Another milestone – I am now in Queensland, having decided to cross the border early and catch up with an old school friend.
I left “Chateau Poss” and my kind source of a comfy bed just after 8am bound for Tweed Heads and beyond. I headed back up Friday Hut Rd and then down that steep climb I came up on Friday…but, I stopped so often to take photos, I lost the benefit of the descent – such wonderful countryside!
Before long I was back on the highway and in Brunswick Heads. After a traditional bun stop, I continued on my way. I detoured through Ocean Shores, New Brighton & South Golden Beach before rejoining the Old Pacific Hwy and cycling on through Yelgun to the Wooyung turn-off where I headed back to the coast and the Tweed Coast Rd. I followed this all the way up to Chinderah where I had to find a way across to Tweed Heads – the highway over the bridge is barred to cyclists after a fatality recently – eventually found a way up and over on the pedestrian walkway on the west side of the bridge via Chinderah Bay Drive (just past the service station). On the other side in Tweed Heads it got very ‘iffy’ due to roadworks when I rejoined the highway and I would have been better off avoiding the highway altogether.
I eventually made it safely to Coolangatta after crossing the border without even any indication I had done so! The trip up the coast road was relatively uneventful but it became obvious, even on a Sunday afternoon, that this was getting back towards a big city – traffic and the lights that go with it got more frequent.
I arrived at Rob’s place at about 4pm after travelling 129.9km (a couple of wrong turns can add kms to the trip) at a reasonable average of 22.4km/h in a saddle time of 5:47 with a top speed of 65.4km/h.
My next talk is in Shailer Park on Tuesday evening so it was time to chill out with old friends.
2 replies on “…and on into Queensland”
Great to read about your travels, John. Weather looks like it has been kind and you’ve been through some fabulous country and met some wonderful people.
Perhaps you should get BSC to send you up some Schwalbe Marathon tyres. You shouldn’t be getting that many punctures these days. Do you have sort of banner or sign on your trailer now? Can’t see it in your photos, but might have got a glimpse on one of the news videos in your Media section.
Enjoy the Sunshine State,
S,S,M&J
Yes, the best thing I did was to purchase a couple of hoardings in Sydney to decorate the sides of the trailer (it probably makes it a bit more aerodynamic as well) – it has garnered many comments since. I’ll be posting some more happy snaps soon; hopefully this afternoon, but I want to organise them a bit better.
The weather has been exceptionally kind to me with little rain and quite mild temperatures (once I left winter behind) – what more can a cyclist ask for?