Day 3 - 19 May - Cape Tribulation to Bloomfield - 42 km

Started the day slowly again. A quick visit to the beach, magic place! 

Left Cape Tribulation around 9.00 am, started walking uphill almost straight away and it only got worse.

Encountered the Donovan Range after 15 km, very tough, lots of walking and pushing. 

 My pannier jumped off the rack twice because of the corrugations and I (Joe) took a tumble off the bike going down a steep hill. Fortunately I landed on my back and only grazed my elbow.

There were some very nice river crossings and then we hit the Cowrie Range. We knew there was a 30 degree hill but were not prepared for the how long it was. On one section we left one bike at the bottom while we pushed the other up the hill. Even pushing together we had to stop and takes a rest every 30 steps. Once near the top we had to go back to the bottom and start again.  There was no obvious summit just a serious of climbs and declines. We stopped and ate out boiled eggs beside the road.

It was also very dangerous going downhill.  The road was so steep we had to ride the brakes all the way down and hope there was no cars coming up.  As we ate were overtaken by a skinny Yank named Patrick who was touring on $300 a month. He was very chatty and stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon, often waiting for me to catch up.

Eventually we arrived at the Bloomfield River crossing at Wujal Wujal.  

Really enjoyed getting our feet wet. 

Patrick diverted to visit Bloomfield Falls and ended sleeping the night in the town library.  Tony and I were anxious to get the day over but wanted to visit the General Store. Tony knocked on the Police Station door and was assisted by an attractive Mrs Plod. She gave us directions to the store but it was closed. We had a breather for 10 minutes and pushed a further 8 km to Ayton. The store there was closed too but I could see someone inside so I knocked on the window. A nice Asian lady let us in to buy drinks.

1.5 km down the road we found Haley's Cabins and Camping Park. $20 cash, no registration, no receipt saw us set up in lovely camp ground.

They had a restaurant that was not open, so we dried any wet gear from the river crossings and organised our gear.

Just before dinner I spotted a huge spider in the camp kitchen. It's web was just above where Tony had been sitting earlier. It was about as big as my hand.  

Early night in very warm tents.

Had to put this one in for Melissa.