I did it! Devonport, Tasmania. Full circle, sitting outside the post office waiting for Karon. Four hours, 15 minutes till ferry departure. Stunning, downhill ride with occasional uphill bursts. A superb finale ride. I'm having trouble concentrating. Traffic and girls in a sporty car with loud "gitchy gitchy ya ya yaaa" music playing. Three guys drinking beer in the hotel pub across the street. Revving engines. Old ladies walking by, commenting on the weather. "Cool." I'm pretty freakin' cool. I'm so proud of myself. 1,700k's. Mega hills. Corrugated, sandy dirt roads. Camping alone, identifying birds, long day hikes, and dozens of strangers I was lucky enough to meet. Karon and Jessie met me about 8k's from Forth. "You're too fast!" they shouted as they waved hello. We stopped along the side of the road to properly meet each other and chit chat. And then an easy spurt into Forth where I unloaded some of my stuff into Karon's car. They headed towards Leith to get some extra K's in and I headed up my last Tasmanian hill. A mild, 2-3k one. Ocean views and rolling farmland. Not much could have wiped that smile off my face. But now I'm here. And its sinking in. No more Tasmania. I hope Karon gets here soon, its cold and I don't like this corner of Devonport. Too much noise. Back to the big city tomorrow. Even more noise and fashion and out of rural, wilderness land. Seven weeks.
9:45pm
Writing on the ferry is bound to make me sick. But I need it. The writing and the recalling and all the images rushing through my head. If I don't write it... I have to write. Falling asleep with tears just escaping my eyes. No more empty stretches of road to sing along. Wahoos, things I'd normally be too shy to shout. Sense of place. To fall so in love with a place. Today Tasmania gave me my favorite scene on one of the rushes downhill: the intensity of green. Layers, gum trees up close. Bright. Dark. Like so many rides before. I could only glance, let it sink in from the corner of my eye as I'd brake to keep myself on my side of the road. Curves. Bends. Heartache. There is a German word for that. Linda, Anja, and Jens taught me it. Somehow I've forgotten it. But it's necessary now. People who ask questions. Then give me space to share. Reasons to dream. No matter how ready I am to rest for a few days in Melbourne. This place. These people. Ingrained. Such endless giving.
4 May 7:52am Melbourne
My emotional wobbliness seems to have settled now that I'm off the ferry. Sitting by the beach with a celebration breakfast: the very last of my muesli, peanut butter and nutella sandwich and the chocolate Janet gave me at Cradle Mountain. Hooray! 1,721.68 k's. My first solo tour! Somehow the process of finishing something is always harder than the actually being done. As I disembarked the ferry, I saw another young cycle tourist up ahead. He waited for me and told me he'd just finished a three week blitz around Tasmania going clockwise. And he had severely underestimated the hills. We just got into the rhythm of talking when he said, "Oh, there's my mum!" She seemed so happy to see him and gave him a big hug. I felt like I deserved a big hug too, but of course didn't get one because I was a complete stranger. I bid her son farewell, and now wish I'd asked him to meet up because it would be a tremendous help to my 'debriefing' process to be able to go through Tasmania with someone else who just cycled there too. But once again, its just me. And damnit, I feel a little sick from all the chocolate. It'll pass. Debrief. What do I do? Journal. Re-read. Talk, share. It's amazing how one 11 hour boat ride can make it seem to far away already. It was wonderful having Ted and Jane (friends of Dianne and Karon) on the boat to talk with for a couple hours before attempting sleep. They were a perfect summary of the type of people I'd met along the way. Warm-hearted, spirited, oozing of positive energy. Sleeping was okay. Tossey-turney, but the night went by quickly [There is a tractor "plowing" the sand at the little beach here. Which has got to be one of the dumber things I've seen recently.]
5 May. 8am
Gratitude. There is no other word to sum up how I'm feeling this morning. I slept in for a surprisingly long time (nearly 7:30! An hour longer than usual!) and woke to find a note from Tash. "Morning Pumpkin!..." A sweek wake-up note is definitely one way to start someone's day off right. And then, without getting out of my make-shift bed on the floor, I grabbed the letters Heather and Andrew sent me from the States. Felt like Christmas. Letters are my all time favorite form of long-distance communication. After savouring those, I got up to go to the toilet, then made a cup of tea and rushed back with the scissors to open the package from Andy. A post-card with two javelinas on it which at first I thought were ancient, large wombats that are now extinct. "How did he find this!" I thought before I recognized the Arizona animal. And the book, "the God of Small Things," which I started to read in Oregon last year, but didn't because I was off of reading then, running around like a goof with all those weirdos in the field. And a chocolate bar. And a bell for my bike: a cow's head! I was laughing big time when I saw that! It's perfect!
Yesterday was a collection of every emotion possible. From quite sad early in the morning to at peace with being back in Melbourne and delighted with myself for what I'd just done to happy to see Ange at the Otesha office and talk about how Tasmania was, what's been up with Otesha and Ange herself to thrilled to see Pip and Anna outside the hari krishna veg. restaurant where we were all hugs and then huge plates of $5 food (of which I had 2). And then I was off, attempting to cycle the 30k's to Tash's place, SE of the city, with no map of that region and 2 lines of directions to get onto the Burwood Highway. I would have had no trouble if I followed the directions, but I found myself on a bike path and thought, "Oh. This is nice, I'll take this east for a while then cut south and find the freeway that way." Uh huh. I overestimated my sense of direction and made a nice semi-circle loop back towards the city. But even so, I ended up on Toorak Road, which turned into the Burwood Highway. Goodbye quiet, empty Tasmania, Hello chaotic road rage city! One guy trying to turn right had his window down and practically roared with anger. At least it made me laugh, cause I was feeling that way too! I was pretty cranky and emotional by the time I got to Tash's. But when she opened the door and gave me a massive, long, beautiful hug, it all melted away. I cried a little and we didn't say anything, just hugged. I couldn't have asked for a better welcoming. And she painted a sign that said "welcome home Kelsey!" that I saw as I walked past the kitchen. So incredibly thoughtful. We had cups of tea and I ate some toast with veggies. Then we went to juggling club! I felt shy and awkward , but then got over that and had a giggly great time learning to juggle three balls. I haven't got it yet, but I'm making progress and it feels attainable. Something juggling has never felt like before! Then, exhausted from the day, Tash and I collapsed in the chairs of the UNI lobby, waiting for the FreeFoodMonday to be served. Mmm, another veggie feast. Delicious! Feeling like a zombie after dinner, we drove home and got ready for a wonderful sleep. Yay!
Cradle Mountain to Devonport
Total K's: 93.60
Avg Spd: 19.2 k/hr
Max Spd: 66.1 k/hr
Hours on bike: 4:51
KM Scary Hill Rating: 3/7
Total Tasmanian K's: 1,721.68!
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