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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We watched channel 7 news as we ate breakfast at the roadhouse and then hit the road. Miles decided to strap his wrist as it was sore from his crash the day before but he was fine to ride.

We headed off North on the Peninsular Development Rd towards Coen through dense open forest. The road was mostly dirt with some short sections sealed for overtaking and a lot of roadworks to repair sections damaged in the wet. Towards Coen the country became much hillier as we headed into the Great Divinding Range and we were soon in mountainous country.

We stopped at Coen for a cuppa and discovered that “Grunters Beastro” had an expresso machine which delivered excellent cappucino’s and expresso coffee. While enjoying this treat Liam discovered that the rear sub-frame on his bike had cracked all the way through. Bruce managed to solve the problem with fencing wire and it was not long before we were off again.
About 70k north of Coen we reached the Archer River Roadhouse were we refuelled and ate lunch surrounded by a busload of grey nomads. From there we rode north through much the same country until we reached the Moreton Telegraph Station our destination for the night. As we were staying in ready made tents we were set up in no time.

It is now our fourth day in FNQ and so far we have avoided any encounters with denge fever carrying mosquito’s or ticks but have been unable to avoid another form of pest which appears to be rapidly increasing in numbers to plague proportions, the GN’s. While one or two GN’s are quite easy to deal with, they are increasing in number at every stop we make, infesting all food places and accommodation. There were dozens of them staying in Moreton and they got a real surprise when “Borat” walked through in his mankini . A few of the ladies got a bit carried away as “Borat” told me later he was manhandled by a couple who whispered in his ear that he was sexy!

Morning saw us up early as usual and after breakfast cooked by Les we were on our way West on the Burke Development Rd to the turn off of the Mt Musgrave Road. We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the road as there were roadworks on the junction but once we were on it we soon found ourselves at the Mitchell River ford where we stopped for morning tea and coffee.

The Mitchell was still wide although we were a fair way upstream but the ford was dry. It was not long before we encountered what was the first of many wet crossings. The road traversed through forest interspersed with pastures and of course cattle grazing, although not as many as we encountered yesterday.

After Mt Mulgrave station the country changed and we found the road winding up and down through hilly country which was fun to ride over. At Palmerville Station the road literally disappeared and we found ourselves going through the back yard of a house. The road reappeared and from here to the Peninsular Development Rd turned out to be a great ride through dense forest with plenty of twists and turns and more water crossings. Miles managed to come off in one, ironically a tributary of the Kenndy River.

Riding in front he came over a ridge to find an unexpected water crossing and although he made it by aquaplaning across he slipped on the other side fortunately without doing himself any harm. The final big water crossing was nearly the undoing of Terry, Mark and Clarky who came across it unexpectedly and went through it faster than they preferred but without any of them coming off.

Once we reached the Peninsular Development Rd it felt like a highway in comparison but no where near as much fun to ride on. We reached the Hann River Roadhouse for a late lunch. From there it was a short haul to the Musgrave Roadhouse where we set up for the night at the camping ground.

We then headed north west from Karumba on the Burke Development Road towards the Mitchell River. We spent most of the day crossing open grassland and woodlands. There was a lot more wildlife than we had seen in the past, roos, emu’s, eagles, brolgas, pigs, a croc, a goanna and heaps of cattle. Fortunately no one hit anything although there were some close shaves.

There was a lot of cattle on the move and yarded at various stations that we crossed and a lot means thousands.
The road was dirt but generally good, although heavily corrugated in parts and we could see where it had been recently flooded with the mud having dried into deep ruts. There were quite a few water crossings although at most the water level had dropped and the crossing was dry. We arrived at our camp site around 3pm and were soon set up for the night.

As we got closer to our destination we considered staying at the nearest accommodation, a resort that quoted $2000 a night per person and a minimum of 2 nights. Even the internet billionaire who is rumoured to be travelling with us balked at that price.

Overall a good day no falls and no injuries although Miles did have a rather terse discussion with a couple of pig hunters who did not appreciate him turning up. Liam turned up from his swim in the river with his bike covered in mud but denied he had fallen off.