South Coast New South Wales, Australia

Hi everyone sorry we have been slow in the updating but it has been busy. We cycled from Sarah and Paul's home in Kerrajong and spent the first night in Camden. It was a lovely day through rolling hills and small towns. Coffee shop stop in the pm. Hot day. The next day another hot day riding through more lovely rolling hills with farms and small towns. Diana was not good at keeping hydrated and got a little heat stroked in the afternoon. We found a caravan park in Mittagong which was home for two days. We had our first close encounter with the parrot wildlife here and visited a lovely cut sandstone Angican Church.

Then we were off again. It rained through the night but cleared in the morning so we pushed off. We had to go through the McQuarie pass which everyone kept warning us about, to get to the coast. It was lovely riding through farming territory, a light rain began mid morning and as we pulled into Robertson it started raining harder. We stopped for coffee and found out we were actually at the top of the pass, the rest was down - imagine our pleasant surprise! Now the down was hairpin and narrow but the rain let up enough to make it pretty good going and fun! We camped that night at Killalea State park. It cleared as we put up our tent but drizzled or rained most of the night and next day. It is a lovely spot cliffs to beautiful ocean beaches. Very hilly towns. Encountered the Australian equivalent of a raven which is a very chatty bird indeed. Also saw a kangaroo again alive. We have also been seeing kangaroo road kill :-(

Much of the next day was through small towns on bike paths and some highway riding. It isn't so bad riding in the rain when it is warm! We finally decided to stay at Werri Beach as it was getting later and the rain was wearing us down. There were some amazing views though. We seem to have missed the worst of the rain there were wash outs and flooding ahead of us on the road but we were thinking it would be clear by the time we got there. Next day clear skies and lovely riding - this is a beautiful place the beaches are fantastic water blue blue. Surfers paradise.

Kiama

We stayed in a lovely campground at Tabourie Lake and these guys came in to see what we had to share with them - nothing of course but they took good photos. So we rode on weather has been great!

lunch

large waves

We decided this is a big country much like Canada and getting to Tasmania which is where we want to get will take longer than our leg power will allow us so we hopped a bus in Narrooma and are now in Melbourne. We have hooked up with the Bike Friday folks in oz. We may do a tour with them the end of March but in the mean time we are going to a bike shop that knows BF's for some tlc before we take the ferry to Tasmania.

Talks to you later.

Diana and Ian

Australia Emergency cell #

Hi Everyone we are in Batemans Bayn New South Wales Australia. This is the south east coast of Australia. We have been putting on miles and not on the computer much. We have had all kinds of weather from sticky hot muggy weather to cool and rainy. There was some hot and rainy too and some lovely breezy warm weather.
For anyone who hasn't gotten this Sarah and Paul lent us a cell phone our emergency number is
0457085864

There of course may be country codes as well consult you phone book for that.

hope to find some time to write soon complete with photos!

love and hug from
diana and ian

Contacting us in Australia

Hey there Mates,
our lovely friends down under here Paul and Sarah have lent us a cell phone for emergency purposes.

The number is  0457085864.

Remember to put the country code with it from where ever you may be calling.

We are planning to hit the road on Tuesday the 9th of February.

We had a fun time this past weekend in Sydney being tourists and taking an Anusara yoga workshop! with Julie Smeardon.

Caio for now.

Diana and Ian

HI from OZ

Sarah and the gang

Hi Everyone

We are having a wonderful time here in OZ. This was the longest flight Diana has ever been on and despite some yoga in the San Diego Airport before the flight it ended up being one of the most uncomfortable due to something she ate likely. There was a boxing match going on in the tummy and major achiness. Having the window seat only helped for resting the head when not making trips to the toilet. Actually it wasn't too bad we landed safely got our bags and through customs relatively quickly. Sarah gave us very exact directions for the train so that went very well also and them Paul picked us up in Penrith and brought us to the lovely abode in Kurrajong. He left us to get settled and went off to the airport to pick up Sarah who was coming in that evening from her last sailing with Australia Customs which is her work. We timed it just right she could have been out for three weeks but she is in for three weeks.

Squirts has been taking us around showing us the lay of the land and helping us plan our cycling down to Tasmania. We went to the rodeo with Amelia and John on Saturday. They live in the lovely town of Bathhurst, we drove up and over the Blue Mountains to get there a lovely drive.

Sarah and Amelia getting ready for the rodeo.

 Sarah used to live up that way and seemed to know everyone. It was quite fun several of us had never been to a rodeo before so that made it all the more fun. The "clown" who gets the bull away from the bull riders was a friend of Sarah's that is him in the rink with the bucking bull and rider.

Brendan and the bull rider

 Typical Australian Rodeo goers.

Kangaroo's

Diana got to see her first real live Kangaroo's on the ride back home. They are in herds like deer in Ontario and Nova Scotian. Apparently Paul says they are just about as much of a nuisance too. The kangaroo bars are for a reason.

We are enjoying the different sounds and smells. The eucalyptus trees and parrots and Cockateels as well as beautiful Wrens and Bell Birds

We took a bike ride up to the cold climat Botanical Gardens at Mount Tomah. The ride was lovely but we got our first taste of how steep some of the riding could be in Australia.

view from the Botanical Park looking over the blue Mountains.

Diana has discovered Passion Fruit mmmmmm.! 

The coffee pot

the espresso pot

Hi Everyone,

We have forgotten to report a major event in our travels. Just before we crossed into Mexico - when we were at the KOA outside of San Diego Ian broke the coffee pot - again. This espresso pot was purchased by Diana in Whitehorse when her friend Gordon was coming up for a visit. Gordon was a big coffee drinker and this seemed the best easiest way to provide coffee while were were car camping around the Yukon and Alaska. That was probably 1991.

This post has faithfully provided a good cup of coffee every time since then. The little knob on the top needed re-securing a one point so I fixed that. Then Ian started taking it on NOLS trips with him one time he broke off the little attachment that the water pushes through - so I fixed it with JB Weld. Another time he lost one of the handle pins - so I replace it with a piece of nail and secured it with JB Weld. Then the handle top got broken so I mended it. Well the little end on the filter broke off again - no need to say who did it but we had no JB Weld and I wasn't sure I could get it to stay on anyways. Ian suggested in light of the difficulty to find coffee beans in Mexico and the difficulty he had had finding white gas for the stove and the weight/space issues with bike travel maybe we should try and go without coffee..... A radical thought!

Well it wasn't that hard for me as I do like tea as well so it was up to Ian. Well he decided to try it. So the parts of the pot went into the recycling and we went off with the remaining ground coffee. By San Miguel we were coffee-less and none the worse for it.

Now we will report that we still drink coffee! we just drink it when someone else makes it for us.

We have had our fair share here in OZ.

bye for now

D and I

Haramara Nov. 07 - 21

Nov. 07-21:

So where were we? Oh yes, I had just arrived in Santa Barbara after cycling down the coast from San Francisco. Diana was off in Whitehorse working for six weeks and I was preparing to catch a flight to Puerto Vallarta to attend two weeks of Yoga workshops at the Harramara Retreat Centre http://www.haramararetreat.com/ in Sayulita http://www.sayulitalife.com/ just north of PV.

I caught an early (05:45) flight out of Santa Barbara to Phoenix where I connected with a PV bound flight. As it turned out my two seat mates were also headed to the same workshop so we chatted on the way down. They were a great couple (Russell & Nancy; see below) from just south of Tucson.

After a relatively uneventful flight we gathered our bags; of which I had the most by far; and found our shuttle driver. There were six of us plus the driver in the van. Traffic was dense and chaotic getting out to PV but we made it safely to our little piece of paradise. (For more photos go to the Haramara web site above.)

The next two weeks were a blur of Ananda (bliss) filled yoga; eating; reading and sleeping all in the company of great folks from all over the country. The instructors; Darren Rhodes http://www.yogaoasis.com/ week one; Sianna Sherman and Kenny Graham http://www.opentograce.com/ week two, were stellar. The location was magical; small cabanas constructed along steep paths in the tropical rainforests just a few minutes’ walk from the ocean. The views out over the open ocean were spectacular. There was a hill top open air yoga platform, an east facing meditation platform and a beautiful communal dining area. The daily schedule was usually 07:00 to 08:30 breakfast; 09:00 to 11:30 or 12:00 morning asana practise; 12:30 to 13:30 lunch; 13:30 to 15:30 personal time; 15:30 to 17:30 afternoon asana; 18:30 to 20:00 dinner.

 

Two weeks went by quickly; too quickly and soon it was time to think about the next leg of the adventure. Back on the bike!