Day  26:                                Prof’s Place near Malanda to Cairns (1m)

Distance:                             77.59km

Av speed:                            17.4kmh

Total Elevation:                  478m

Calories:                             2907 per person

Weather:                             Warm (28*C)

As is now our Wednesday ritual, Chris woke at the sprightly time of 4:30am to conduct another interview with SEN 1116AM, before he jumped back into bed to grab an extra hours sleep.

By 8am, Rob and Wendy had fed us and chauffeured us back to Malanda to start the ‘short’ 70km run into Cairns. Like everyone along the route, Rob and Wendy were wonderful to us and we enjoyed spending our short time with them – so a very big thanks goes out to them!

The first 25km of the day were much like yesterday, underlating hills in the Atherton Tableland. Chris however did spot the first snake of the trip, a python of some sort... of course, it was flat and shrivelled and yet another piece of roadkill.

After about 90 minutes of riding we hit the sign we’d been hanging out for ‘19km of Dangerous Roads’... for us that meant we were about to head back down the Great Dividing Range and 19km of not having to pedal... a huge luxury after 3000km of riding!

Giving each other space to avoid the cars, navigate the sharp turns and prevent the trailers from jack-knifing and sending us over the edge... we were soon descending alone. Luckily, Chris managed to feel his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled over to check what was up.... a puncture for Jon. Finding a lookout to wait at, Chris spent the time taking photos and eavesdropping on a tourist coach commentary.

About 25 minutes later, Jon arrived but no bike could be spotted... turns out it was in the back of a delivery van further down the road. Jon’s rear derailleur mount had snapped (we’d been aware it was cracked) when he was attending to the puncture and the bike was now unrideable. Fortunately, a passing courier had answered his distressed hitching call and offered to take Jon into Cairns. We said our farewells and continued our separate ways.

The descent was quite spectacular, with broad views down to the valley below. When reaching the bottom of the range, Chris then found himself riding through vast sugar cane plantations... reminding him of Jimmy Barnes standing in a burning one, he was soon singing ‘Working Class Man’ at the top of his lungs.

The last 25km to Cairns were on the busy Bruce Highway and it was interesting to see how little room the drivers were willing to give Chris. This is a little concerning given the busy but narrow coastal road we’ll be riding up on Friday.

We caught up again at the Cairns Esplanade before dropping our bikes off at ‘The Bike Man’ for a much needed service. The afternoon was then spent lounging around the pool and getting some rest.

With Chris’ dad and best friend in town, the night was spent drinking many beers and having many laughs with Bruiser, Mal, Keith and Sars and it was the perfect tonic to rejuvenate the batteries before these coming final days! It was great to see them and we thank them so much for making the effort to come and support us!