Day 18 – Mon, 19 Jul to Lake Tinaroo

The rain from last night had cleared by morning and a bright and sunny day was with us. The clouds on the mountain range that was our backdrop had also cleared, so this was going to be a great day’s riding.

We had agreed that if the weather cleared then we would do a circuit of the tablelands in the dry conditions, so we set off once again up the Gillies Hwy – you should be aware of this by now as I have mentioned this a number of times.

Well did I say wow, wow, wow to describe this road. Only about 35km in length but climbs well over 900m – so lots, and I mean lots of consecutive curves, switches in direction, loop backs, etc.

So yeah there were smiles to be had at the top. We then headed onto Millaa Millaa and on towards Ravenshoe where we then travelled back to Millaa Millaa on the more scenic route that we had travelled before – that was last Monday, seems like much longer. On our return we then took in a number of the waterfalls along the waterfall way. Millaa Millaa Falls (aboriginal meaning ‘many waters’) being the tallest.

After lunch we took a quick run down to Innisfail near the coast, back up to Gordonvale before our last ride up the Gillies to our camp site on Lake Tinaroo, near Yungburra – being about 15km from Atherton.

We travelled around 315km today in our circuit of the range and tableland, and are now camped only 50km by road from where we started. Seems stupid but what a wonderful day of companionship, sightseeing and riding.

 Today was also Rod & my last full day of riding together on this trip. Tomorrow will take us down into Cairns for his bike service prior to his return home. Tonight we spent time sitting by the Lake with our evening cuppa just reliving the day and the trip, the many types of roads travelled, the characters we had met and the places we had been. It has been terrific to have shared this part of my journey with him, and I thank him for sharing it with me.