(having trouble uploading photos, so instead you get a very long update!)
Ooh-wee! This was a day full of firsts! I don’t even know where to start there are so many thoughts in my head and happy feelings – there’re a lot of those too. So from the beginning. I was thrilled to be leaving the wwoof farm in Takone this morning at 8am. I’d enjoyed my stay, for the most part, but I’d been feeling quite restless to get on the road again. After some unsentimental goodbyes, I hopped on my bike, prepared for a full day of cycling ahead. Peddling hard, I felt rather anxious, wanting to get back to the main road and away from the wwoof farm. It was a very beautiful place, but I didn’t feel entirely comfortable there. After 5k, I made it to the highway. To be honest, I can’t remember anything too remarkable from this part of the ride. Not until I hit the most awesome descent of my journey so far. Five ks down into Hellyer Gorge. As I zoomed down the windy road, letting out the occasional whoop, I was very conscious of what it’d be like going up the other side if I was having this much fun flying down to the bottom. I stopped at the rest area for a pee break and a quick walk to the river, not feeling certain that it was good to be leaving my bike and gear unattended for long. After eating ½ my humus, tomato sandwich (on very stale bread, mmm), I started collecting my stuff together to leave. Two cars pulled up and parked. A slightly overweight man in his late 40’s got out of one car, and a similarly aged couple got out of the other. “Beautiful drive in’it?” asked the woman to the single male. “Ah yeah, tis. But not by bike, you’d hafta be bloody stupid to do that.” This made me laugh cause he hadn’t seen me resting against a picnic bench 15m away. I got Goat and started walking towards them. “Oh hi, uh, I didn’t mean you. There’s like a hundred cyclists a ways back, taking up the entire lane.” “Well,” I said with a smile, “I wouldn’t say we’re stupid, probably just a little crazy.” The three of them seemed quite intrigued by what I was doing. “Tell me one thing,” the other man said, “why do you do it?” “That’s a good question. For a lot of reasons really. For one, even though I am often cursing my way up hills, when I get to the top, it’s like, whoa, I did that! It’s very rewarding. Plus, it is awesome not needing a car, just a bike and these two legs, to cover so much distance. And I get to spend so much extra time taking in the scenery.” That last point is so true. All the images around me have enough time to really sink in, so at the end of the day, it’s like a nature picture show going through my head. The woman said she’d just do the 15-minute loop walk for her exercise that day. I’d wanted to wait for the other cyclists, but another woman said they were quite a ways back, so I just hoped they’d catch up to me later on. With lots of “good lucks” I said goodbye and started the uphill climb out of the gorge.
To my amazement, it was a magnificently mild climb for the first ½ hour. The last 15 minutes, ooh, a bit steeper, but even so, I only dropped into granny gear once, towards the end, and only for a couple minutes! A couple k’s after I’d gotten out of the gorge, I stopped to finish the rest of my sandwich. Since leaving the gorge, I passed by a lot of eucalyptus plantations and recently logged areas. And it was around here where I met my first logging truck, and definitely not my last! Around the 45-50k mark, I stopped to take a picture of the cool tree tunnel I was passing through. After picking up one of those 6-ringed, plastic soda things, I headed on. Two to three k’s later I realized, hmm, I have no sunglasses anymore! After a thorough search though the only pannier they could have been in, I debated whether or not I wanted to go back and look for them. I was sure I must have set them on my bag and they’d fallen off somewhere. After going back and forth in my head, I decided it was silly not to go back and check since it was only a short distance. As I peddled back the way I came, I saw the first group of riders of The Great Australian Bike Ride (GABR). “That’s the hard way!” one guy shouted. There wasn’t time to say much else. Sure enough, just where I’d stopped lay my sunglasses, hooray! My first potential lost item of the trip was saved!
As I got back on the road, another group of GABR cyclists came up. I peddled slowly, hoping to talk to some of them. I’m not the most social person in the world, but after cycling with 13 Oteshans and then going the last week hardly talking much at all on the farm, I was quite eager to say hello to some fellow cyclists. ‘Hello!” “G’day!” “How are ya!?” “Wow, you make us look like wimps!” They fired off friendly greetings as they passed. Each group had several support vehicles, so fully unloaded, they moved quicker than me, that’s for sure. Off they went, but I felt encouraged and energized by our brief exchange. Luckily, I ran into them again 10ks or so up the road. I pulled off the road to talk to them while they were loading their bikes into one of the trailers – cheaters!! Apparently, each group would ride a certain # of ks, then drive a bit, then ride again. Everyone was so enthusiastic and friendly, wanting to know where I was from, what I was doing. I was asking as many questions as them, simply elated to be around friendly cyclists again. They were a big mix of ages, though predominantly over 50. The GABR is a fundraiser for Rotary, I think and different groups are riding all around Australia and these folks were on the Tasmanian leg. It was hard to get full answers in the mix of chatter. We rode together for about 3 minutes, but then they all passed me.
The next stretch of the ride was tiring: continuous, undulating hills that each on their own would have been fine, but grouped together, started to drain my energy quickly. After uphill, uphill, uphill, I finally got to go downhill, wee! So fast! Half way down, I glanced up, and there it was, a monster of a hill, just waiting for me. “Fuck...!” I had enough momentum to rush up about 50 meters, if that. And about 50m later, I was in granny gear. That was the first time during the trip where I wanted to cry from physical exhaustion, but I held it off by talking to myself like I was a nervous horse. “There you go, nice and easy. Good girl. Don’t look up, just nice and easy. One, two, three, four. There you go.” And yay, I made it to the top. I pulled off onto a logging road for my next meal of the day: a peanut butter and nutella sandwich and the most delicious banana! Plus, for the first time in Tasmania, I broke into my chocolate stash, woohoo! Going up the hill, I kept salivating over the thought of a giant bowl of spaghetti with massive pieces of garlic bread, but this would do. Feeling much better, I got back on Goat and after several k’s of mostly flat, I began the most awesome, continuous downhill stretch. Aside from rushing log trucks and campervans, it was brilliant! I let out several ‘wahoo’s’ then noticed a young guy walking his fully loaded bike UP the hill. I grinned and waved, but wasn’t about to stop flying down the hill.
At the bottom, there was road work, so I had to wait for the go ahead with about a dozen cars and trucks behind me. When the light turned green, I peddled up a moderate hill. One of the GABR vans passed me, tooting their horn. I have no idea how I got in front of them, but was pleased to see them again. Another passed me and they had their windows down and started shouting, “Well done!” “Way to go!” I was grinning from ear to ear (still am as I write this) and got an extra boost of momentum going up the hill. Then the next van passed and they too shouted out encouragement. It was fantastic! Not only did that make my day, but I’m pretty sure that’s the highlight of my Tasmanian trip to date. A couple k’s up the road, they were unloading their bikes, preparing to ride again. I stopped to say hi. What an exuberant group of people! There were 5ks left to Tullah (my ending point for the day) and that’s where they were biking to. “We’ll see you there!” The first riders zipped off and I chatted with some others as they rode up to me, then passed me. One trio passed on a downhill, the first woman shouting, “I think you are fantastic!” “Unbelievable!” shouted the second. “See ya in Tullah!” said the third. I had my own group of cheerleaders! Lucky, lucky, once again. When I came into Tullah, slowing to a stop alongside the stationary group, they were all clapping and congratulating me. “It’s like my birthday, wow!” I thought they were all pretty awesome as well, even if they did get a lift up all the big hills. They headed off towards Strahan, my next stop, while I searched Tullah for Rick and Barbara, the contacts Nick and Michelle had given me. Up to this point, I hadn’t been able to get in touch with them, so I biked to their house. No one home. I’d talked to Diane, my contact in Strahan, the night before, and she said I could try and get in touch with Gordon, a social worker in town. The woman at the milk shop gave me his address, so I rode there, but no one answered the door even though I could hear the TV on. There was a free camping area near the milk shop, but mostly it seemed like a parking lot for caravans. Uncertain what to do, I biked back to the first part of town, a k up the road, and asked at a cafe if they knew Rick and Barbara and if they were in town. She tried to ring their house, but had the same result as me, no answer. She sent me across the street to the woodcraft shop, saying the owner there was a closer friend. But he didn’t know either, just that they might be at their house in Wynard. So I went back to Rick and Barbara’s and parked my bike in their carport. I walked two minutes down to Lake Roseberry. I ate nuts and started journaling, in the back of my mind thinking about where I should sleep. There was a patch of grass just outside Rick and Barbara’s yard, close to some bushy area. And then there was their backyard. Since I hadn’t spoken to them, it seemed like staying outside their yard was the better option. But when I went back, the backyard seemed so much cozier and safer! And so that is where I am now. The first time I’ve camped in someone’s backyard without making sure it was okay to do so first. So thank you, Rick and Barbara, for having a cozy backyard for me to camp in. It’s definitely nice to have a comfortable spot to sleep after a long day riding. And oh yes, I also had my first Tasmania ice-cream this afternoon, yum!
Takone wwoof farm to Tullah
Total KMs: 99.82
Avg Spd: 16.1km/hr
Max Spd: 58.6km/hr
Hrs on bike: 6:10
KM scary hill rating: 3/7
Helena suggested that I take in Queenstown slowly, and so I did just that. Meandering up to the lookout, then walking through the neighborhood and along the river. A very mellow day of strolling around. Saw a couple walking out of the hospital with two fully loaded bikes so I went to visit with them, my first touring cyclists I've seen aside from the guy going up the hill on my way to Tullah. They were very friendly, yet going the opposite direction of me, but have had about enough and are catching the bus to Tullah. Also saw my first Aussie snake today, well the tail end of it anyway. Well, maybe its my second sighting...some of the Oteshans and i thought we'd seen a snake on the night ride up to Mt. Leura in Camperdown, but whether it was a stick or a snake we'll never know.
2) Victoria Pass starts immediately after the Nelson Falls carpark. 4.5 km climb. Gradual but becomes steeper.
