start date	activity	place	from - to	days	km	km/ day	comment
1.04	bike		Airlie Beach - Tully	4	489	122
5.04	bike, hike		Tully - Cairns	3	204	68	Climbing Bartle Frere 1622m
8.04	rest	Cairns		6	38		Family time
14.04	sick	Cairns		5			Lying in the bed
19.04	bike		Cairns - Cooktown	4	239	60	Via Cape Tribulation

I was already very late, after all my family had already landed in Cairns and I had not yet left Airlie Beach. I had to catch up, first to get 280km in two days to Townsville. Despite the head wind I was fighting, pushing, taking very few breaks. Even a flat tire didn't stop me, but when I punctured the inner tube for the second time, I knew something was wrong. Because I had thick indestructible anti-puncture tires on, which had already passed the exam. And unfortunately, it turned out that the spare tubes sent to me had a different valve - they did not fit. In this case I only had one spare inner tube, and I just got second flat tire. No choice - I had to walk to the first village and ask for help, but luckily it was only 4 km.

It didn't look good at first, but it turned out that quite a few travelers stay here. I came and spotted a campervan with bicycles, and of course I immediately had a bowl of water and I could start repairing punctured inner tubes. As I assumed, the failures were from the inside, not from the tire side. So I covered the rim with extra layer and was ready to go, but as it was already dark, so instead of further kilometers I got dinner, beer and company.

The next day I left before sunrise and spent the whole day working as hard as I could, I managed to do 150km by 5pm. But it was not the end of the effort, because I also pushed myself for the next few days until I finally reached Josephine Falls. Here I hid my bike in the forest and started climbing, albeit a small one on the first day. I also had a new problem - leeches. Finally, I ate dinner sitting on a stone in the middle of the river.

In the morning I set off in the dark, I left my snacks and water relatively quickly, because it's better to have two hands free for such a steep climb, and I didn't have a daypack. Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest peak, 1,622m, is an 8km one way route starting just a little bit above sea level. The trail was very well marked, but I still had to pull myself up on lianas and roots, and at the end jump on big boulders. There was no view from the top, but on the way I managed to feast my eyes before the clouds covered the mountain.

After an 8-hour walk I got on my bike and rode over 50km. Such a rush was due to the fact that the family had been waiting in Cairns for a week. I entered the city lagoon excited and it didn't take long for my son to spot me, he was in my arms a moment later. Of course I haven't forgotten about my wife either, since then I have laziness time interrupted only by playing with the child and home-cooked meals.

Easter was over, carefree time too. After a week the family flew away and I was getting ready to continue my journey. Except that in the evening the virus visited me and stayed for good. It knocked me off my feet for 4 consecutive nights, and the next two nights my body was recovering. But I was lucky that friends let me rest in one of the rooms. Weak, but without chills and temperature, I slowly left for the north.

The next challenge was crossing the Daintree River. I was lucky that the owner of one of the companies offering crocodile river cruises came to assist. A 15-foot boat, two oars, a bicycle on the deck, waited for outcoming tide and off we go. The current carried us well, but the wind blew us into the mangroves, so we had to drag the boat through the overhanging branches. Meter by meter and we reached the ramp where I could safely disembark.

Cape Tribulation didn't greet me with beautiful weather, so I was a bit disappointed. A few years ago I liked it a lot. Heading north I rode the Bloomfield Track - the steepest climbs I've ever done. One of them had a sign at the bottom - 31% steepness for the next 1.5km. I have no idea how I rolled the bike up the mountain, anyway I had a problem to do 10 meters without resting. It was also very stressful to cross the creeks - it was only up to the calves, but I looked around to see if a crocodile was swimming towards me.

I've wanted to be in Cooktown for a long time, because here James Cook saved his ship Endeavor from sinking. They managed to get rid of the ballast and pulled the ship ashore, where it was repaired for 48 days. Then they managed to safely cross the reef, and thanks to that we know the story from 1770. Had it not been successful, the discovery of Australia would have come to the next explorer. Today we can see its original anchor and cannon in the museum, and Cooktown has the typical relaxed tropical atmosphere.

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