It's been a year since my last trip out on the bike. The last time was near Melbourne with my buddy Pete, but I have since made my way up to Far North Queensland to the stunning Northern Beaches area of Cairns (just in time to avoid the lockdowns in Melbourne, I might add).
Last November we decided Melbourne was no place to settle-down and raise a child, and I had wanted to get out of the big city for a while, so we decided on my favourite place on my travels around Australia. If you had followed my blog before, maybe you'll remember that I had nothing but praise for Cairns. I really loved New Zealand also, but Cairns was definitely my highlight of Australia. If you are a nature-loving person, there aren't many better places than this area of the world; mountains, rainforest, The Great Barrier Reef, waterfalls, and weird and wonderful wildlife. Indeed David Attenborough himself described Far North Queensland as his favourite place on the planet.
It has taken me a while to get back on the bike, however. Having a baby and settling-in to a totally different life will do that. When you add all the troubles of 2020 on top of that, and the fact that these troubles have made it impossible for any family to come and visit us, then maybe you can understand that I had precious little free time when it is only the two of us looking after a baby. Things have settled-down though and with some routine, I have been able to find time for some more adventures.
Things do have to change though. It would be a bit difficult - not to mention irresponsible - for me to go on tours for weeks and months like I had previously, so a different strategy is required.
Forgetting the bike for a moment, I have been able to do some adventuring on a limited basis because this part of the world is an adventure sportsman's paradise. Hiking, trail running, scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, and camping are just a few of the fantastic activities on my doorstep at the moment and I have taken advantage of this as best I can.
Although I have occasionally drifted onto other areas of adventure on this blog, the main focus is on the bike, so it is good to get things going again in that regard.
With the trusty Soma back in the UK and probably not best suited to the roads or the way I intend to tour for the foreseeable future, a new bike was required. I intend only to do overnight trips or perhaps 3 days maximum (if I am lucky) until my wife and I can get some family over here for support. Even then, I can't see myself doing anything longer than a week for quite a while. The back roads in this area of the world are often not sealed and there are plenty of rough tracks also, so it seemed a perfect opportunity to get properly into bikepacking using a gravel bike.
Gravel bikes are designed to tackle the rough roads, but still have many of the advantages of a road bike, i.e. that you can still cover good distance at reasonable speed on sealed roads. It seemed a perfect option for bicycle touring in this part of the world.
Seeing as I wasn't going to be doing any particularly long trips far away from home, I settled on a budget gravel bike after a bit of research. I found the Marin Nicasio + to fit the bill nicely, which I bought from Bicycles Online. Not too expensive at about $1100 (AUD), but a solid steel frame with plenty of places to mount gear. It is also quite a pretty bike, I think. I am very happy with it so far after a bit of riding around the area where I live, and it is much quicker on the tarmac than I would have thought with the wider tyres. The one drawback could be the limited gearing to help me get up the big climbs, but I can always walk it up the steep sections if need be.
After some acclimatising to the saddle (I hadn't cycled in quite some time), the first thing to do was a little trial run, so I headed up the Kuranda range in the car with the bicycle and sought-out a dirt road circuit I could do in a morning.
I am now using the app Komoot to help with route planning as some more detailed and downloadable maps are required when you head further off the beaten track and away from people and traffic.
At about 45Km it seemed a good little workout for me and the bike. I also used the opportunity to try some different bag set ups and do some video while touring for the first time (on my own, I did a little with my friend in the Grampians in Victoria last year). I am a fan of a few bicycle touring vloggers on YouTube, although I am pretty fussy. There only seem to be a few that are worth watching to me. Here is a list below of some of my favourites:
CyclingAbout - https://www.youtube.com/user/CyclingAboutOfficial
Wheels to Wander - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRooai9NLae8V4lijcYaO2g
Bicycle Touring Pro - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCGE4MRedy8pXEdJb9Vsx-g
Iohan Gueorguiev (See the World) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqiYX6cqxQI9CqhH_kvHeOw
They are all quite different in their style; Cyclingabout's creator Alee Denham is extremely knowledgeable about bikes and very extreme in his route planning. He takes very technical routes and does the seemingly impossible on a touring bike. What also encourages me about him is that his early videos were terrible, yet now they are absolutely magnificent.
Wheels to Wander are a Dutch couple who at the time of writing have been on a world tour for about a year and a half. While also very adventurous in their route planning too, they capture the everyday life of bicycle touring very authentically. From simple things like making coffee and breakfast to documenting frustrations and joys with locals, it is quite low-key but very genuine and brings back fond memories of my longer bicycle tours.
Bicycle Touring Pro is very practical, with lots of tips with his vast experience of bicycle touring. He also engages in a wide variety of bicycle tours and caters to almost everyone.
Iohan Guerguiev is the quintessential romantic adventurer. He makes long, beautiful videos and has a quite charming personality. He is clearly a great lover of adventure, nature, and animals, and it shines through in his videos. His journeys through the Americas have been nothing short of epic, and man does he make me want to cycle in the Andes one day.
I don't aspire to be YouTube stars like these guys, but it did occur to me how nice it would be to be able to look back on some of my adventures. I often return to this blog as a reminder of what I have done. Pictures and words are great, but obviously video would add an extra dimension and there is a joy in creating something in an age of mostly consumption.
Videoing a tour does take quite a bit of time and effort, so with shorter tours on quieter routes, it seemed like I could manage this with little stress. On this first venture out on the new bike, I gave it a go and I was quite pleased with the result. Doing some video also had the positive effect of slowing me down a little and giving my butt a rest from the saddle. I really felt no discomfort the whole day, so I think I'll do a few more videos in the future.
It is really nice to look at a map sometimes and plan a route with no expectations of particular places of interest and no idea of what to expect, then going out and enjoying a really beautiful ride. Surprises also regularly come along. The first was seeing a cassowary about 5 minutes in, and shortly after seeing a naked forest man on the side of the road admiring it. He must of owned the house he was standing in front of, which was the last one before the road wound deeply into the forest.
The route was an amazingly good one considering I had never heard or seen anything of interest in the area, and a perfect test for me and the bike. Mostly unsealed with only a couple of stiff climbs, it was an excellent reintroduction to a bit of touring and some bikepacking.
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| Not bad for adventure on my doorstep. |
All I have to do now is load-up the bike with a bit more gear and do an overnighter. However, the wet season is coming up, so I'll have to be quick. I'll probably try to do one before the end of the year as long as the weather holds up. It will be a hot one though, and although it is still dry at the moment, the temperatures are in the mid-thirties. This is just one of many challenges in this part of the world, but my kind of paradise isn't just about kicking back and enjoying the beach life, it entails a bit of suffering as well. More to come in that regard.
