Tuesday April 8, 2014

We were up early again and were on the road by 8:30. We changed the clocks on the week-end (backwards) and have lighter mornings.  We have to be aware of the time change and how quickly it will get dark at night – at the moment 6:30 pm.

Today’s ride was a very hilly ride but quite nice.  The forecast was for rain, but we kept ahead of it.

At lunch time we stopped in Tathra which had an historic wharf.  Of course it was downhill to the wharf and a steep climb back up.

We had a lovely lunch in Tathra.  We bought freshly baked buns and some ham and ate it outside of the grocery store overlooking the coast.

The hills were manageable except the last one before we came into Bermagui.  We came down a hill, then instead of getting the momentum up the other side, we had a short single-lane bridge to cross and then the hill on the other side was an 18% climb.  We both had to get off and walk it (bugger).  Coming into Bermagui was rolling hills and a nice break from the climbs that we had been doing.  Even though it was a hilly day, we arrived in Bermagui at 2:30.

As we were setting up the tent Kate (an American) came over to talk to us.  They have been coming to Australia for the past 7 years, for about 3-4 months.  They have invited us to stay with them in their holiday home south of Brisbane.

The camp site was reasonably priced, the bathrooms were clean but unfortunately the kitchen had nothing to offer.  Two BBQ’s and a kettle and that was it.  We decided to eat in the local “Bistro” the pub.  Kate and her husband were already there so we joined them while we had our dinner and had a very nice chat with them.

We always seem to be cause a bit of a stir when we enter small camp sites.  Our immediate neighbours in a camp site will always ask us where we have come from, where we are going, how many kilometres we cycle etc.  Then we get the others who have seen us come in to the camp site and wait until they can wander over and talk to us or meet us in the kitchen so that they can ask us the same questions.  It is fun to see their reaction, especially when we tell them we have cycled from Adelaide and are heading for Brisbane.  I think we are taking an easy route.  Some cyclists have cycled up the Stewart Highway up to Alice Springs, we at least are taking it though a relatively populated area.