Australia

I arrived at Sydney airport pretty tired... Fortunately I didn't have to cycle anywhere... At the airport there's a Backpacker's Information Board... you select a Backpacker's hostel, phone from the board and they come and get you right at the airport (boxed bike and all)... Very convenient... First thing I did at the hostel is have a shower and a short snooze... Then went for lunch.... Well It was 25 degrees and hot when I got out of the airport and by the time I had finished lunch, the wind was up, clouds where in, and the temperature had dropped to 10 degrees... It changes fast here....

Anyways, I spent the afternoon putting the bike back together, buying groceries and slowly getting acclimatized to these new surroundings... Had a quiet diner and turned in early...

Well the next morning, I got up at 02:30 AM and couldn't sleep anymore.... Fortunately, another guy from Quebec was up also (jet lag I suppose) so I had company till the morning...

I spent most of this second day cycling around Sydney... Exchanging the book I had brought (which I had read through during the 3 days it took me to get here) for two other books, getting proper maps of Australia, etc... I also visited the Royal Botanical Gardens (nice, but what struck me the most was the big white parrots (sulphur-crested cockatoo), ibis's and huge bats... called flying foxes, which grow up to over 2 pounds with a wingspan of up to 5 feet... in the trees), the harbour area (including the Sydney opera house), downtown business district, State Library (which had a nice photo exhibition), as well as the Newton area. So I had a pretty full day as well as taking the opportunity to cycle a bit and get a feel for Australia.... Takes a bit of getting used to as the driving is done at the opposite side of the road as I am used to (same as England).

I'll be spending another day here to figure out which direction I'll be taking out of Sydney... My early inclination would be to take in the Blue Mountains before heading north towards Cairns...

The morning presented a beautiful blue sky as I left Sydney. I followed the Paramatta road to the Blue Mountains (west of Sydney). Though the city just stretched out merging into other townships along this road without any shoulder, the ride was fine for the first 60 kms. The terrain was relatively flat and so riding against the wind wasn't too much work... That was about to change... As I entered the mountains at Penrith I realized the magnitude of the climb to come.... The Blue Mountain National Park lies 1,000 meters above sea level and this elevation is ascended in the space of 50 kms... And it's not a steady rise but occurs in gruelling inclines (the toughest being between Penrith and Glenbrook) followed by relatively flat (though still rising) spots.

Anyways, I misjudged the shape I was in. I hadn't cycled much in the past few weeks before of the wet and cold weather in Montreal, and certainly not fully loaded (not since my New Brunswick tour). By the time I got to Linden, I was tired, but I decided to continue. Getting to Woodard, I had suffered cramps in both legs... Fortunately the train station at Woodard was near the Paramatta road (route 44), was accessible by bike (barely, I had to lug the loaded bike down a stairway, under the tracks and back up a stairway to the platform) and I could take the bike on the train. So for the last 20 kms to Katoomba I rode the train. Still, I'm happy with the 89 kms I did ride as well as the 600 meters in altitude gain to Woodford... It won't be long until I'm fully in shape.

At Katoomba, I registered with the Youth Hostel, took a shower, ate and promptly crashed....

The next day, I was surprised that my legs weren't sore, so I went out "bushwalking" in the Blue Mountain National Park, down into the canyon... I was surprised along the trail by a ringing sound, which I assumed to be wind chimes (of the metallic type) and was certain that people had hung chimes in the trees.... Later I found out that it is the sound made by the "bellbirds" (manorina melanophrys).

Well, the following day, my legs were sore. As well, the weather wasn't too inviting (the morning was very foggy and cold) so I decided to take a day's rest and do laundry... Although periods through the day improved, it remained cold all day and it started raining at the end of the afternoon...

My luck didn't change... and Monday was cold, foggy and raining... I was told that a good walk in the rain would be the "Grand Canyon" at Blackheath, so off I went by bus. It's a bit presumptuous of the Australians to have called it the "Grand Canyon"... The canyon is about 3.5 kms long and no more than 100 feet at its widest. It's full of lush green vegetation with a stream running at the bottom. Even if fire damage was apparent (they had a big fire not long ago) it still is a beautiful walk, and since you're basically enclosed between two walls of rock with a lot of vegetation above your head, the rain didn't spoil my appreciation. The best of it is that because of the rain there was practically nobody else on the trail.

When I got up it was nice and sunny so I got ready and left the hostel. I had seen the road to Blackheath on the bus to the "Grand Canyon" and though hilly it wasn't bad at all. From Blackheath to Lithgow it was murder... The Victoria Pass (around Mount Victoria) was followed by a steep 3 kms downhill and an equally steep rise. I had to stop at every 1/2 km to rest. At Lithgow there wasn't much of interest to me except for the "wormglow tunnel" (and old railway tunnel lit by naturally glowing worms) but it was some 30 kms out of my way so I only stopped for lunch and continued on.

The route didn't improve much... I went through another pass (Mount Lambie), up to 1150 meters from about 700... not as steep as the Victoria Pass but longer and higher. By the time I got through the pass and arrived at Yetholme (I couldn't find anybody able to give me the story on the naming of this place but imagined that it was named after an early settler was told not to go there, but went anyways and once he got there and was reminded, he said : "Ye told me" so and now I'm stuck here !...) I had had enough and decided to call it a day.

Later in Dubbo, I had a bit of time and did a bit of a research on the naming of this place and found out that it used to be called "The Frying Pan" since there was at one time only one hut there and it was the custom in those days to hang the frying pan outside the door... The native name for the place was Nowenong... The name Yetholme probably came about by someone using the name of the Scottish town "Yetholm" which was in the hills on a route to England, so Yetholm was the "place at the gate", from the old scotts "yett" meaning a gate and "holm" or "ham" the anglo-saxon for settlement.... Many places, villages and towns in Australia are named after similar places in the British Isles... and since Yetholme is near the highest point crossing the Great Dividing Range west of Sydney, I can see why someone would have thought of naming it after the Scottish town of Yetholm... Though I prefer the story I had imagined at the time I got there...

Anyways, I saw my first kangaroo today, but it was dead by the side of the road (roadkill).

On another note, the flies are a real pain here... They don't bite or anything but they really get on your nerves swarming around your face and getting into your eyes, nose, ears, mouth....

On the plus side, the Australian burgers (with the works) are something else... They must be 7 or 8 inches in diameter and at least 3 inches thick. Filled with a ground meat patty, thick bacon, an egg, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese, slices of beet and pineapple. Some call it the "whole day" burger...

15 kms per hour seems to be the key speed.... Above it it's a nice cycle. Below it, the flies just swarm around your face. I ate a fly today, couldn't avoid it...

The 25 kms to Bathurst were easy... mostly downhill.

Coming out of Bathurst, I was stopped by the police and threatened with an A$80 fine for not wearing a bicycle helmet... So back I went into Bathurst to buy a helmet... The cheapest they had, didn't fit too well but I didn't care as I don't expect to use it very much.

Bathurst sat in a depression... The following 30 kms were mostly all up and I was getting fed up...But then it started going down and the last 20 kms to Orange were an easy downhill.

At Orange, I took a room at the town's center pub (every village has at least a pub in its center with accommodations and not much more expensive than Youth Hostels) and settled in for the night.

It appears I wasn't out of the mountains yet... There remained the foothills. So it was up and down all day but fortunately the grades were civilised... Nevertheless, compared to North America where we would blast a way through a hill to keep the grade to a minimum, the Australians just go up and down...

Here is farm country with wineries, sheep, cattle... It's pretty. I stopped for lunch at Molong, a quaint little village very "far west" in appearance. A bit depressed but pretty anyways. The rest of the route to Wellington was an easy cycle and I again took a room at a center pub. This one was superb. It could sleep 6, with ensuite kitchenette, bathroom and showers. And I had it all to myself.

I decided to buy some sunscreen (first time ever that I feel the need to use any)... The sun is really hard here and I'm getting burned pretty bad...

There were heavy thunder showers in the evening, so I was glad to be inside...

Didn't leave as early as I wanted since when I was leaving the pub, the owner and his wife wanted to have a chat... They were very talkative and interesting.

Anyways, I didn't have much to cycle as I wanted to spend some time at Dubbo where everybody tells me the zoo is superb (a chance to see kangaroos alive !)...

The cycle was easy as the terrain is getting flatter and I took a bed at the youth hostel in Dubbo. Tomorrow I'll spend time at the zoo and the two nights here will give my legs a bit of a rest after having crossed the Great Dividing Range...

Well the zoo was fine... Kind of an open zoo where the animals are not caged in but are free to roam within diked enclosures that mimic their normal surroundings... There are animals from all over the world but I spent most of my time in the Australian habitats... It's most probably where I could see most of the fauna of Australia other than squashed as roadkill...

It was hot all day. When I came back from the zoo I checked the temperature and at 15:30 hrs it was 32 degrees in the shade... When I put the thermometer in the sun it went above 50 degrees (the highest mark on my thermometer)... No wonder the 20 kms cycle to and from the zoo (including pedalling within the zoo) pooped me out....

I was considering continuing on west to Bourke and experience the real "outback" but I am reconsidering... I find it too hot to cycle in Dubbo... Bourke will be even hotter and there will be little shade to be had on the road (400 to 500 kms west) and few villages to cool off in... I think it's best to return east towards the coast where it is cooler... So I'll be crossing the Great dividing range again, but this time I'm choosing a less severe road (the Golden Highway) which takes me from Dubbo to Newcastle through a maximum elevation of some 700 meters.

There where big thunderstorms in the morning when I got up and I was wondering whether I'd be better to stay an extra day in Dubbo... I got ready anyways and by 8 in the morning the rain had stopped and there where blue holes in the cloud cover... So I decided to leave

The cycling went extremely well. It was reasonable flat and the few hills had half decent grades and most of all, I had a good wind at my back. The road was also much better than the one I took from Sydney to Dubbo... At least this one wasn't fenced in, there were lots of trees to provide shade and it was low in traffic.

There really wasn't much to see or do (except for a turtle trying to cross the road... when I saw it I decided to take it across before it got squashed) so I didn't stop much and reached Dunedoo by 2 in the afternoon... I wasn't much tired and could have gone on, but it was probably safer to stop here since I would have had to cycle another 100 kms to the next likely place to spend the night... Anyways I took a room at the local pub (for A$20 including breakfast). I had to wait a few hours for the room to be ready but that was OK since the owner was very talkative and interesting (Rebecca). The room was old and run down, but clean and could have slept 4, with bathroom and shower ensuite... not bad for the price.

The day started out good... It was cool and sunny... Early on I saw a wild rabbit (hare) and it put me in a good mood. Aside from it being rather hilly (to be expected as I was crossing over the Great Dividing Range again) the first 60 kms or so were good... Then it started raining right at the Cassilis pass at 700 meters and it continued raining for the next 30 kms. I put on my raingear but it was miserable cycling as I was wet outside as well as inside (from sweat). I could finally take off the raingear some 10 kms outside of Merriwa but had to rush the last 8 kms as it was starting to rain again...

I took a room at the Fitzroy pub. They wanted me to keep the bike outside which didn't please me much... When I complained about having to lug all the baggage to the second floor, they offered me a room on the first floor... When I looked at it, I observed that I could easily put the bike inside the room... They didn't like it but had little arguments against... Hell, the rooms are falling apart anyways... The pub/hotel was built in the late 1800's and you could see the whole wing where the room was slowly separating away from the main building (I mean the crack was open by a few inches in the brick and you could see the split as well from inside the room where the walls where slowly separating.... So in went the bike !

When I started out it was sunny and hot... Lots of hills, so I sweated a lot... It's still better than rain...

The villages (Sandy Hollow, Denham, Jerrys Plains) along the way where nice. This is wine country, Hunter's Valley... its a touristy area. There where also a few huge stud (horse) farms that appeared very luxurious (no wonder with all the gambling going on in Australia, seems every pub has a gambling room with screens showing race results and statistics...).

After Denham, it got overcast and cooler... the terrain also flattened somewhat and I could see, while approaching Singleton, that I was cycling between two rainstorms (one at my west heading for me and the other at the east). But it didn't seem to have rained at Singleton.

Took a room at the center pub. I had to leave the bike outside but the manager told me I could take into the pub around 10 pm when it would quiet down.... So I went for dinner and rested a bit... I was falling asleep when the manager came knocking at my door... It was time to put the bike inside... and a good thing also since it rained hard during the night.

It was raining still when I got up, but by the time I was ready, it had stopped raining... But it was really grey, so I asked the cleaning lady what she thought... "Could I get to Newcastle without getting wet ?"

The cleaning lady told me she thought it would clear up... In any case, she assured me that I would get to Newcastle without getting wet, so off I went.

The terrain was still very hilly and as the weather was clearing up it was getting increasingly hot... At Branxton (25 kms from Singleton) I took a break and had pastries... In Australia, they make much the same pastries that I enjoyed in England... Caramel, fruit or chocolate squares... hmmmm ! Lots of calories....

At the midpoint, there was Maitland... a large industrial town and the traffic increased a lot... At least, the road was levelling out... and the last 30 kms or so were easy cycling.

The cleaning lady at Singleton was uncanny.... I got to Newcastle dry, but as I was a couple of blocks from the Youth Hostel (where I intended to spend the night) at Newcastle, it started raining....

Well, I took a day's rest in Newcastle. Did laundry, took in a few art galleries and museums. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon there was a big thunderstorm followed by a hailstorm with chunks of ice as big as an inch in diameter.... I was glad I wasn't cycling... Lots of vehicles were full of pockmarks (could've been my body !). In the evening I went to a free BBQ arranged by the hostel and met a couple of Frenchmen, a Swiss guy and another Canadian from Alberta... So though the food was not too copious (what can one expect for a free BBQ) the time was enjoyable nonetheless.

The morning was fine weatherwize so I left... I followed the Pacific highway for 25 kms or so and it was hilly and full of traffic... So I took and exit and took a side road (Elizabeth Bay drive) into the Munmorah State Conservation Area. It was a pretty coastal road with beautiful deserted beaches... After that the road wound into the Wyrrabalong National Park, a rainforest remnant regeneration area filled with pelicans on the coastal sections. It was pretty... Much better than the highway...

I then headed for Terrigal and its youth hostel. It was the nicest one yet... Very clean and nicely set-up with a huge porch and very few people. After dropping my stuff, I went for a swim in the ocean to wash off the sweat from the day's cycle. Nice warm water (about 20 degrees) and huge impressive waves ! For dinner, I found a little pastry shop that had some chicken, cheese and spinach filled filo pastries which I had with a bottle of Hunter Valley white wine (nobody wanted to share at the hostel) while watching the "Bourne Identity" on video... with the sound of thundershowers in the background. Isn't this just decadent !

After dinner, I fell asleep on the couch (no wonder after a full bottle of wine). Woke up at one and went to bed.

Woke up late and started out around 10 AM with killer hills right from the start getting out of Terrigal. Then I took the wrong road (Scenic road, instead of Scenic highway) and it was just more killer hills... At least the scenery was fine through the Bouddi National Park (nice forests and lots of bellbirds). After a while, I stopped at a ranger station to ask directions and the old attendant just wouldn't stop talking (about birds, the old times, etc...). Anyways, when I finally arrived at Ettalon, the 12:30 ferry was just leaving and I had to wait a couple of hours for the next ferry (I was taking the ferry to avoid having to cycle back to the highway and circle around the coastal lakes).

At Palm Beach, it was again more hills... So I decided to stop at Collaroy... I didn't feel like cycling much more since the traffic in the late afternoon was getting heavy.

I was glad to leave the Collaroy Youth Hostel. The place was a mess... Lots of youngsters who don't pick up after themselves... My dorm could sleep 6 but there was just another guy in there. He messed up 4 beds and had stuff all over the floor... He came to sleep at 4 AM and complained about the bike in the room....!

I left early and the cycle was easy up to the northern part of Sydney... where I lost some time looking for the cycle path to cross the Harbour Bridge... Once on the bridge, I stopped to take pictures of Sydney and surroundings from above... and couldn't. There are security people walking the bridge that usher people along if they try to stop.... You're not allowed taking pictures ! How paranoid !

Lost more time in Sydney... I was looking for a tourist information center to give me directions through the city to head out south on the coast... Well the three tourist offices indicated on my map of Sydney were closed or inexistent. I ended up getting directions from an old overweight gentlemen on the street (other local day cyclists I tried to stop to ask directions wouldn't even stop).

Once I got on the Princes Highway, it was easy (though somewhat hilly and noisy with Sunday traffic)... The worst was the heat from the sun and I stopped in the National Royal Park to cool off in the shade and for a bit of a picnic for lunch.

I left the highway at the Bulli Pass where after a very steep (I had to stop three times to let my rims cool down) downhill, I reached the coast and headed for Wollongong. Too bad I couldn't follow the coast all the way as it is supposed to be a beautiful road (Grand Pacific road) but was closed up to Bulli for the past 2 years because sections fell in the sea and needed to be rebuilt... It is scheduled to re-open the 11th of December, just a bit too late for me !

Anyways, it's nice here in Wollongong. The youth hostel is superb, so I'll take a day's rest here !

I spent the next day at the beach and updating this webpage at the public library... Too bad the museums were closed on Mondays... Anyways, it was a restful day, even if I had a touch of homesickness...

The day was overcast, so I left a little later to see whether it would rain or not... It wasn't as hot because of the cloudy conditions and the cycling went well... The road to Kiama was reasonably flat except nearing Kiama... I missed the "Cathedral Rocks" since I couldn't find the side road leading there and didn't see any indications... I did spend a little time in the village which was very pretty though touristy... The main attraction being a hundred year old lighthouse (that wasn't much to look at, didn't look that old at all !) and a "blowhole", a hole in the rocks that blows a spray of seawater when the waves push water through the other end of the hole... Amazing what attracts tourists, eh ?

At Kiama, people were telling me that the next 10 kms section of highway (the only way out) was very dangerous to cycle through and that I should take the train to Gerrigong, which I did, so I had a 10 kms rest... At Gerrigong, it was very hilly until I got to the "Seven Miles Beach Natural Park" and then mostly flat from there to Nowra.

The Seven Miles Beach portion was the highlight of the day's cycling.... The road wound through a beautiful coastal forest with lots of shade, low traffic and an incredible 7 miles of pristine deserted beach... Tourist should come here instead of gawking at the blowhole in Kiama... But there is no shopping center in the national park... and there certainly is a lot of shopping possibilities in Kiama... !

I spent an interesting evening at the Backpacker's hostel in Nowra with the only other guest, Sandra from Switzerland, and left late the next morning as we chatted again during breakfast...

25 kms south of Nowra, I met the first Australian cycling tourists since I've arrived... Two guys and a girl in their late 20's or early 30's... They're cycling from Sydney to Melbourne with very light loads... We chatted a bit and started cycling together... Well it was soon apparent that I couldn't keep up (greater load and hey ! I'm not in my twenties anymore ...) in the hilly terrain... I caught up to the girl, who was straggling a bit (she was actually struggling very hard up a long hill leading into Milton), near Milton but then I decided to stop at Milton (a pretty little historic town) for a snack of "caramel squares" (lots of calories!)...

Next to the bakery was a little used bookstore and I found a pretty good book (Doomsday Book by Connie Willis) to trade for one that I had finished (Iron Council by China Miéville)and was carrying with me (the deal wasn't great, but at least it was a good book and beats carrying one that I've already read !).

With all this I spent nearly an hour in Milton. I had originally targeted Bateman's Bay as my stop for the night, but 10 kms past Milton I arrived at Ulladulla and decided to stop here for the night, enjoying the remaining sun of the day, rather than sweating another gruelling 50 kms cycle through hills... Time enough tomorrow for more hills !

Though the day's cycle wasn't all that long, it was still in hilly terrain and the heat of the sun was somewhat overpowering.... I arrived at Bateman's Bay in the early afternoon and decided to spend the night here since the rest of the road to Narooma appears to have a lot to look at and I'd rather start in the morning and take my time to see the sights....

Anyways, I met the three Australian cyclists again in Bateman's Bay... They were just leaving as I was arriving. One of the bikes needed replacement spokes and they spent the morning fixing the bike. Apparently, Jane (the girl who was struggling up the hill near Milton) also suffered from heat stroke yesterday and was sick (throwing up) in the evening... So she profited from the morning's rest.... Youngsters, eh !... They should have taken it easy yesterday instead if rushing and pushing the limit...

For instance, today the sun was so hot that when I took a lunch break at East Lynden I had trouble getting on the bike again. My seat was too hot and I couldn't touch the hoods on my brifters nor the wrapping on the handlebars. As well my cycle-computer's screen was inoperative until I allowed it to cool down... I should've parked the bike in a shaded spot...

Oh !, and I saw my first big lizard today... must've been five or six feet in length from nose to tail... It was dead though... a roadkill.

Still hot, still hilly... I took a side road coming out of Bateman's Bay that hugged the coast... I thought it would be flatter... Wrong !... After the first few kms, it got very hilly... up and down and up and down... I must've climbed the same 30 meters at least 30 times.... As well, it added almost 20 kms to my route... Maybe I should've taken the highway ?

Anyways, this side road rejoined the highway some 40 kms later.... And it was just as hilly... 10 kms further on the highway, I stopped for a cold coke at a service station and while I was savouring it, the attendant told me that 3 other cyclists (2 guys and 1 girl) came through a couple of hours earlier.... Hell ! I thought they'd be at least a day ahead of me as they were starting out yesterday as I was stopping... Guess I ain't doing so badly after all...

I stopped at Narooma for the night... There's a youth hostel here and upon checking in I saw that there was a couple of Western Canadians cycletouring as well... They're an older couple touring with little trailers... They're going north, so heading back to Sydney. They tell me that most of the rest of the coastal way to Melbourne is just as hilly and that the pavement gets rougher... So what else is new ?

Doing grocery, there was a special on "pow pow" (a kind of mix between papaya and melon, or something of the kind) so I decided to get one of those instead of my regular oranges for breakfast... Well, the next morning, about an hour after eating the "pow pow" (nice and sweet by the way) my stomach really didn't feel right (I should have stuck to oranges). I really didn't feel like getting on the bike and decided to spend the day here...

My stomach remained upset for half the day, but I still managed to enjoy most of the day at the beach.... It's deserted and it's the first beach I see in Australia with crystal blue (turquoise) water... I'd have believed I was in the Carribeans... It's the prettiest beach I've seen so far in Australia...

When I left in the morning, I had cycled almost 2 kms and had to go back to the hostel !... I had forgotten the key in my pocket...

The road was really hilly up to Cobargo, and I got to wondering whether I should have taken the little coastal route rather than the Princes Highway... But a few people had told me that the coastal road was even hillier... Anyways, though hilly, the road was pretty... Passing through one state park after another... Beautiful forest offering lots of shade... The trees almost made a canopy above the road... Cobargo is a very pretty touristy town. I stopped at the grocery store (owned by a German) for a cold drink and a snack. Coming out of the grocery, an old lady (Dorothy) starts asking me questions and talking about her own travels... She also tells me that the potter in town is from Saskatchewan, Canada... So I went to have a tlak with him... All in all, I must have spent a couple of ours at Cobargo.

From Cobargo to Brogo, the road was much easier, the two places lying in the same valley... But it was hotter and with less tree cover... Past Brogo, the road followed a river through foresty hills... Very nice... But the last 10 kms to Bega required a jump from one valley to another and that was very hilly...

I hadn't been sure of whether to push on to Merimbulla (most of the Narooma guests at the YHA were going there as a next stop) or not... But as I was crossing the bridge into Bega, my rear derailleur cable broke and I was stuck in high gear... Just across the bridge, I spotted a "backpacker's" accommodation, so that decided it.. I would spend the night here and change the cable.

Cycling was hilly and tough all day... And I'm told it will be just more of the same until I get to Lakes Entrance in Victoria...

Pambula was a nice village. I just passed along Merimbulla without entering... I figured I had had enough of the beaches and would push through to Eden (I had to see what that was about... and who can blame me for spending a night in Eden !).

I took a room at the pub, washed up and went for a walk... Not much to Eden, though it appears to be a busy fishing port. So I had some fish&chips at the end of the afternoon... Quite nice (the fish was flat-head)... But then the town seems to close down around 6 PM, so I went back to my room (since the pub was pretty dead as well) and found out that I didn't have access to the porch (which was bad since my room didn't even have a window....! So the whole evening wasn't very interesting...

Well, Eden didn't impress me too much !

It was grey in the morning and my legs were sore from all the hills these past few days..., but it appeared to be clearing up so I left (I wasn't about to spend more time in Eden !).

There was a big long hill coming out of Eden and the first 30 kms or so were hilly... But near Boydtown (10 kms away) I saw 2 deer by the side of the road and it made me happy... The nice thing about a bike is that it doesn't make any noise and you can creep up on animals without scaring them...

Nearing the border with Victoria, the road flattened out, so the cycle to Genoa was relatively easy after the border.

There wasn't much to Genoa... A pub, a "cafe" that appeared closed, a few house and that's that ! I stopped at the pub and enquired about accommodations... The lady didn't appear too eager for my business... And she advised me that the "general store" that I had seen, has been closed since the year 2000... So I couldn't even buy food here... So I pushed on...

The 47 kms to Cann River were mostly easy, except for the last 10 or so... The road began snaking up between 4 mountains (the highest being Mt Drummer). I arrived just before 6 and just had the time to buy groceries before the stores closed.

The whole day had remained overcast and cool... It made for a nice change !

Coming out of Cann River, I had an 8 kms climb at Lind State Park, then it levelled off and rose again over 5 kms and remained hilly till Orbost... As well, it was pretty windy... but on the whole, the cycle was enjoyable. I'm getting better at the hills (I'm kidding myself... In Victoria the hills are much longer but with a gentler slope than in New South Wales).

Orbost is a logging and cattle town and everything dies off here around 6 in the evening... Nothing special about it, but I decided to stop here since I wasn't sure about doing the next 60 kms to Lakes Entrance (there's apparently a few monster hills on the way...) after having cycled to Orbost.

There were two big hills on the way to Lakes Entrance... But the slopes were gentle, so it was an easy cycle... (I could've done it yesterday)...

Anyways, I got here around lunch time and though I could've pushed on, I decided to spend the night here since the YHA is nice and cheap (A$18.50 per night) and the forecasts are for rain tomorrow (so I could stay here cheaply if it does rain).

So I settled in at the youth hostel and then went at the library to hit the internet... When I came back, there were two French Canadian girls at the hostel, so we spent the evening talking about our experiences...

In the morning it was raining, so I decided to stay at the hostel for another day. I thought it would be appropriate to visit the nearby caves (doesn't matter whether it rains or not in a cave !)... But it turned out that the caves were 60 kms out of my way with no public transport to get there, and I wasn't about to cycle 120 kms return in bad weather... Looked at car rentals, but there was no car-hire in this town... So I spent the rest of the day reading and talking with guests. In the late afternoon, an older Dutch touring cyclist showed up... Seems I'm meeting more and more tourers.

The morning was beautiful so I set off towards Bairnsdale. The 40 kms there were very pleasant... I stopped at a used bookstore and picked up a book and then went to the grocery for a cold drink... When I got out, there was the Dutch cyclist from yesterday just arriving... We talked a bit and then I left towards Stratford. 10 kms out of Bairnsdale it started raining and I took cover at a roadside café.. I resumed when the rain stopped, but got caught in another wave of rain later on and took cover under a tree. I managed to duck another wave, waiting it out in a bus shelter but really got soaked as I was entering Stratford.

I checked out Stratford for accommodations but it was expensive... Even the pub wanted A$50 for a room for the night. Since I was already soaked, I decided to cycle another 10 kms to Maffra where I knew there was a Backpacker's hostel.

Well, the rain stopped and the sun came out, and I arrived relatively dry at Maffra... The hostel is busy with foreigners working at fruit/vegetable picking in the area... Talking with them I learned that they work about 12 hours per day, 6 days per week at some A$15/hour, making about A$1000/week (paying 29% in taxes). They earn enough to continue travelling and the Australian govn't gives them a year's extension on their visa if they work for 3 months... They're all happy about it and they're a happy bunch.

One of them was an Irish girl named "Aine ni Siochan"... Very Gaellic ! I had heard her family name as "chicane" which in french means "argument"... When I told her so she insisted that her name meant peace... So she brought up on the internet a Gaellic translation of her name and in fact "sciochan" does mean "peace" or "grace"... However, I told her that "ni" means "not" which in fact it did when we checked the gaellic meaning... Hence "not peace" which brought it back to "argument"... Well, at that she got real angry, insisted that I apologize, which I did, and then didn't want to speak to me again... This confirms the passionate character of Irish people that I had noticed when in Ireland....

In the morning, it was very cloudy with high westerly winds... I decided to spend an extra day here rather than fighting a headwind all day and getting wet again... So I spent some time walking around the town, along the river, it's a pretty area.

Well I decided to cycle the backroads heading west, rather than the highway, to Moe... The morning looked real fine weatherwize, but it soon got very windy and I was struggling to maintain 15kms/hour on level ground.... Also, the route was through farming country with little tree cover against the headwind.... The little towns were mostly uninteresting and so when I got to Glengarry, I decided to head south to Traralgon and out of this headwind.

From Traralgon, I continued west on the Princes highway... Much better than the backroads... The day was slightly less windy and the highway was bordered with a good cover of trees against the wind. I made good time to Moe and as I was looking for a place to take a break, I saw a little sign for the Gippsland Heritage Park and figured I'd take a break there....

What a surprise... The park was a collection of heritage buildings gathered across the Gippsland territory and relocated here... All filled with appropriate memorabilia... Very similar to what I had visited in New Brunswick last summer (the Acadian Village)... I ended up spending nearly 3 hours there and was treated to a lunch of "devilled sausages" after my walk through the village...

After this long break, I continued west on the highway... The traffic was getting heavier the closer I was getting to Melbourne, so at Drouin, I decided to fork off the highway and took a secondary road that appeared to follow the railway tracks.

Well that was a good decision, the traffic became practically non-existent and the road was straight and flat. As I was cycling along the small villages appeared to all have a pub with accommodations, so I figured that I'd cycle as long as I could and then take a pub room at the nearest village... Well I went to the end of this road at a village called Nar Nar Goon (nice little place with lots of murals painted onto the building facades)... Got to the pub and asked for a room... I was told that they didn't have rooms for the past 5 years or so... (Even though the facade advertised in great big letters "HOTEL")... When I commented about all the other villages, they told me it was the same... They just couldn't make any money, not enough demand... I was told that I wouldn't find any cheap accommodations until I got to Melbourne... Well, it was already past 6 in the evening and I didn't feel up to cycling another 50 kms or so... The pub manager suggested that I take the train, which I did and further avoided the less than pleasant cycle through increasing traffic to Melbourne....

At Melbourne, I took a bed at a backpackers... The place was a mess, but I figured it was only for a night since I'd take the ferry the following evening to Tasmania.

In the morning, I went to get a ticket for the ferry, and was told that they were fully booked until the 23rd... I bought a ticket for the day-crossing on Friday and went to find alternate accommodations... I ended up taking a bed at the Youth Hostel in North Melbourne... Much quieter, cleaner and nicer...

Waiting for Friday, I looked for books (since I had finished mine)... Found a good used bookstore with 3 books I had been looking for a long time and tried to exchange the three I had read for them.... I was told that Melbourne used bookstores mostly bought their inventory from one buyer who bought large estate lots and such and that I wouldn't find any stores willing to trade.... In addition, I was told that there was a glut of used books in Melbourne. Weird, isn't it ? ... The books I had picked weren't very expensive, so I took them anyway and left mine at the hostel for other travellers...

After that I decided to hit the public library for a bit of internet... Well, I was told that I had to register in order to access the internet... SO I said OK !, let's register me... Then they asked for how long was I in Melbourne... When I said that I was just passing through, I was told that they didn't register people for such short time periods and that hence I wouldn't get access to the internet at the library... !!! Well, that put me off... Melbourne is really weird... Everywhere else so far in Australia I could get a descent deal on a used book exchange and I could access the internet mostly for free at the public libraries... But not in Melbourne ! I'm beginning to dislike this city... It's pretty and all, but....

So Friday morning, I was happy to be heading for the ferry... It was a windy, cold and long 10 hours on the ferry to get to Devonport in Tasmania... But it is indeed quieter here... I took a bed at the Youth Hostel. The manager appears to be somewhat deficient... He's got buck teeth with a prominent top jaw and talks funny... In Australia, Tasmanians are the butt of every joke (somewhat like Belgians are to France or Newfoundlanders are to Canadians)... they talk of extensive in-breeding (jokingly...). There's another family here and one of their child is retarded... What a first impression, heh !

Anyways, I settled in and the following morning went for a ride around town and hit the internet at the public library (free !). I then road around the coast and along a nature trail along the inlet/bay... All day was windy, raining on and off and cold... !

The next morning is what still cold, windy and cloudy... Nevertheless, I decided to go for a ride to a nearby village, Latrobe, supposedly very pretty... It was indeed very touristy and quaint, but everything was closed for Christmas... So I got back to Devonport and got thoroughly wet when it started raining and I didn't find a convenient place to take cover... As I was warming up at the hostel, the family with a retarded son invited me for Christmas "tea" (dinner) and the child gave me a Christmas card with "I love you Julian" written in it... Seemed that he had taken a liking to me as I had spent time talking to him and answering his questions patiently... "Tea" was nice... Roast pork and lots of veggies...

It was a beautiful morning and the wind had died down, so I left for Sheffield... My aim was to stop for the night at the backpacker's there and start the following morning for the heavy hills up to Cradle Mountain National Park (a World Heritage Site)...

On the way, I was intrigued by large "RESTRICTED" signs on fencing around huge plantations of what appeared to me as nice pale blue flowers... Upon closer inspection, those flowers were Poppies !... How interesting !... I saw these poppy farms all over Tasmania and later learned that Tasmania grown poppies account for over 50% of the world's pharmaceutical morphine production... Tasmania has a unique production process which bypasses the stage of opium production... Rather than scoring the bulbs for the opium resin, they wait till the plant dries out and separate the seed pod from the rest of the plant... The seeds are extracted from the pods and are used in the culinary industry... The rest of the dry plant is crushed and the alkaloids are extracted from the resulting powder... They call it a success crop in Tasmania... I wonder though what kind of tea these farmers drink in the evening...?

Anyways, when I got to Sheffield, the backpacker's didn't exist any more and there were no cheap accommodations... Though I was told that a few kms further on the way to Cradle Mountain, was a backpacker's at Gowrie Park... So there I went...

There's very little at Gowrie Park... Apparently it was a bustling town of 3,000 residents way back when a dam was being built nearby... However, there's little left but a few houses, a restaurant and a camping with bunk accommodations (the backpacker's)... The accommodations were actually set up in trailer like long buildings divided up into small rooms... Whatever... It was fine and at a price of A$13 per night, couldn't find anything wrong with that... So I settled in and since it was still early, I decided to take a hike up a local mountain (Mt VanDyke, at 1,084 meters). The hike took 4 hours and I couldn't see much from the top because of the low clouds... When I came back, I was really hungry, so I ate and turned in.

The following morning, I met with a couple from Queensland (Maggie and David) over breakfast and they told me that they were taking a daytrip over to Strahan and would be happy to drop me off at Cradle Mountain in the morning and pick me up in the evening... Furthermore, I could have the use of their Park Pass and so avoid a park entry fee... So off I went to climb Cradle Mountain !

It was a great hike, though the weather was cloudy with occasional rain, the alpine scenery was fantastic... I didn't get up to the top (at 1,545 meters) but close enough (maybe a 100 meters short of the top) since there was no point to the last scramble up the piled rocks as it was continuously enveloped in clouds...

When Maggie and David came to pick me up, I suggested that I treat them to dinner at the Gowrie Park restaurant (surprisingly good for a small lost village...) where I had Wallaby fillets over couscous in coconut sauce and veggies... (Yummm !)

The next morning was beautiful with not a cloud in the sky... So I decided to climb up Mount Roland (at 1,233 meters) and take in the view from the top... Coming back down, I realized how sore my legs were... Three mountains in three days...

My legs were still sore when I got up and the clouds were low... It looked like rain, so I didn't have much motivation to leave... Nevertheless, I had breakfast and a shower and got to thinking that I wouldn't have much to do here if I stayed an extra day... The other local mountain (Mount Claude) didn't appear interesting and after three mountains I had had enough... I needed a change of scene, so I decided to leave hoping that it wouldn't rain much during the day...

So I left towards Deloraine on road C137 (as suggested by the owner of the backpackers, as the other road would be more hilly and less pretty.

The road wasn't bad and my legs were doing OK... But once past the village of Paradise, the road entered a forest reserve through a long steep rise and I had to stop several times to let my legs rest.... Then it was pretty level to Mole Creek where I had lunch.

A few kms past Mole Creek, I chanced upon a little Private Wildlife park and decided to stop... A good thing too, since it would probably be the only viewing of live Tasmanian Devils I could have (aside from roadkill !)... All in all, the little park was pretty good and my legs got a good rest.

I then continued on my way to Deloraine. Took a bed at the YHA there (it's a mess and the owner himself is a mess, but the price is right), and went for groceries... Not much to this town... It labels itself as "The Premier Tourist Town" but there's nothing here apart from a couple of galleries and a few little outdoor sculptures... and everything closes at five pm... !

At the hostel, I talked with a couple of Swiss and a woman from Darwin cycling through Tasmania with her bike pulling a child carrier holding her baggage and her four year old son...! She's got guts...!

Since Deloraine was boring and the hostel there a mess, I decided to push for Launceston (bound to be more there) as the likely place to bunk through the New Year holiday...

The cycle to Launceston was easy... mostly downhill and with the wind at my back and my legs were no longer sore. By early afternoon I was there and took a bed at the YHA then went to cycle around town. It's pretty big and there seems to be a lot to see in the area, but by late afternoon I was tired, so I came back to the hostel. As I was having dinner, I noticed a lone female cyclist registering, but I was too tired to get into a conversation and turned in.

In the morning after breakfast, I met with the cyclist I had seen the evening before... Her name is Iris and she's from Hong Kong... It's her last day in Tasmania as she flies the following day back home... I suggested we could walk the "Cataract Gorge" together that day since the weather wasn't nice enough for a cycle further... So off we went to view the prime natural attraction of the area...

It was an enjoyable walk, the gorge was interesting and Iris had many questions on my trips as well as many stories of her own... At one point we tangented on a less used trail that came out of the gorge and up the hills and we were lucky to see a kangaroo in the wild... We then came back down and had a lunch of fish and chips at a riverside cafe and continued on a leisurely walk through town... All in all a perfect day, so we decided to make ourselves a New Years Eve dinner of Guacamole and chips with corn on the cob and Mexican beer.... A nice close to 2005 and good beginning to 2006... Iris is a fine companion... Sorry to see her leave so quickly, I would very much have enjoyed cycling with her a few days...

The next morning was rainy and it didn't let go till the end of the afternoon... So I spent my time doing laundry and reading. But the following day was beautiful and I went for a day trip down the river along the Tamar Valley to Beauty Point, where there was supposedly a Platypus farm, and back... The cycle was enjoyable but the Platypus House was a bit of a disappointment... Though I saw live Platypuses (they had two couples in a natural setting) there wasn't sufficient light for me to take pictures... They also had a couple of Echidnas (the only other egg laying mammals, aside from platypuses) and I could take pictures of those...

All in all it was a pretty good day (125 kms of cycling), but I wondered how much better it would have been with the company of Iris.

It was a beautiful day, cool and sunny... Very windy, but the wind, from the West, was at my back all day... I had decided to go towards the East coast through the hills to St. Helens and then follow the coast south to Hobart.

Leaving Launceston, the road was a steady climb for nearly the first 25 kms... It levelled out a bit and then started seriously climbing into the Bass forest reserve... After that, it dropped into Scottsdale but remained hilly.

Scottsdale is a pretty touristy village, but didn't have much to interest me except for shopping... So I decided to push on and make the following day's cycle to St Helens that much shorter...

The following village, 25 kms away, Bankholm, is a small unassuming village and I found it attractive... Though the village, like Scottsdale had a free campground (no hot water though) I took a room at the local pub (for the hot shower and at A$30 it was relatively cheap) and walked the village for groceries and dinner... Everybody's nice here and made me feel welcome... People have more time to talk in small villages...

It was an enjoyable day... Though the cycle was difficult, the scenery was pretty, the weather fine and Branxholm welcoming.

The next morning the sun was out and the wind had died down but it was cold as I left Banxholm.

Coming out of Branxholm was a long steep hill and it certainly set the mood of the day... The next town only a few kms away was Derby, an historical tin mining town and though it appeared interesting, everything was still closed as it was early in the morning, so I decided to continue on my way.

Entering another section of the Bass forest, it was more hills... and this was followed by a 13 kms climb into the Myrtle forest to the Weldborough Pass... 7 kms into the climb, I came to Weldborough village and seeing the historical pub ("The Worst Pub" written in large letters on the side of the building) I decided to stop and have a very sweet hot chocolate... Well the pub didn't open until 11 am... So I waited the 15 minutes taking a rest from the climb... By 11:05, the pub still hadn't opened, so I left... The urge had passed...

Another 6 kms of climb and I reached the top of the pass. From there it was mostly downhill to the coast and St Helens.

I took a bed at the local YHA for two nights (as I would need time in the morrow for a cycle to the Bay of Fires (which is the local natural attraction) and settled in.

In the morning, I left for a day trip to the Bay of Fires... The bay was so named because Captain Furneaux when he came over with James Cook in 1773 and observed the white sand beach from the sea his attention was caught by many fires in the bush behind the beach.... Those fires were lit by aborigines to drive game towards hunters... Anyways, it is said they're the second most beautiful beaches in the world and I'm at a loss to say which are the most beautiful... White sand and crystal clear turquoise water and practically deserted... No resorts or anything since they lay in a natural reserve... And the water is relatively warm... Nice !

Another beautiful day and I perhaps left a little too early since I forgot a water bottle at the hostel....

Heading south along the coast, there was no wind and the road was practically flat... So I just breezed through keeping an eye on the pretty coastal scenery.

Took a good break at Bicheno trying to see the penguins but again, my only sight of them was a specimen which unfortunately was flat on the road... as roadkill... Too bad... !

I then continued on towards Coles Bay... The cycle continued on relatively flat terrain... But I had to slow down for about 10 kms or so while passing through dense smoke coming from a forest fire blazing on the hills on the eastern side of the road...

Got to Coles Bay and it was a zoo... Everything was booked solid and I ended up camping on the grounds of the Youth Hostel there... No worries (as they say here...) the weather's fine and is forecasted to remain so for a few days...

In the morning, I went over to Freycinet Park early... and a good thing since later in the day, the trails were just crawling with tourists and weekenders... I started on the Mt Amos trail first expecting to get to the summit and enjoy the view before the hordes got there.... Well it was a difficult climb (though only 422 meters in height)... The second half is a scramble over huge granite boulders and you find yourself crawling on hands and feet up inclines of 50% or more trying not to slide down the surface of the boulders... At one point I thought to myself that this was mad... I'd have a lot of trouble coming back down in one piece.... And I actually started to come back down, but after a few meters, I turned around again and started back up... No way ! would I come back down, having come up this far... without getting the view from the top...

And the view was breath-taking... You'll have to wait until I get back for the photos... Just beautiful... I perfect bird’s eye view of Winegalss Bay...

When I came back down I then took a walk to the bay and returned to my camp by mid afternoon... Although I had planned a longer walk, I was a bit lonely at having no one to share the view with... In the late afternoon, a group of seven Australian cyclists arrived and set-up camp besides me... It was nice to have company for the evening.

To continue south along the coast I thought I'd have to cycle back almost to Bicheno (30 kms) in order to get back on the highway south... Well, the cyclists that had arrived last night told me there was a little ferry that could take me across from Swanwick to Nine-Mile Beach therefore saving me 30 to 40 kms...

Well the ferry was really an aluminium dingy with a 9.9hp gas engine... I had to lift the bike up from the beach into the dingy... Whatever... it works... and saved me retracing 30 kms of road I had already cycled on...

The rest of the way to Triabunna was uneventful... A bit hillier than the road north of Coles Bay and with a bit of a headwind... but not too difficult... When I got to Triabunna I took a bed at the Youth Hostel there and found it so peaceful (it's a pretty rural setting) that I figured I'd stay here a few days and maybe catch the ferry to Maria Island for a day trip...

Well, the ferry for the next day was booked solid so I had to wait an extra day to go to Maria Island... No worries (as the Australians say)... It's so nice here that I don't mind having a day's rest... Met with Benjamin, an ex-Swiss banker, a fine thinker and good conversationalist and we had some philosophical discussions and played chess...

The following day, on the ferry ride to Maria Island I saw dolphins playing in the sea.... Had a nice walk on the Island to the Painted Cliffs (you'll have to wait for the pictures) and then further away in the bush to get away from the hordes of tourists... Maria Island is also very peaceful to walk through...

Well, I made it to Hobart. The cycling from Triabunna to Hobart was uneventful... Passed along Break-me-neck Hill and Bust-me-Gal Hill (Tasmanians have a pretty good sense of humour, eh!)...

I'll be spending some time here seeing if I can't board a container ship, fishing vessel, or something to get me to New-Zealand... There's no ferry, but I'm hopeful...

So I took a bed at the youth hostel and as I was settling in an Australian greeted me and started asking me questions about my travels... I guess he was intrigued as he invited me for a dinner of BBQ steaks and kept me supplied with beer... We had a nice long talk and then I turned in.

In the morning, I went to the port and two possibilities became apparent... For one, a racing yatch (from the recent New Zealand to Hobart race) was due to sail back to New Zealand. However, a talk with the skipper blew that one off... Their insurance prevented them from taking on anyone without solid sail racing experience...

For the other possibility, the Diamond Princess (a cruise ship) had arrived that morning and was leaving for New Zealand that evening... I tried with travel agents and they told me it was impossible to board from Hobart... Only from Sydney or Melbourne... With a bit more research, I learned that she was managed by P&O and went to their offices in Hobart... Well, they told me that it was possible to board from Hobart but that they wouldn't have the time to process the immigration paperwork in what was left of the afternoon and in any case, they told me that they would have to charge me the full fare as if I had boarded out of Sydney (A$3,000) which was ridiculous... They have no understanding of economics at the margins...

After that I went to the Port Authority and learned that there are few cargo ships that come and go from New Zealand but that it was possible though I might have to wait a few weeks... So it didn't look promising and I settled that it would be better to go back to Melbourne and catch a cheap flight... Ah well... it was worth a try !

I stayed on another day at Hobart and spent nearly half of it strolling in the Royal Botanical Gardens... Real pretty... And the best of it is that it was free !

The morning was cloudy, pretty solid grey... So I waited a bit and as it seemed to clear up a tad, I decided to leave. It was cool and there wasn't much wind as I left northwards towards Launceston.

The road was uphill most of the way. Starting at near sea level in Hobart, it rose to 488 meters at Spring Hill Pass. But the rise was relatively gentle and the cycle wasn't too strenuous. Most of the scenery was yellow grasslands with cattle and sheep farming.

Brighton wasn't much too see, but Kempton was a pretty little village and I stopped for a break and a snack...

By this time the weather had cleared up nicely... I cycled on to Oatlands and was charmed by this little town. So I decided to spend the night here at the local pub, "The Kentish Hotel". Had a nice dinner of stir fry scallops and was surprised that they serve the roe along with the muscle on the scallop... It's a lot tastier then the muscle alone and I was told that this is the Tasmanian way of serving scallops...

Left early (continuing northward) and it was grey and cold... But the clouds were only the morning dew rising and it soon cleared up.

After the St. Peter's Pass (at 466 meters) rising right out of Oatlands, the cycling was easy and I was cruising...

Ross was even prettier (though more touristy) than Oatlands and I spent quite a bit of time there taking in the sights... Campbell Town wasn't much but it had a nice park and I stopped for a snack. Then it was nearly non-stop (as there was little to see) till Launceston.

Since I had taken the backroads originally from Devonport to Launceston... I decided to take the highway this time from Launceston to Devonport. This road avoided most of the villages but did pass through hilly forests and farmland and amazingly enough there wasn't that much traffic... In fact, nowhere in Tasmania did I experience much traffic, except maybe in Hobart itself (then again, Hobart has half the population of Tasmania). So all in all, the cycling was enjoyable even on this highway.

Got to Devonport around 2 in the afternoon... Pretty good for a 100 kms... There were no villages along the way on the highway so I didn't make many stops. I headed right away to the ferry terminal but couldn't get a seat until Wednesday night, so I'd have to stay a couple of days here... But that's OK. it's a nice quiet little town.

Arrived at Melbourne in the morning after a night's ferry crossing from Devonport... Didn't sleep much, it wasn't very comfortable on the ferry... And the wind raged all through the night... I can now understand why the racing yatch in Melbourne would only take experienced sailors... I wouldn't like to be caught at night on such a small vessel in this kind of wind...

Though I was tired, upon arrival I investigated flights to New Zealand... My visa for Australia won't allow me to stay longer than 3 months at any one time, so I have to be out by February 12th... Which isn't bad and will give me an opportunity to visit New Zealand.

Flights were cheap enough, however, on all flights they only allow 20 kg of baggage (my flight from Canada to Sydney allowed me 50 kg) and so I will incur excess baggage costs of $10/kg... excessive isn't it !

Anyways, my flight is arranged for the 8th of February... So now I have a couple of weeks to waste... So there's my opportunity to cycle the Great Ocean Road !

I stayed another day in Melbourne to rest from the trauma of a night on the ferry, ensure I'd have a bicycle box for the flight (the airline doesn't supply one), to process the films I had already exposed (since they will deteriorate quickly with the heat here)... and various other necessary stuff....

I felt fine, rested and the morning was fine, so I got ready and left for the "Great Ocean Road"... The way out of Melbourne was fairly straightforward, though I had to avoid the M1 in the cuty and the large suspended bridge... Through back roads, I got to Newport (after the bridge) and found that I still couldn't get on the M1 highway (disallowed)... So I took the train for the 20 kms or so from Newport to Werribee where the train station manager told me that I could get on the highway with a bicycle.

Though it was very hot, cycling to Geelong on the M1 was a breeze... I took a couple of breaks for cold Cokes and then at Geelong, got on the B100 (Great Ocean Road) and cycled on to Torquay. At that point I was by the Ocean...

Everything was booked solid at Torquay... couldn't get a room anywhere... So I checked the campsite and found that they wanted A$45 for a tent site for the night... Ridiculous !

I went for groceries (in case I'd have to camp in the bush) and then cycled on.... At Jan Juc I found a campground that charged A$20 for a tent site... They had a nice kitchen (since I didn't have any fuel anymore, having had to get rid of it to board the ferry), friendly staff and a beautiful yellow-crested parrot as a pet that took a liking to me and would bite me if I tried to take him off of me...

Lots of birds were frolicking noisily as the sun was setting, and I slept very well.

Just getting ready in the morning got me all sweaty, but there was a breeze and it didn't feel too hot...

I decided to take a side road to Addis Point and Bell's Beach (on the advice of the campground manager). It was pretty but very hilly and I ended up having to push the bike up one of the hills... Once I got on the Great ocean Road, the hills were much more civilized... but it was getting hotter and hotter...

By the time I got to Angelsea my water was hot as p... and I stopped for a cold coke. After that I was really struggling... The heat was really bad. I made another stop at Angiers Point for a Popsicle and after that had to stop every kilometre or so to cool down in the shade... The temperature was above 40 degrees !

It became apparent that I couldn't reach Apollo Bay... let alone Lorne... But around 2 in the afternoon, I managed to get to Lorne and had to push the bike up the little hill to the Youth Hostel... That was how exhausted I was...

The hostel manager saw that I was near fainting and promptly got me a litre of cold water (which I gulped down in no time at all) and gave me a cold wet towel to sponge myself off... That felt really good !

I settled down, drank a lot, took a cold shower, got myself some frozen yogurt and rested till dinner time. The hostel here is nice and quiet, in a bush setting with lots of parrots flying around and the room has air-conditioning !

When I got up the next day, a possum was sitting on the balcony (neat, quiet little animal with bulging eyes). Anyways, though it had cooled down, I decided to stay to do some bushwalking. I followed the Erskine creek up to the Erskine falls, then crossed over to the next valley and got to the Cora Lynn cascades and walked down the Parkinson creek... After that, I decided to walk over to the Canyon... The entrance to the Canyon was certainly dramatic... You had to crawl through a hole under huge boulders... This got my hopes up... But the canyon itself was anticlimactic... Only about 100 meters in length... I then came back to the village... All in all, I walked 24 kms all day. It was enjoyable !

It was grey and cold the next morning but it didn't look like it would rain, so I left...

It was windy though and sometimes gusts blowing every which way from the cliffs would sway me wildly...

25 kms out, I stopped to talk to another cyclists going the other way... and a few kilometres after that, I stopped to see what a bunch of people were looking at in the trees by the side of the road... Koalas !... my first ones in the wild....

I reached Apollo Bay by lunch time, but the place didn't appeal to me that much so after a quick snack, I cycled on...

The road started to rise much more right out of Apollo Bay... In fact, it kept rising for 300 meters into the Otway Forest Reserve... The road then dropped to near sea level at Glenaire. There was a cafe there, but a sign at the front said it was closed... I was thirsty and since there were cars in the parking, I went around the back to investigate... And sure enough, they were open, so I got myself a cold drink... Talking with the owner, I mentioned that the sign at the front stated that they were closed... to which he replied that he liked it that way !...

After Glenaire, the road rose again to 500 meters through the Otway Forest... I got to Lavers Hill (at the top of the hill) at the end of the afternoon and decided to spend the night here... It would be an easy downhill cycle in the morning !

I got up to a beautiful blue sky. Got ready and started down the hill... The second half of which was just grand... A nicely winding downhill road through lush forests... I loved it !

I passed by Princetown but didn't stop. And then, the Twelve Apostles ! Beautiful ! After that Port Campbell wasn't much but I stopped for a snack... And then there were many sight seeing stops in quick successions : Loch Ard, beautiful !, the Arch, London Bridge, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands... The road was flat and I decided to push for Warrnambool, the end of the Great Ocean Road...

Settled down at Warrnambool... 122 kms today, lots of sights... It was a good day. Tomorrow they're calling for temperatures to rise above 40 again and it's Australia day (everything is going to be closed)... But I'm not about to cycle again in above 40 weather... So I'll spend a quiet day of rest here...

The cycle to Portland was relatively easy... Though I had a small head wind most of the way, the road was pretty level... I stopped at Port Fairy for an hour or so. It's a pretty little coastal village but a bit too touristy for my tastes... Lots of shops and hence a lot of older tourists going from one shop to the next... I guess the village couldn't live of fishing any more...

I settled at Portland for the night. Took a room at the center pub. Portland is a fishing and logging town. It’s a big port, loading mostly wood chips and there's a big mountain of it near the docks... I'm told that as I cycle towards Nelson in the morning, I'll see the logging operations along the road...

True enough, the first 25 kms out of Portland were through forest reserves (protected I guess) and wineries with a few cattle farms...After that, logging was apparent... with large patches of clear-cut terrain and huge patches of farmed pine... It was bizarre to pedal through miles and miles of pine forests at various development stages where all the trees were perfectly lined up....

Nelson was a pretty little village by Glenig river... A true river... not a large creek (as I've seen mostly so far). The river scenery was very pretty and had I not been alone, I think I would have enjoyed hiring a canoe and spending a couple of days exploring the river... It's also at the start of what appears to be a very nice trek. They call it the Great South West Walk and the loop is 250 kms in length going through coastal reserves as well as hilly forest parks...

Anyways, I continued on to Mt Gambier and arrived just as it started to rain...Looking for cover, I stumbled upon a backpacker accommodation that was set up in an old jail !

The jail was built in the 1880's and was in operation until 1995. And though it rubs me the wrong way to pay to spend a night in jail... I decided to cough up the A$26 required and will sleep in a cell tonight...

I've already spent a night in a 14th century castle... in a lighthouse... in a garbage shed... in a hotel that has been operating for 800 consecutive years (and where I was told that Mozart and Goethe have stayed) and now in a jail cell !

Well the jail was all very fine until late in the evening when a bunch of convicts (30 or so people on a tour bus) arrived for the night... A real prison riot wouldn't have been worse... ! Anyways, alone in my cell with the door closed, it was relatively quiet and I still had a good night's sleep...

It rained through the night, and in the morning there was still some drizzle, so I was undecided as to whether I should cycle on or stick around... By 10 AM it appeared to be clearing up and had stopped raining for the past half hour, so I decided to leave.

The road was hilly, but not overly so... I noticed white specks on the asphalt and they were crunching under my tires... So I checked on them closer and they were white (albino ?) snails... Perfectly well camouflaged on the white lines of the road as well as on the white reflector pickets on the side of the road... But there were an awful lot of them squashed !

Between Mt Gambier and Millicent, the scenery was of more planted pine forests with a big paper mill jest before Millicent. Millicent didn't strike me as too interesting, so after a quick snack, I continued on. After Millicent, the road flattened and the scenery changed to coastal grasslands... It also started drizzling again so I decided to stop at Beachport where I took a bed at the local pub (I was the only guest for the night).

I left early in the morning though it was cold and grey... But it soon turned out sunny and with a good wind at my back.

The scenery was all coast grasslands with the occasional cattle grazing farms, shrubs and occasional trees, small hills till Robe... I saw a few rabbits... Robe was pretty and filled with tourists, so I quickly continued on after a quick snack...

After Robe, there were huge vineyards amongst the grasslands, the road was flat and straight and the wind was increasing in strength but still at my back... I was cruising and at times averaging above 30 kms/hour.

I stopped at a rest area 15 kms before Kingston and almost stepped on a brown snake... It really atartled me... I wasn't expecting a snake here... The last one I had seen was bushwalking around Lorne, but there I was expecting them...

I got to Kingston SE just after lunchtime and took a room at the local pub... It didn't make any sense to continue on since the next village would be 145 kms further on, on the other side of the "Coorong"... So I spent the rest of the day walking around Kingston. Amongst the unusual sights were a huge lobster and weird windmill...

I still had the wind at my back in the morning, so I felt pretty good about the 145 kms ahead of me for the day...

It was nice and sunny and the Coorong scenery was attractive... People had told me it would be boring, but I found it interesting. The "Coorong" is a complex mixture of dunes, grasslands, lagoons, salt marshes and ephemeral lakes with shrubs and small trees... I stopped a few times to enjoy the sights and once when I crossed a Dutch cyclist going the other way (we had a nice break and talk) but still made Salt Creek (85 kms) by noon...

Salt Creek isn't much more than a service station and convenience store... So after a cold drink, I continued on.

The road had been straight and flat up to almost Salt Creek... now it was increasingly hilly and tortuous around the higher dunes... and the wind changed a bit so it was a bit more work. But I got to Meningie at the end of the afternoon without too much trouble

It had rained again in the night but the morning wasn't bad, so I left again with the wind at my back...

About halfway to Tailem Bend, I met with a Hungarian cyclist again going the other way... He was complaining a lot about the wind (headwind for him) and he pissed me off when he threw his empty drink bottle on the side of the road... I guess they aren't too concerned of the environment in Eastern Europe...

Anyways, I continued on to Tailem Bend and it didn’t appeal too much to me so I continued on... Even as I passed the "Old Tailem Village" I wasn't tempted to stop... Apparently they relocated 105 old buildings from all over Australia (similar to the Gippsland village I had visited earlier), but the signs on the road were so "tacky" that I was turned off...

The road to Murray Bridge was boring, straight, flat, scrumpy (not luxurious) grasslands...

From Murray Bridge, I started heading west for Adelaide, with the result that I didn't have the wind at my back anymore. Also, the hills were getting pretty serious as I neared Callington... And to cap it off, it started raining...

I took cover under trees for a bit, waiting to see if the rain would pass... but it didn't... So I got my raingear on and continued my way...

It was a bit miserable cycling through hilly terrain in the rain with the raingear... Nearing Nairne, I noticed a small Tuscan restaurant... pretty isolated... but it got me to thinking that these hills resembled a lot the scenery of Tuscanny... Except that the olive trees are replace by gum trees... It would really be pretty if not for the rain.

Got to Nairne, a nice quaint village. There were two pubs (advertising themselves as hotels), but when I checked, they weren't offering accommodations anymore (no money in it)... So I continued on... The next village, Little Hampton, it was the same thing... But I was told that there was a caravan park at Mount Barker, so I headed off for it...

At Mount Barker, I was so nice to the lady at the caravan park, that she let me have a cabin with en-suite for A$35 (half price)... and I settled in for the night.

Though I was trying to get all the way to Adelaide yesterday, it would've been very difficult as soon became obvious that the road from Mount Barker on wasn't straightforward anymore... Lots of branching and not always well indicated... I had to often ask for directions.

Anyways, the cycle was beautiful... The sky was clear, the villages I was cycling through (like Handorf, of German origin) were very pretty (though touristy), the hills luscious with greenery... and there was no rush as i had only 40 kms or so to cycle to Adelaide.

At Crofers, I was at the top of the Adelaide Hills. There I reached a bicycle path going down into the city... As I was starting the descent, I met with an Adelaide cyclist on his morning ride who guided me through the cycle path into the city... He took me to the center through Hyde Park (a neat little shopping/strolling district) where we had tea and then to the center of Adelaide where i took a bed at the Youth Hostel.

After a shower and a change, I went walking around... Found the Central Market and there, a Russian stall selling Russian peroshkies and their equivalent of nalesnikies... I bought a selection for dinner... A welcome change !

I Like Adelaide... It's a neat, clean city of a million population... I spent a few days here walking the town (revisiting Hyde Park which I had found cute but whizzed by when entering Adelaide on my bike), visiting the Adelaide Museum (with its extensive display of aboriginal culture), the Art Gallery (exhibiting work from a wide range of Australian artists past and present), the Botanical Gardens which had a nice walk set-up to view the various plants associated with love as a Valentine's Day theme... and just basically bumming around.

However, having spent this time in Adelaide, not enough was left to cycle back to Melbourne to catch my flight to New Zealand... So I took the bus... The fare was supposed to be A$50 for me and an additional A$25 for Titus (if I had him dismantled, more if not)... However, when I boarded the bus the driver never charged me the extra for the bike... I didn't ask any questions...

So I arrived in Melbourne, got settled, found a bike box, did laundry, arranged my baggages in preparation to fly to Auckland New Zealand on Wednesday.