I headed up to Cairns to visit my brother in Babinda, while there I thought I should take in the MTB sights and see what Cairns has to offer while I was there.
I went out with Dan from Dan's Mountain Biking, to get shown around and avoid getting lost, he provided me with a hardtail which was "interesting", hahaha, and I took my cleats and gloves.
Dan didn't dissapoint, the 1996 World Champs were held here as well as two World Cups and various other events. We rode parts of the course that were rated easy, 10% of it isn't ridable by even the pro's, that's how technical it is. During races they have to transition to carrying their bikes on some of the harder sections, so it really pushes you right to the limit. Some wicked downhill sections of the coure had been used on shows like Who Dares Wins and in many MTB videos, they were sickly steep (basically vertical) and even after years of riding, they were beyond me, I was just left with jaw agape wondering how doods take this stuff on... I guess that is why they are in the videos and not me :)
The XC course had some really steep and rocky sections that we walked, and it was hard to walk them, most of the track was rideable and great fun, tasty switchbacks, nice flowy sections and the climbs were never too steep.
The vegitation up there is amazing, dense rain forrest, so beautiful. Some bizarre plants like "sensitive weed" that moves when you touch it, it was fun to play with! "wait a while" is a thorny weed with so many grabbing thorns it "grabs" you, it'll rip you off the bike, and has been known to take the limbs of trail bikers as they are going so much faster than us, it just grabs them and stops them dead... sweet, we need some of this stuff at home to hold up our trail wrecking motor bike riders :) haha There was also a posionous plant with a heart shaped leaf that can sting you and it will hurt for 8 to 12 months!!! Dan has been stung 17 times in the past and said "he wasn't a fan of that plant" :) haha
The photos here are from my phone and absolutly terrible, I took them so I can look back and maybe remember what it was like. I really need to buy a new compact camera...