I will fly to Cairns, where I’ll spend a few days doing errands. There are a few things that need organizing before I head out on my adventure. First, I need a new PLB (personal location beacon), since my old one is outdated and can no longer be responded to. Second, I have to stock up on food. I’ll pre-order an amount of bulk dried mince beef and dried veggies. Shopping at Woollies to add the necessary spices and other condiments so I can make tasty meals while on the trail. Third, I have to prepare food and bicycle repair equipment parcels that need to be posted to various locations so I can stock up on hard to get stuff. Tiny towns don’t have a huge variety of anything I learned form my previous BNT experience.

From Cairns I need to get to Mutchilba to hook up with the BNT. I hate riding along highways, so I figured out an alternate route, avoiding a major part of the Cairns to Mareeba road. To Lake Morris it is a paved road, apparently enjoyed by many cyclists. From there Open Cycle Map shows a track leading straight west towards Mareeba. I haven’t seen it on any other map, so who knows if it is accessible. Start of the real adventure! From there unfortunately it is follow-the-road to Mutchilba, since many of the smaller roads don’t appear to continue and/or are interrupted by railways and/or private properties. From Mutchilba on I’ll follow the BNT route — just 4,000 kms to Canberra. As I already mentioned elsewhere, I don’t know if I’ll make it all the way to Canberra, Wallerawang would be good finishing point too, we’ll see.

I am thinking I want to take it a bit more leisurely than last time. Have more rest days, stay extra days at nice spots along the way, and try to be not as “driven” as in 2004. It’s funny, but every day I’d wake up feeling I should get going again. Why? It was almost like a job, wake up, pack up, ride, unpack, set up camp again, with an ever changing scenery, but more or less a routine that felt almost impossible to break. So, good intentions this time.

I also really want to follow some sections I had to bypass last time. High water levels prevented me from following the Guy Fawkes River. It is a tough section, but from studying the topo maps it should not be impossible. Macleay River is another stream I plan to follow. I rode that section in 1998 on a previous trip, a trip where I first discovered the BNT and when I decided that one day I wanted to ride the whole route. I did in 2003/2004 and I am going to give it another go now.