Endeavour [#22]
Being over this side of the world you get a different perspective on life.Rugby is the national religeon, erm, I mean sport, Europe seems a distant but vaguely curious novelty structure, I am a bit of an alien here (not that I'm made unwelcome!) and history lasts barely more than a century (as opposed to the last few thousand years). But living in a 'new' country you find that what history there is, is cherished proudly and gladly shown off. This is true for New Zealand, Australia and although I've never been there, I believe the USA.
I have been working at First Edition publishing for nearly a year now and recently I was very pleased to have a couple of weeks of holiday. My brother, Steve, had a conference in Cairns, Queensland at the International Stem Cell Research thingy because he's a research scientist in the stem cell field. The conference would last only 4 days and there was no way he was going to fly from Edinburgh to Cairns just for 4 days without making the most of it so he brought his bike over and had been planning to cycle up into Cape York by himself afterwards.
That was until I heard about it!
I have been working at First Edition publishing for nearly a year now and recently I was very pleased to have a couple of weeks of holiday. My brother, Steve, had a conference in Cairns, Queensland at the International Stem Cell Research thingy because he's a research scientist in the stem cell field. The conference would last only 4 days and there was no way he was going to fly from Edinburgh to Cairns just for 4 days without making the most of it so he brought his bike over and had been planning to cycle up into Cape York by himself afterwards.
That was until I heard about it!
No, no, no, no - I wasn't going to miss the chance to head off into the Aussie outback and do some more serious exploring of that great land. In 2001 I'd invited myself along on his trip to the Himalayas so, again, I wasn't worried about volunteering myself as an essential member of the crew and making plans to arrive in Australia in time for the ride. Normally I'd be polite and wait to be asked, but this was my bro' and there was the tasty prospect of an adventure.
It was also a part of the world that I had some personal connections with. Back in 1998 I hitched hiked up into Cape York over dirt roads and camped by myself in the middle of nowhere until I got to Cooktown - a small, coastal pioneer town named after the famous Captain Cook.
It was also a part of the world that I had some personal connections with. Back in 1998 I hitched hiked up into Cape York over dirt roads and camped by myself in the middle of nowhere until I got to Cooktown - a small, coastal pioneer town named after the famous Captain Cook.
Modern replica of 'Endeavour' - Captain Cook's vessel at Cooktown. It was through staying there that by a series of random connections I managed to hitch on a private yacht and sail to New Zealand and I stayed there for 6 months in 1999. It was a thrilling voyage and I will never forget the powerful feelings I had 4 weeks later when I stuck my head through the hatch early one morning as we sailed gently into the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. This is where Captain Cook also made land back in 1769.
So anyway, I boxed up my bike, flew to Cairns and met up with my brother. We rode north intending to travel over the next 11 days right up to the tip of Cape York but after a few days it became evident that this was almost impossible. The conditions were at times gruelling with the rough and sometimes extremely hilly route making progress slower than we'd hoped. Even though it was the middle of winter, on some days we were dripping with sweat as we rode and soon became nicely dusted with the signature red Australian dust.
We were self-sufficient, each having a bush-camping hammock which we rigged up between a couple of gum trees. They have sewn-in mosquito nets and a separate fly sheet incase of rain so we were reasonably comfy.
Packing up the hammocks at one of our bush camps.
The weather in Australia however had been rather hostile and we found on several nights the temperature was really cold. We cooked on campfires, washed and drank from the pristine creeks wherever possible and used the great alfresco dunny as our toilet! We saw some wonderful wildlife. We didn't spot any crocodiles, but we had to do many river crossings and one day we camped next to a lake populated by esturine crocodiles. We were covered in dried sweat and encrusted with grime and sand so neither of us felt like bedding down without some kind of a wash so we took it in turns to have a quick, nervy bath while the other one stood guard with a sheath knife and improvised club! I doubt that this would have deterred a peckish crocodile in the least. It just seemed that 'Scrawny-Pom' wasn't on the menu for that night, thank-goodness! I did feel a bit of a pillock - I don't think I exactly have the 'Crocodile Dundee' profile!
We saw some impressive spiders and a magnificent snake though. We were riding through a dense section of tropical rainforest near the Daintree National Park and I was scouring the jungle for a cassowary (a very rare primaeval-looking bird - about as big as an ostrich and bright blue in colour) when I cycled right next to a rather large black snake who was sunning himself in a pool of warm sunlight. Steve was right behind and nearly rode over the poor guy but to everyone's relief we just had a pleasant close-encounter with no harm done on either side.
So we never managed to ride the full length of Cape York, but we modified our route and did a big loop back to Cairns. Total distance was something like 750km.
We did have unexpected issues as well. My rear tyre blew out (not just the inner tube but the actual tyre). I was lucky to get a hitch with the bike on a Ute to the nearest small town. A local police man drove up and parked a couple of minutes later and when he heard about my tyre he said - 'Oh, mate - I've got one of them you can have!' Now that's what I call a Police Service!
We also had to make a diversion at one point because they were burning of scrub as a bushfire counter-measure.
Roadside find - battered old number plate.Now a trophy on my wall.
The change of plan gave us a couple of days relaxation at the end of the trip before our flights out of Australia. We were able to take the spectacular Skyrail cable car up through the rainforest and then we went out snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I'd dived here before but I love snorkelling too and we had a most enjoyable end to our great trip. More photos are uploaded to my Picasa album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/colossusnz/CapeYorkJune07
Steve and me.So now I'm back at work, though only for a short while as I'm heading back to the UK in September for my brother's wedding so if anyone's around please let me know and I'll try and visit as many people as I can.
posted by col @ 12:48 pm
1 Comments:
Hi, I would like to use the map of CYP that you have on your blog and need to quote the source?
Kind Regards
Mym
Post a Comment
<< Home