The area surrounding Cairns includes some “yellow roads” – and we rode a few of them. But getting to them was a whole lot trickier than is should have been. Our tour organizer had suggested a route that would bypass a town or two, and with the proper programming, our GPS came to agree. We crossed our fingers and hoped that no gravel or dirt unsuitable for Victoria’s bike would be involved. But our trip map, our GPS and even our fingers betrayed us. One road in particular became quite narrow, then turned to gravel, then turned to dual-track dirt. I went ahead to see if conditions might ‘get better’ (tough phrasing for a GS rider) but no, they certainly didn’t. As I rode ahead, I crossed a bridge of sorts – one made of pipes perpendicular to the direction of travel with six inch tire-swallowing gaps between the pipes and no guard rails. That was a deterrent, but the deal was sealed when I later came to a locked gate blocking the road. According to the GPS I was only 2kms from an intersecting highway. Maybe the locals are tired of shortcutters (and I wouldn’t blame them a bit. . .).

So we retraced our route and took the ‘honest route’ to get to the ‘yellow roads.’

First the Palmerston Highway (through the Misty Mountains where we encountered our first rain), then the highly twisty descending Gilles Highway, then the ocean-facing Captain Cook Highway.

That day we came about as close as we might have imagined to realizing our goal of finding Doug’s missing chair, or at least explaining its disappearance. As we rode on, we came across this sign. . . .

“Douglas Shire?” – now even the hobbits seem to be involved. . .

And soon, a whole port named after Mr. D. G. Biv (who is apparently in cahoots with a shady character named “Mossman” – yikes!). . .

We faced our adversaries straight on and headed right into town. The plot was about as thick as it could get. . .

We found shelter in town and secured ourselves behind a locked door, preparing for a full day’s search. The following day Victoria took to the sea where she saw many a fish but very few chairs.

And I took to the surrounding area, the Kennedy Highway. Several horses, but also no chairs.

So close. So very close. Doug’s chair was close, we could just smell it (and that was not pleasant). Or could it be that we were mistaken? Later that day I received an urgent message from an anonymous source (for now we will call him Chiba). I’ll let the image do the talking. . .

Could it be that the Australia lead was a phony? Was the chair theft just a ruse to distract us from a much larger white board eraser plot??? Could it be that Doug himself set us up??? Dangitall – we’d been duped! Okay fine, back to the states. . .

But first, one last Australia shot, the obligatory roo sign shot. . .