Cycling Tasmania

Our cycling trip of Tasmania is 6 day’s long, 5 day’s of cycling covering about 200 miles and a layover day to visit the Freycinet National Park.

Our day’s have shaped up to be pretty similar.  We get up and have a nice breakfast at the B and B’s we have been staying.  The food is good and coffee is passable.  We start cycling about 9:30 and stop a little afternoon for a picnic lunch.  Our meal of choice is cheese and crackers (the local Brie and Camembert is outstanding) along with some fruit, sometimes a carrot or two and finished off with a shortbread cookie.

Not a bad place for lunch 

Pretty views all say long

We are cycling less than 40 miles most day’s, but it does take a while.  There are hills, which are long, but no too steep.  The roads are a little narrower than those at home, but in pretty good shape.  We are an oddity on the road, only having seen a couple of cyclists on the road.  Often, we cycle all day without  services along the way.

We are headed up the hill behind Julie

No sure what a "gall" is, but I busted something on the climb

The scenery is alway’s pretty and sometimes fantastic.  We feel it is most like the wine country of Sonoma California.  It is green, but on the dry side.  There are a lot a pastures (mostly sheep) and vineyards.  The shoreline is undeveloped, not even homes.  The towns we are staying in are small communities of less than 1000 people.  They are seaside and resort type communities.  

Freycinet National Park is on the horizon 

In Bicheno, we went on a Penguin tour.  The only penguin variety in Australia is the Blue (or Fairy) Penguin.  It is the smallest in the world, weighing about 2 pounds and about a foot high.  The community that we saw was in a reserve with 700 penguins.  We went shortly after dark.  We were very lucky that there were many chicks in the nests.  It was very interesting how the parents went out to sea all day.  We were there to see them returning to their nexts and feeding the young chicks.  They were totally unafraid of humans.  It as wonderful.

Mom and Dad returning from a hard day at work

Chicks waiting at home for supper

On our Layover say, we went to Freycinet National Park.  It is a wonderful wilderness area.  We did a 7 mile hike up to an overlook and saw a few creatures along the way. 

An Echidna

A friendly Wallaby 

Wineglass Bay from the overlook

Our last day on the road was right up the coast.  We were assisted by a nice tailwind.  Shortly after we arrived it started to rain.  The forecast is for 3" of rain over the weekend.  We had a few sprinkles on the ride, but were very lucky to make it in before the deluge.

The closest Julie would get to seeing a Tasmanian Devil

As I blog this, we have begun what I estimate to be a 43 hour trip home.  We caught a bus to the local airport.  Next is a flight to Sydney and an 8 hour layover.  This will be followed by a 26 hour trip to Chicago, including a 5 hour stop in Tokyo.  With any luck we will be home by 10 AM Sunday.

It has been a grand adventure  but it will be nice to be home. 

Hobart, Tasmania

Friday was our last “early” day of this trip.  We were up before 6 AM and headed to the airport again n.  This time we were headed 360 miles south to the island of Tasmania.  Tasmania is about as far south as Wisconsin is north.  The climate by the sea is more moderate, but it is very green, lush and beautiful.

After collecting our hire car (picking up our rental) we headed down the peninsula to the formal penal colony of Port Arthur.  On the way, we passed some beautiful cliffs and geological formations.

Port Arthur was one of those wonderful vacation surprises.  I expected to see some ruins of the prison, read a few plaques and move on.  Instead, it was a wonderfully curated, beautifully preserved world heritage site.  The day included several commentated tours and a great historical lesson.  It revealed a lot about the current day Tasmanian people through their history.

We returned to town and our hotel was in a lovely and vibrant part of town.  There are great restaurants and sites very nearby.

Our hotel is on the pier behind the ship

Our second and last day in Hobart with a walk through the marvelous morning farmers market.  It rivaled and perhaps surpassed the one in Madison.  In addition to fresh produced, baked goods and food of all kinds, there were locally produced Tasmanian crafts and produce.

The Salamanca market with Mount Wellington in the background 

Our next adventure was a city tour.  Our guide was a young woman with pink hair.  She told marvelous stories of the history of the city, interspersed with information on Hobart today and food and drink recommendations.

Our tour guide and the statue of Abel Tasman

To end the day, we picked up our bikes and prepared for the beginning of our bike tour tomorrow.  We feasted on food from the market and a nice bottle of Tasmanian wine for dinner.

Tomorrow we start cycling.  I hope to post a couple of times along the way.

Melbourne

Melbourne skyline from the war memorial

On Monday, after weathering the gale force winds along the Great Ocean Road, we headed back to the city.  It was a 4 hour drive to Melbourne.  It was on country roads and we got good view of the countryside.  We walked around town a bit, but did not get a good feel for the area.  Our initial impression was that it seemed a little “grittier” than Sydney.

The next day, we started the day with a city tour.  Our guide was a young, very entertaining sociology student.  He told great stories about the history and culture of the city.  We were joined by Heather, a person we had met on our tour last year in Vietnam who lives in Melbourne.  It was fun to see her and learn about the area from her.

We were very impressed with what we learned about our city.  It is considered one of most livable cities in the world, and we could see why.  There is a big rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne.  We don’t have a favorite and believe that they are both fabulous.  In a nutshell, Melbourne is more a city of small neighborhoods and areas.  I think that the skyline is very elegant.

The Yarra River in Melbourne 

Our friend Heather on the riverfront 

The main shopping area decorated for Christmas 

Street art along a "lane way"

After the tour and a nice lunch with Heather, we walked to the cities war memorial with a good view of the city.  We walked back to our hotel and eventually ended up back in town for a nice pizza for dinner.  I think that we walked about 12 miles during the day.

Shrine of Remembrance 

The next day, Wednesday, we headed out of town on a Yarra Valley wine tour.  By 10 AM, we were sipping wine in the countryside.  As you probably know, Australia has a huge wine industry.  The varied landscape offers many opportunities for wine growing.   The area near Melbourne is considered to be very similar to Burgundy in France.

We visited 3 vineyards, a dairy (for cheese) and a chocolatier throughout the day.  We learned a lot about viticulture in Australia.  It was a fabulous trip.  It was a warm beautiful day.  We had dinner at a local street market, with fabulous food in a fun family environment.

Two fisted drinking at 10 AM

Australian Cows are different than we have at home

On last day in Melbourne we went to the beach.  We were joined by by most of Melbourne population under 25 years of age wearing skimpy swimsuits. It was a balmy 92 degrees and a perfect day for the beach.

The Great Ocean Road (GOR)

We left the outback on Friday.  We had spent the prior night at a truckers hotel on the main road in the desert between Adelaide and Darwin.  It was actually quite nice, except for all the signs to be watchful for venomous snake. 

The flight to Melbourne was 1200 miles.  We picked up a rental car for the next chapter of our adventure, the great ocean road.  We arrived at our motel at the beach town of Torquay in time for dinner at a nice Brew Pub.

The next morning, we awoke to a beautiful sunny day, with promises of a 85 degree forecast.  We had breakfast on the beach, watching the local enjoy the beach with their families.  Soon afterward, we began our trip down the coast.

The great ocean road (GOR) is a 200 mile trip down the coast, west of Melbourne.  It is a combination of small beach villages, hiking trails, wildlife and natural wonders.  It is like the California coast near Big Sur, but much greener and far fewer people.

The first couple of stops for us were some beautiful hikes.  It was so beautiful, we could not stop.  We hiked about nine miles along the coast.  After a picnic lunch of avocado on sourdough bread, topped with ham, we went for a swim at one of the many beautiful beaches.

Sunday, we had a big change in the weather.  We had lots of wind and it was 25 degrees cooler.  I know that I should probably not complain about 60 degrees.  We had scattered showers, but it cleared up nicely between them.

Our first adventure was to look for Koalas.  We went to a lush forest and looked hard for the little creatures.  We were successful in spotting them in the wild and got a few pictures.  They sleep 19 hours a day, but we did see them move a bit.  After a 5 mile hike, we spotted another female with a young one in her pouch.  Unfortunately, we could not get a picture of the young one.

The Koala hunter

Sleeping Koala

There is a baby Koloa in there

Along the hike, we did get temporarily stopped by another not so cute example of Australian wildlife.  We met this snake and fortunately, he did leave the path before we ran past.  After that, Julie was not so anxious to take the lead on the rest of the hike.  We looked it up when we got to our lodging and it appears to have been a Mulga - extremely venomous.  We have meet 2 of Australia’s 135 venomous snakes.

Cape Otway Lighthouse 

Our Serpent friend

Beach along the hike

Our last day on the GOR, we went to see the Twelve Apostles.  It is a famous geographical site along the coast.  Unfortunately, the weather was not perfect, but it was a fabulous site.  

After that, we headed back to Melbourne for three city days of exploring.  Hopefully with no snakes, although the press has stories of a young boy being attacked by a python in the area.  Fortunately, he survived with some broken ribs.  The python does not even qualify as a venomous snake.

Red Centre Road Trip

Uluru 

The Flight from Cairns to Alice Springs is 900 miles.  Interestingly, the time change is only 30 minutes, which puts us 15:30 ahead of home. 

We got to the airport and headed into town to collect our hire car (rental).  We picked up a 4 wheel drive, because our plans for the next four days includes heading on some unpaved roads in the outback.  We will be doing what is called the Red Centre Way, which covers some of the most beautiful and remote areas of this huge country.

Since it was Sunday in a very chill part of the world, we took it easy.  We checked out a local market, had a brat, bought groceries and headed to the Desert Park.  There we learned that Australia has over 135 varieties of venomous snakes.

Alice Springs is not a great place to spend a lot of time.  There are problems with drugs and the indigenous population that make crime an issue.

On Monday, our road trip began.  We drove west along the McDonald range.  The range is very old and is characterized by red rocks and vertical rock formations.  Our plan for the day was to drive about 100 miles, taking in the sites along the way.  The road was nice, not busy, and the crowds were non existent.  In fact, all day long we kept running into a German couple about our age at every stop.  They must have thought that we were stalking them.  Most of the stops were geologically significant and stunningly beautiful.  Since it was over 90 degrees and windy, it was great that many had water holes in which to swim.

The first stop, Simpson Gap had Black footed Rock Wallaby’s near a beautiful gorge.

One of four Black Footed Rock Wallabies we watched play in the rocks

The next place, Stanley Chasm  had beautiful vertical cliffs.  We took a short but very vertical hike to find a magnificent view of the Outback. 

Stanley Chasm 

View from our hike

An experienced hiker, no we did not do the whole hike

At Ellery Big Hole we found and oasis like setting.  The water was great in this first of three swims today.

Julie in the swimming hole

Top of another fine hike

At the Ochre Pits, we learned about the importance of this decoration for the original occupants of this area.  The site was still in use with huge fines for people touching or taking the ochre.  In typical Australian fashion, no fences, no guards, no crowds and no one disobeying the wishes of the owners of the land who loaned it to the government for educational purposes.

After another hike and swim we headed to our lodging for the night.  The Glen Helen “Resort” was 100 miles from Alice Springs and the only lodging since the town and for several hundred miles in this direction.  It was a converted cattle station and had the feel of a 1950’s roadside motel (think Bates motel).  We has Chicken Snitzel and Chicken Parmesan on chips (Australian comfort food) for dinner after consuming a couple of Gin and Tonics, all in the shadow of the magnificent wall of red rocks.

Glen Helen "Resort" 

Tuesday was the trip to Kings Canyon National Park.  We had planned  a 200 miles drive across the outback.  We headed out early on because the forecast was for 95 degrees and clear.  We started the day with a 5 mile hike along a gorge and you guessed it, a swim in the water hole.  During the 2 1/2 hour hike we were treated to marvelous views of the valleys and never saw another hiker. 

After a dip and topping off the fuel tank, we headed to Kings Canyon.  After 100 miles, we hit the unpaved portion.  In the entire 100 miles, we saw a total off four vehicles (2 moving and 2 parked).  Despite looking very closely at all the kangaroo crossings, we did not see any.  However, we were saw several groups of wild horses.  The wild camels and donkeys that can be seen on the ride eluded us, but the scenery and horses insured that we did not feel cheated.

Brumbies alongside the road

Our road trip vehicle on the left side of the road 

At sunset we gathered at the resort viewing area for stunning views of King Canyon.  This time, it is a real resort.

Wednesday we woke up early again.  We did a 4 miles hike at Kings Canon called the “Rim Walk.”  It started with a 300 foot climb and continued along the rim of the red rocked canyon.  Besides all the geological grandeur, the “Garden of Eden,” an oasis in the river valley was a highlight.

After the hike and a swim, we hit the road for Uluru (formerly called Ayers Rock) for our last stop on the Red Centre tour.  We had about a 200 mile drive and we were luck enough to see three Dingo’s (similar to dogs) enroute.  We ended the day with a sunset viewing of Uluru   It exceeded all expectations. 

We started our last full day in the outback on a sunrise camel ride.  The 4:30 start was rough, but well worth the effort.  Julie rode Kahn and I rode Muldor   We had a great time.

Julie and Kahn in a camel selfie - camels love selfies 

Me and my ride

After surviving the ride

Sunrise at Uluru 

We are goi finish up the day with a walk and some more pictures, but while I have good internet, I am going to post what I have on our outback adventure.  Our next stop will be the Great Ocean Road, west of Melbourne.