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.