Australia Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Round the World by Bike

After staying in a place longer than 2-3 nights is always a little bit sad and strange if you have to leave again. Though it is always exciting to discover new terrains without question! You leave people behind you became friends with and you leave a sort of your comfort zone once again. It is amazing how quick you get used to little luxury things like knowing where you can buy something, where you can have your next shower, doing your laundry or just where you going to sleep the next night. On the other hand exactly these “mysteries” make your voyage so interesting…

Anyhow for us it is time to say goodbye once more to all our friends over here, to all the birds which are used meanwhile to get fresh bread crumbs from us in the morning and to our housemates, the possums. Probably we will never go again fishing that often and we will never eat so much fish again. We always found it fabulous going out to the rocks for fishing, never mind the weather really. Every time it is different, you see new things. Either a manta ray, some seals or dolphins are passing by or you can see enormous cloud formations or magical rainbows or romantic sunsets…

Apropos „goodbye“! For Kerstin it was time to say goodbye as well to one of her favorite shirts… more holes than merino wool after 20 month on the bike.

For our last two days in Tasi we planned a nice route and we are lucky that we found people on the road who will host us. At the moment we have very stormy weather; sometimes we think we are going to fly away together with the shack the next second. Somehow funny, because we had nearly the same conditions when we arrived here two month ago… The wind will take us away to new terrains…

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Is it really true? Yes it is indeed! We are still based in Mac`s beautiful beach shack at Eggs and Bacon Bay, south-east of Tasmania! Did we stop our trip? NO! It is just a perfect place at this time of the year (winter is coming… and there are some really cold nights already) to discover Tasmania. Is that boring??? NOT AT ALL!!! Here you can find a lot to see and many people to meet…

We are not getting tired riding around all this little roads (sometimes even with a bus which Mac sponsored us for some days ;). Mainly gravel but mostly in really good condition. The autumn tints everything in beautiful colors and after the morning mist we have mostly sunny days – it can get really cold at night and we always adore having our warm dry shack to come back to. Several trips provided an insight into different sceneries and scenarios. On the Tasmanian Peninsula for example we got shocked; still you could see the leftovers from the bushfires from the beginning of the year. Properties and houses burnt down completely… On the other hand you find beautiful wild cliffs to hike along. And when it was time for dinner a guy just passed by and gave us a big piece of fresh blue fin tuna. When we stayed overnight next to the “Remarkable Cave” we met a nice couple, Barbara and Sean from NSW. They visited us in our shack for a night and we had a good time together. Another day we went up to Mt Wellington (1270m) where we could overlook Hobart and the whole south-east of Tasmania from above. We had a great boat trip with Mac and his poodle Noodle on their new sailing boat to a 30-year-old shipwreck. For one night we had the possibility to host Cat and Kev (http://www.rtwadv.com/) and exchange experiences. For a longer trip we went up the east coast; Coles Bay, which lies beneath pink granite peaks and where we met Lindsey (travelling around Tassi on his Enfield Bullet 500; further up to the Bay of Fires with endless beaches and lovely rock formations where you really feel like you reached the end of the world; and finally we crossed to the middle of the east part of the island. A spectacular ride was the “Jacobs Ladder” on Mt Ben Lomond with nobody else around. When we were leaving our camp in the forest and heading towards it early morning, Ben Lomond was still covered completely in clouds. We chose forest tracks and enjoyed beautiful morning scenarios while coming closer. With our arrival the mist was gone or rather was bedding low below us in the valleys below. We had stunning views when we were climbing up the “Ladder” with its narrow dirt serpentine up to 1574 meter!!!

Beside the trips there are wonderful things to do in and around our shack. Like going fishing, collecting shells and building wind games out of it, cleaning up the garden, fixing the fence, reading a good book or just watching the bay and listening to the waves with a glass of wine or two. Meanwhile we became friends with our housemates, a mixed possum couple (golden and black) and we converted our barbecue to a bird feeding station (if we sleep to long and they cannot find bread crumbs they knock the door).

You always meet interesting people if you take your time and chat around. Or they approach you; as we met “The Dragon Lady”, Atti, during shopping, who became famous riding her bike around Australia and we meet her regularly. Or Rolf, German, but living since 30 years in AU, who stopped us on the road because of the German number plate and invited us to his home where Anna his wife prepared yummy snacks for us. The time of the year was maybe not perfect because you would not like to stay every day in a tent. But thanks to this entire lovely people we got the possibility to enjoy and discover Tasmania intensive and always in a good mood.

Soon the day will come to say good-bye to everybody. The ferry is booked and we will head off to mainland at May 28^th. Like usual the route is not fixed but we will head direction Sydney. About km South of Sydney we are going to meet some friends again, Barbara and Sean, the couple we met here in Tasmania – we are looking forward to see them again!

Sascha installed heated grips on the Twin, what a difference this is! Hands are not freezing anymore. It´s much safer and convenient as well… ;) And Kerstin inherited his merino wool gloves.