Blogs from Saint Helens, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

Bicheno to St Helens After a hard night on a put-up bed with no springs I loaded my bike, whilst I waited for breakfast, I found my rear tyre was flat. Inspection found a 6mm piece of glass in the tyre, which I poked out with a fork. I put on a patch and then was ready for off at 8.20 after my bacon and egg at the nice accommodation at the Wintersun in Bicheno. Unfortunately it started to drizzle, which kept up all morning. Several riders stopped off at the local wildlife centre to see the Tasmanian Devils tear a piece of meat apart and to inspect the snakes at a safe distance. On the way north they also saw another echidna and a wallaby. Helen and I meanwhile soldiered on in the rain and ... read more

This little gem from Mark Twain:”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.So throw off the bowlines,sail away from the safe harbour,catch the trade winds in your sails.Explore.Dream.Discover”.Tasmania is an island that had to be sailed to so as to be discovered and it was a Dutch navigator,Abel Tasman,who found the place in 1642.Then followed a few centuries of exploitation by Europeans killing seals and generally irritating the indigenous tribes.The British set up their second colony near present day Hobart in 1803 and this led to increased clashes with the Aboriginal people who didn’t take kindly to losing land and their women.They fought back but tragically were killed in numbers by less than fair means including deadly poisoning of their food.A ... read more

DAY 123 Please note: the contents of todays blog contains graphical details which have nothing to do with me, thanks. Caroline We both slept really well last night, but again we woke up to another bright warm and sunny morning, I got up first, taking our tea mugs etc to the camp kitchen, so that I could finish the blog off for An Elephant Ate My Pancakes, which we managed to upload and added the pictures to. A short while later Caroline joined me and we set about having tea and doing toast. Dam it the Marmite is nearly out, its 20 times better than Vegemite so we may need the red cross to fly us some in. When we went to pack up camp, I got talking to the guy next door who has a ... read more

We checked in at the Hillcrest Tourist Park in St Helens in the early afternoon so decided to go back into town to do some food shopping for Christmas lunch as well as a few last minute presents. On Christmas Eve, we went for a drive in the hills, doing short walks at Blue Tier Reserve (Goblin Walk), Anchor Stampers (an old Tin mine) and Halls Falls. We stopped for some more cheeses at Pyengana Cheese on the way to St Columba Falls (where we had lunch) and Ralphs Falls. After dinner (delicious Gem Fish from Salty Seas fish shop) we went back into town for the annual Christmas Eve parade. Christmas day was very exciting for the kids as Santa had managed to find us despite our distance from home. They were both very pleased ... read more