Eating One's Way up the Queensland Coast
Townsville has to be one of the nicest looking towns in Queensland. The inner city is separated neatly from the suburbs by a long lazy river and a series of parks that surround the more commercial areas. There are no franchise businesses in the main part of town and the entire down is dominated by what has to be one of the most classic climbs in northern Queensland for hikers and climbers, Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an enormous monument over the city, sits practically on top of the center, and in a stroke of rare and forsighted real estate management, is pure parkland but for a small memorial building at the very top.
My plan to wake before sunrise and hike Castle Rock was foiled by the fact that I found the trip up to Castle Rock was a full 90 minutes, and also, in fairness, by the previous night's pubcrawl. Add to that the one hour return and I would burn a lot of morning daylight, and I still had around 110 miles to Cardwell that afternoon.
So I canned the morning trek in favor of sitting down to breakfast at a cafe close to the hostel which served what has to be one of the most ingenious brekkies I've ever come across in Australia or anywhere. A concoction called Strawberry Bruschetta. I'll spare the details, but it did involve lots of strawberries, honey, raisin bread, and rich cream. I justified the purchase with the fact that I'd be burning off calories later that day, enjoyed a leisurely coffee, and looked up at Castle Rock with that sort of smile that says, "wow... eating food is really much more fun than burning it."
The section from Townsville to Cairns is bordered to the west by World Heritage listed rainforest, making for some spectacular views. Though Australian road crews apparently have a habit of finding the absolute flattest stretch of pavement on which to put highways even in the midst of what were the only hills in the area and a novel chance at some climbs had I been given the opportunity. However, I couldn't complain about the green forest to the west running into cane fields to the east, or poking through the occasional break in the fields, a view to the ocean for the first time along the highway in several days.
At midday I got caught by what was an obvious tourist trap. A roadside cafe called "The Frosty Mango" that had been advertising to me via billboards since Townsville. Sated as I was by the berry fix I'd already had that day, the day was hot, I was in fruit country, and by 11am figured I it was time to cave to the advertising. True to its name, Frosty serves mangos by the crateful. And of all the fruits of the world, I do love mangos.
I had the mango pancakes with the mango jam.
Followed by a dish of raw mangos.
And for dessert (such a "meal," naturally, deserves dessert), a mango smoothy.
By the end of it all I was in fruitified heaven.
Riding a little bit slower out of the cafe than into it, I covered off the rest of the ride to Cardwell that day with one instance of a great view out to Hinchinbrook Island, a national park just off the Great Barrier Coast that is (in flatty flat Australia) characterized by some truly pretty mountains. I stopped in Cardwell, went to the beach, took photos (seeing something with texture in the landscape, nice as all those cane fields had been, made me camera happy), and finished a day characterized as much by food as by cycling with a proper dinner at the local restaurant. Naturally, with fruit for dessert.
My plan to wake before sunrise and hike Castle Rock was foiled by the fact that I found the trip up to Castle Rock was a full 90 minutes, and also, in fairness, by the previous night's pubcrawl. Add to that the one hour return and I would burn a lot of morning daylight, and I still had around 110 miles to Cardwell that afternoon.
So I canned the morning trek in favor of sitting down to breakfast at a cafe close to the hostel which served what has to be one of the most ingenious brekkies I've ever come across in Australia or anywhere. A concoction called Strawberry Bruschetta. I'll spare the details, but it did involve lots of strawberries, honey, raisin bread, and rich cream. I justified the purchase with the fact that I'd be burning off calories later that day, enjoyed a leisurely coffee, and looked up at Castle Rock with that sort of smile that says, "wow... eating food is really much more fun than burning it."
The section from Townsville to Cairns is bordered to the west by World Heritage listed rainforest, making for some spectacular views. Though Australian road crews apparently have a habit of finding the absolute flattest stretch of pavement on which to put highways even in the midst of what were the only hills in the area and a novel chance at some climbs had I been given the opportunity. However, I couldn't complain about the green forest to the west running into cane fields to the east, or poking through the occasional break in the fields, a view to the ocean for the first time along the highway in several days.
At midday I got caught by what was an obvious tourist trap. A roadside cafe called "The Frosty Mango" that had been advertising to me via billboards since Townsville. Sated as I was by the berry fix I'd already had that day, the day was hot, I was in fruit country, and by 11am figured I it was time to cave to the advertising. True to its name, Frosty serves mangos by the crateful. And of all the fruits of the world, I do love mangos.
I had the mango pancakes with the mango jam.
Followed by a dish of raw mangos.
And for dessert (such a "meal," naturally, deserves dessert), a mango smoothy.
By the end of it all I was in fruitified heaven.
Riding a little bit slower out of the cafe than into it, I covered off the rest of the ride to Cardwell that day with one instance of a great view out to Hinchinbrook Island, a national park just off the Great Barrier Coast that is (in flatty flat Australia) characterized by some truly pretty mountains. I stopped in Cardwell, went to the beach, took photos (seeing something with texture in the landscape, nice as all those cane fields had been, made me camera happy), and finished a day characterized as much by food as by cycling with a proper dinner at the local restaurant. Naturally, with fruit for dessert.
posted by eric at
3:55 AM
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