Tinaroo Falls to Wonga Beach
Day 273
My night had not been restful. The evening before one of the men who worked at the camp, walked in with a snake around his arm. He asked if anyone there “liked snakes” I didn’t say anything, but managed to back away far enough to watch and hear the conversation. The snake he was carrying was a small venomous snake he had just found out in the back yard, the yard where my tent was pitched. He let Ann touch the snake and she noticed it was venomous. He said because the snake was so small, it’s venom would not be enough to hurt a large human.
Leaving the comfortable confines of dinner, I used my flashlight to monitor my every step back to the tent. Once inside the tent, I was afraid that the snaked would crawl under the tent to snuggle up to a warm body (mine). I figured I would be OK, just as long as I didn’t slide off the therm-o-rest mattress. Needless to say, I dreamed of snakes all night. I hate snakes.
It was to be a great ride today with a variety of terrain, never boring. Leaving the Presbyterian Church camp up in the Table Lands we would be dropping down off the plateau back to the Pacific coast, to ride on the Captain Cook Highway.
My watch was bothering me in the humidity, so I took it off. This one action made my day more enjoyable. Time didn’t matter, I had all day to go 135 kilometers and the only goal that was important was to reach camp before it got dark. No problem!
At lunch I stopped at the Mount Molly Cafe in Mount Molly. Little did I know when I ordered a hamburger that I would be getting a huge feast. The owner and his wife were immigrants, he Swiss and she Mexican. They migrated to Australia 20 years ago. Combined they produced the best looking and tasting hamburgers I’ve ever found.
Walter and Ann with their burgers, look at the size of them! We ate these materpieces with a knife and fork. layer by layer. These were $5 burgers (Aussie dollars meaning they cost us $3 American)
I left the little town of Mount Molly satisfied and happy with sweet memories of a “WOW” lunch. The next section of road was rolling hills for about 20 kilometers. After the boring flat, I welcomed some challenge and was past the section in no time. The final Aussie descent was coming up, I had heard about it from the locals. They kept telling me to me sure I had good brakes, because the road was very curvy with a fast steep descent. Cool, I could hardly wait.
The locals were semi-right. The descent was one of the best I’ve ever had, it was curvy but not so much I had to apply the brakes, I just leaned into the turn and continued to pick up speed all the way down. The view was spectacular, at the top I could see the Pacific coastline and Pierre pointed out the campground where we were staying 35 kilometers away. I rode through the rain forest until it ended at the bottom of the mountain, then the sugar cane fields began again and so did the heat. The heat hit me in the face the minute I emerged from the forest like a curtain waiting to envelope all those who exit. After all it is the tropics.
Pierre, a staff member enjoying the great day.