Day 21 – Moreton Telegraph Station to Cape York.

Finally after 20 days on the road, Cape York, or “the Tip” as it is referred to locally, was within reach. After a cool night at Moreton we headed off early with the sun barely over the horizon and casting dappled light on the road making it difficult to read the surface. And after the last 2 days of relatively easy riding we expected the same to the Tip but it was not to turn out that way and we copped the lot, unmarked water crossings, sand, gravel, tight bends, mud and oncoming traffic that did not give way. We all managed to handle the conditions and apart from a few near misses we managed to all stay upright.

First stop was Fruit Bat Falls where we had morning tea and coffee at this very pretty spot. After this we left the dense forest we had been riding through and found ourselves riding over heathlands almost the same as we had started with in WA. After a few k’s this gave way to dense forest became more like a tropical jungle as we moved forward. We crossed the Jardine River on the ferry late morning and made Bamaga for lunch. We were certainly now in the tropics with lush tropical vegetation covering everything. From Bamaga we headed to our final destination. Although only 34k’s from Bamaga it was to be quite a journey with a lot of surface water on the road, a number of water crossings including one deep one, mud and deep wheel ruts. We managed our way through these and eventually reached the Tip where we congratulated ourselves on our success and took the obligatory photos.

After 21 days on the road we had covered around 6100k’s and according to my GP our average moving speed was 75kph. Out of the original 8 riders, 5 made it unscathed, 2 nursing injuries (Miles and Clarkey) and 2 very proud riders managed not to fall once (Mark and Terry).

Tomorrow we rest at Loyalty Beach near Seisia and then we start our 4 day ride to Cairns to the end of this epic ride.

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Published:
Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
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