Recovery in Townsville and onward to Cairns - 11th to 13th September

We took the horror all night flight from Perth to Townsville as it put us in Townsville at 8:00am in the morning of 11th. Once off the flight it was time to get a taxi to the Lockup storage to retrieve the bikes. It took a little bit of time to get the batteries reconnected and panniers etc. back onto the bikes. Since the batteries had been disconnected for the five weeks we had been away there was no trouble starting the bikes. The extra gear stored in the lockup meant that we had to go to the caravan park first. We had booked two nights in a cabin so it depended what time we would be able to get into the cabin as we arrived at 9:30am. Luckily we were able to get in straight away and did not have to wait until the usual check in time of 2:00pm.

I left Trish to settle into the cabin and get some rest while I went and retrieved the trailer from where it had been locked up in the caravan park then headed the 15km back into Townsville and to the lockup. All the extra gear was loaded into the trailer then off back to the caravan park for some well-earned sleep. Neither of us got much if any sleep on the flight. My bum is not built for sitting in the one place for that many hours so I'm continually squirming and moving around.

At 11:00am we stretched out on the big comfy bed and slept soundly until 3:00pm. What relief! The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and sipping wine while watching some TV while trying to adjust our meal times to the two hour time difference.

12th September and feeling human again it was time to reorganize all our gear and repack the trailer. There was also time to wash both my bike and the filthy trailer. Trish's bike does not seem to get as dirty since it presents a smaller surface traveling forward as does the ST1300. That's my excuse for not washing hers too. To get our heads back around the whole traveling and sightseeing thing we headed into Townsville to the Castle Hill Lookout for some great views of the surrounding City and countryside. Followed by a leisurely lunch down on The Strand. Then our last sleep in a real bed for a while.

13th September and the ride to Cairns. Before our rushed trip back to Perth we had planned Mission Beach as our next stop but with 5 weeks spent at home we had decided to go straight through to Cairns. It is all about the timing with the weather and the coming wet season and heat. Our plans will now need to be modified as we head for home. The trip through to Cairns was interspersed with brief patches of light rain. As it was not cold the rain was not a problem and of course on the ST1300 it is just a matter of raising the windscreen and settling in dry behind it. On this trip of just over 300km we came across two recent accidents where people had run off the road and into deep ditches on the side of the road. In both cases the Emergency services were still in attendance. Both appeared to be on reasonable good sections of road in good conditions so who knows how they ended up like that.

On arrival at the park we did our 30th erection of this trip. It had been a while since we last put the tent up but everything went like clockwork. Despite what we were leaving behind I must admit it did actually feel good to be back on the road again and we had both commented how good it was to be on the bikes again.

Dave