Grafton to Home Sweet Home

We got up, took our last shower before travel and the taxi arrived. We leave our bikes and gear at the train station and spend the day walking all over town seeing the giant fig trees and the historical buildings the town is known for. One of those building is the oldest and largest cinema (art deco renovated). We watch an excellent movie called The King’s Speech. Then we went to the mall for t-shirts and reading material for the trip – we struck out on reading material – we didn’t want to spend $30 for one book…. Anyway we piddle around waiting til 2am to arrive. We ate our victory dinner at the clock tower hotel, watched a tennis match at a bar in that hotel that was collecting bottle caps for us (we made a haul there! And the guy even washed them!).. Finally we just went to the train station around midnight and slept on the benches outside waiting for them to open.

The train arrived on time and we got on with our luggage and bikes and the journey began. The train ride was kind of obnoxious but we got through it – at the end of the train ride we were to find a way to the airport. We got off the train and headed for a cart, got our bikes and bags and headed into the train station to find all city trains free due to the flooding and a man who not only gave us directions but helped us get our bikes through the gates and onto the lifts, tells us the platform to go to and that the train leaves in 15 minutes. We negotiate the lifts and board the train within minutes. These trains are nicer – clean and bright. We are on an express train to the airport so there are only a few stops and we are there. A man offers us information about which terminal stop to go to and which side to get off. When our stop comes up it is pouring rain. Two men help Larry get the bikes off. He runs them down to the covered area one at a time while I bring the luggage down. We get pretty wet… and our boxes are cardboard. Larry goes looking for a cart and comes back with a cart and a woman who works for the train station who helps load the bikes, tells us how to get where we need to go and actually rides the elevator with us and brings us a second cart so we can negotiate the next two lifts easier. We get inside the airline and a woman greets us with a service to wrap our bike boxes to protect them which means it no longer matters that they got wet. We do this and then head to the departure area. Here we freshen up from the night on the train, change clothes and remove the stuff you can’t carry on the plane from our bags and get some coffee and a veggie wrap. While we are doing this Larry looks up and grabs the camera and gets me and we go out onto the concourse and enjoy a most beautiful rainbow which runs from one side of the sky to the other and is even double at times. This is how our last trip ended – with a magnificent rainbow. We choose to believe it is God’s seal of blessing on our trip and is a very special moment.

We finish changing our luggage from ‘train to plane’ ready and by then it is time to check in. There is no one in line and we go right to the counter. The man is very nice and in just a couple minutes we are done. We roam around the airport shops killing time (and purchasing a stuffed Kookabura for our stuffed animal collection and we are pleased that it also make the laughing sound!) and then board our plane which is half empty. People are stretched out all over the place and it is generally a happy affair! Couldn’t ask for better.

As we take off we can see the flooded city streets – that is the only sad part. The clean up is going well but it is definitely a nasty job and people are getting sick from the bacteria and fecal material in the receding flood waters…. What a nasty experience that would be – I know just from the water we sometimes get in our buildings at camp that it is nasty – I can’t imagine whole streets. The Grafton river receding was smelly enough and that was just open mud…..

We expect to arrive in LA at seven am and then straight to Nashville. We’ll be home by 4 tomorrow… but it will still be today…. And another trip will be over… and a very good one at that.

This trip will be remembered as one of the smoothest trips we have ever been on. It was very physical and we feel strong. It was uneventful, scenic but not spectacular, it isn’t our highest mileage, the weather wasn’t the best…. But it was a grand experience. God showed His amazing provision, we enjoyed each others friendship, we were part of a human drama in the flooding, witness to the most historic game of Cricket in Aussie history, met some great people, got more than eight hours sleep most nights, and rode in the bush and high desert on isolated dirt roads and high temperatures and lived to tell about it. We watched fears melt away from our hearts, joy spring up in its place, faith stand back up and laughter finds its rightful place. The kookaburra will be in our hearts for ever and we pray that our lives bring joy and laughter to the world around us the way the kookaburra brought it to us.

We have arrived home safely – tired but happy. Once home we rest in the comfort of our bed in a temperature controlled home with indoor plumbing. Cooper is happy to see us and in a very short time we have settled back into our lives with this surreal memory of a most incredible adventure – one that tested us, taught us, brought us joy and strength.

We see a hawk on the tree and are glad to be home. We approach the New Frontiers office with the awareness that when we open that door we will be picking back up the calling of our lives – we look at each other as if to say, “are you ready?”. We walk up the stairs to the office and there on the porch is a very shiny penny shouting to us that our trip and the lessons of it were and are very, very real.

We love you all and are thankful for those who help make these trips possible for us. We also thank the sponsors who helped us raise money for NF through this ride! This year Ride With Us raised _______________________!

Coffs to Grafton

Our last riding day. We got up and had breakfast of coffee, muesli and strawberries, toast and jam. We read our proclamations and had devotions and then discussed some of our thoughts about the trip, goals for when we got home and so forth. It was a fairly slow morning – I guess we didn’t want to rush it.

We were sore from walking – we walked at least 12 K yesterday which is about seven miles. Anyway we began the ride to Grafton heading up through the banana plantations which were hilly but kind of interesting. The day was very hot and humid and misting. Sweat was just pouring off of us, hanging off our noses and ears and dripping off our arms.

The ride undulated all day long through fairly uneventful territory. After the banana plantations it basically looked liked rural America with rolling hills. We passed very few structures or services. We stopped at two towns – the first was fairly early on – a town known for its timbering. There were about seven or eight buildings – one a bakery with a very old oven for making bread. The second was at a historic general store in a town with about ten buildings – one the smallest post office in Australia. We found the dog at the general store more interesting. A black dog with bright blue eyes. We rode without our ipods because we were hearing kookaburras which we totally enjoyed. We will miss those birds.

Despite knowing it was our last riding day, and knowing that I would soon miss riding – I was getting really ready to be off my bike at the end of the fifty one miles of rolling and undulating hills. We arrived in Grafton and headed for the i-center as we were on a time crunch to get the bike shop and get the bike boxes before they closed. Everything was amazingly smooth – again God’s provision went before us – we know how wrong these things can go…. Last year we walked a couple miles from bike shop to bike shop looking for boxes. This year we get directions from the i-center to the shop that is saving them for us. We find it easily. The woman greets us with a comment about how we must be the travelers needing the boxes – she tells us her shipment of bikes didn’t come in so she doesn’t have any boxes, BUT she has made arrangements with the other bike shop and they are holding boxes for us. We ride just down the street and check with the other bike shop and yes they have the boxes for us and tell us a good clean cheap hotel to go to within easy walking distance. We go to the hotel and they give us a ground floor room (not always easy at a pub), they give us stuff to wash the bikes with too and arrange a taxi for us to get the boxed bikes to the train. We go back to the bike shop and get the bike boxes and return to the hotel. We walk to the train station and arrange our train trip to Brisbine… 2am in the morning. They agree to let us bring the boxed bikes early and check them in so we don’t have to carry stuff around all day. Very smooth.

We go back to the hotel and rest in the AC while it pours outside. We totally rest the whole next day until about 4 in the afternoon. We break down our bikes and pack up, watch ‘kitchen nightmares’ on the ‘teli’- a program about a consultant that goes into high end restaurants that aren’t making it and helps them turn things around– very interesting and some things to remember! Then we drift off to sleep talking about how ‘travel days can be stressful’ and preparing ourselves not only for travel, but re-entry. The next hours, which are really days condensed into one long day, will be filled with God’s grace and our emotions. We don’t know it yet, but tearing up when discussing the very fresh memories of our ‘together adventure’ will be frequent, as well as excited discussion about what we look forward to doing at home. This coupled with the very presence of exhaustion will make us rely on one another and God to make the journey home which will last more than 48 hours.

Uranga to Coffs

We started the day with our muesli and devotions and proclamations and then checked email and packed up. It almost feels like we should say goodbye to people as we have been here three nights! It was long enough to turn the grass yellow under our tent! We will look back at this section of the trip with fond memories. Good campground and neighbors, an amazing boardwalk to the coast, tons of noisy birds, a great ride to the rainforest, kangaroos. A good few days. Had we pushed on we would be in nasty flooded places and have missed probably one of our top riding days and sightseeing days. After breakfast John comes out and does indeed say goodbye and wish us a good ride and his little girl has a very important question for us – she wonders how Santa knew where to find us to give us our presents…. We told her they were waiting for us at home!

This day was a very short ride. We have realized that we are not going to get beyond Grafton because of road closures – and that we can’t get the train past Grafton and that buses won’t take bikes – so Grafton will be our summit. This is fine.. In just a few minutes at the Uranga visitors center, a very nice man went over the top to help us and make all the arrangements for us. He called ahead for us to a bike shop in Grafton who agreed to save bike boxes. He gave us weight limits, dimensions and time tables for the trains. He gave us road closures etc. He told us things to do in Coffs. So off to Coffs Harbor – a main holiday town for Australians.

The ride is pretty uneventful. A short ride on very nice section of the highway –we had a wide shoulder that was nice pavement all the way. We rode into the town on a bike path and made our way to the center of town. Here we found a subway and ate lunch. Larry had walked across the street to find out about the i-center and was gone for about ½ hour which was unsettling – but then he returned having not just asked about it but gone all the way to it and had the info we needed. We ate in a bit of shade as the day had gotten very hot and humid. We then went to a caravan park near the center of town as it is more convenient than the beach and tends to be more mellow. Once we settled in we were on a quest for a couple sites we wanted to see. We did get a cabin tonight as it is so hot and humid and the noise of the pacific highway is unbelievable – the cabin though is a bit disappointing as the AC unit is regulated so it doesn’t really get very cool and the noise doesn’t seem much better – but, we do have what we need to cook so it will wash out.

We headed down the walkway – like a greenway – to the botanical gardens. We spent about an hour there looking at various plants and going to a bird blind and basically trying to see things but stay in the shade. Then we walked the walkway to the beach which was very picturesque. What we were looking for was a petting pond that Coff’s Harbor is known for where porpoises reside. It is advertised as a free thing, with a show you can also attend that costs. We walked a very long way to get there to find the small print … and so we didn’t see any porpoises as we were not inclined to pay the $64 to see them when we have seen them in the wild for free… we weren’t really wanting to see them manipulated and doing tricks… so we walked to the national park out on the point of the coast called Muttonbird Island. The walk there was also long, but the coastal breezes kept us cool and we stopped for a popsicle along the way. The island was very nice. We saw a couple of hawks, walked up the hill of the island to the view point and looked out over the ocean. You could see for a very long ways and we also learned all about the Muttonbird. So we called it a success and started back. By now we were tired and realized we had indeed walked a very long way. We decided to take the road back instead of the walkway as it was shorter and went by the grocery. This was just drudgery but had to be done. By now our legs were tired and we were hot an bothered. We were very glad to get to the grocery and be in the AC.

We purchased our dinner food. Salad and….. kangaroo meet…. And beets. How is that for weird. The salad was great, the beets were great…. The kangaroo – well…. Let’s just say we can now say we tried it… but I don’t know that I would repeat it.

The cabin we were in had a TV and we watched a cooking with Jamie episode which we always find fun. Then we saw a show about a guy who gets dropped off in the wild and finds his way out… that was kind of dumb… we drifted off to sleep knowing tomorrow would be our last riding day – this always has mixed emotions.

Uranga Day Two

Thank you to our Ride with Us Sponsors!

Water Break: Auora Snax

Rest Stop: John Curtis

So today we had a leisurely breakfast and then headed out for our coastal walk – five miles down the beach and around back by a lagoon. The beach was nice – it isn’t the kind of beach people swim on and it was nearly deserted. We walked along the driftwood strewn shores after completing the board walk. We watched the waves and walked barefoot on the edge of the water. Along the lagoon was frustrating – the lagoon was under brush so you couldn’t see much and instead of the beach it was a road with cars and heat.

We finished the walk and spent the rest of the afternoon watching a lawn bowling tournament. Actually pretty interesting. Then we spent the early evening making dinner of scrambled egg sandwiches and playing rummy in the breeze. The later evening was finished with a walk back down the boardwalk to the coast to see the kangaroos again and then back to camp where we looked at our pictures from the early days of the trip, poured over maps for how to get to Brisbane and studied train schedules.

Overall a nice day, but not one that yielded the opening of the road. Thousands of volunteers have showed up in Brisbane to help with the cleanup which has been really interesting to watch on the tv…. But we can’t make progress. Our neighbor told us of a great ride we can do tomorrow – again – we feel like we robbed the bank! I saw a brochure of a company that takes people up this road and they ride down it. Our neighbor saw me looking at it and said we should go up there to Doringo – a beautiful ride, couple cool towns, huge hill to climb and ride down and best of all it is called waterfall way and we should see waterfalls at peak rainfall and then end at the rainfall national forest which has a sky walk. We decide that we will do that tomorrow and turn in for good sleep – it will be hard – 54 mile trip with a six mile hill to climb that is steep enough for them to advertise as a great downhill. And we think the rainforest would be interesting as well. So here we are not able to go forward, but with one of the World Heritage Sights right here in this valley!

Uranga to Waterfall Way and Back to Uranga

Thank you to our Ride with Us Sponsors!
Water Break: The Westbrooks
Rest Stop: Gene Franklin

Now that was a ride. We rode unweighted which was a blast. We got going early to beat the heat. We rode really well up to Bellinger. We passed a group of men playing with remote control airplanes – they were really serious about their toys… and their little dogs! Very odd. Then we came to people having an archery tournament! Anyway on to the mountain. We stopped in the last little town at the base of the mountain – we could smell the brakes of the vehicles coming down and started to worry a little bit about how steep it would be. We had a popsicle and headed up the mountain. It was a gorgeous ride. Through Bellinger the valley was beautiful – looked like say, a valley in the Smokies. Then up the mountain was gorgeous – two major waterfalls with lots of little ones as well. The day got hot, but there was always water nearby. Up and up and up – but unweighted was really nice! Finally we were at the top. We paused at the rest stop at the top to eat our hard boiled eggs and get our heads wet. Then on to the rainforest. The rainforest was really nice – the skywalk was really cool and you could see down four stories, out to the mountains almost to the ocean. We went to the visitor center and the park ranger came to us and said that we should bring our bikes into their office and then we could go where ever we wanted without worries. So we did! We didn’t ask for that – she just came to us and suggested it -how cool is that!

We went all through the visitor’s center which was excellent. Then we walked the skywalk and down the Lyebird walk into the rainforest listening to the birds and just amazed at the whole atmosphere. There was a ‘discovery channel’ type video on rainforests we watched as well – very interesting. We went outside to eat some crackers and cheese and a turkey walked right up to us – pretty funny.

We rode back the 3k to the mountain from the rainforest and then headed back down the mountain – full brakes most of the way! Then the long ride back through the awesome valley – although a little tired on the way back! I led and tried to ride as well as I could –and I was successful to Bellinger. There we had ice cream at an amazing little shop and then Larry led home. We were very tired when we got back – but it was a great ride!

We arrived back to camp to our neighbor’s greeting – duly impressed that we went all the way to the rainforest and back in one day – and with info that the store closes in ten minutes – so off to shop for dinner.

Tonight we kept it simple – pasta and sauce with a mushroom and a pepper.

We will sleep well tonight!