About
It all started on a Sunday morning. “Mate, how about we do a quick ride and grab a cup of coffee in Kuranda“. For those who don’t know about Kuranda, it’s a sleepy little tourist village about 40 minutes up the range from Cairns. With a basic agreement between Matt, Rob & Nic – the trio head up the hill.
The main idea was to go for a ride – but the sun was shining, the air was clear… there was no turning back. We decided that rather than head home, we would push on to Mareeba, then Mt Molloy, Julatten, a beer in Mossman and ended up having (a very late!) lunch at the Courthouse Hotel in Port Douglas.
This sounded like a fantastic way to spend a Sunday – in fact we couldn’t come up with anything that we would rather be doing (with our clothes on, and present company that was). We had passed a few sterling establishments – the recent beer at the Daintree Inn was fresh in our minds. The way that cold beer went down after the long ride, the friendly bar-keep, the groovy lass playing pool in a middrift top… I digress.
While thinking of this, we pondered the challenge of having a pot in every pub. Now, for those not into the lingo – a pot is a small beer, otherwise known as a middie or 285ml standard drink. The reason for the small beer was that if you are going to get a couple of pubs in and still ride – you had better take it easy! Anyway, the idea was fleshed out over a steak sandwich and a schooner of fine bubbling ale.
We talked about the way that you tend to visit a regular place and get into a routine. With all this cruising around on the bikes – wouldn’t it be excellent if we deliberately extended ourselves to explore new areas, try new venues and meet new people? (HA! we can make anything sound altruistic!)
So the challenge was set. We would define an area, and then take it upon ourselves to have a beer in every pub within that area. Now there is much argument about what exactly is the area and what exactly is a “pub” – but we figure that those details will sort themselves out along the way. As part of this, we figure that we would chronicle our adventures and write about each of the pubs along the way for our own amusement as much as anything. If anyone actually care enough to read it and comment – fantastic!
Queensland north of Rollingstone had better watch out… we are looking for pubs to have a beer and a yarn in!
Real photos – Real Pubs!
#1 by Mike on 17 August, 2009 - 10:17 am
I’ll not only read and comment for you blokes, I’d be happy to do some freelance research and send in reports.
Now are we going to do something about that header?
#2 by fatty on 17 August, 2009 - 10:33 am
Freelance contributions will be welcome as soon as we work out a “standard-ish” format for our reports. I’m sort of hoping that we’ll inspire others around the place to explore all the pubs in their area and do some reporting for us. We’ll see how it goes.
#3 by Roller on 22 August, 2009 - 12:25 pm
What a fantastic project! I would *love* to assist with some “freelance” work if it is wanted ;o) Now, all we need to do is find a *classic* retro-bus we could cruise around and do some group reporting! How cool would that be? Cruising around from pub to pub in far North QLD in a classic 60’s Bedford or AEC…….*drools*……
#4 by drew grozier on 29 October, 2009 - 5:43 pm
A very worthy project.
I’ve recently published ‘Scotch on the Bitumen’
People, Places and Pubs on the New England Highway of Australia. (see Amazons and all good bookstores.) It was in part a long, very enjoyable, pub crawl. Ruined my liver but.
If you wanted to use extracts you would be very welcome. Or I can give you a list of the pubs on the Highway in QLD and NSW that I would recommend you visit.
#5 by Juanita on 4 November, 2014 - 3:07 pm
Love the idea. I wish you had made it down to Home Hill to the Crown Hotel, locally known as “Bonke’s”. We have a sign that says “Bonke’s beer is best” and Gough Whitlam requested a Bonkes beer on his visit to Home hill in the 70s. Now after 48 years in our family and 13 years in my Uncles family, the 101 year old hotel is no longer ours. So I can no longer tell you stories of old and know who you are asking about when you come back to visit many years later. That last link has finally broken.