BACK ON THE COAST

I woke the next morning to another blanket of think fog but I was determined to get away from the weather that seemed to have closed out the whole Atherton Tablelands.I guess the term "Misty Mountains" is correct when they named the tourist drive that winds it's way through the lush rolling hills around the district. After a quick coffee and about an hour packing up all my rain sodden stuff I hopped back on my bike and headed off along the Palmerston Highway back toward the coast and my planned campsite 100k away.

The first hour or so went well and even though there were a few hills to struggle up I knew that once I hit the little hamlet of Milla Milla there would be way more down than up.I was right and the rest of the morning passed quickly as I dropped out of the green farmland of the Tablelands and into the National Parks that make this area so poular with the tourist droves.The lower I got the warmer it got and after about three hours I was having a spot of early lunch by a stream surrounded by thick rainforest.It was beautiful. Onward though as I was on a mission and apart for pausing at a couple of great viewpoints it was the express train to the flatlands of the coastal plain.

By midday I had reached the bottom and was riding through endless miles of cane fields and banana plantations while being toasted by the afternoon sun.I was pretty happy even though the wind gods had conspired against me by slapping me in the face with yet another headwind.It didn't matter much as I only had about 30k of riding to go before hitting the main highway from which point it was a short 5k to my campsite at the rest stop near El Arish.

So it was 98k for the day and I finally felt like I had a positive day on the bike.The day just got better when I met up with some other travellers who had parked thier assorted vehicles in the roadside rest area.Straight away I was being asked all kinds of questons about my trip and offers of coffee and biscuits were abundant.It was great to be around some people after what I felt was an eternity of isolation in the soggy mountains.

I went about having a wash in the stream and spreading all my stuff out on my two tarps in an attempt to dry everthing out in the afternoon sun all the while chatting with my fellow campers.Attention soon turned to feeding myself an it wasn't long before we were all sat around the park bench tucking into our respective culinary creations and asking all about each others trips.With two Aussie couples,a young French couple and a couple from the Netherlands the conversation was always going to be interesting.We were given sage advice from seasoned van-dwellers about the best rest areas along the coast,given a slideshow on French Fred's computer,had something of a tour of one of the you-beaut,fold out campers that one couple had and I even managed to plug into one guys campervan to check out the Ultraman Canada results.Talk about civilized!!

It was great and I went to sleep a much happier camper.The next morning kind of sealed my fate for the day when I crawled out of my tent to find a heavy dew had soaked everything again.Oh well,not to worry,I would just wait until mid morning to dry it all out and go for a run instead.There was a rest area that I had been told about only 40k or so down the road and apparently it was a really good one so I decided to have a little active recovery day and finish the day there.

By about 11:30 everything was dry and packed away and I was on the road pedalling easily into an ever increasing wind.I still have trouble getting my head around the patience require to be content with riding at about 20kph.After years of competing in triathlons at a decent age-group level, going that slowly is just so damn frustrating.I know I will adapt, as I always do but it doesn't make the first few days any easier.To be fair,I think I was getting down on myself a little bit as I was dragging that bloody load into a headwind."One day the winds will turn around",I kept telling myself,"One day".Not today apparently!
A couple of hours was all it took to find my camp for the night and it was,as promised, a great one.Lots of shade,lots of room for everyone and great facilities.The State Government does an awesome job of providing these areas for free for everyone who is driving the highways and as much as the caravan park operators hate them, they are a godsend for the thousands of "Grey Nomads" who drive the northern highways,escaping the southern Australian winter.

It was a couple of these old travellers who made my stay that night a memorable one.Rex and Tina are classic example of the army of retirees who spend their winters on the road.They had left wintery Victoria a few months earlier and had toured the north waiting for the seasons to change.I was asked to join them around thier campfire and had a marvelous time discussing and endless list of topics while listening to a brilliant C.D full of classic old songs from the 60's.That is the part of trips like this that I love the most,meeting wonderful people in the most amazing of places and enjoying the simplicity of it all.It was a truly memorable night!