JULIEN & TITUS' CYCLING TRIP

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• 15/11/2005 - 0.. kms Sydney

  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...

• 18/11/2005 - 89. kms Katoomba (train from Woodard to Katoomba)

  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 stram running at the bottom. Even if fire dammage 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.

• 22/11/2005 - 77. kms Yetholme

  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, oignons, cheese, slices of beet and pineapple. Some call it the "whole day" burger...

• 23/11/2005 - 88. kms Orange

  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 accomodations and not much more expensive than Youth Hostels) and settled in for the night.

• 24/11/2005 - 102 kms Wellington (flat rear tire)

  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...

• 25/11/2005 - 52. kms Dubbo

  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 whithin diked inclosures 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 whithin 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 deviding 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.

• 27/11/2005 - 92. kms Dunedoo

  THere where big thunderstroms in the morning when I got up and I was sondering whether I'd be bether 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 accross before it got squashed) so I didn't stop much and reached Dunedoo by 2 in the afternoon... I wasn't much tored 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.

• 28/11/2005 - 108 kms Merriwa

  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. Asode 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 wich 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 easilly 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 build 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 !

• 29/11/2005 - 121 kms Singleton

  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.

• 30/11/2005 - 82. kms Newcastle

  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 frechmen, a suiss 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.

• 02/12/2005 - 81. kms Terrigal

  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.

• 03/12/2005 - 47. kms Collaroy

  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.

• 04/12/2005 - 107 kms Wollongong

  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 who usher people along if they try to stop.... You're not alowed 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 inexistant. 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 restfull day, even if I had a touch of homesickness...

• 06/12/2005 - 69. kms Nowra (train from Kiama to Gerrigong)

  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...

• 07/12/2005 - 67. kms Ulladulla

  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 Mi?ille)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 !

• 08/12/2005 - 61. kms Bateman's Bay

  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 cyclocomputer'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 lenght from nose to tail... It was dead though... a roadkill.

• 09/12/2005 - 85. kms Narooma

  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 shoud'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 cristal blue (turquoise) water... I'd have believed I was in the Carribeans... It's the prettiest beach I've seen so far in Australia...

• 11/12/2005 - 79. kms Bega

  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 accross the bridge, I spotted a "backpacker's" accommodation, so that decided it.. I would spend the night here and change the cable.

• 12/12/2005 - 56. kms Eden

  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 !

• 13/12/2005 - 112 kms Cann River

  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 accommmodations... The lady didn't appear to 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 !

• 14/12/2005 - 77. kms Orbost

  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.

• 15/12/2005 - 59. kms Lakes Entrance

  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.

• 17/12/2005 - 108 kms Maffra

  The morning was beautiful so I set off towards Bairnsdale. The 40 kms there were very pleasant... I stopped at a used bookstore and pickep 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 caf?.. 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 traduction 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 whe 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 sopent some time walking around the town, along the river, it's a pretty area.

• 19/12/2005 - 71. kms Traralgon

  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.

• 20/12/2005 - 99. kms Melbourne (train from Nar Nar Goon to Melbourne)

  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 accross 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-existant 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)... Git 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 the 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....

• 23/12/2005 - 00. kms Devonport, Tasmania (ferry from Melbourne to Devonport)

  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 defficient... He's got buck teeth with a proeminent 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 thouroughly 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 Jullian" 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...

• 26/12/2005 - 44. kms Gowrie Park

  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 their was no point to the last scramble up the piled rocks as it was continuously envelopped 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...

• 29/12/2005 - 62. kms Deloraine

  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 hed baggage and her four year old son...! She's got guts...!

• 30/12/2005 - 49. kms Launceston (Prospect)

  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 holliday...

  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 kangouroo 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 desappointment... 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.

• 03/01/2006 - 95. kms Branxholm

  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.

• 04/01/2006 - 76. kms St. Helens

  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 aopeared 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 cristal clear turquoise water and practically deserted... No resorts or anything since they lay in a natural reserve... And the water is relatively warm... Nice !

• 06/01/2006 - 117 kms Coles Bay

  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... Evrything 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 bolders 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 miself 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 birds 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.

• 08/01/2006 - 80. kms Triabunna

  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 feery 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 hords of tourists... Maria Island is also very peaceful to walk through...

• 11/01/2006 - 90. kms Hobart

  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 !

• 14/01/2006 - 84. kms Oatlands

  The mornig 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...

• 15/01/2006 - 119 kms Launceston

  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.

• 16/01/2006 - 100 kms Devonport

  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.

• 19/01/2006 - 0.. kms Melbourne (ferry from Devonport to Melbourne)

  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 traume 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....

• 21/01/2006 - 85. kms Jan Juc (train from Newport to Werribee)

  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 frollicking noisilly as the sun was setting, and I slept very well.

• 22/01/2006 - 45. kms Lorne

  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 kilometer 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 liter 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 anticlimatic... Only about 100 meters in lenght... I then came back to the village... All in all, I walked 24 kms all day. It was enjoyable !

• 24/01/2006 - 98. kms Lavers Hill

  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 kilometers 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 !

• 25/01/2006 - 122 kms Warrnambool

  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 Princeton 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...

• 27/01/2006 - 106 kms Portland

  The cycle to Portlandwas relatively easy... Though I had a small head winf 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. Its 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...

• 28/01/2006 - 112 kms Mount Gambier, South Australia

  True enough, the first 25 kms out of Portland were through forest reserves (protected I guess) and wineries with a fewcattle 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 aloso at the start ofwhat 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 !

• 29/01/2006 - 89. kms Beachport

  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 undicided 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 averly 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 awfull 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).

• 30/01/2006 - 100 kms Kingston SE

  I left early in the morning though it was cold and grey... Buyt 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 vinyards amongst the grasslands, the road was flat and straight and the wind was increasing in strenght 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 theother side of the "Coorong"... So I spent the rest of the day walking around Kingston.

• 31/01/2006 - 154 kms Meningie

  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, laggons, salt marshes and ephemereal 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 convinience 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

• 01/02/2006 - 134 kms Mount Barker

  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 trew 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 themsleves 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 sith en-suite for A$35 (half price)... and I settled in for the night.

• 02/02/2006 - 42. kms Adelaide

  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 arboriginal 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.

• 06/02/2006 - 0.. kms Melbourne (bus from Adelaide to Melbourne)

  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.

  next, New Zealand

• 07/04/2006 - 0.. kms Perth, (Western Australia)(plane from Auckland to Perth) (flat on front wheel)

  Daniel drove Titus and I to the airport early in the morning and after checking in (and again being charged nearly NZ$300 for the excess weight though they gave me an extra allowance of 10 kgs for sporting equipment) I boarded my plane to Perth.

  After a 7 hour flight, I arrived at Perth just before dark. Titus came out of the plane relatively quickly but after waiting more than an hour for the rest of my equipment (all my panniers) it became evident that something had gone wrong... All my baggages (except for Titus) hadn't followed me !

  I spent another hour with New Zealand Air officials defining what I was missing and opening a claim for m issing baggages. By the time I got out it was dark and the info services booths were empty. I managed to secure a room at a backpackers in town and after a bit of hassles got the city shuttle service to transport Titus and I to the hostel.

  In the morning, I did a quick check with the airline and my baggages were still missing... I went for a walk around town but didn't take much pleasure in it... Came back for lunch at the hostel and still no news from the airline.

  When I came back from an afternoon walk at dinnertime my baggages were waiting for me at the hostel... What a relief !

  I slept much better and when I continued my visit of Perth the next morning it was much more enjoyable... I spent most of that morning at the Western Australia Art Gallery and the afternoon browsing smaller private galleries... Perth is a nice clean town of 1.4 million inhabitants... It has exactly 3 skyscrapers (half a dozen lesser buildings) and the rest is pretty widespread. The population is cosmopolitan, with lots of Asians, but it is still pretty laid back... I like it here.

  On Wednesday morning, I cycled to the airport to meet Iris (coming from Hong Kong to cycle some 10 days with me around the southwest) and on the way back Iris got a flat on the rear wheel. Fortunately we were less than a kilometer from the hostel and walked the rest of the way... When I started fixing it, there was actually two punctures on the rear tube and by the time that was fixed her front wheel was flat as well as my front wheel... The punctures were produced by small round very hard seedpods with hard spikes... Nasty little things...

  That same day the hostel management discovered that the room I was in was infested with bedbugs and I had to wash all my things and air out in the sun these things that were non-washable... A bit of a pain... Needless to say that I changed rooms !

  That evening, Iris cooked some Tom Yom hot and sour soup... Very nice and nutritious with noodles, fried tofu and lots of prawns... Iris will prove to be very good company indeed !

• 13/04/2006 - 92. kms Mandurah

  We cycled out of Perth following a cycle path along the bay/river to Freemantle. The cycle was scenic through posh suburbia and relatively easy. The road was basically flat but a bit of work notheless due a southwest headwind.

  At Freemantle we spent a bit of time riding around and saw the Freemantle Roundhouse. It's the oldest standing public building in Australia and it was built as a prison... Kind of says something about Australia's beginnings, eh ?

  South of Freemantle, we cycled on a bike path along the beach for a bit but it became apparent that we wouldn't make much progress if we stuck to it... so we switched to the highway. It was faster but much noisier with heavy traffic from all the people going away for the Easter weekend.

  Through Rockingham and most of the way to Mandurah we cycled through a heavy industry area... refineries, nickel processing, boat building, grain elevators, etc... pretty uninteresting but there wasn't much alternatives.

  We approached Mandurah and Iris was getting tired so we decided to stop for the night... Unfortunately everything was full for the long weekend and we ended up at an expensive motel... Can't win them all !

• 14/04/2006 - 107 kms Bunbury

  We got a bit of a late start, around 9 AM, but it was another beautiful day and most of the wind seemed to have died out.

  We rode the #1 highway south and though there was heavy traffic we felt pretty safe on the wide shoulders set up as cycle paths... The scenery was a bit better than yesterday with scrubby bushes and clumps of trees with yellow grasses and dry earth... A bit "outbackish"...

  We were treated to free coffee and cookies at a rest area set up by Emergency Services to reduce accidents due to drowsiness... A little later we stopped for a lunch break at an emu farm and munched away while being observed by a lone emu pacing along the fence enclosing it.

  At some point we passed a touring cyclist pushing his bike along the road... When asked what the problem was he said that he ran out of spare tubes and his rear tire was flat... Apparently he went through his 3 spare tubes that day and had no other... Well Iris gave him one of hers (which was too small for her tires)... Either this guy didn't know how to fix a flat or he had really bad tires... Anyways we didn't ask too many questions and continued on our way... (By the way we met him again coming out of Australind... he was cycling in).

  We decided to leave the highway when a tourist drive through Australind presented itself... We stopped for ice cream at the village but then took a wrong turn and ended back on the highway wich we followed to Bunbury where we spent the night at a YHA.

• 15/04/2006 - 85. kms Dunsborough

  Anothe cloudless day, little wind and flat road... We started out of Bunbury following the Ocean Drive and when it came to an end we had a bit of trouble finding our way to the highway... The highway was slightly less busy than the previous day but still pretty noisy so when we got the chance to veer off we took a side road through the Ludlow Tuart Forest about 25 kms north of Busselton.

  It was much nicer and peaceful through an airy forest with tall trees... We took our lunch break there and continued on to Busselton...

  The thing to do at Busselton was visiting the 3 mile jetty... However they charged to walk on the pier and they wouldn't let un park our bikes in front of the ticket booth so that they could be watched, so we left in disgust... Anyways it was packed with tourists and would not have been pleasurable.

  Another 25 kms and we were at Dunsborough where we settled at a backpackers, had a nice dinner of Tom Yom soup (I really like the flavour !).

• 16/04/2006 - 103 kms Augusta

  It rained in the night but the clouds were clearing in the morning. We left, due south on Caves Road. It was rolling hills, ondulating all the way against a southwest headwind but the cycle wasn't too hard. Lots of wineries along the road, and I noticed an olive grove and a deer farm... All yuppy stuff... Nearing Margaret River we started cycling through forests and then entered the Leeuwin Naturalist National Park... Just beautiful ! All tall gum trees (eucalyptus) and at first lots of fire dammage, trunks were still smouldering... Quite an eerie landscape... When we got out of the fire dammage area we could really see the beauty of the forest and smell those eucalyptus oils in the surrounding air.

  The area also has lots of caves, but we resisted to view the Jewel Caves at the end of the forest which were supposed to be the most spectacular... Well, when we got there it was 3:35 in the afternoon and the last group had left at 3:30 and was full... So I guess we missed the opportunity.

  We cycled the reswt of the way to Augusta and tried to settle at the YHA but it was booked out, However the manager offered us a room at his mother's house and we accepted. So after eating at the hostel, we got to his mother's and turned in.

• 17/04/2006 - 126 kms Pemberton

  It rained again in the night but the clouds appeared to be dispersing when we got up so we left in the grey cold... The road was much better now, the traffic from the Easter holiday having dried up.

  At Kudardup, we took a side road through farmland and it was very peaceful. At the junction with highway 10 we took a break and ate Sauvugnon blanc grapes directly from the vines on the side of the road...

  At the next junction, we noticed a couple of guys walking on the side of the road, one of them was pushing a wheelchair... Intrigued we had a talk with them and Frank, the Irishman pushing the wheelchair stated that "Harvey", his invisible friend, was sitting in it... He was walking from Perth to Biron Bay to promote charities and people fullfilling their dreams... His motto : "Do you believe in Harvey ?" and his webpage : www.believinginharvey.com .We ended up spending at least an hour exchanging stories.

  After that the road grew hillier, the scenery changed to gum tree forests and very pretty but after a while we got tired and the last 20 to 30 kms were just a lot of hard work.

  When we got to Pemberton, the YHA there only had one bunk left and it was in a very messy room with 5 messy guests, so we took a room at the local motel and stuffed ourselves at their all you can eat buffet (we got both discounts for the room and the buffet).

• 18/04/2006 - 30. kms Northcliffe

  It had rained again in the night but had stopped by the time we were ready to leave... We hadn't done 5 kms that it started raining again... We took cover and when it stopped we continued on... A few minutes later it started raining again, so we took cover again and waited... When we finally left again we started thinking about getting to Northcliffe and waiting the rest of this rainy day out...

  Northcliffe was just 30 kms away, so we continued cycling even through the light rainfalls... When we got there we found it peaceful and decided to stay... The whole rest of the day was on and off rain.

  Iris was intent on trying a farmstay and I much preferred a room at the pub, so we decided to split up for that night...

• 19/04/2006 - 106 kms Walpole

  In the morning it was grey and cold but wasn't raining... I went to pick up Iris at the farm where she had spent the night and we headed east towards Walpole 100 kms away.

  The road was ondulating but not too badly and the traffic was inexistant. The scenery was one of farmland, particularly dairies for the first 25 kms or so and then it changed to forests. It was a pleasant cycle but nothing really interesting to distract us... We didn't even find the ghostown "Shannon"... So we didn't make many stops aside from the occasional break to munch some trail mix...

  Got to Walpole and took a room at the YHA... I decided to make some Bangers & Mash for dinner and it was very satisfying !

  Later that evening, I noticed that I could see stars in the sky, which meant that the clouds had cleared... Maybe the morrow would be sunny !

• 20/04/2006 - 77. kms Denmark

  Boy was it cold in the morning when I woke up... Single digit for sure ! By the time we were ready to leave though, the sun had come up above the trees and it became more comfortable. Couldn't complain, it was the first sunny day in a while !

  We didn't cycle much until the first distraction... Heading east, 5 kms out we spurred onto a loop off the highway into a "tingle" forest... Tingles are a species of Eucalyptus with red wood, that can live some 400 years, grow to 80 meters in hight and some 20 meters in circumference at its base... They're not as big as our North American redwoods, but they're still pretty impressive. So we spent some time walking around this forest.

  We didn't come back to the highway for long... 10 kms further we took another spur to the "Valley of the Giants"... Another tingle forest set up for tourists with a "tree-top" walk... An elevated walkway, some 20 or 30 meters high giving a quite different perspective to the viewer.

  When we got back to the highway we had only some 40 kms or so to get to Denmark... They were easy enough even though an eastward wind had developped blowing in our faces...

  At Denmark, we again booked in the YHA and found a deal on meat pies (5 for A$5) and decided to make a dinner of it... An assortment of 5 different little pies with sour cream and mixed bean salad... Just what we needed to replenish our bodies with calories.

• 21/04/2006 - 58. kms Albany

  Thunderstorms were forecasted for the day so it was good that we only had 50 kms or so to cycle to get to Albany.

  Dark clouds were moving in from the west when we left and 2 kms later it started to rain. Fortunately it only drizzled for half an hour or so but as we made our way east we could see dark clouds with rain underneat folowing us just to the south.

  We made it most of the way to Albany without too much rain and the cycle was pleasant enough through mostly farmland and coastal forest.

  About 10 kms from Albany, it started raining again but we pushed on. Iris' plane back to Hong Kong was on Sunday morning, so we booked a bus for the morrow to Perth and took a room at a nearby backpacker's... We spent the afternoon walking around town and made ourselves a dinner of stir-fry kangaroo meat with Thai spicy sauce...

• 22/04/2006 - 0.. kms Perth (bus from Albany to Perth)

  In the morning, the backpacker's fire alarm went off... That provided a bit of excitement, but there was no fire, it was a false alarm...

  At 10 AM we left to catch our bus and sat for the next 6 hours and 400 kms back to Perth through the inland route. Grazing land all of the way...

  We arrived at the end of the afternoon and after settling ourselves for the night we dined on homemade Laksa soup, then boxed Iris' bike and turned in.

  The next morning I saw Iris off on the shuttle bus to the airport, started a laundry, went for groceries (needed to replenish my trail mix and chocolate stocks). I'll hit the Art Gallery this afternoon to see whether there are new exhibits and prepare my stuff to leave tomorrow... But there was nothing new at the Art Gallery however I did spend sometime on the street listening to a couple of musicians playing excellent New Age (with an electronic flavour) using a dulcimer plugged to an array of pedals and percussions. They did pretty good, after a couple of hours they had sold 25 of their CD's at A$25 (homemade CDs). I then came back to the hostel and after a bit of dinner and reading I crashed.

  The next morning though I got up early and got ready, I procrastinated on leaving till after 9 and then decided not to leave.... I talked a bit with the hostel manager, who used to be managing tours for many years, and he advised me that I would bore myself to death if I tried to cycle everything between Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs and Sydney... Not to mention that I wouldn't have the time to cycle it in my remaining time in Australia... In his opinion I should bus the long distances with nothing to see...

  After giving this some thought I decided it made sense and went into town to see what I could do about busing... The Greyhound Bus company had just what I needed... I could buy a few thousands of kilometers and just hop on and off whenever I wanted on any of their routes... They could even pick me up anywhere between scheduled stops as long as 24 hours' notice was given so that the driver knows where to stop to pick me up... That suited me fine so I purchased 6,000 kms which should cover most of the dead stretches on my proposed route (a bit less than half the distance).

• 25/04/2006 - 60. kms Yanchep

  When I got up the following morning I could see the stars so I figured that the forecast of thunderstorms was wrong and got ready to cycle out... When I was ready the sun was up and the sky looked good. So off I left northward intending to reach the youth hostel at Lancelin.

  By the way, today is a national holiday in Australia... They call it Anzac day... which stands for : Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and commemorates the battle at Gallipoli. The funny thing is that I bought some Anzac cookies for breakfast without knowing any of this... The cookies were nice enough, with an oatmeal look to them but with a strong coconut taste and nicely chewy... Lots of calories...

  Anyways, I left and 10 kms out I could see dark and heavy clouds to the west and coming in quickly... 10 more kms and it started raining lightly... Another 10 kms, just past Wanneroo, and it became a tropical downpour.... I took cover under a gazebo set up on a horse trail near the road and waited out the rain for nearly 2 hours... When I left again, 5 kms later it started pouring again and I took cover at a road side liquor store...

  With all this time lost it became apparent that I couldn't cycle to Lancelin before dark, so rather than continuing much in the rain I decided to get to Yanchep and see what I could ddo for accommodation for the night.

  At the turnoff on highway 60 towards Yanchep was the Yanchep National Park and an service station atenddant had toldd me that there was a pub with accommodation inside the park... That could be nice so I headed into the park... The gatekeeper for the park was nice enough and offered to phone the pub to enquire on availability and price... Well, there was room but the price at A$60 was too dear for my taste... I asked the gatekeeper if he knew of anything cheaper at the village... And here is where it becomes weird... : He took my hand commenting on the softness of my skin and as I looked at him in bewilderment he offered to phone around for me... I didn't say anything andd let him phone... But between phone calls he reached and unzipped my raincoat saying that I must be hot in there.... He found a B&B for A$35 which I found reasonable and he started to caress my chest... Well now I started backing off and as he asked me whether I would unzip my rain pants, I left explaining that I was strickly heterosexual and not interested.

  The B&B was nice enough, held by a young Dutch couple who moved to Australia some 5 years ago. Yanchep is pretty small coastal village... Not even a grocery store (but has a beautiful beach, or wouldd be if the weather was nice)... But there was a steak and kidney pie left over by previous guests that they said I could have, and with a can of beans, it would provide me with sufficient calories for dinner.

  I walked around a bit but had to come back to the B&B because of the rain... Hopefully tomorrow will be nicer.

• 26/04/2006 - 95. kms Windmill Roadhouse (flat on front wheel)

  In the morning, it wasn't raining but there were black heavy clouds heading in from the Indian Ocean so I waited around untill 9:30 AM or so until the clouds and rain passed by...

  5 kms out of Yanchep I got a flat on the front wheel... The puncture was too near another patch to fix, so I changed the tube... No more spare tubes now !

  I followed route 60 fopr 30 kms or so to Gingin Brook Road which I took heading east till Cowalla Road which I took heading north and then took Orange Spring Road to the Highway #1 and then north a bit to the Windmill Roadhouse and Camping, the only likely stop for at least 50 kms either north or south... I settled at the camping and ate a rather filling "burger with the lot" at the roadhouse.

  The scenery all the way, aside from a few farms (beet and potatoes, cattle and sheep grazing and, near Highway #1, a couple of olive groves) was bush... Short trees and bushes similar to the Courong near Adelaide... Basically 90 kms of nothing... Not even a place to stop to buy a cool drink !

• 27/04/2006 - 118 kms Cervantes (sidewall dammage on rear tire)

  When I got up around 5 AM and looked at the sky, I was stunned ! WOW ! Stars everywhere, and so bright they were ! No light pollution out here and the stars appear close enough to grab. But it was so cold... no more than 5 or 6 degrees...

  When the sun came up above the bush line I left. Wore my legs and arms warmups, a windbreaker, gloves and earmuffs and kept them on for the first 30 kms... It was then warm enough for me to take them off.

  After 65 kms on the #1, I turned off towards the coast and Cervantes (the closest town to the "Pinnacles" in Nambung Natinal Park.

  All day the scenery was only of small bushes on both sides of the road except for two roadhouses at Cataby.

  Cervantes is a small village and nothing much to it... It's named for the author of "Don Quixote" and all the street names make reference to spanish names and places... I took a bed at the backpackers, did groceries and ate and after talking a bit with other guests, I turned in... Too tired for another 40 kms cycle to the pinnacles to view them at sunset... I figured it would be just as pretty at sunrise.

  So in the morning, I got up at 4 AM, got ready, dressed warmly again since it was just as cold, and left with the first glow of light for Nambung Park.

  The "pinnacles" desert at sunrise was stunning ! All those rocky spikes coming out of the orange sand against a blue sky, with the morning sun casting harsh shadows... Just beautiful and well worth the cycle... (and, by the way, park entrance is free on a bicycle in National Parks in Western Australia).

  On my way back, I saw some wild emus in the park, stopped over at Hangover Bay and walked amongst the white sand dunes and then came leisurely back to the hostel and changed my rear tire since I noticed three tears in the sidewalls (almost ballooning).

• 29/04/2006 - 161 kms Dongara

  The following morning it appeared to be another beautiful cloudless day. I left Cervantes and the cycling was a bit arduous against a northeast wind... At Jurien Bay I stopped for a break but the place appeared uninteresting... At Greenhead, I didn't even take the spur off the Indian Ocean Road and kept going North. At Leeman, though it would've been a natural stop for the day (some 80 kms from Cervantes) I wasn't inspired, so I ate a bit and since it was only early afternoon I continued on north.

  The wind had changed and was now blowing at my back from the southwest... After Leeman, that was it for villages for the next 80 kms... Just bush, though the road came closer to the coast and I had the ocean occasionally to distract me.

  20 kms north of Leeman, someone had dressed up a mannquin and sat him on an old bicycle on the side of the road... That provided a bit of amusement... A bit later on, a squatter on crown land by the side of the road was walking around naked on his junk filled fenced in lot... That was also amusing... But there was little else to attract attention.

  At the end of the afternoon and 80 kms later, I got to Dongara... A pretty little village and I settled there at the backpackers and made myself two kangaroo meat hamburgers for dinner. It's not very busy here and ther are only 3 other guests, but that's all right, it's nice and quiet !

• 30/04/2006 - 117 kms Northanmpton

  The first 20 kms or so leaving Dongara were undulating and though the morning wind was pushing me I still had to work a bit up the gentle hills...

  Entering the shire of Greenough, the road became straight as an arrow and flat as a pancake for 10 kms... Then a bend in the road and back straight for another 10 kms.... The scenery was all mostly sheep grazing land... The only attraction at Greenough were the "leaning" gum trees. These are weak trunk eucalyptus trees that grow with a pronounced bend due the steady south winds.

  The next town, Geraldon, was mostly a resort development, relatively new and sterile, and didn't appeal at all to me so I continued on to Northampton which promised more being described as a historical village.

  Heading north from Geraldton, the road became hilly, but again the afternoon south wind helped a lot. A cyclist I had met at Geraldton had explained to me that it was a phenomenon of the Western Australian Coast... Morning south east winds changing to south or southwest winds about midday.

  At Northampton I took a room at the backpackers which is set up in an old convent... The catholic church still owns the building and decided to convert it to a hostel rather than let it decay... There was another cycling couple at the hostel (older dutch folks) and we traded stories...

  Even though a tour group stopped at the hostel in the evening, the convent remained pretty quiet... and I had a great night's sleep !

• 01/05/2006 - 107 kms Kalbarri

  In the morning, the dutch couple was continuing north inland while I wanted to take the coastal route to Kilbarri.... So we parted.

  I had the wind at my back in the morning heading west towards the coast and the cycle was easy though hilly. At about lunchtime I got near the coast and a bright "pink" coastal lake or lagoon.... No kidding ! really bright pink !

  Apparently, a microscopic algae thrives in this water and produces beta-carotenoids giving the water its color... I rested at the lake until the wind had changed and then continued north along the coast until Kalbarri.

  The small trees and shrubs composing the scenery so far had shrunk to mere shrubs with none taller than I... It was getting hot and there was virtually no shade available to cool myself down when taking rests... I had to lie down near shrubs for a little shade... All part of the experience, heh ?

  Anyways, I made it to Kalbarri village by 4 in the afternoon and took a bed at the YHA... It turned out to be a zoo with two tours arriving for the night but I met an Austrian girl (Suzanne) and we had a nice conversation... The company was nice.

  The visitor center and the hostel manager told me it would be impossible to cycle the unsealed roads leading to the sights in the Kalbarri National Park... My choices were to rent a car for a day or take a tour... The tours available appeared expensive (A$40 for a half day) and a car rental would be A$50 for a full day.... Well in the morning, I started talking around and met a German girl (Isabel) who was interested in splitting the coast of a car hire...

  While I went to get the car, Isabel did a reamrkable marketing job... When I got back, three other people were willing to split costs... So we left, the five of us, for the park.

  It was a fine day, exploring the park and walking along the Murchison river gorge... We saw wild goat, kangaroos... The unsealed roads were really badly corrugated and it would have been extremely frustrating trying to get there on a bicycle... And in the end, spliting the cost of the car, with gas and park entry fee only cost A$20 per person for a full day of exploring... We finished the day on the coast watching the sun set on the Indian Ocean...

  I'm spending another day here for chores (laundry, etc) and to think out where I want to go next... The weather's beautiful and lounging, outside, resting is the thing to do !

• 04/05/2006 - 78. kms Binnu

  The morning promised another beautiful day... I left early, just after daybreak. I had decided to use some of the milleage I had bought on Greyhound and skip the next 1,800 kms north to Broome... But I had to cycle to Binnu, the closest Greyhound pick-up location and it was some 80 kms to the south east... I'd have to cycle this distance against a headwind all the way. Going east in the morning, back to the #1 highway against a northeast headwind for 65 kms and then 15 kms south on the highway to the roadhouse at Binnu against the afternoon southwest wind...

  The only attractions along this 1,800 stretch of "bush" were Denham/Monkey Mia (where tourists go to see dolphins) and Exmouth for coral beaches... The rest was all "bush", with little distractions except for villages and roadhouses every 200 to 400 kms... Cold at night, hot during the day... "toundra" like vegetation or grasslands... At least Broome presented a change of scenery to tropical forests and weather...

  So, off I went... 65 kms across the Kalbarri National Park... All bush, against the wind... It wasn't that bad and I arrived at the junction with the highway by noon and was at Binnu by one in the afternoon... Bought a cold "Kolle" at the roadhouse (a soft drink with a berri flavour,had to try it... Coke is better) but the roadhouse attendant wasn't very talkative... He lives alone at his roadhouse all day, every day and is probably a bit of a recluse... So I sat outside in the shade, reading, waiting for the bus scheduled for 4:45 in the afternoon.

  The bus was on time... I boarded and settled myself (lots of space on the bus) for a 26 hour ride to Broome.

• 05/05/2006 - 0.. kms Broome (1,800 kms by bus from Binnu to Broome)(flat on rear wheel)

  I did well to skip these 1,800 kms... There really wasn't much to see along the way.

  I got to Broome just after six in the evening, put Titus back together and cycled to the YHA where I took a bed for the night... And after a quick bite and a shower it didn't take long for me to fall asleep though the place was noisy with travellers partying (there's a bar on the premises of this hostel and the music is very loud till 11 PM)! 26 hours on a bus takes its toll...

  The weather during the day in Broome is not much hotter than what I left in the south, but the nights are much warmer... Typically 30 degrees during the day and 20 in the evening... Very comfortable. There are palm trees and boabs, flowers and crocodiles... The change is very welcome and I'll spend a couple of days here before moving on...

  I spent most of my time here soaking in the sun, walking the coast and visiting the beaches...

  I tried getting information on the next stretch of road from the visitor center, but they were not knowledgeable... so I went to see the police and they said that I'd not find much water on the way for long stretches... Basically, the next 1,000 kms has only 3 main supply points... : Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and Turkey Creek... So I guess I'll take the bus again... I'm heading for Kununurra where the Mirima National Park's apparently a scaled down version of the Bungle Bungles, and much more accessible... The Bungle Bungles is a World Heritage Site for it's particular geological formations, but I'm not ready to dish out the bucks and go through the hassles to get there just to be able to say that I've seen it...

• 09/05/2006 - 0.. kms Kununurra (1,148 kms by bus from Broome to Kununurra)

  It was a long night on the bus as I didn't sleep much. I arrived at Kununurra in the morning and took a bed at the YHA. Went for groceries and had some food and then went for a walk in the Mirima National Park (it's just 2 kms out of the village).

  The park is nice enough with its red/black horizontally striated cliffs and gorges and I spent most of the afternoon there walking around and sitting in the shade of the cliffs when I got too hot...

  The next morning, while it was cool, I took a walk around the village, along the "Lily Lagoon" and then went back to the Mirima Park to spend the hottest part of the day...

  It wasn't quite the "Bungle bungles" but it satisfied me.

• 11/05/2006 - 0.. kms Katherine Northern Territories (547 kms by bus from Kununurra to Katherine)

  Guess i'm getting a bit lazy... I decided to take the bus to Katherine rather than taking 4 or 5 days to get there with a minimum of 2 days camping in the bush without facilities...

  The nice thing about reaching the Northern Territories is the time change... Advancing it by 1 1/2 hour... It's now light until a bit past seven in the evening !

  I decided to stay here for 2 nights which would give me the chance to spend the day tomorrow in the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park.

  So, the following morning, I left early with Titus to cycle the 30 kms or so to the park entrance. When I got to the park it was really hot ! I started on the walk up to the Windolf track and when I got up there it was even hotter... But the scenery was well worth it... Beautiful canyons on either side of the Katherine River... The prettiest spot was the Southern Rockhole where a small pool nestled between high cliffs is being fed by a couple of waterfalls... Just devine !

  When I got back to the visitor center, I quickly lapped up a cold coke in preparation for the 30 kms cycle back to the village... That went well enough, but it will be hot cycling north these next few days...

• 13/05/2006 - 92. kms Pine Creek

  I left Katherine at 7:30 AM and it was nice cycling for the first 1 1/2 hours with a nice cool wind at my back, but by 9 it was hot. Still my speed was good and aside from a few hills of no consequence there was little do destract me and the ride was fast. By 12:15 I was in Pine Creek and took a cold drink and a rest at the roadhouse. After an hour's rest, it was way too hot to cycle in the sun so I enquired about spending the night here... For A$5 they let me camp beside the roadhouse and use showers and toilets... Pretty good deal !

  I spent a bit of time walking around... The area has had mixed fortunes in the past... Used to be a gold mine nearby but that closed down... The people say it might reopen in the near future with the high gold prices but for the time being the area is pretty dead... So there isn't much to visit here. So I sat in the shade near my tent and read... By 4 in the afternoon it had cooled down a bit and I got to wondering that maybe I should've cycled on the next 60 kms to Mary River Roadhouse, but it probably wouldn't have been pleasant...

• 14/05/2006 - 113 kms Gungurul (Kakadu National Park)

  Got up around 4 AM and thought that sunrise had actually already happended... it wasn't dark at all... But it was moonlight (full moon) and the moon was really bright ! Looking up at the night sky, I could see a few big bats flying around.

  So I got ready by moonlight and finished with packing the tent just as the first light of dawn showed itself and left.

  It was nice and cool (relatively, it was about 20 degrees). I was going against the wind, cycling east, and there were gentle hills but the cycle was easy enough. By 9 AM it was hot and I was sweating (dripping) ! By 11 AM I had reached the Mary River Roadhouse and treated myself to a large cold Coke.

  I could've camped here or taken a bunk in an air conditioned room... but it didn't appear to be as hot as the day before so I decided to enter the park and aimed to reach Gungurul (an unserviced camping site) after stocking up on water and food.

  The park is basically bush... grasses and small trees and very dry... I saw a few small bushfires on the way... Also saw a dingo and lots of huge anthills (or rather termite hills).

  When I arrived at Gungurul, I begged some cold water from a couple camping there as well (with a camper) and they told me that I could cool down in the nearby river... I went to the river (South Alligator River), and despite the crocodile warning signs, I lay in its cool waters, letting it run against my body, till I was nice and cool...

  I came back to the campsite and set up my tent before it got dark and ate some cold beans and smoked mussels and got in the tent as the mosquitoes were starting to come out...

  A few minutes later, the couple come by my tent and ask whether I'd like to join them for supper... So I put my shirt and shorts and gladly accept... What a mistake !

  Dinner was nice enough, rice with vegetables and dried small fishes... even a glass of cool white wine... and the conversation was pleasant... But I got badly bitten by mosquitoes (or flies)... So as soon as I had finished eating I claimed being tired and went to my tent (I felt a bit bad about not helping out with the dishes...). I was full and I slept well.

• 15/05/2006 - 58. kms Cooinda (Kakadu National Park)

  I got up early again, got ready (had a bit of orange juice I had gotten at the roadhouse and a piece of fruitcake) and left by first light.

  It was hot and there wasn't much to see (except more bush) so aside from a few breaks to drink some water I didn't stop... Got to Cooinda before lunch, took a bed in the YHA and had a shower... While undressing, I noticed that my ankles were swollen... Upon closer inspection, they were swollen by hundreds of little hard blisters that bled when popped... I thought that maybe I had brushed against some poison ivy or something while going for a bathe in the river last night, but I didn't give it much thought, had my shower and then a bit of lunch and went walking around...

  I tried to follow a trail along the "Home Billabong" (a billabong is a small lake or water hole that has no permanent connection, such as rivers, streams or the like) to the Yellow Waters Billabong... But after a few hundred meters the trail was hopelessly sunk under water in swamps... So I turned around and took a walk following the sealed road to the Yellow Waters Billabong... but as I got near, the road and parking was all under water and impassable... So I came back to the hostel and did laundry instead... At least I saw some dingoes, even almost approached one (they aren't that wild) and saw wild horses (I say wild since they had no horse shoes on).

  It's too bad, but I'm here at the wrong time... Heavy rains following the cyclone season has completely innundated the area and the waters are receeding slowly. I could've paid for a cruise on the Yellow Waters and they would've taken me by "amphibious" vehicle to a boat, but I didn't feel it would be worth the cost...

  In the evening though, my ankles began itching badly and I had a hard time falling asleep.

• 16/05/2006 - 83. kms Jabiru (Kakadu National Park)

  In the morning, I got up again and got ready (grinning and baring as my ankles were itching) by moonlight and continued cycling east... Amazingly, my ankles didn't bither me too much as I was cycling... I guess it takes my mind off my ankles.

  When I got to the junction with the road to Nourlangie, I was devided whether to continue on or take the side trip to Nourlangie Rock... In the end, I didn't have that much to cycle to get to Jabiru so I decided to do the sidetrip... And was glad for it !

  The rock itself isn't much spectacular... but it's many overhangs and shallow caves have made it a frequent stopover for arboriginals travelling the area... On their stops here, they would make paintings on the rock walls... These were stunning ! Really interesting !

  As I was getting finished my visit here, the tour buses started arriving and I quickly left not to get mired with the hordes of tourists...

  The rest of the cycle to Jabiru was easy though hot and I took a break at the Bowali Visitor Center (for a cold drink) just 10 kms before Jabiru... When the rangers saw my ankles (they told me there's no poinson ivy in Australia, but other poison plants and insects) they showed me a shortcut (2 kms on a path through the bush instead of 10 by the road) and told me to stop at the clinic in Jabiru.

  In Jabiru at the clinic there's only a "sister" and a receptionist... The receptionist told me that unless I'm bleeding to death, the sister wouldn't have time to see me until next week... I told her fine, that I only came since the rangers told me to... (the health care service was much better in New Zealand!).

  Anyways, I spent the night in Jabiru at a caravan park that had bunks as well and was greeted, entering the room, by a huge green hairy spider at the doorstep and a pretty big salamander with suckers at the end of its toes in the room.

• 17/05/2006 - 143 kms Mary River Park

  Again, I was out by first light in the morning. By 8:30 AM I was in Aurora (40 odd kms later) and it's the only possible stop for the next 100 kms, so I checked it out wondering whether I should be stoppint here for the day to break up the long distance in this heat...

  I had a cold coke and asked about filling my water bottles with cold tap water... They told me that they recommend that the tap weater be boiled, but that I could buy bottled cold water... Well the whole place is a resort and quite commercial... I didn't like it so I decided to leave and cycle the distance.

  Nothing for a hundred kms but hot asphalt, bush, sky and a very hot sun... I did meet with Peter, a 57 year old Englishmen cycling from London to Sydney on a recumbent... We talked for a while and then continued on our ways. Though my water was hot, I finished it all and was really thirsty by the time I got to Bark Hutt Roadhouse... So I treated myself to another large cold Coke.... Then cycled the remaining distance to Mary River Park and took a bed at the YHA.

  The manager there tells me that its sandfly (maggot she calls them) bites that caused the blisters on my ankles and that though it can be itchy and even give a burning feeling, that it will go away soon enough... Already, after two days, it isn't as bad as it was...

  After a shower (not much hot water, in fact, not much water at all...) I went for a little walk along the river, but still didn't see any alligators.

• 18/05/2006 - 117 kms Darwin

  There wasn't much water for a shower yesterday, well this morning there isn't even enough water for a shower period... All I could do was sponge myself a bit with a damp towel... Then I left.

  By twelve or so I was at the junction of the Arnheim and Stuart highways (lost a bit of time when I helped two Australian girls heading the other way with mechanical problems, trying to adjust the rear derailleur on one of the bikes)... 35 kms to the north I'd be at Darwin... At least 80 kms to the south until I would reach some place to spend the night... So I opted to head for Darwin as I didn't think I'd have fun cycling another 80 clicks in the heat (though I'd have to retrace my steps heading for Alice Springs)...

  Got to Darwin easilly enough, took a bed at the YHA and walked a bit around town... The YHA hasn't got a good kitchen so I decided to eat out at a pub (bangers & mash and a Guiness). I've earned it !

  So I spent an extra day, a day's rest, in Darwin... I walked around town, spent some time at the library, checked out a couple of galleries, replenished my trail mix and generally took a rest from cycling... Nothing much to Darwin and it's too hot here... I'll be glad of heading south towards cooler weather.

• 20/05/2006 - 115 kms Adelaide River

  Heading southeast from Darwin the first 35 kms are basically Darwin and then Palmerston suburbs. South of the Arnheim highway it's bush and some grazing land and the occasional mango farm.

  I stopped at the Noonamah and later at the Accacia roadhouses for cool drinks. At the Accacia roadhouse I met a Best Western troubleshooter taking a break from driving and spent an hour talking about the hospitality industry.

  I made another stop at the Coomalie River picnic area... The Coomalie districk is some 1,500 square kms with a population of some 1,500... Not too dense eh ?

  I finally stopped for the night at Adelaide River... Not much here, but a couple of motels and a campground... I was very hot all day so I took a cheap air conditioned room for the night... Very nice !

• 21/05/2006 - 115 kms Pine Creek

  Left Adelaide River early and the road started rising almost immediately. It's all hilly between Adelaide River and Pine Creek... the hills at the edge of the Rock Candy Range (I kid you not !). The combination of hilly terrain, head wind and heat makes progress real slow.

  I reach Hayes Creek (about 60 kms) and it's almost noon... I find the roadhouse very quaint and am tempted to stay here, but after a cool drink I continue on.

  The Emerald Springs roadhouse (22 kms later) is a dump but I stop to cool down and eat a bit of trail mix and I end up talking with another cyclist (an Australian on a recumbant trike pulling an overloaded Bob trailer)... He decides to stay the night here but I'm just too put off by the place and decide to push on to Pine Creek where I had camped by the roadhouse before (they had beautiful burger with the lot !).

  34 kms later, taking breaks from the heat every 10 kms or so, I arrive at Pine Creek and the lady at the roadhouse remembers me and offers me an air conditioned cabin for A$25... I jump on the deal ! And as the sun is setting and I'm sitting in front of the cabin digesting the beautiful burger I just ate, I count the flying foxes (huge fruit bats) passing overhead...

• 22/05/2006 - 92. kms Katherine

  Left early, at first light (to get as far as I could before the heat of the day) and the road was still hilly... Funny, it didn't seem all that hilly when I was coming the other way... I guess the headwind makes you feel the difference !

  Nevetheless, I made it back to Katherine, through scenery of hilly bush until 20 kms from the town where some farms appeared.

  At Katherine, I headed right away for the youth hostel and then went for groceries, stopping at a pharmacy to get some salt tablets (I was feeling the loss of salts through sweating as drinking didn't seem to relieve the weariness).

  While I ate lunch, I was hearing two girls speaking french and joined in the conversation. Virginie (31 year's old and really cute, a Belgian), Mireille (from France but living in Barcelona) spent the afternoon chatting away and decided to have a healthy meal for dinner (Virginie's a vegetarian)... So we prepared spanish tostas (toasts rubbed with garlic, tomatoes and olive oil), salad and guacamole... That sure replenished my lack of veggies for a while...

  In the evening, Suzanne, whom I had met at Kalbarri, showed up at the hostel, but we didn't really have much time to talk as it was late and I wanted an early start again in the morning.

• 23/05/2006 - 118 kms Mataranka

  In the morning, I was headed southeast again, right into the wind, but it was a bit cooler so it was bearable... also the road south of Katherine is much flatter.

  Nothing but bush for 100 kms... Arriving in Mataranka I had a cold coke and started inquiring about cheap accommodations... The motel and hotel were way too expensive but the roadhouse attendant told me that there was a homestead (somewhat of an historic farm) some 8 kms away with backpacker's accommodations near a thermal pool in the Elsey National Park.

  So off I went... Took a bed, had a shower and walked a bit in the park, checked out the thermal spring (not really a hot spring as it's not volcanic in origin but simply groundwater heated by pressurized limestone deep in the ground). In the park, cyclone dammage was apparent as trees were down... and the homestead manager tells me that the whole area was under water just a couple of weeks ago... I'm glad my bed's dry now !

• 24/05/2006 - 82. kms Larrimah

  Heading out of Mataranka, the road was flat and the scenery bush for the next 100 kms... Took a break at a rest/picnic area roughly in the middle... Larrimah's really just a house with a woman baking homemade pies, a roadhouse with fuel and a campground and a historic pub with a campground... I decided to camp at the historic pub as it was really neat with a collection of junk and lots of penned in animals and birds, including snakes and two alligators !

  At the pub, I met Peter (a 65 year old retired airline pilot from England) who's cycling a recumbant from London to Sydney... We'll end up trailing each other for the next little while...

• 25/05/2006 - 96. kms Daly Waters

  I got up late the next morning as it was really cold at night and I was resisting using my sleeping bag until about 3 in the morning when I realized it was just too cold... I slept like a rock after snuggling in my sleeping bag... So when I got up, Peter had already left...

  I cycled another flat 90 kms through nothing but bush and got to the turnoff for Daly Waters... A bit further was the Hi-Way Inn and 40 kms later was Dunmarra... The lady at the Larrimah pub had said that the Daly Waters was the more interesting place to stay the night so I took the turnoff.

  Daly Waters' is a historic pub and town... but the town is little more than a few ramshackle houses... The pub, like the one at Larrimah, is something else... Quite a sight ! Exactly what you would picture in the middle of the "outback". And the pub had backpacker's accommodation, so I could spend the night inside which is much warmer than out... Amazing how a couple of hundred kms can change hot nights into much colder ones. That's the desert... cold at night but warm during the day.

  The cook at the pub was an Australian cycletourer who had worked here a few weeks while touring his country and when he finished his tour decided to come back here to work for a longer while... We had a nice time talking together. An later I dined on grilled barramundi with all you can eat trimmings.

• 26/05/2006 - 157 kms Elliott

  It's real cold at night and in the morning, but by 9 or 10 in the morning it warms up nicely... THe Hi-Way Inn 4 kms down the highway wasn't much more than a truck stop and Dunmarra 50 kms later didn't have much character (so I was glad I had spent the night at Daly Waters) but the ladies at the Dunmarra roadhouse were really nice and offered me free coffee with heeps of sugar... That picked me up !

  Nothing but bush before and nothing but bush after... However, around Newcastle Waters the vagetation changes dramatically... The small trees are replaced by small bushes with much thinner packing amongst the yellow grasses... Getting near the desert, though technically I have been in the desert for a while... The desert is a lack of rain, not necessarily vegetation.

  Elliott's a small village... two roadhouses, 2 campgrounds, a hotel and a few houses... but lots of aborigines sitting and drinking all over the place...

  When I arrived at the bigger roadhouse, Peter was sitting there having dinner and didn't make an effort to talk, so neither did I. I ended up taking a cabin at the hotel... Cheap but run down ! and ate at the roadhouse.

• 27/05/2006 - 94. kms Renner Springs

  Got an early start and the cycling went well... Bush all the way with nothing to distract until Rener Springs, a roadhouse with a motel and camping...

  When I arrived, Peter was there talking with a Japaneese (but living in Australia) cyclist going the other way. So we talked a bit...

  At the roadhouse, I enquired of a nice yound Jewish girl (a traveller working here for the time being) about accommodations... The rooms were way too expensive, so I ended up camping with Peter.

  Had a nice (even better than at Pine Creek) burger with the lot for lunch, and it was so good that I had another for dinner !

• 28/05/2006 - 61. kms Banka Banka

  Well it was really windy all night and as the morning dawned I felt a bit worried... The Jewish girl told me that it's normal here and that as the sun heats up the day the wind should calm down... So Peter and I left directly into a strong headwind...

  Peter on his recumbant was much more aerodynamic than I was and quickly lost me ahead... I was struggling at an average of just 13 kms/hour into this wind that was gusting pretty strongly...

  On the way I met two German girls cycling happily the other way and later two young Brits also grinning with the wind at their backs...

  When I got to Banka Banka, 60 kms down the road, I had had enough and decided to spend the night at this homestead and campground... Well Peter had got there ahead of me and takien the same decision...

  The homestead is 11,000 square kms of land with 48,000 head of cattle... Pretty big eh ! In the evening, our hosts made a BBQ with hamburgers and hotdogs and since they were out of hamburgers I got two steak burgers... Glad at first for my luck I quickly reconsidered as the meat was very tough... Must have been from a really old cow !

• 29/05/2006 - 104 kms Tennant Creek

  In the morning the wind was less severe and more easterly than southerly... Though Peter and I left around the same time, Peter again was much faster on his recumbant...

  I managed an average of 15 kms/hour to yesterday's 13... The road twisted due east a couple of times and at those times I scarcely reached 10 kms/hour... So the side wind was pretty severe...

  I took my first good break at a rest-picnic area some 40 kms down the road and the crew cleaning up the place again reiterated that these winds are normal... In their words :"It's either pedalling against these winds at this time of year (between June and August) or pedalling in 40 plus degree heat and no wind all the rest of the time...". I guess I prefer these winds, though maybe I should have planned to go northward instead of southwards.

  After that it was just more bush till Threeways Roadhouse where I met again with Peter who decided to spend the night there... I pushed on the next 25 kms to Tennant Creek anticipating with relish a warm bed inside at Tennant Creek's Youth Hostel !

  When I got there the only other guest was a Tasmanian cyclist named Tony heading for Darwin... A much travelled person, we had an enjoyable time talking.

  Since Darwin I didn't take a rest, so I decided I'd spend an extra night here in Tennant Creek and use the day's rest for laundry and other mundane tasks...

  In the morning, Peter shows up on main street in Tennant Creek... He was supposed to head east from Three Ways, towards the coast and then down the coast to Sidney... He reconsidered... Seems like fighting the eastern wind all the way wasn't his cup of tea after all and he now decided to head down to Alice Springs and maybe Adelaide before turning east to Sydney... So I guess we'll be trailing each other a bit further...

• 31/05/2006 - 118 kms Wauchope

  I left early in the morning and though cold it wasn't too windy and I was averaging 20 kms/hour... But soon the wind began and my speed dropped... 20 kms out of Tennant Creek, Peter passed me by (a recumbant is much more efficient in the wind).

  80 kms out, I joined with Peter again as he took a food break at a rest area and we followed each other for the next 15 kms to Devil's Marbles... Those round granite boulders, all stacked up, are quite a sight and I spent quite a bit of time exploring around... Peter got bored and left. To each his own !

  From Devil's Marbles, I cycled to Wauchope and took a bed there (they had backpacker's accommodations and sleeping inside suited me just fine... It gets really cold here at night !). Had two burger with the lot for dinner and that really filled me up !

• 01/06/2006 - 112 kms Barrow Creek

  I left in the cold of the early morning and cycled 20 kms to Wycliffe Hills... Just had to stop as a sign was advertizing "The UFO capital of Australia"... The whole roadhouse is decorated under that theme... Quite a sight !

  Talking with the attendants, I learned that Peter had spent the night there, well he was now 30 kms ahead of me.

  Leaving Wycliffe Hills roadhouse it was nothing but flat desert bush for the next 50 kms after which some hills grew out of the desert and livened up the scenery a bit... 50 kms later I arrived at Barrow Creek... Here was the site of the Murdoch/Falcone incident that made the headlines late last year and early this year... Murdoch "kidnapped" a couple backpacking from this area and shot the guy, Falcone, while the girl ran away and hid in the bush... Murdoch was convicted of the murder... Anyways, Barrow Creek isn't much more than a roadhouse (its condition being pretty decrepit), a nearby aboriginal community and an historic telegraph station... Nevertheless, I was struck by the friendliness of Chris and Elliott, the attendants at the roadhouse, and their offer of free camping... So I decided to spend the night. Chris even cooked a great chicken satay for dinner while I was talking books with Elliott. I even got mixed up with an aboriginal woman, Carla Thompson apparently an artist, who offered to explain to me the "dreaming" which is at the base of their culture and religion... Apparently "dreaming" is women's business and has everything to do with woman's genitalia... I stayed away from that one !

• 02/06/2006 - 92. kms Ti-Tree (broken toe clip left pedal)

  Nothing but bush and one rest-picnic area between Barrow Creek and Ti-Tree... My map indicated a roadhouse at Willora, but I coudn't see anything but an aboriginal community (a bunch of shacks)...

  Anyways, I had hoped to get to Aileron that day but just didn't have the energy for it so I stopped at Ti-Tree and set up camp at the roadhouse...

  Ti-Tree's nothing more than a roadhouse, a police station, a clinic, a few house and lots of aborigines hanging around drinking and sitting on the ground in the shade under trees...

• 03/06/2006 - 61. kms Aileron

  I got up late since I only had a short distance to cycle to Aileron and the night had been very cold. So I waited for the sun to warm up before getting out of the tent...

  I left around 9 in the morning and the cycle was relatively easy as the wind had calmed somewhat...The scenery was again of bush and a few hills... By one in the afternoon I was at Aileron and gave a bit of thought to continuing on since the wind was calm but there was really nothing for the next 130 kms or so to Alice Springs, and that was much too long a distance for the remaining daylight... So I set-up camp at Aileron.

  Aileron is a historic homestead, or so they say, but I couldn't see much of anything historic... The roadhouse and surrounding buildings were relatively new. Even the huge sculpture of an aborigine on top of the hill behind the roadhouse was erected in the year 2000... But it was sunny, I had something to read and the roadhouse's food was good... So spending time here wasn't bad !

• 04/06/2006 - 137 kms Alice Springs

  I knew I had a long distance to cycle so I got up around 5 in the morning to be ready to leave at first light... And man was it cold, near freezing... I put on gloves and earmuffs and never took them off all day !

  It was overcast and windy all day, so without the sun to warm things up it remained cold all day. 136 kms in the cold and fighting against the wind... Pretty blah ! with just more bush all the way except for the last 20 kms when the hills started showing and broke the monotony.

  42 kms from Alice Springs I reached 10,000 kms cycled on this trip... 30 kms from Alice Springs I crossed the Tropics of Capricorn... 15 kms from Alice Springs I reached the highest point on the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Adelaide (but the cairn marking the point failed to mention what the elevation was, ridiculous eh !).

  Got to Alice Springs and took a bed at the youth hostel... Did groceries and while I was cooking Peter comes up and says hello ! He had arrived a day earlier !

  I stayed the next day as well... I ran around for bike shops and looked for replacement toe clips for my pedals... The pedals are the old triangular platforms from Shimano with a greater flat surface they work very well with toe clips... but they require toe clips with a special design... One shop didn't even bother much side from saying that they didn't have replacements... The other phoned Shimano and though they sould have shipped for next day delivery they were out of stock for at least the next two weeks.... Ah well, I wasn't about to buy new pedals just for the toe clips so I'll just have to make do with the broken one. Afterwards I replenished my trail mix, found a good book to fill in dead time for the next little while and it was dinner time... Didn't even have time for much sightseeing... Guess I'll have to stay here an extra day !

  So the following day I got up early and cycled east towards the West McDonnell National Park... There's a beautiful 15 kms bike path that winds its way in the desert towards Simpson's Gap. The path is well away from the road and it appeared I was its only user... Though Simpson's Gap isn't much to write home about (just a gap carved by a creek into and dividing a mountain range) the path to get there and the views along the way were just superb ! Around midday, I had a snack on top of a pile of rocks taking in the panorama around me and then came back as I intended to spend some time at the Alice Springs Desert Park.

  The Desert Park is supposedly a "natural museum of the desert"... But I didn't get to see it... As I came to it and prepared to lock Titus to a fence near the ticket booth I was told that I couldn't lock it there and would have to put it in the parking lot (where there is no one to watch)... So I said fine, but asked if they wouldn't mind taking care of the couple of bags I had on the bike while I visited the park... They refused ! So I wasn't about to visit the park carrying my photo stuff plus the handlebar bag, plus the saddlebag and pump... Nor was I willing to pay the A$20 entry fee for the risk of loosing stuff in the parking lot ! So I left... They're not very accommodating.

  Enough time spent here... Tomorrow I leave towards Uluru !

• 07/06/2006 - 94. kms Stuarts Well (flat on rear wheel)

  It's cold every morning, and the more south I get the longer it takes to warm up... Nevertheles, I was ready by 8 AM and as I started loading Titus up I noticed the rear tire was flat.... One of those prickly seedpods (same as in Perth) was stuck in the tire... And while I was ficing the flat, the hostel fire alarm went off... Quite an exciting morning ! Ah well, the delay only let the air warm up a bit and anyways I only had about 90 kms to cycle today.

  As I passed Heavitree Gap (an opening in the mountain range) just south of Alice Springs the eastern wind gained a southward bias and I was cruising... The scenery was more bush but drier and hillier than north of Alice... 60 kms later I stopped at a rest area to take a break and was offered hot and sweet coffee by a couple of ex-Canadians in a campervan... That was good !

  I got to Stuarts Well (just a roadhouse) and they had backpacker's accommodations so I decided to spend the night inside (though the rooms weren't heated)... The roadhouse is part of a cameloid farm (camels, llamas and alpacas) and I had a camel burger for dinner (I couldn't tell the difference from beef though)... Apparently camels (and their Afghan riders) played a big role in opening up central Australia in the late 1800's. Now some heards of camels even live wild in the center.

• 08/06/2006 - 110 kms Erldunda

  The southward bias in the wind didn't last and today's cycle was more work though more scenic with occasional mountains on either side of the road. Aside from desert bush, hills, mountains and two rest areas there was nothing until the roadhouse at Erldunda.

  The roadhouse here had backpacker's accommodations as well and though it was pretty dumpy (the maintenance guy said the building should be bulldozed to the ground) and looked more like an abandoned building... it was heated ! So I took a bed inside and had a dinner of bangers & mash.

  The groundwater here is pretty bad... loaded with salts and barely drinkable... The roadhouse sold bottled water at the rate of 1.5 liters for A$4... Expensive eh ? But I was nice with the waitress at dinner and she filled my water bottles with good rainwater for free...

• 09/06/2006 - 58. kms Mount Ebenezer

  It was so cold in the morning, even with the heater on all night... I waited till the sun was out before taking a shower (the bathrooms weren't heated) and it was still cold when I left. In fact it didn't get above zero until 10 AM.

  The Lassiter Highway (going to Uluru from the Stuart Highway) started out mostly uphill for the first 20 kms or so but then flatened out and the scenery getting more and more desertlike...

  20 kms later, I crossed paths with 2 French cyclists going the other way. They told me that Uluru is well worth it but that they were disappointed with King's Canyon... So I decided to skip that sidetrip.

  20 more kms and I was at Mount Ebenezer roadhouse and didn't have the energy for another 100 kms to Curtin Springs. I took a bed inside though there was no heating as it's still warmer than in the tent.

• 10/06/2006 - 107 kms Curtin Springs

  The next day was windy and cold all day and though the sun provided some warmth the wind was chilling the parts of my body not exposed to the sun.

  About 50 kms (halfway) into the cycle I noticed a mountain on the horizon and was happy thinking that I could see Ayer's Rock (Uluru)... But as I got closer it didn't have the right shape and was much too close... This was in fact Mount Conner...

  I got to Curtin Springs and took a bed inside though it was expensive (A$50) since it was so cold... The room was heated but the toilets and showers were outside and unheated... Also, dinner had to be eaten outside... the "outback way" ! Sure !!! while the staff ate inside in the warm kitchen... Talk about "outback hospitality" !

  It might be fun for some tourists, but I would've much preferred eating inside with the staff...

• 11/06/2006 - 90. kms Yulara

  The morning was cold again but at least the wind was at my back and pushing... 25 kms short of Yulara, I stopped to take a picture of a camel roadkill... I guess that it's true that there are wild herds of camels in the center of Australia !

  A couple of kms later as I cycled up a little rise I caught my first glimpse of Ayer's Rock (Uluru) and the Olgas... 25 kms later I was at Yulara, the resort village and the only place where you can stay or camp at the Uluru National Park.

  Needless to say that it's a tourist trap... Uluru is worth the look but they really catch you att Yulara... Accommodations are expensive (a shared room at A$37), food is expensive, tourist information services can only help you with regards to available tours and the tours aren't cheap...

  Uluru at 20 kms from Yulara was accessible enough by bike and I spent the next day there... But the "Olgas", at 50 kms from Yulara would take me half the day to cycle there and half the day to cycle back with no time remaining to spend there... There are shuttles going there at various times during the day, but you can't board a shuttle to get there in the morning, spend the day there and board another shuttle at the end of the afternoon... If you want to do one walk you take the morning shuttle and do the walk with the rest of the people and come back with this shuttle... If you want to do another walk, you take the afternoon shuttle, do the walk with the other people and come back with the same shuttle... So you have to pay twice to spend the day there !!! Also, you have to buy a A$25 park fee good for three days even though you're not going to stay for three days... A bit frustrating isn't it ? So I decided not to go to the Olgas and was satisfied with the day cycling around Uluru...

  Also I decided to stop this cycle tour at Uluru... I'm getting homesick, and getting tired of the cold and cynical about the tourist sites... So I guess it's time to pack it in... I'll be busing back to Erlunda, then to Adelaide from there to Sydney to catch a plane back home...