long day ahead of us we had decided to skip breakfast at the Archer River Roadhouse and head to Coen for breakfast at “Grunters Beastro” where they had good coffee.
Once we neared Coen we were in hilly wooded country again and we travelled through this all the way south to Musgrave where we refuelled. Up to this point we had been retracing the route we had taken north, but at Musgrave we turned east and headed into the Lakefield National Park on our way to Cooktown.
It was not long before we were out of the wooded hills and onto the grassed river delta country all of which was very dry. After a couple of river crossings we stopped at Lakefield for a quick lunch, thanks to Les. We then continued across this flat land until we reached the turnoff at Old Laura where we turned onto Battle Camp Road and the country changed. Now we found ourselves in undulating heavily wooded country with many water crossings, a couple of which were quite deep. We managed to cross them all without incident. The road was now a red clay and gravel and quite tricky as we climbed and descended down the side of steep hills with most of the bends being off camber to add to the required concentration levels. After the turnoff onto the Hopevale Road we found ourselves in lush farm country with fat beef cattle which we continued to ride through until we got to the outskirts of Cooktown.
We checked into our nightfall the River of Gold Motel late afternoon and prepared ourselves for the final day of our adventure with rain forecast for the first time.
Day 23 – Loyalty Beach Cape York to Archer River Roadhouse (390k)
Although we planned to leave Loyalty Beach around 8 am surprisingly we were all keen to hit the road and were ready early and on the road by 7.30am.
Conditons were good and being a Sunday morning there was little traffic. We had a short wait at the Jardine River Ferry but made good progress and reached Bramwell Junction Roadhouse around noon for an early lunch.
As our planned nightfall at Moreton Telegraph Station was only 42k’s from there and the meal we had there on the way up was rated somewhere between the worst and second worst we decided to push on further to Archer River Roadhouse for the night. We reached Archer River around 2pm although not without some drama as Miles got a flat tyre, which Bruce repaired and Clarkey hit a small roo which Liam removed from the road in case it ended up in our larder.
Day 22 – Loyalty Beach Cape York
Although this was a rest day it wasn’t so much for Bruce, Liam and Clarky as they worked for most of the morning, changed 3 rear tyres, replaced air filters and repaired a few things that needed attention. After lunch most had a quiet “nana nap” but Liam and Mark went to have a look around Seisia including visiting the local market, and chatting to a few local kids about the bikes and then headed off to look at the WWII plane wrecks near Jacky Jacky Airport, but without luck.
That evening Pauline served up an outstanding meal at the Fishing Lodge, fresh caught whole barramundi, mussels, salt and pepper squid, Spanish mackerel, numus, salad and pear shaped baked mashed potato which Liam thought was the most creative way he had seen mashed potato presented. Eating a meal like that sitting right on the beach was a first class experience.
After dinner we were joined by Joste, a young German who was making a thorough tour of Australia, Carl and Debbie a young Australian couple who in their words were “doing a lap of Australia” and Ben an Aussie guy from Sydney travelling on his own. Joste had us laughing so much we almost cried as he relayed his experiences about eating wildlife, including seagulls. His advice on avoiding worms and cysts “”fry all meat for a very long time”.
Loyalty Beach Fishing Lodge turned out to be an excellent place to stay. While not flash it was right on the beach and had a great atmosphere.
Brief mention needs to be made of the visit of Bruce, Liam, Clarkey and Mark to the Seisia Fishing Club the night before. Being the only entertainment available it brought the locals out and the local band was pretty good with a mix of Island music and rock ‘n roll. Clarkey celebrated completing the Cape to Cape ride with an impressive solo dance to April Sun in Cuba. Closing time at the Fishing Club was early, 10pm and Mark kindly drove 2 of the staff and their boyfriends, who had all been drinking, back to the Resort in their 2 door Hyundai Excel. Liam and Bruce did not think it possible to get such a heavily laden small car through the deep water crossing it had to get across, however applying local knowledge it proved to be no barrier to the Hyundai getting through much to their surprise. All is on video.