So since Kate and I bought Stocky (our bike) I’ve been the only one to use it. LOL idk why but Kate has yet to ride it. But anyways, since we’ve had it I’ve been dying to ride it into town. The thing is, the roads here are like highways, so riding in the bike lane on the left side is not what I’m looking for. So I’ve spent time looking up ways to get there via bike paths. Now Ross River runs through Townsville all the way past our school and goes on and on. And there’s a bike path along it. I wasn’t sure how long it it went though, and mileage-wise it was about a 12 mile ride….one way.
So I’d put it off for a few weeks. But I tend to feel really bad if I squander my Wednesdays away because I don’t have class. So I resolved to go this Wednesday. I planned to leave at nine, because the mornings are the only time when it’s under 100 degrees! After about ten its HOT alllllllllllllll day. So I figured I’d bike down and spend the day on the beach (reading Seven Little Australians a children’s book for my lit class!). However, I got up and was blessed with a gem of a day – cloudy!! Now if you know me at all I hate gloomy cloudy days, hence why I left Seattle for school, but when you haven’t seen a grey cloud in a month you actually miss it a little. But let’s be real, it wasn’t so much the gloominess I liked as much as the temp drop and promise of a few rain drops. PERFECT weather for an exhausting bike ride to town.
I set off with a bag packed with a swimsuit and towel in case I actually made it to the beach and didn’t give up, or get lost, or (as I am in Australia) die from some crazy poisonous spider/snake/croc bite. I headed out of uni and when I got to the bridge over Ross River I took a left. OF COURSE THO I was supposed to go RIGHT. I didn’t quite figure out my dumb error until the paths got so narrow that I went along the main road and realized I was going towards this place called the Tav (Riverview Tavern) which I recognized as being west of uni when I should have been travelling east towards the coast. DUMB. But I did see a cool bridge and pretty riverbank scenery and passed Mocha Mecca which apparently offers early bird brekky under $10 (A FRICKIN STEAL IN THIS EXPENSIVE COUNTRY) that I shall have to investigate further another time.
As I pedaled back towards the main bride, I couldn’t decide if it’d be a good idea to still try to go to the Strand, or give up now. The thing is it can get hot real quick, and my frozen water bottle was already lukewarm. However, the temp was only in the high 80s still and clouds didn’t seem to be clearing, so I figured I would just keep going until I felt really tired and then I could come back. So I crossed the bridge and went RIGHT. This was definitely the right path, a wide bike lane with footpath markers and few people walking their dogs or biking along the river with me. Basically I just kept going as I never felt too tired or too hot yet. I maybe passed another person every fifteen minutes, so I turned on music and had it playing in Stocky’s basket. It was pleasant! The path was flat in general, a few rises and falls, but I was never bored and never tired. I got about halfway between uni and town after about two hours (since I had gone an hour out the way before). And I could see the cone-shaped top of the Holiday Inn not too far away, and Castle Hill totally in focus looming over the town. So I just kept going.
The path stopped briefly where the crazy large Townsville golf course takes over the riverfront, so it dumped me out on a side street, but still there was signage leading me to town. After about a total of 2.5hrs and 14 miles (!!!!) I arrived in town!! Not to bad!! It started to rain a little and it felt great! Haha I wasn’t that tired, but I was hungry and needed more water. So I ducked into the Two Brothers Cafe (my favorite restaurant in Townsville) for an amazing egg sandwich. I love the way they do bacon there. It’s a perfect cross between American and Australian….thick cut like ham, but fried greasy like ours. YUM. I had a sweet tea as well as a whole jug of ice water. The owners, Bec and Wil, who are so nice, were there so I got to catch up with them a bit.
I debated staying on the Strand to read a bit or lay out, but the sun wasn’t out so tanning wouldn’t happen ( 😦 ) and I was afraid if I stopped for too long I wouldn’t have the energy to get all the way back, so I just decided to come back to uni. I left the same way I came, and the one way trip took about 75 mins. The worst is getting into uni. It’s cooler in town by the water, and there seemed to be a breeze along the river because biking down the one street to Rotary I was dead. It’s definitely hotter in Douglas than in town and I felt it for sure. I of course chugged two water bottles before getting in a nice cold shower.
All in all it was about a 4 hour adventure, and I biked 23.5 miles!! How!? I’ve been running most nights around the main road on campus that makes a big loop around uni. It takes 25min to do one lap and it’s just barely 3 miles, and we’re always SOAKING with sweat after. I have no idea how I made it 23 miles and can still stand up. To say I’m proud of myself is a little understated, haha! I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune tomorrow morning when I’m epic-ly sore and have to bike to all 4 of my classes! But I did it! 🙂
I of course stopped to take pictures of the gorgeous river every two seconds too:
Ross River BikeWay
best brekky in Townsville @ Two Brothers Cafe
Maybe I’ll make that a weekly adventure on my day off. Next time I’ll leave a little earlier to miss the heat while biking, and spend the whole day on the beach reading, swimming, and tanning!! before biking back later when it cools off (and by that I mean drops from 100 to 90). We’ll see. Wish me luck!
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