Leaving Tas

Leaving Tasmania

Travis and Ian feeding the alpaca

Well the time has flown by!! Tasmania has been beautiful and fun. We have climbed many a hill and seen some beautiful ocean front, slick rocks and white sand beaches. Lots of gum trees and rolling pastoral farm lands, some wildlife and some farm-life all in all pretty complete and definitely on the must return list as there are a few places we need to come back to.

It was really great to visit with Travis and Lelia in Fern Tree. They have a lovely property perched on the edge of one of the slopes around Hobart. It takes Lelia 18 minutes to get to work down the hill in Hobart and 45 to an hour to get back. Four wheel drive is recommended for the driveway too. It is a property Lelia’s family purchased years ago when they landed in the Hobart area to place some roots after sailing from France. The family has been off and on in the area for years, Lelia now owns the land and has built a house (actually two the first one was burned in a bush fire some years ago). Travis and Lelia have three Alpaca a half dozen chickens and a couple of ducks. There is a view of Mount Wellington from the property and a creek with reliable water which is a real bonus for a property in Australia.

Mount Wellington from Fern Tree

Travis has taken up spinning the alpaca fur. Diana got him started on knitting – a cottage industry is born! Travis is also guiding for a company that does hut to hut hiking from Cradle Mountain to Lake Saint Clare. Lelia has just completed a nursing degree and has landed her first job in the Emergency Department of the Hobart Hospital. She finished top of her class an intense three year program completed in two years!

Lelia at Bolton Beach

Hanging out on the property there was amazing birdlife. We got to see some smaller birds we had been moving too quickly to see when on the bikes. We went to an Anusara Yoga class with Clare Raffety, who Diana had met at the Grand Gathering at Estes Park a couple of years ago. She has a lovely studio in Hobart and a growing Anusara Kula. We stayed about a week in Fern Tree and then Lelia piled us into a van and we headed out of town up the east coast for a nice overnight on a beach. After some looking we found the Bolton Beach Conservation Area, seems the locals must have removed the road sign to increase their privacy. It was a beautiful spot less than an hour out of Hobart. We walked on the beach and cooked dinner and had a couple brew and crashed under a clear sky full of the southern constellations. In the morning Lelia and Diana went for a refreshing dip in a calm beautiful ocean. Then Lelia dropped us off on the highway where we said our ado’s till next time and we headed up the road. The east coast is really beautiful. Complete with lovely white sand beaches and granite rock out crops.

Coast and road

Eucalyptus stump!

We loved Bicheno and need to come back to explore the Coles Bay area as this was one of the places that we missed. The terrain is mostly rolling hills; very nice riding to Saint Helens. From Saint Helens we cut back inland towards Devonport and the Ferry back to the mainland. There were some big rides in there. One of those days being over 100 km with a couple of big climbs. We met some lovely people. Linda at the Bleu Berry Barn Cafe let us stay at her nice property on the Franklin Rivulet. Thanks Linda the little brown calf was a good companion and we were well set up to tackle the remaining 30km, mostly in the rain, to Devonport.

Brown calf

We got a trailer in the caravan park in Devonport and were able to catch up on some internet action and plan the next stage. We are going to land in Melbourne Monday evening, overnight there and then take the train to Adelaide where our friend Rob Mengler is going to meet us. Rob and Diana did the Tat in 2000 and Rob them was our first visitor in LaHave after we move there in 2000. We are looking forward to catching up and seeing his part of the world. After a bit of a visit with Rob we are going to hang out with the Australia Bike Friday Club in the Clare Valley for a few days before we fly from Adelaide back to Sydney to get ready for our flight on the 3rd of April back to San Francisco.

Till next adios from the Spirit of Tasmania

Diana and Ian

Tassie's West Coast by Friday: Bike Friday that is!

And we're off! From Devonport, after getting a few directions we head off to the town of Sheffield. We stop at a sports store for Shellite (White Gas) as the ferry folks had dumped ours; a market for some lunch stuff and the post to mail. The ride to Sheffield is lovely; rolling and not too long. A great combo!! We had a sampling of wild Black Berries on the way into town there were ton along the roads. We will soon find that they grow wild along many of the roadways in Tas. Sheffield is promoting itself as the Mural Town so it makes for interesting building viewing. No official campground here but the visitor centre folks direct us to the free campground beside the cricket oval. Departure is delayed the next morning due to an overnight water infiltration into Ian's trailer, Ian neglected to shut the safety valve on the Camel Back and of course the spigot was squeezed with the result being a collection of wet gear which required some drying time. Luckily it was a fine day with a nice breeze and that part of the operation didn't take to long. Live Learn and eventually Laugh!

After the obligatory coffee shop stop we are riding through beautiful country side with Mt. Roland dominating the view. We make it to Gowrie Park in good time and keep on as it is still a long way to Cradle Mt. which is our intended destination. The general trend in the riding is uphill; although there is one screaming big down which takes us to the Fourth River. You've heard the expression what goes up must come down? Well in this case it dawns on us that what goes down must come up; and it does. We spend a couple of gruelling hours riding an 8 Km uphill with 5 of that being steep and another 3 being a moderate climb. After lots more climbing and then some lunch we continue on through beautiful high buttongrass plains and eventually make it to the RV Park at Cradle Mt. A quick email check gets in touch with our friends Travis and Lelia in Hobart so we start making arrangements for a visit. More about that later.

Today is hiking day. Unfortunately it is also rain day. We can see the top of Cradle Mt. as we ride the shuttle to the start of the hiking trails but it slowly gets obscured by the incoming cloud/fog. We find out later that Travis is up in the clouds somewhere guiding a not too happy group of hikers on the start of a six day overland trek. They cheer up immensly over the next few days as the weather improves! We hike a few of the interconnected trails in the area; decide to give the peak of the mountain a miss as the weather was getting worst not better as we approached the turn off and opted for the return trail along the east side of Dove Lk. All in all about 4 or 5 hours of great hiking even if the weather was less than ideal.

OK now this is more what we are used to in the mountains! We wake up to a thick layer of frost on everything and clear blue skys. After taking some time to defrost and quasi dry out we head off. We decide to do a quick stop for coffee at the Wilderness Gallery which turns into a longer stop than anticipated.  One new jacket and a couple of bike conversations later we are on the road and have some lovely riding through high plains rolling hills and great scenery.

Lunch stop was in the cute little village of Tullah with Mt. Murchison in the distance. The ride up and out of town was steady but not obscene. In good time we managed to make our way into Rosebery where we spent the evening at the RV park talking to Olivier who was born in France but has been living in Canada for the past 5 years and is now cycle touring. He has a huge fasination with Yukon so we fill him in as much as we can.

There is a significant climb out of Rosebery to greet us first thing in the morning. That accomplished we spend a good deal of time riding through rolling hills with one more biggish climb. We then roll down (more or less) into the small mining town of Zeenhan and feel very much like we have dropped into Elsa or Keno in Yukon.

After a quick look around; some lunch at the Bistro we are on the road again; destination Strahan. We traverse the button grass plateau and look out over the Henty Dunes to the Ocean. We are back into the trees here and the ride is generally down into the very cute little tourist town of Strahan. We do a layover day in Strahan; more catch up and a great ride to Ocean Beach. The ride was interrupted by a huge feed of wild Black Berries. Gorging I think would be an apt description. A walk on the beach; an educational read about Mutton Birds aka Shortwinged Shearwaters and it is back to the campground for R&R.

After a morning of frustration using the telstra phone system we set off on a short day to Queenstown. The ride out of Strahan is generally up but not too steep. At first there is great Eucalyptus forest and then it subsides to scrubby sub alpine vegitation. The approach to Queenstown is reminicient of nearing any of the other mining towns you might know; Sudbury; Faro; Sydney N.S. all come to mind. We camp in a too full RV park and get set to continue on in the A.M.

We depart Queenstown with our destination being Lake St. Clair. The irony here is that this is the same day that Travis will end his Overland trek with his group. The overland trail ends at LSC. We will unfortunately not be there in time to bump into him. We will however connect soon. The ride will be one of our longest to date being just over a 90 Km. when all is said and done. It starts with a long steep uphill on a switchback filled road which gets us to a great lookout over Queenstown where the ravages of over 100 years of mining are apparent. The mines required lots of timber so there was also a lot of logging done. Combine that with acid mine drainage and the result is a fairly barren landscape that is visual testament to how not to do mining and/or logging. Hopefully we learn some lessons from places like this. The next section is great riding; with rolling hills and lovely scenery. Some thicker forests are in evidence and we ride past the headwaters of the Collingwood and Franklin Rivers. Shortly after that we begin a long stretch of uphill to King Williams Saddle.

It is 8+ Km. of sustained uphill which seems longer as we have been riding for a while now!! The good news is that this is the east west watershed divide so theoretically it is all downhill from here to Hobart!! That theory does hold for the most part for the rest of the ride to LSC. We arrive there late in the day and have a quick meal & shower then to bed exhausted.

Instead of laying over @ LSC we opt for a short day (50 Km.) to Tarraleah. It is a great ride with a screaming fun downhill and then a steep but not so long up hill to end the day. The great surprise was the resort at the top of the hill. It is a restructured hydro operation and was a really great place to stay. Arguably our best on the trip so far. Unfortunately we need to press on in order to meet up with Travis before he has to go back into the Park to guide another group.

From Tarraleah there was a series of big up and downs in the mist and fog of a cool mountain morning. The weather improved steadily as we rode east. Oust and then Hamilton were lovely. What turned out to be our last big climb of the day was just out of Hamilton and from then on it was lovely rolling hills along the Derwent River. By this point we had been in contact with Travis and Lelia several times and had made plans for Travis to pick us up in New Norfolk so we wouldn't have to deal with the Hobart City traffic. Everything went according to plan and we arrived at the designated pick up spot five minutes before Travis; loaded up bikes gear and people and were off to the city; in a real car. More later from a great base just over the hill from Hobart Tasmainia!!

Tasmania Bound

After a day of travel prep in Narooma; you know the usual clean up and internet use etc. we get on a bus for Melbourne.

View from the Cematery Narooma

We did manage a great walk and swim capped off by a visit to a cemetery set high up on a headland looking out over the ocean. The lead up to the bus ride was interesting; we disassembled the bikes and packed gear across from Lynches Hotel which is where the bus stops. Lots of folks stopped to chat! Dinner and beers at the Hotel were great - we got to watch Olympic replays then we jumped on the bus at around 10:00pm. After an all night bus ride where the AC broke we arrive in Melbourne kind of tired.

Melbourne

A couple of days were spent exploring; we also managed to get a Yoga class in with a local Anusara Teacher, Camilla.  Melbourne is a lovely city with lots to do, nice architure a mix of old and new with waterways everywhere and different bridges and paths to navigate over them.

Southern Cross Station

Just a cool Melbourne Home

We then jumped on the train with our bikes to get to a bike shop that had experience with Bike Fridays. It proved to be a great shop  (Cycle Science; http://www.cyclescience.com.au/ ) with great folks. Peter the owner had us stay at his place overnight where we met his family and were free to use his internet to catch up on a few more things.

Peter Diana and Berlin

After stopping in at the shop the next day to say good bye it was back on the transit system(train) to get back downtown and close to the ferry for Tas.
We booked into hotel in South Melbourne and did a dry run to the ferry as we wanted to be certain we knew how to get to the dock.

We needed to be at the ferry for approx. 06:30 am so we were up early morning riding through the streets of Melbourne a lovely short ride just as the city was waking, following the route we had found the evening before.
The ferry ride was nothing short of spectacular. Melbourne harbour is huge and rather complex to exit. It was great to see this large ship navigate a severly constricted channel. The open ocean portion of the crossing was very calm which Diana though was great! The crossing takes 09 hours so we had lots of time to explore the ship and chat with people; catch up on some reading and knitting and watch several hours of Olympic Coverage. We arrived in Devonport Tas. at approx. 18:30. After a frustrating time trying to locate our fuel bottle which was transported seperately by the Ferry authorities - emptied and filled with water, we continued on to a hilarious encounter with a grocery store owner who was closing as we rode up but insisted on opening for us even though it probably meant that he missed the flight that he was on his way to catch. We found our way to the campground and set up camp looking directly out at the ferry we had arrived on as she was loading for her return voyage. She left with all flags flying at approx. 10:00pm. We look forward to our return trip on her sometime around the 20th of March. Next on the adgenda; riding the west coast of Tas. Stay tuned!! Diana & Ian

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!