Ride Bikes, Not Elephants. Complete! I Made It!!!

After 73 Days, 4051.8 Kilometres and over 200 hours of pedalling I finally arrived in Cairns on October 1st.


Chantelle had flown up to Cairns that morning and met me on the esplanade at 2:06pm, she was looking down at her phone and as I later found out was messaging 'where are you?' to me. The message was never sent as she looked up and saw me rolling along the footpath with a big grin on my face. Ride Bikes, Not Elephants had finished, I had made it!

But lets rewind to Townsville and the expected expensive bicycle repair bill! Fortunately the crew at Cycle de Vie were really excited about my ride and realised I only had 400km left to ride. They performed a stellar repair and clean and gave me almost $100 off the bill. Riding back to the caravan park with no bags to weigh me down was sensational, the bike felt brand new!!!
The remaining 400km into tropical north Queensland were going to be a breeze! I awoke the next morning to a calm day and another published article in The Townsville Sun newspaper. I was on the road by 7:30am and the temperature was comfortable all day. Stopping once at 30km I cruised into Rollingstone Caravan Park just after lunch for a pleasant stay by the seaside, palm trees and all!

Article in the Townsville Sun

Day 53 dawned another overcast day to protect me from the harsh rays of the sun, I was loving life and thinking 'I could ride for months with conditions like these!' After 30km and only 100km since the bike had been repaired to its fantastic best, I heard the now familiar sound of a spoke popping out of the hub, "Ping." The rear wheel immediately buckled and began constantly rubbing on the right hand brake pad. You would think that I would have been upset or annoyed, and I was for about 5 minutes but realised that wasn't going to help. I limped into the next rest stop some 20km down the road and managed to install my last remaining spare spoke. Tightening it with the wrong tool for the job I managed to straighten the wheel enough for me not to worry about it for the next 300km. Once again I was beaming and loving life again!! I let out a loud triumphant "Woooo" after returning to the road. 
The last  mountain pass of the ride was a steep but short climb up through tropical jungle and a major roadworks construction site. I was loving the fact that I could climb Tour de France type gradients with ease and felt the fittest I have ever felt as I crested the summit of the pass I was rewarded with a spectacular view of Hinchinbrook Island. The descent down the other side was one of the funnest of the whole trip too! At Cardwell that night I spoke to a few people in the camp kitchen and was given $50 for the charity by a kind man called Dicko, a fantastic way to end another 110km day.

Yes, I know. Another Seaside Sunrise!

Day 54 threatened to be a stormy one and after only 15km it started pouring massive heavy droplets of tropical rain. I thought it would only last a few minutes and kept on riding yet after 20 minutes I was completely soaked and getting cold. I powered through the downpour at over 35km per hour (over 10km faster than my average) to try and find some shelter. 10 minutes later I rolled into a rest stop and hunkered under shelter. After wringing out my soaked clothes and attempting to dry off my bags for 30 minutes the rain settled to a nice looking misty fog. Putting my damp clothes back on I headed back out thinking either the sun would come out and dry my clothes or it would keep raining and therefore I would only have one wet set of clothes. Fortunately it didn't rain for the rest of the day and I slowly made my way down to the popular seaside destination of Mission Beach. Today also held the record for the most 'Big Things' in one days ride. The Big Crab at Cardwell, Big Gumboot at Tully and the Big Cassowary at Mission Beach. As a reward for 2 days of tough riding I booked a cabin for 2 nights so I could watch the AFL grand final and veg out before the last 2 days of riding.

The Big Cassowary at Mission Beach

The Big Gumboot represents the annual amount of rainfall at Tully. 7 metres!!!

Day 55 was a short stroll to Innisfail and it was a beautiful start through the jungle, I thought about pushing on to a campsite at The Boulders but thought Chantelle and I might visit there next week so decided to finish the days ride after only 50km.

The last campsite at Innisfail, and yes there are crocodiles in the river 10m from my tent!!!

Day 56 (final day) started wet and pretty much stayed wet for the first 2 hours. The reason it always rains here is because of the big mountain range just inland from the coast which has the 2 tallest mountains in Queensland Mt Bartle Frere and Mount Bellenden Ker. Offshore winds carry tropical moisture with them and form dense clouds, these clouds head inland and are blocked by these two massive mountain ranges creating a tropical downpour. There is no rain gauge on the mountains but data nearby Mount Bellenden Ker suggest annual average rainfall is around 8,000mm and a potential maximum average as high as 17,000mm, which would make the mountain as one of the wettest places on earth. 

I crossed the 4000km mark at the foot of Mount Bellenden Ker.

Mount Bartle Frere (Right) and Broken Nose (Left)

The scenery here is just spectacular, I actually kept thinking today was probably one of the best days of the whole 4000km journey. There are plants and animals in this World Heritage listed Wet tropics area which are found nowhere else on earth and I was enjoying it at a leisurely 25km/hr. I think another reason why the final day was so good was that I had a tailwind, finally after almost a month of battling headwinds, on the final day of Ride Bikes, Not Elephants the wind was pushing me onwards towards the end. Was it a sign that Mother Nature was happy for me to complete the ride or was she trying to convince me to keep going, offering me beautiful scenery and a helpful tailwind. One thing is for sure. Nature has inspired me, the simple act of turning one leg after the other on a bicycle and actually putting in an effort to enjoy nature has led me to understand that the wild creatures and places of the earth have it a lot harder than us. I feel more connected to nature than ever and I absolutely love it. I hope this ride has inspired people to not only care more for animals and wild places, but also to get out there and enjoy it, to immerse yourself into the natural world and marvel at it. I can honestly say that travelling by bike is one of the most rewarding ways to travel. Being outside listening to the rivers, birds and feeling the wind, getting fitter and fitter as the days go by and not having to worry about paying for petrol, plane tickets or being stuck in traffic or customs. If you've ever thought it too hard to ride across a country, think again. It really is a fantastic way to see the countryside. 

Arriving in Cairns after 4050km!

The Daintree Rainforest is simply spectacular.

Cathedral Fig Tree reminded me of Home Tree from Avatar 

Josephine Falls was beautiful

Best way to celebrate an adventure. Elephant Beer, a best friend and a seaside sunset.

Sunset at Noah Beach

It's not all sunsets and rainbows. Chantelle and I picked up 2 full bags of rubbish on this World Heritage Beach, including this safety helmet. Please put you rubbish in the bin and not in the sea!!!

It was a little strange flying back to Melbourne in just 5 hours!

Arriving home to a beautiful sunset in Mount Beauty.

During my 4000km cycle from Melbourne to Cairns, Chantelle and I raised about $7000, I also managed to raise awareness by sharing the plight of the Asian elephant in 10 major newspapers along the route. 

Some other recent and good news was attending the Living Green Festival in Canberra over the weekend, we had a brilliant time interacting with hundreds of interested people and managed to raise another $685 for our cause. The festival itself was one of the highlights of the whole fundraising experience, being surrounded by passionate animal and nature loving people, savouring the cruelty free food (mmmm cupcakes) and meeting many other inspiring activist/eco-friendly people was fantastic. I look forward to keeping in touch with many of the Canberrian people that I met and of course the festival next year. Our next event is the Cruelty Free Festival in Sydney on the 28th of October which is taking place at Belmore Park from 10am, so any Sydney siders should definitely come down for a chat, a cupcake and a t-shirt or two :-) Check out the details here http://crueltyfreefestival.org.au/. 

Chantelle and I at The Living Green Festival in Canberra, find more photos at Living Green's FB Page here: Living Green Festival FB

Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and photographs of the east coast of Australia and I hope to see you out on the road with a bike full of gear setting forth on a journey you will remember for the rest of your life. The open road and my bicycle will definitely be going on another journey in the future. I hope you can join me out there. 
This blog will continue with updates from the Cruelty Free Festival and our elephant rescue in November at Elephant Nature Park, anyone interested in helping an elephant break free from a life of cruelty can donate here: Matt and Chantelle's Elephant Rescue Fund. You can then visit this elephant at the wonderful Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand: www.saveelephant.org

Thanks again for reading, in one months time Chantelle and I will be back at Elephant Nature Park, needless to say; I AM EXCITED!!! 

Matt