"Will we ever get out of here?" may be just a line in a song, but it is an international mystery here in tropical Cairns (pronounced with a long "a" and no "r" as in sugar cane) Australia. Japan Air Lines was contracted to fly Odyssey to Osaka, Japan. They insisted the bikes had to be loaded onto palettes before being loaded into the plane. That method takes up more cargo space than loading the bikes individually - to the point that about 80 bikes would have had to be left behind - not acceptable. JAL refused to modify their loading method. TK&A was forced to contract instead with Malaysia Air (with whom they've contracted the flights to China, Thailand, New Zealand, and Hawai'i).
Because of the change in airlines, the Japanese equivalent of the FAA has denied previously approved landing rights because the current form of the application wasn't submitted 30 days in advance. Malaysia Air has a 747 sitting on the tarmac at the Cairns, Australia, airport and a crew at the Holiday Inn waiting to take Odyssey to Japan. Malaysia Air is raising an international stink threatening to deny Malaysian landing rights to JAL unless approval comes. The Japanese aren't budging. These aren't necessarily the exact facts, but they make for a great rumor. At the meeting when Tim announced this unexpected development, he mentioned that there were some (negative) people (on Odyssey) who believed that if they were in charge, this wouldn't have happened - everybody, except for the two of them and they know who they are, laughed. I've organized Seattle to Portland (STP), Seattle to Vancouver (RSVP) three times, the Rainier Ale Metric Century twice, and the Portland and Seattle Tour Alternative (PASTA), and if I were in charge of Odyssey2000, things would be really screwed up.
If the Japanese bureaucrats keep screwing around, we'll be "forced" to stay in tropical Cairns. If you overlay a map of Australia onto a map of the U.S., Cairns would be equivalent of Atlantic City, but with a climate closer to Miami - only hotter.
The last Odyssey riding day in Australia, into Cairns, had shade temperatures rise into the low 90Fs. On the black chipseal shoulderless road it felt much hotter, exacerbated by the headwind. I was glad to finish riding in the mix which is Australia.
People in cars beeped and waved. Truck drivers going the other direction waved. Queensland offered the friendliest reception since South Africa's Transkei. Bus and truck drivers going in the same direction, however, weren't so friendly. One "manly" driver purposefully ran me off the road. Luckily, I didn't fall as I as was forced to maneuver onto dirt and gravel.
Australians are the worst litterers since Baja. There's never a shortage of bike cleaning rags with so much clothing strewn along the side of the road. I saw where cigarette smokers caused roadside grass and trees to have burned in at least two places each cycling day. A lot of bicycle tires and inner tubes were sold here to replace those destroyed by discarded glass bottles.
I suppose I would have enjoyed what scenery there was more if I hadn't been on the road for nine months already. With the chipseal pavement giving my shoulder a pounding and the only nondomesticated nonflying animals I saw being roadkill, what little scenery there was didn't strike me as being particularly interesting as nothing was a new experience but reminiscent of places I'd been before like northern California and the tropical wet side of the big island of Hawai'i (plus litter).
Cairns (remember, don't pronounce the "r") is the best of all of Odyssey's northern Australian stopovers. In the Australian summers (starting around Christmas) temperatures get up to 40C (94F), but I'm here when the temperature (after the heat of my last riding day) generally is a more moderate 26C (80F). It is a tourist town with it's proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and tropical wetlands. About half the tourists are Japanese and the 250 passenger capacity catamaran I took out to the reef made announcements in English and Japanese.
The Great Barrier Reef isn't one long reef but a series of smaller, sometimes disconnected, reefs. The few square miles of one reef section can have more varieties of fish than the entire Atlantic Ocean. I didn't even try to remember any of the names of the fish I saw through the semi-submersible boat's windows. I just kept taking photos of the fish, turtles and the occasionally colorful coral.
Thanks to the Japanese bureaucrats I had an extra day in Cairns to spend money. I finally got a haircut so I can better deal with the heat of SE Asia and not have such bad "helmet hair." After Japan, Odyssey will be in beds for a month and a half so the camping gear (and heavy clothes) will be shipped from Hong Kong to New Zealand. My big bag which worked fine when there were lockers has had the zippers start to come apart. One wheel developed a flat spot which makes a lot of racket when "rolling" down hotel hallways. I needed new bags. During my extra day in Cairns, I bought a $12 bright yellow duffle bag for the camping gear and a bright blue rolling canvas suitcase for everything that doesn't go as carry-on when flying or on the bike when riding.
The Japanese government still won't issue landing rights so TK&A and their London air charter agents have had to find a different way. The Malaysia Air 747 sitting at the Cairn's airport will fly Odyssey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From there, some will fly JAL and some Malaysia Air to Osaka, Japan, on an overnight flight. The first two of Odyssey's Japan riding days will be covered on what would have been a layover day by bus. We still get to stay in the really nice hotel in Kyoto and ride most of the way to Hiroshima. Then it's on the SE Asia for beds and rice as the adventure of a lifetime continues.
Happy Trails,
Bruce