Day 2: Surfers Paradise to Murwillumbah to Strokers Siding

Approximate Distance 75 km


As I reviewed my maps over breakfast I noticed that the ride to Murwillumbah was only 50 kilometers, relatively light in comparison to the days to come. Side Note: Terrain is positively correlated to the time it takes to travel a set distance. Therefore it takes less time to travel 10 kilometers on a flat road than it would to travel 10 kilometers on a mountainous one - assuming an equal rate of speed. Unfortunately, I neglected to investigate the type of terrain I would be traveling through; this oversight would prove to be detrimental.

I spent part of the morning leisurely cycling along the coast and enjoying the scenery. The streets were quiet and the beaches relatively empty except for a few surfers and the grooming machine. The conditions for cycling were superb: limited wind and slight cloud cover. After a few hours I turned inland. The view of the ocean faded away and was replaced with that of sugar cane and banana plantations. Entering into West Burleigh the road began to incline sharply, it was at this point that I realized that it was not going to be an easy 50 km ride. As I cycled, the road continued to incline and incline. After an hour of unrelenting incline I knew that this was much bigger than just a hill. I struggled for another 3-4 hours and not once did the road slightly decline.

Today I will cross the border into New South Wales. As I approached the border a number of signs started to appear relating to the fines and penalties imposed for not disposing of fruits or vegetables obtained outside of New South Wales. Based on the number of signs and the severity of penalties I imagined a stringent inspection area. Arriving at the border I noticed that the only form of enforcement was a wooden box to place illegal items. The box appeared to be multi-purpose 1) food inspection officer 2) dividing line between states.

Making my way through the meandering roads I finally crested the hill. Not seeing many cars on the way up I knew the ride down was going to be immensely fun. I quickly checked my brakes and setoff. I traveled at approximately 60-70 kms an hour downhill for over 20 minutes.

I arrived in Murwillumbah quite “puffed” (an Australian term for tired) and made a meal on a park bench. Having reenergized I now set about finding accommodation. I entered the Visitor’s Information centre and was shown a pamphlet for a place called Hosanna’s. Hosanna’s is a farm retreat under construction in the town of Stokers Siding – blink and you miss it. The lady at the Information centre was quite impressed that I had arrived in Murwillumbah via “push bike”. When she inquired about the route I had taken, I was only able to tell her the road I used. The lady immediately pulled out a map and traced out my directions. When finished she looked up at me in amazement, came out from behind the counter and said the following: “ I need to shake your hand, I don’t think you realize the difficulty in what you have just accomplished”. As it turned out I had just cycled Mt. Tomewin (elevation roughly 1500 feet), the remnants of the Mt. Warning Shield Volcano and the incline I struggled with for hours had lasted over 25 kms.

“20 million years ago Mount Warning was the central vent of a large shield volcano with an area of over 4,000 square kilometers. It reached from Coraki in the south to Beenleigh in the north; westward to Kyogle and to the east its remnants occur as reefs in the Pacific Ocean. It originally reached nearly twice its present height.

Erosion over the millennia produced a unique and curious landform - the erosion caldera (“cauldron-like volcanic feature formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption” – Wikipedia), which today is called the Tweed Valley. Mount Warning was the ancient volcano’s magma chamber. Being composed of harder rocks, which cooled underground, this massif (“section of a planet's crust that is separated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole”- Wikipedia) resisted the forces which carved the surrounding erosion caldera down to bedrock. It stands as the dominant feature in the district’s landscape, and catches the first rays of the rising sun on the continent.”- Tweed Tourism

I came up the road by Currumbin - Road is in white

I finally located Hosanna’s; a wrong turn resulted in cycling 10 kms in an alternate direction. I pitched my tent, enjoyed a meal and was asleep by 7 PM.