Rob 'n BOB on the BNT
Mossman to Innot Hot Springs,
QLD
4 - 9 November 2003
as told
to and prepared by Gwen
After the rigours
of the Creb Track,
the section between Mossman and
Mowbray Creek, although there was lots of "up and down", was
"relatively" easy! And, at that "primitive" camp site one of the
Section Co-ordinators for Cooktown to Mount
Molloy, Martin Hammerle
(better known as "Mushgang"), came out to meet Rob. There was
also another couple camping there, as well as a Dutch couple who were
in Australia for six months, too! Quite a little "colony"
considering the remote location! Rob rode through Mount Molloy
too early the next morning to catch the bakery open. Too
bad -- he DOES love fresh baking!
Kingsborough proved to be a "surprise
oasis" in the midst of
"hundreds" of old gold mines! The "oasis" is the work of a
Swedish man named Ike, who has lived in Australia for 30 years,
and who settled in this hinterland locality, planted MANY DIFFERENT
fruit trees (star fruit; mangoes of MANY varieties; papaya; guava, etc.
etc.) uses drip irrigation to water them; has great quantities of
stored rain water for plants and people; charges $15. a night for a
guest room; $5. a night for camping site (including water use); and,
makes delicious fruit wines from all his different kinds of
fruit! Each of these fruit wines was offered for tasting to all
the six guests who were there that evening!
Kingsborough is south of Mount
Molloy; north of Mutchilba; and, west of
Cairns. Pretty easy co-ordinates to follow, aye what? One
of the overnight guests was a gold fossicker who took Rob out for a few
hours fossicking for gold. Despite the fact that Rob's "guide"
had found two gold nuggets the day before, this day Rob "found only"
the wonderful sight and songs of birds of many descriptions! That
suited Rob just fine!
From there it was a couple of days to
Innot Hot Springs and no one on
the trail, other than Rob. The night in between he camped for
free at the pub at Irvine Bank, and, the "boys in the Pub" regaled him
with tales of how difficult would be his ride up Mt. Misery, the next
day. However, Rob says he was able to peddle (albeit slowly!) the
whole way up and then "rolled into" Innot Hot springs! And then
he enjoyed a beer at that pub and a good soak or two in the hot
pools!
His first parcel of food and supplies
was waiting for him at Innot,
but, since he'd eaten so many meals in pubs, recently, and not eaten
much of his own freeze-dried foods, he had to add these new packets to
his load on his BOB! But, by now his legs had grown stronger and
he could carry a bit more heavy load.
The folks at Innot Hot Springs told
Rob the temperatures the week
before had been around 40C, but, with only 30C daytime temps this week
and down to 18C overnight, he says it's a pleasure to be out
biking! He needs LOTS of fluids to drink, of course, and, usually
swigs back a 1.5 litre of lemon-orange soft drink while standing in a
payphone booth, talking to me! -- as well as all the litres
of water (and beer, when it's available!) that he consumes each
day! At this point he is carrying in his bike bottle racks and
water container in his BOB, enough drinking water for a day and a half.
Rob has adopted a daily schedule of
going to bed by 8pm and being up by
4am and out on the trail soon after that. This way he can
optimize biking during the cooler part of the day and settling into a
camp site in the early afternoon.
By this time many/most of the rivers
he was crossing were dry so he
phoned ahead to many of the Station managers/owners to enquire about
the availability of water. He was heartened to hear that there
was enough water in the next stretch to Mingela and Ravenswood (west of
Townsville). The stations said they would give him water, if
other water not available. One of the stations Rob reached by
phone was Kirkland Downs where Rob had had his last and FINAL breakdown
of his "bomb-proof" (NOT) Spinergy wheels in his 1998-99 BNT effort!
Rob is still "on schedule", even
although he's "taken off" a few days,
already. It's important for him to savour his travelling, as well
as to "make hay while the sun shines"!
