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first day of cycling
Somewhere near Evandale So after a night in Launceston where we were delighted to do laundry, Jamie and I began the second part of the trip. We had only one guide, Ann, but two new travel companions, Antoinette and Michael, both from Sydney, but not previously acquainted.
Before I get on the road here, I just want to mention something to be concerned about. Our guides were hard-working, knowledgeable people, but there is a constant turnover of guides due to the fact that they have to worry about how to earn money during the winter months. The older they get, with more responsibilities and financial obligations, the less workable the lifestyle becomes. Don't take these folks for granted. There's got to be a better way than constantly losing the people who know the trails best and have the most experience dealing with wilderness challenges.
So now we had a trailer loaded with 6 bikes. We drove a little ways out of Launceston for a starting point. It was kind of windy as we began pedaling, but we were ready to roll. I'd been worried about the hills, as I'm from a very flat place, but I'm happy to say I made
Jacob's Ladder
top of the road up Ben Lomond. See the switchback below? it up all of them. (The hiking part of the trip was definitely more challenging.) We were riding mostly past sheep pastures, and I was lucky enough to see a couple wedge-tailed eagles in the first two days. These eagles are large enough to take a lamb, and they are still shot by farmers even though protected. We also saw small mobs of green rosellas, colorful and noisy parrot-like birds.
We rode for an hour or so, stopped for lunch, rode some more. Then Ann retrieved us for the ascent through Ben Lomond National Park. We'd be spending the night at the top of the mountain and no way any of us could ride up that. The topmost section of road is an extraordinarily steep and winding narrow chain of hairpins called "Jacob's Ladder."
I actually really liked Ben Lomond, though the wind was absolutely howling when we arrived not too long before dark. It got down to 34 degrees Celsius that night with a chance of snow, but we were inside in a cozy cabin. We had a drink in Tasmania's highest pub.
It wasn't much warmer the next morning. Ann said on a nice day
white sands
just another pretty beach she would ride down Jacob's Ladder, but Nick had advised me not to. No one felt the urge to try it, so we let Ann drive us all the way back down. Then we pedaled towards the coast. That was a pretty ride, though apparently Elephant Pass has the better scenery.
The pass we went through to get out to the sea was fun, if you like long stretches of downhill. Jamie tied her video camera onto her handlebars and filmed her descent. You can hear her exclaim "Whoa!" when she suddenly realizes how fast she is going. I took it a little more slowly. At the bottom we learned why Antoinette was even slower than me: her rear brake cable had popped out. How she managed to navigate through that pass with only a front brake, I can't imagine.
I never quite trusted my bike after that. I knew it wasn't shifting as well as my own bicycles, but now I wondered what might outright fail.
That night we stayed at the White Sands resort, which had a view of the beach. I walked down in the morning and stuck my hands in the water -
a lagoon
good place for birding didn't seem too cold, but I realize you do need a wet suit if you're going to spend much time in the water there.
The next day we headed for Bicheno, stopping first at Little Beach and then at a lagoon. Saw my first little pied cormorant - there would be many more, and a white-faced heron. Lots of beautiful coastline. A few drops of rain here and there, we were rewarded by a rainbow. And it didn't really rain until we got to Bicheno.
And that didn't last. We were soon walking out on the rocks by the sea, down to see the blowhole, a hole in the shoreline rocks where wave water comes spewing up like a geyser. Then we climbed a trail to a hilltop overlook. That's where Jamie and I got separated from the rest of the group. On the trail back down, they took a turn and we missed it. No problem, I knew how to get back to the hostel, but I couldn't figure out why we didn't see them anywhere. We walked the long way back, the scenic route on the waterfront.
Just as we arrived at the hostel, here
Bicheno
Bicheno was quite a scenic little town come our friends, heading back out. They were on their way to see the fairy penguins come ashore. Of course I wanted to see these birds too, so we grabbed our headlamps and turned right around.
Fairy penguins are only 0.4 meters tall. They fish during the day and come ashore at Bicheno to spend the night. Here they scramble across the rock, and even cross the roads that now criss-cross their ancient home. The "penguin crossing" signs aren't just cute, they are actually intended to prevent road kills - but I don't know if they are effective.
Literature in Bicheno explains how to cover your flashlight with red cellophane so you can shine your beam on the birds without disturbing them too much. Ann had a stiff red plastic bag which provided us each with a light cover. We walked around on the rocks in the dark, where several other groups of people were also waiting. Finally we saw a little penguin. They looked so delicate, I immediately shrank from trying to get a better look.
They were few and far between at that hour, just after dark. At length we came upon another one, just
penguin crossing
Penguins at Bicheno not only have to deal with rude tourists, they have to cross streets before the first street. That penguin tried to huddle back into the brush, but everyone shined their lights on it all the same. I was ready to leave. As we walked down the street, we could suddenly hear many penguins calling loudly, a funny, rattling wail. This was when Ann took the red cover off her flashlight, declaring we were going to get a good look. And sure enough, she blasted one little bird with that bright light.
The next day we rode to Freycinet National Park. I think that was the day we had a brief stand off with a huge dog near a pasture. He stood in the middle of the road and barked at us, and we patiently waited for him to go away. I told our companions about being chased by dogs in Ecuador - the world over canines hate bicycles. We also watched in some dismay as a sheep that had managed to get outside the fence onto the road tried to get back through the barbed wire.
At Freycinet we had our usual picnic lunch, then took the trail to the Wineglass Bay lookout. Can't think of prettier beach, though I do
WIneglass Bay
Tasmania's most famous beach? like the rugged ones around Big Sur. Then we hiked down and touched the water, the squeaky white sand. Ah.
That night we stayed at the Udda Backpacker's Hostel in Triabunna, or, as we called it, Fran's place. Good cocount cookies. This is the jumping off point for Maria (pronounced with a long i) Island, where we would spend the following night. Maria Island, like many other places in Tasmania, was once a penal colony. After that was abolished, there was a cement works there briefly, and someone even tried to turn the island into a spa/resort area. Nothing worked out. In the 1960s it was turned over to the Australian Park Service. The Park Service decided to use it as a wildlife preserve. They introduced several species, including (Forester's?) kangaroos and Cape Barren Geese, that they thought might soon be in danger in their natural homes.
So the next day we took the ferry over to Maria (no cars). One of the old penitentiary buildings is still standing, and if you don't want to tent it during your visit, you can stay in one of the cells. There is no electricity, but there is running water. We
Kangaroo
Intoduced to Maria Island, just in case they don't make it in Australia took a cell, which had 6 bunks, a wood-burning stove, and lots of shelves. Then we went for a bike ride. Unfortunately, Ann had us riding on some trails where bikes are prohibited. I wish mountain bike enthusiasts had more understanding of how much damage they do to vegetation, but I guess if you're not interested in different plant species, it's hard to comprehend. I don't like riding over large sticks anyway.
We rode to some of the old ruins, skeletons of brick buildings. Then we went down to fossil cliffs, which is pretty hard to describe. Basically, a slab of wall-to-wall sea creature fossils from the ocean floor has been heaved up on the shore there. It doesn't look real. It looks like someone pressed the crowded shells into concrete as a work of art.
We had a nice party in our cell later. In Triabunna, Jamie had made her first legal purchase of alcohol (Australia has a reasonable drinking age): a five dollar bottle of champagne. We were also visited by the brush-tailed possums. These don't look like North America's opossum, but rather like giant squirrels - cute! One came in and grabbed the spoon that
Maria Island
Nothing worked out here, a variety of ruins left behind was still in the empty tomato can - yes, quite brazen. So we had champagne in the pen with possums.
The next day we rode on an old road (that's okay by me) to painted cliffs, a stretch of beautiful sculpted sandstone walls along the ocean. Then we went to the museum back by our cell. Funny place, because there's really nobody there. Especially in mid-May, end of season. So it's a do-it-yourself museum. There was an old piano in there, which Jamie played first. Then I offered some music to the memory of all the unfortunate souls who had suffered there. "Poverty populates the prisons": Eugene Debs. The out-of-tune sourness really added to the haunting atmosphere.
That afternoon we went back to the ferry. The wind was really ripping, and what a ride it was! I might have been concerned, except that I've had the luck to be on a worse crossing (in British Columbia, where we had to abandon our course and circle an uninhabited island for 8 hours while waiting for a storm to pass. We got to see orcas.....but the boat ran out of beer!). Every so often the boat hit the water with
Kangaroos and bicycles
This seemed like a strange combination at first a terrible, gut-wrenching smack, but the captain assured us that this boat had made it through worse, and that no one ever gets stranded on Maria Island. He also pointed out an albatross, which he said they only see when the water is very rough.
Back to Fran's place in Triabunna. Then the next day it was on to Hobart. When we got to the top of Mt. Wellington it was cold and windy too. After sizing it up on the drive in, I decided I didn't want to ride down this mountain, as thrilling as they say it is. I rode down Chimborazo in Ecuador, but that has stretches of flat in it, and you can see the landscape change. Wellington is just a steep spiral down. I might have tried it on my own bike, but I still didn't trust our equipment. Antoinette and I chose to ride down in the van. Michael agreed to keep Jamie behind him so she wouldn't go too fast.
They had a good ride down the mountain, though their toes and fingers froze. It was sunny and warm in Hobart so we had lunch outdoors near an Antarctic ice-breaker in
Tidepool
Even the tidepools were scenic by painted cliffs the harbor.
We parted ways after lunch. Jamie and I had some great coffee while doing our laundry at Hobart's laundromat/cafe. We enjoyed the huge outdoor Salamanca market the next day (Saturday) - you could buy anything from produce to local woodcraft to used books - I'd be there every Saturday. And a variety of street musicians. Not bad for a small
city.
Then it was the bus back to Launceston where I finally saw Fuji, the big white cat at the backpacker's hostel ("He's on a diet. Please don't feed him.") And on Sunday we had to fly to Melbourne. Jamie forgot the term for the hostel there and called it a "brothel" instead, which stuck: Shall we go back to the brothel now?
And on Monday we flew back to LA, arriving at about the same time we left Melbourne. How nice to have a garden to come back to, and it's spring again. Nevermind that it's the year of the 17-year cicadas.
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Sue
non-member comment
What a wonderful gift
I am amazed at the scenery that my sister captured on film. I have never seen rock formations quite like the ones in Australia. I am so thankful that my sister (Brownie) took my daugher (Jamie) on such a 'once in a life time' trip.