Little Welsh boy in Tasmania
Melbourne(Street Art)(People)/Tasmania/Great Ocean Road/Top End
Monday 8th December 2003. 38 Miles:
Over the Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania, slept like a log most of the way and woke refreshed in Devonport. Cycled to Deloraine guided by my Lonely Planet Cycling Australia guidebook, this is the first day of the across the plateau ride. Along the way saw a field of opium poppies! Throughout my travels in Tassie these were a common sight, some fields even had the familiar UK brand gsk (GLAXO Smith Kline) on them...
I saw this folding logging truck in Deloraine and had to take a photo for all you petrol-heads out there... logging is big news here in Tassie. Enjoy that tree today as tomorrow it will be destined for Japanese furniture! Wilderness not Woodchips bumper stickers, that kinda thing. From a cyclists point of view the thundering trucks are a menace on the roads and the logging wrecks the views... and those trees are making Oxygen for me to breathe...
Tuesday 9th December 2003. 43 Miles:
Left Deloraine around 10am and got to Miena around 6pm. In between one THOUSAND meters of constant climbing up to this point:
Wednesday 10th December 2003. 39 Miles:
This day a breeze in comparison to the last, mostly downhill Miena to Bothwell, along the way a great descent on a unsealed road and this unmissable photo of an Echidna... I was biking along with a great tailwind when I passed this creature. When I stopped to get a better look it couldn't hear me because of the wind and ambled past me, hence the close-up nature of this shot.
Thursday 11th December 2003. 58 Miles:
Left Bothwell early and rode Melton Mowbray, Kempton, Dysart, Bagdad, Mangalore, Potsville, Tea Tree & Richmond. That was supposed to be the end but decided as I was only a short way from Hobart I'd try and meet up with my friend... on the way I saw this fantastic sign:
Friday 12th December 2003: She was off on a road-trip with this lovely lass and two others. I had a static day of Xmas card writing in rainy Hobart! Saturday 13th December 2003. 62 Miles: Sunday 14th December 2003. 26 Miles: This is the isle of the dead where all the dead convicts etc were buried: On my way back to Eaglehawk Neck saw this 'sculpture': And this one, depicting a nasty dog used to keep the convicts from escaping, here looking pretty angry at my Brompton! Monday 15th December 2003. 47 Miles: Tuesday 16th December 2003. 36 Miles: Wednesday 17th December 2003. 23 Miles: Thursday 18th December 2003. 73 Miles! Friday 19th December 2003. 47 Miles: Saturday 20th to Monday 22nd December 2003: Tuesday 23rd December 2003: Melbourne(Street Art)(People)/Tasmania/Great Ocean Road/Top End
This is the friend I came to Hobart to see, Joanna from Germany:
Hobart, Inner City Cycleway, Bowen Bridge, over Meehan Range's Grasstree Hill to Richmond (again). Had a slight mechanical, fixed with the help of the local garage, Sorrel, Lewisham, Dodges Ferry, Carlton (where I got confused and had to ask directions), mostly dirt road to Dunalley, across the Forestier Peninsula to Murdunna and along the Arthur Highway to Eaglehawk Neck. Saw this lizzard and this photo came out quite arty:
Eaglehawk Neck / Port Arthur return. Seeing the penal colony site. The strangest thing to my mind was "on 28 April 1996, at the Port Arthur Historic Site and in the surrounding area, a lone gunman took the lives of 35 people..." I had no memory of this, possibly because the media coverage of the events in Dunblane a few days later was much bigger news in the UK. Sorry to get so depressing on you, here are some nice photos of Port Arthur, firstly with bushfires on the hillside in the background (see the smoke?):
Eaglehawk Neck, Murdunna, Dunalley, Beam Creek, Sandpit Forest Reserve (lunch amid rainforest), Spring Beach, Orford. Camping by gorgeous Raspins Beach at not so lovely site. Met a cycling family that had been on the road with their kidz for 2+ months!
Photo of climb out of Eaglehawk Neck:
Starting in Orford into the wind all day by pass Triabuana to Swansea. Met some very cool people who invited me to their 'Barbie' and watched an amazing sunset plus some crazy goings on in the campground...
Got a lift to Coles Bay turnoff then cycled down to the Freycinet Peninsula National Park. Hiked to Wineglass Bay (so beautiful that my photography couldn't do it real justice - bang "Wineglass bay" into the Google image search) On my way there ran into a fellow traveller I last met in Shetland!
Really raining this moring so packed up a wet, sandy tent and biked Coles Bay (via the famous cafe), Bicheno, Scamander & St. Helens. Staying in a warm, dry YHA!
All going wrong today, two mechanicals... a puncture and then a wierd screeching noise from my rear SRAM 3-speed hub. St. Helens, Goshen, up mountain pass, Weldborough, Moorina, Derby (where I saw this wierd fish) & Branxholm. Decided it was best not to ride the Brompton until it got some TLC
Hitched to Launceston (you can do that with a folding bike) and stayed there chilling out and taking these photos:
Back to Melbourne by ferry.