The Final Countdown

Thursday dawned bright and sunny for my last full day in Australia. Which felt right, given the weather I’ve enjoyed for the last four weeks.

It also felt right to go out on the bikes one last time given that riding conditions after tomorrow are likely to be less than ideal. I’ve had the best riding October ever, and possibly the best month full stop for motorcycling, in hot sunny weather, with dry tarmac and light traffic. If  you ride a motorcycle come out and give it a try.

I was on the bonnie to start, with Kerry riding with me and Conor on the triple getting video footage. We headed up the mountain past Julatten and Marys Farm, to the Mount Carbine Hotel. This is a pub in the bush near to a tungsten mine and very little else. Photos and newspaper cuttings around the wall outline some of the history of the pub and the area, including a lineup of British motorbikes for a race on Four Mile Beach in 1962. The newspaper cutting next to it suggests that the racers had a good time, but the residents not so much!

Then on to the Mount Molloy Hotel for fish and chips and a schooner of their own-brewed lager. A month ago I’d never heard of this place, now I’ve been four times. It’s a great spot to sit outside in the sun and see what goes past. They’d also done the place up inside and out for Halloween, with a girl putting together bags of sweets for the kids later as well. I  particularly liked the zombie reclined on the pool table. I’ve experienced similar on nights out in the dim and distant past.

We then dropped the bikes off at home, got changed into something cooler and headed down to Thala Beach Nature Reserve which is located on a private headland between Cairns and Port Douglas. It provides luxury accommodation by means of timber bungalows that are built high on stilts within the forest canopy, a private beach, a restaurant that allows you to dine amongst the treetops, and various tours and experiences.

More importantly for us it serves rum cocktails that you drink through a straw from a fresh coconut, overlooking the Coral Sea. Another first!

Next stop was the Devils Thumb distillery where I had a rum cocktail made with local sugar cane. They do a range of gin and rum, and also have a whisky which they hope to have on sale in time for Christmas. That’s one to look out for  on my next trip, then!

Once we’d gone home and got ready we headed into town and parked Kerry’s car ready to be retrieved tomorrow. Then it was into Hemingways, which was the first bar I’d visited when I arrived four weeks ago. It all felt so much more familiar now. Afterwards a walk up to Salsa, the restaurant we’d eaten at after the river cruise on my second day. It just felt right to finish there, and we had an excellent meal.

A quick nightcap at Jimmy Rum’s, the shuttle home,  and that’s my holiday over. It was a great last day though, mixing new experiences with what’s become familiar over the last month.

And what a fantastic month it's been!

But tomorrow I start the journey home.

Pictures show Mount Carbine Hotel - bikes outside, Kerry and Conor outside, the bar, drinking rum cocktails from fresh coconuts with Coral Sea in the background, Devils Thumb Distillery - Kerry and Conor inside, and the view from where we were sat