Wednesday April 9 2014

What a difference the time change has made to us, we are usually awake and on the road earlier, because of the light.  It was dry when we started out although the tent was wet as it had rained during the night. But we stayed warm and dry.  Only a short ride today as we have a warm showers hosting us tonight in Dalmeny.

It was a fairly hilly ride, but quite nice.

We had to rejoin the A1 (Princes Highway) for about 10 kms – the shoulder was good and the traffic was not too heavy.  We stopped for lunch in Narooma and went to the Information Centre, they gave us a map that showed us the cycle route from Narooma to Dalmeny.  The cycle route was built by volunteers –  awesome.

We arrived in Dalmeny at about 1:30 and had a nice chat with our warmshowers host Allan and Marie.  After we got cleaned up and did a load of washing Allan suggested he take us for a drive of the area.  Although we had cycled through Narooma we said yes and I am so glad we did he took us to the harbor and to the “Australia” rock.  We would have never had known about this if he hadn’t taken us.

Of course we had to climb into Australia.

Then we had to climb down!!

Before dinner Ralf asked if he could play with Oscar the border collie.  Allan didn’t think Oscar would go with Ralf, but he did.  At the top of the boat ramp Oscar would stand with  the ball in his mouth, he would then put it down on the ground, hold it with his paw until he could see Ralf was ready, and then he would let it go.  Ralf’s job was to stop it, and throw it back to Oscar at the top of the boat ramp and they spent about half an hour Oscar at the top of the hill and Ralf at the bottom throwing the ball to a very intelligent dog.  Get the humans to chase the ball, it is much easier.

Before dinner was served we had an ‘interesting’ discussion over which is better Vegemite (Australian) or Marmite (English).  Marie and Allan had both – Marie prefers vegemite, Alan prefers Marmite. We had a blind taste test to see if Allan could really taste the difference.  Ralf prefers marmite, I personally think they are both disgusting.  Marie wanted to give Ralf a jar of Marmite to take with him.  I recently read that Canada has banned Marmite due to the amount of additives that are in it.  Sorry Allan I think Vegemite is better for you!!

Allan is also an avid birdwatcher.  Apparently there is a bird in Australia called the Jacky Winter.  He gave me a photocopy of the description of the bird.  They named a bird after me, even before I got here.

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.

Monday  April 7 2014

We were up at first light, again and had a good breakfast.  The lori-keets were very popular with the kids.

They are very tame, and the campsite sells birdseed for them to be fed. The weather is good and we got a load of washing on the line.

At 9:00 we headed to the bike shop.  The owner was very helpful, although he didn\’t have a replacement tire, he did say the temporary tire will survive, it will be a bit slower due to the lower air pressure but will get me where we want to be until we can get a decent touring tire – probably Sydney.

We went for a lovely walk along the boardwalk, and through the upper reaches of the Town.

The boardwalk had some great views and we laughed at the pelicans on the boat.  There were four to start of with, preening themselves.  In the end another two joined them, rocking the boat.  These are big birds, with a huge wing span.  We thought they might sink the little boat, but it stayed afloat.

After our walk, we arrived back and our ‘camp neighbours’ invited us in for a coffee. Alwyn and Fay live in Lakes Entrance, they had a very nice caravan and we chatted about their work and our plans.  They have been retired for 15 years and were a really nice couple.

While we were getting dinner ready I was reminded of a very funny story from Lorne Elliot (Canadian comedian) about his daughters.  He told this story about his daughters and how they changed with age.  The first five years when they needed him to look after them, then the next five years when they thought he was the greatest thing, then at 11 to 13 they became dolphins and squealed at everything.  There were three girls in the kitchen playing a game, something like charades, and the girls squealed all the time, it was incredibly noisy.  I could see Ralf rolling his eyes at the noise, so I reminded him of the story and we both laughed.

Because of the bike emergency, and the ride to Merimbula, we now have to replan our route.  We spent about an hour looking at the map and planning our route.  We were going to go to Canberra, now we are going to head straight up to Sydney.

Wednesday April, 16, 2014

My apologies for being so far behind in updating the blog.  We are now in sydney and I will endeavor over the next few days to get it completely up to date.

Sunday April 7, 2014

Today was definitely a “Road Angel” day.  Susan (the owner of the motel) was the first road angel.

We had breakfast in our room and went over to see Susan (the owner of the motel) at 9:00 a.m.  She had tried to call the bike shop in Merimbula to see if they were open, no answer.  Susan went above and beyond to get me a tire that I can use.  A friend of her husband’s collects “stuff” from the tip and he thought he might be able to get a tire for me.  It turned out that he did have a spare tire which looked remarkably good.  We put it on and I did a test ride around the parking lot.  I was a little concerned how long it would last and was still interested in taking the bus to Merimbula.

Susan called the bus company for me to see if we could get the bikes on the bus.  It was half full, so the chances were 50/50 that we could get the bikes on the bus, but depended on the bus driver.  Susan allowed us to stay in the room until after 12:00 and didn’t charge us any extra for a late check-out.

If you are ever in Cann River and need a place to stay – stay at the Cann River Motel.  It is reasonably priced, clean and Susan is awesome.

Our second “Road Angel” was the cook from the local café he had offered to drive over to his friend’s place who ran a bike hire business, he thought he might have a spare tire for me.  We didn’t need to take him up on his offer as Susan had already come through with a tire.

The third “Road Angels’ were Carmel and Mark.  We were having lunch, while waiting for the bus, when Ralf mentioned to one of the staff from the café that I had a problem with my bike and we were waiting for the bus and hopefully we would be able to get on it to Merimbula.  Carmel overheard the conversation and came over to us and offered to take us to Merimbula.  They had a camper that we could strap the bikes on top.  We strapped the bikes on to the camper and off we went.  They were heading to Merimbula and would not take any money to contribute for the petrol.  When we arrived in Merimbula Mark drove us to the camp site and then showed us where the bike shop was.  Mark and Carmel are an awesome couple.  They were farmers and had also taken a few years away from their farm to travel around Australia.  They had worked in Cairns on a station that farmed Bramen cows, they had volunteered to help out in South Australia after the fires.  A really nice couple, I hope we meet them again.

The disadvantage of taking the lift is that we didn’t get the chance to take any pictures today.  There was some lovely scenery and we crossed over from South Australia into New South Wales.

Saturday April 5, 2014

A very grey start to the day.  It started to rain shortly after starting our ride so we put our jackets on.  We got too warm, we took the jackets off, it started to drizzle we put the jackets back on again etc. etc.  It was a very muggy morning.  I really wish that someone could invent a breathable and waterproof rain jacket.

It was a very undulating ride today with some good hills thrown in for good measure – over 1009 metres elevation gain.

A lot of traffic today on the A1 from Orbost, I lost count of the campers, caravans, cars and trailers, cars and boats. We must have been passed by over a hundred of the things.  It is the start of the Easter school holidays and we were warned we might have to book into some of the campsites.  With the amount of traffic on the roads today, yes I can see why – everyone and his dog is going camping.

Cyclists often talk about not having the legs for the ride, implying they have a pair that they can use for hills and another pair for flats and another pair for sprints.  I think I had the wrong pair on today, or maybe I had one for flats and one for sprints, which is why I couldn’t get the rhythm going.  When I finally did get the right rhythm, disaster struck.

We were coming down the final hill into our destination (Cann River) when I ran over a piece of metal (road debris), it flew up and sliced a cut into my back tyre about 2 inches (5 cms) long. My tube burst with such a loud noise I thought I had completely wrecked my bike.  We fixed the tube and put a piece of the old tube on the inside of the tire to give it a bit of protection. I definitely need a new tire.  Therein lies the problem, no bike shops for 135 kms.  We are hoping to get a bus tomorrow to Merimbula.  Again like New Zealand it is dependent on the bus driver whether he takes the bikes or not. Hopefully the bike shop has a tire that will fit and hopefully the bike shop will be open tomorrow.

If the bus won’t take the bikes we will have to take it very carefully and cycle the 135 ks to Merimbula.  It will take us about 3 days to get there.

Tonight we are staying at the Cann Valley motel and the lady who runs it has been absolutely wonderful and helpful.  She told us about the buses, the bike shop in Merimbula, and she is trying to find out if she knows anyone going to Merimbula who can take us.

Fingers crossed we can get the bus and get the tire fixed, quickly.

Cann River seems to be the place everyone stops for a break and a coffee.  It is a lovely little village.

Friday April 4, 2014

It wasn’t raining when we got up, and had breakfast.  Ralf and I both managed to have a hot shower before the power went out in the shower room.  Sally has had the batteries for the solar panels for over six years and wasn’t sure whether it was the two overcast days that had sapped the energy or maybe the batteries needed to be replaced.  I hope we didn’t use up all her power.

We loaded our panniers on to her boat and motored back to the jetty in the Town of Lakes Entrance.  When we got to the jetty, I realized we had forgotten our water bottles.  Ralf suggested we find a camp store and buy new ones, Sally turned the boat around and we went back for the water bottles.  What a lovely, generous person.  We offered to contribute for some gas for the boat, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  We bought her a coffee instead – not much of a contribution.  Hopefully Sally will come to Canada and we will be able to offer her the hospitality that she gave us.

We left Lakes Entrance at about 10:30 am.  It had started to drizzle as we left and then it started to rain.  It continued raining on and off until we got to Orbost, where we decided on a cabin.

As we cycle along the major roads we often come across signs warning drivers to take a rest if they are feeling sleepy, some of them, like this one are a little confusing to me.  Take a power nap – I think that would be very dangerous at this point, as there was no pull in to do it.  That’s all we need drivers taking power naps while they are driving!!

Today we had two instances where café owners were not very nice to touring cyclists.  The first instance we were at Lakes Entrance and were going to have a coffee with Sally before leaving, the owner of the café told us not to lean our bikes near his café as he needed to put his tables and chairs out.  Fine, we went to the café next door.

The second was at Nowa Nowa, there was a café and on his door there was a sign that said use of toilets $4.50 – free coffee.  Funny sign, but I didn’t need a coffee, I needed a toilet.  I asked the owner where there was a public toilet, as I didn’t need a “free” coffee.  He said I could use his toilet, I thanked him very kindly and when I was leaving he asked if I wanted the coffee, I said no.  He told me rather nastily that the public toilet were another 100 metres down the road.  This is only the 3^rd time in 4 months that we have had café owners being snippy with us.  Not bad really.

Nowa Nowa is also where we could connect to the Gippsland Rail Trail – it really should be bike friendly.

We decided against the bike trail, because of the rain.  It would really have messed up the bikes with the sand and gravel.  Awesome steam engine at Nowa Nowa.

At Orbost the very garrulous volunteer at the Information Centre told us that the two hotels in the Town were very reasonably priced, actually cheaper than the cabins at the camp site.  Noel (the volunteer) gave us information on the route we are going to take tomorrow, the route we should take to Canberra or Sydney depending which we go and told us about the cycle race he won 30 odd years ago.  Fortunately there was a roaring fire in the Slab Hut (Information Centre) so we didn’t get too cold.  Noel also told us about the bricks that were called convict bricks.  Apparently the bricks were made by the convicts and had a thumb print in them, usually in the corner.  When a convict had made 100 bricks he had done his work for the day.  After he had made and stacked 10 bricks he would put a thumb print in the brick, when he had stacked 10 x 10 bricks he knew he had made 100.

Tonight we ate in the pub.  Probably be a little over budget today, but at least we are warm and dry.

Thursday April 3, 2014

Sally very generously said we could stay another day in this idyllic location.  It was raining when we got up, so we took Sally up on her offer and took another rest day.

As we were eating breakfast, these Crimson Rosellas also enjoyed their breakfast.

I love the colour of these birds.

I spent the morning updating the blog and had a really interesting conversation with Sally.  We discussed resilience, how do we become resilient? Are we taught to be resilient or is it inherent within us? Are we doing a disservice to our young people by not allowing them to win or lose at team games, like hockey, soccer, netball, as scores are no longer being kept in ‘fun’ games.

Sally and I also discussed cycling unaccompanied.  When she cycled through Europe, although enjoying her own company, she felt that at times it would have been nice to have someone to share the decisions.  I am so glad that Ralf and I are so compatible and are sharing this Grand Adventure together.

While Sally and I were happily inside the house, Ralf went for a walk.

A great photo of funghi on a tree.

Later on in the evening there was no power to our bedroom and Sally decided we should conserve energy in the main house just to be on the safe side.  We ate our evening meal by lantern light.  We saw both sides of being off-grid.  I still think it is a good idea and we should seriously look into it when we get back.

Wednesday April 2, 2014

A lovely ride today to Lakes Entrance.  We had to take the A1 (Princes Highway) all the way, it was a little busy but for the most part we had a good shoulder to ride on.  I have decided we need hills to really enjoy the rides.

We left Bairnsdale at 9:40 am and arrived in Lakes Entrance at 11:30, where we met up with our warm showers host (Sally).  We had a coffee and then did a bit of shopping.  After the shopping Sally loaded our bikes on to her boat and we came across the lake to her wonderful house.

The house is designed to be similar in style to Thai houses – a main living area, then bedrooms along walkways and another walkway to the shower and toilet areas.

Sally is completely self-sufficient, the house has solar panels, rainwater tanks, grey water tanks, and a composting toilet.  She may decide to add a couple of extra solar panels so that she can change her gas fridge to an electric one as the gas fridge is expensive to run.  Again our warm showers host provided us with a lovely evening meal.

Ralf and I love to meet these different people, Sally has given us some great advice on being off-grid. May be we will buy a piece of land when we get back to Canada and live off-grid, I think that would be awesome.

After dinner Sally took Ralf along the beach for a walk, I updated part of the blog and missed out on seeing a mob of kangaroos.

Tuesday April 1, 2014

Gerard gave us an alternative route to take to Bairnsdale.  It meant going an extra 5 – 10 kms but kept us away from the busy A1 (Princes Highway).  The route was very flat going through primarily farmland and rural pasture.  I think I need hills on my rides.  I never thought I would say this but hills, although they can be hard work, are much better than 70 kms of flat road.  Even a little bump in the road would have been good.

Of course what often happens on straight, flat roads is you also end up with a head wind, or maybe that is just a coincidence.  The last 20 kms we had a full-on head wind, and it was a very warm day – up to 30 degrees.  Fortunately the road did have some shade.

Along this very straight road we spotted this fire bunker.  This is a high bushfire area, not at the moment as they have received some rain.

We arrived in Sale at 12:00, just in time for the lunch hour rush at the cafés.  We went to the Information Centre to find out about a camp site and then had lunch.  The campsite was just on the edge of the main downtown core.  A lovely, clean campsite with a swimming pool.

We haven’t always taken advantage of all the facilities at campsites, but the pool was so inviting.  As soon as we got the tent up, we were in the pool for a swim.  A rather large lady was struggling with her swimming costume (bathing suit) (cossie) actually she was struggling to keep everything inside her cossie, but she didn’t care she was laughing as she got out and told Ralf not to look just incase they fell out!!  A very lovely, funny lady.

After the cool swim, we had our showers and then walked to downtown for some groceries.  Bairnsdale is another large commercial centre in this part of Gippsland.  I had decided I needed a new pair of trousers as my others are about two sizes too big now. I found a nice pair that fit me, although I thought I was going to struggle with the legs being too tight.

We have two choices tomorrow, follow the rail trail all the way to Oborst or go to Lakes Entrance.  We have a response from a warm showers host so we are going to Lakes Entrance.

Monday March 31, 2014

We got up about 8:30 and had a nice relaxing morning.  I caught up a little with the blog and then we went for a walk in to the Town.  Sale is quite a large Town it is the commercial centre for this area of Gippsland.

Sale had some lovely old buildings.

This building reminded me of Napier in New Zealand.

Our warm showers host were out for the day and would be late home, so we made dinner for them.  Gerard and Jen lead busy lives but were very kind to open up their home to us and allow us to have a rest day.  This is a view from Gerard and Jen\’s house.  A small lake with a nice walking path around it.

Ralf took this great photo, of a bridge on the pathway around the lake.