Adventure Bay, Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia
(That's Blaze out in the rain watching the waves crash ashore.)
The rain started getting stronger and I needed to get my tent up...but where? Day Use picnic area by the beach looks good. Who's gonna tell me No? The wind picked up. The tent is whipping around. I'm getting wet. Keep working at it. Put your bike shoes on the ground cloth end into the wind to hold it down. Quick get your poles assembled and into the grommets. It's up. Now hold it from blowing away while you clip it to the poles then get it staked. Throw your gear in. Cover your bike seat with plastic. Dive in yourself. Ahhh. Not too wet. Done before the rain got worse. Snug as a bug. I love my tent! My Big Sky Revolution 2 P with Porch. The best "rain" tent ever! The inside stays dry because the fly and the mesh are pre-attached. And the porch keeps the inside dry in the rain with the vestibule flaps open. I rarely am closed up inside, which I love! And I have a line permanently strung inside to hang wet stuff on. Sometimes it even dries at night.
In Hobart, Jane and I stayed at Warmshowers host's Eric Bergemann's house. What fun! He's not a biker, but his son is cycling the Pan American Highway right now using Warmshowers so Eric is reciprocating back home. And he has quite a few cyclists there. An easy flow. Everyone pitches in with food and cooking. People were scattered about on the patio (me), in the back shed, and in the attic. Wherever we could find space to lie down pretty much. It works! He's walking distance from the CBD (central business district, for Americans), the weekend markets, and the outdoor stores.
Eric started fire with a magnesium stick!
The big attraction in Hobart is Mona, Museum of Old and New Arts, a privately owned museum of arts this guy won gambling. Most interesting exhibits and stories. Do google it because I can't do it justice. It was a treat to the senses: a library with white books and no words, a digestive machine that eats and poops, the death gallery of black water, white marble, a mummy and an MRI of the mummy, and on and on... Fabulous! So worth it!
Digestive machine...they feed it and it digests food and then poops hours later.
MRI of a mummy.
After 5 nights at Eric's, Jane and I headed to Bruny Island south of Hobart. And got rain delayed 36 hours in our tents. Tassie needs rain. And it came down! I'm sure just a drop in the bucket in this drought, but we can't complain. Yesterday we were able to pack up and high tail it down to Kettering and the car ferry to Bruny. There's actually 2 islands with a neck joining them. Mostly farm land on the north and wilderness on the south. We stayed last night at a camping reserve for $5. Quite busy with car campers and campervans. This morning I couldn't sit still another day and Jane wanted to, so we split. It had to happen sooner or later. She had time to kill. I have distanced to cover. So I headed to Adventure Bay, a no horse town with some houses, a store with everything including food, a museum, a town hall, and a Bruny Island Cruise company that lets you tour the island from the water. I met a guy at one of the beaches I stopped at that was collecting seaweed to add to his compost. He invited me to "call in" at his house when I'm going back up the road to see his straw bale house. And he told me about a 3 hour hike at the end of the road here in Adventure Bay. Great hike up and around the steep cliffs!
I'll stop in and see Paul's house tomorrow when I head out.
February 5, 2016
On my way to Cignet, Tasmania
On a rocky coastline...ahh!
So I did stop in to Paul's straw bale house...er, mansion! So beautiful! And the view! OMG! Overlooking "The Neck", the narrow causeway between the north and south islands. They are totally off the grid: rain tanks, solar panels, gardens too. I've never seen a house this big that was off grid. I expected something much smaller. Was I surprised:))
Mt Wellington from the deck.
My room:)
And what sweet folks Paul and Michele are! First they offered me a shower and since it was afternoon, I said yes. I figured I wouldn't cycle much further that afternoon. Then they invited me to tea (dinner) and of course I said Yes! Then as we got discussing things further, they offered a bed. And after the discomfort of my air mattress, I said Yes to that too. Poor Michele had an evening commitment and a morning ferry to catch, but I wasn't exactly in the plan. No worries. Paul entertained me. That evening he took me for a drive up to a mountain lookout. Actually it was a road that cut across the middle of the South Island and I had contemplated taking it instead of coming pass Paul's house. Now I got to see what I missed. Rainforest. Coming down the other side was totally different foliage. So cool to see it. It's the first rainforest I've seen in Australia.
Then in the morning Paul offered to shuttle me down to the lighthouse with all my stuff so I could cycle back. Yes! It seemed to far to go down and back, but this would be perfect. I had decided not to tour the west side of the South Island but this enabled that. And I'm so glad I went. The views from the lighthouse were breathtaking! I can't capture on film the expanse of ocean and cliffs - the feeling inside that has no words.
Paul and me.
And then he took me to Mabel Beach. No signs. No one there. Another dose of serenity.
The day was wearing away and I wanted to get a bit of cycling done so we unloaded my stuff from the back of his ute, I loaded up Blaze, said goodbye and much thanks, Paul left and I started northward up the island on the gravel road. Got as far as the lagoon and it was too hard to resist staying there.
But I didn't pay close attention to where I set up my tent and it rained again...and I was in a swamp! But sunny days dry everything out.
The next night I camped on this windy point and had to tie Spacey to Blaze.
The following day I took the ferry back to the mainland, meeting Dave and Anne as they were parked next to me. They kindly offered to buy me a cuppa and of course I took them up.
I decided to cycle the Channel down and around to Cygnet, a famous hippy town here. The first night I was camped in a reserve with RVs...nothing special. But in the morning I had probably my shortest ride yet...6 kms:). Because I came to a beautiful spot and just couldn't resist stopping. After reading and walking and wading, I started to set up my tent on the point. And...the wind came up. Argh! So I walked around to find a more sheltered spot...and did! Yup perfect. Just gotta pack up again, but what else do I have to do?
And I had company...
Livin' the dream,
BagLady
Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman
