Australia / New Zealand, Trip Reports » Touring to North Stradbroke Island

by tallmancycles

Touring to North Stradbroke Island

Posted by TallManCycles

We live in a country that seldom has to feel the real distance of travel. We let motor powered car tires pound the bitchumen for us. Many Brisbane dwellers usually drive to Cleveland, travel across Morton Bay, Land in Dunwich and drive to 20 mins to their camping destination.

Enter 5 dudes, 5 bikes and 5 Pairs of legs ready for the journey!

START

As the 4 of us assembled our bikes with our over packed bags (mostly Aaron), our journey began. I say the 4 of us because we had a 5th member who decided to put his bike rack together the morning of the ride, couldn’t locate some runaway bolts and decided to catch the train to our journeys first destination. Cleaveland Ferry!

We left Brisbane, sharing the roads with the other car drivers. Our chosen path was much busier than expected, but we managed to eat our way to the Cleaveland Ferry just in time to catch our planned Water Taxi!

CLICK HERE to see the Route

The water taxi was easy, you just put your bike at the back of the boat, pay $10 and you are there!

Once we got to the other side, the harder part of the ride began. The road rolls across the middle of the island, with peaks and dips along most of the way. Our heavy bikes started to take their toll as we mentally struggled up the inclines.

Adder Rock is a paid campsite, and it ended up costing just under $70 for the 5 of us to camp. As we passed the T-Rex computer operator, we setup camp and began to eat…

We walked to the pub (because we’re responsible bike riders and never operate heavy machinery under the influence of freedom) and had a few beers at sunset.

RETURN

As we woke up, we made our breakfast and set out over the rolling island hills with plenty of momentum. We all found the need for speed as we sped into the Water Taxi terminal in record time.

CLICK HERE to see the return route

The journey back was relatively hot for a winters morning. We journeyed back along the route we had ridden the day before, whilst attempting to avoid all the heavy traffic areas.

Every now and then, we need to push the reset button and venture out into the unknown, take a few bikesquats and test out the equipment for the Europe Adventure that is to come in August 2017…. now just to make it more regular!