May 9 Byron Bay to Tallebudgera - 85 kms

Sitting here in the laundry doing the blog I feel a little uncomfortable and yet also loose and free.  It must be my commando like capability while waiting for the washing.  (OK, a bit obscure I know but some will know what i am talking about).  Here' s Joe updating the blog.


Started the day early and were on our bikes at 7.30 am. We rode along the Pacific Highway and flew.  The road surface was hard and fantastic for fast riding.  Quite a few hills, but nothing too tough.  Just enough to keep us honest. Also lots of traffic, trucks especially.  This picture shows Joe flying along and clearly beating the truck beside him.  Did I say we flew?  Well we did.  Even up the hills.  By the time we went along the coast and stopped at Cabarita Beach for morning tea at 10:00 we had ridden 50 kms.



While we were eating by the beach Geoff, who has the Cabarita bike shop stopped to admire our touring bikes. Geoff currently does track and criterion racing but would like to cycle tour in future. Joe dismounted with a flourish right outside the shop - damn cleats.  Geoff was impressed. We took the opportunity to borrow a floor pump to top up our tyres, so much easier to get good pressure than using a hand pump. Tony also tried out his new touring bike while we were there.



Geoff also gave us advice on a bike path that kept us out of the traffic and the best way to ride into Brisbane on bikes. Thanks Geoff!! His shop is  Cabarita Beach Cycles.






The rest of the day we rode along the Gold Coast. There are some really good bike paths along the beach and we enjoyed the ride but progress was much slower than on the road. Although the beaches are great much of the houses along the bike path were ' Retirement Resort" style i.e built for retirees or resort style holidays. It seems a bit artificial.


Near Tweed Heads we had to get back on the road and battle with heavy traffic. We were quite uncomfortable having to navigate the heavy bikes through the Twin Towns , Tweed Heads & Coolangatta.


At Tugan we stopped for lunch and admired the scenery. The bakery had run out of rolls some we bought a french stick and filled it lettuce, eggs (hard-boiled last night) and hommus. Subway eat your heart out this was a "Yardlong".


Finished the day in another caravan park and had orange roughy with salad for dinner.


Tony wanted to watch Heston, but some pr*#! mongrel had pinched the remote.


Another early night Kindling (Randling eat your heart out).