Section 2 started the way Section 1 finished — wet

Rain over Airlie Beach before we’d even swung a leg over, and then the first run with Sally aboard as pillion, the bike was loaded for real this time. Seventy-seven kilometres to Bowen, nothing on paper, but the kind of day where you’re quietly doing the arithmetic the whole way — how she sits, how the bike sits, whether the subframe repair from Yeppoon is going to make itself known. It didn’t. Checked it at the 500km mark before we left Airlie Beach, and again at Mission Beach further up the coast. No issues either time.

 

Fine weather out of Bowen, then on to Mission Beach — where the rain caught up with us properly. Two nights at Seadreams, right on the beach, and we barely saw it through forty-eight hours of steady rain.

Inland from there, up onto the Atherton Tablelands. Weather dried out by Atherton — good news, since we spent two nights at Undara Volcanic National Park, walking the lava tubes and the Archway, charging via a lead run out through the bathroom window. Worth noting for anyone following this route: the DC fast charger in Atherton is back in service now.

 

The run out to Undara had been easy — no headwind, if anything a push from behind. Coming back was different. Strong headwinds, close to head-on, and the range dropped hard. We slowed to 60km/h and the numbers still looked grim, until the road turned into a run of sheltered, twisting bends — downhill, engine braking, out of the worst of the wind. Rolled into Atherton on 20%, fast-charged, and carried on to Yungaburra.

 

Two nights there, with a day in between for the curtain fig and cathedral fig trees, and platypus in the wild — a first for both of us. The road runs past a serious stretch of wind farm country, a good reminder of how much of far north Queensland’s grid is wind-supported.

 

Down to the coast via the Gillies Highway — tight enough switchbacks that Sally got motion sick — via AMX Superstore in Cairns for chain lube, then up to Palm Cove and three nights at the Mantra to close the section.

 

First proper chance to get into the bike since Bowen: degreased and relubed the chain with Maxima chain wax, then pulled the seat and side covers for a thorough look at the Yeppoon subframe repair — now 1,700km behind us. No cracking, no bending, nothing to raise an eyebrow, even carrying the extra load of Sally and her gear. Repair’s holding well ahead of the remote sections still to come.

 

Our son Evan flew in from Sydney to join for Section 3, and Sally flew home the next day . Next stop: Cape Tribulation, then back through Yungaburra, Undara again, and on into the outback — Normanton, Karumba, Cloncurry, Mount Isa.

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