We had (with minimal adjustment) lined up our stay in Hobart with: ▪︎ Saturday Salamanca Market ▪︎ Sunday Farmers Market ▪︎ Tassie Wine Festival and ▪︎ Australian Wooden Boat Festival
Especially on top of the festive vibe at our hostel, this was perhaps a bit more fest than we had stamina for, but we attended them all!
On Saturday, we sampled our way through the market –We ate Korean kimbap…
We met up with Brett and met his wife, Renie, who is equally lovely.
We wandered the boat festivaloggling boatsand found a men’s choir singing sea shanties, which was awesome.We opted not to spend any limbs on boat tours,and squandered our funds at the Wine Festival instead.There was live music, some of it mobile, some of it on the stage. Most people were more poshly and less warmly dressed than us, which I’m used to, but my main complaint was that there were SO many options to try, it was impossible to taste them all, or even to taste all of one varietal.Collectively, we tested 18 wines. And rode home once again via the rose garden.
So, if you’re in a wine shop in Tassie, we liked: Devil’s Corner – their 2020 Mt Dove syrah pinot blend, and their sparkling wine. Also, appropriately, we quite liked Aunt Alice’s chardonnay
We were remarkably restrained at the Farmers Market. The croissants were some of the best I’ve ever had. We went back for seconds. I had passionfruit and Nutella. They were so incredibly good. And we found gravenstein apples!There were also several cheesmakers, and more than 5 veggie vendors –– all selling impressive daikon!
We bemoaned the many things we could buy at the farmers / craft market that are TOTALLY impractical to carry by bike.
Flis went on a mission to fix the zipper on her shell. I attempted to find an art co-op, but they had closed early. We decided to accept that we were missing out on the museums and the rest of the boat fest, and went walking up the rivulet trail looking for platypus who apparently live there…
It was a nice quiet walk, without any sign of anything fishier than a duckbut we found Cascade Brewery instead (the oldest in Tassie).
Our chilly platypus lookout picnic left us wanting something warming, so we walked to the only open dessert shop in town, which was back down by the harbour.
Both berry croffles (croissant dough baked like a waffle!) and banaoffee were top notch.
The party vibe downtown made our hostel seem like an old folks home. There were fancily clad young drunk people all over the lawns, so drunk that none of them were watching the epic firework display!
We (and our wallets) are ready to get out of this lovely town and head west tomorrow.
Distance cycled: 73 km Ave: 17.6 km/h Max speed: 64.2 km/h
We left Brett’s a bit later than (he) intended, but we plead a comfortable bed. We followed his advice on some scenic routes heading to HobartFortifying ourselves for the road aheadDon’t be fooled by the mirror image selfie – we ARE riding on the left, which is right!This was a community art project – under the direction of a couple of lead artists. And much warmer and more rideable than most whales, right or otherwise!When we got closer to urban Hobart, it turned into a traffic rich, nerve testing highway (110km/hr traffic). Although it was a maze to find the cyclist and pedestrian routes across multiple bridges, once we got on the bridge, help was right there, just pick up the phone.Eventually we reached the Intercity cycleway on the west side of the Tasman Bridge. Stopping to sniff the flowers is a particularly well suited to cyclist speed (especially when city navigation requires multiple map checks!)Our hostel is in a neat old building and decorated with amazing murals inside. It’s full of youthful exuberance; sharing the kitchen and laundry space was both doable and also made us feel old.
Distance cycled: 38.0 km Ave: 16.8 km/h Max speed: 46.5 km/h
Nobody disturbed our stealthy campWe were up at sunrise, and on the road by 6:30am.
We arrived almost an hour early at the meeting point with Damian and his boat, so of course we got distracted and were rushing a few minutes late to meet him and the 6 others who’d booked in for a wild ocean boat tour.
Although I’d been the one who’d suggested this trip, I was on the fence about whether a boat tour would feel worthwhile (we had, after all, recently been on a boat to get to the 3 Capes Track nearby). It was so different. I was blown away.
For one thing, bouncing along on a small zodiac style boat with straddle seats is fun in itself.
It was neat to go into sea caves and the famous devil’s kitchen and the Tasman archin a boat small enough to go right in.It was also cool to see Cape Hauy from sea level – looking up at rather than down from those epic cliffs.There were still (again?) climbers attempting the “Totem pole”and fur seals lounging on the rocks by the cape.
One of our fellow passengers (a guy around our age) handed around a Tupperware container full of gummy bears (he swore they were not special gummies). Someone else taking their snacks seriously – we felt so seen!
We found more fur seals warming their flippers in a kelp bed.
But also, we saw albatrosses, a sea eagle, lion’s mane jellyfish, and cormorants.
And soooo many bottlenose dolphins! (Photo credit to Stephen, Olivia’s dad from Ireland)
Dolphins playing in our bow wake, jumping high into the air, pushing fish, slapping their heads against the waves, and pooping.
Dolphins everywhere. There were fur seals jumping around with the dolphins as well, which was surprising and impressive.
And Damo was a passionate guide. He’s been working on conservation and research projects in this area for 22 years and was generous about sharing his experience and his enthusiasm. We were both left with mixed emotions: overwhelming stoke about being around dolphins, and equally overwhelming discouragement that we as humans are unbalancing or extinguishing the world’s established ecosystems.
We returned to our bikes to find that a fish & chip and ice cream truck had opened beside them. Oh no!We backtracked to visit the Unzoo, where I saw my first live devils.This one was taking his wrath out on an egg carton.
We also saw eels (who can survive for 3 days out of the water, but live in fresh water for 35 years before making an epic saltwater journey over to the mainland to breed and die). Finally, I think I can distinguish between pademelons, wallabies and forester kangaroos.
Forester kangarooForester joeyApparently mama kangaroo can support three joeys: big one that sticks its head in to nurse, one living and nursing in the pouch, and one embryo on hold ready to go!
We left the Unzoo in a bit of a hurry to visit the Chocolate Foundry before it closed, and bumped into Barbara and Ben from the Three Capes Track.
We were two thirds of the way to Dunalley when we were flagged down by Brett, a fella with suspiciously stained hands, claiming not to be a serial killer, and asking if we knew about Warm Showers.
Brett was not a serial killer, but had been picking blackberries: he did his best to kill us with kindness in hosting us overnight at his beautiful beachfront house, and feeding us fresh local food:
Fresh caught butter fish, homegrown zucchini and tomatoes, fresh picked blackberries cooked into pancakes, and crumble!He’s got a Pepper, too!
Brett is a carpenter nearing retirement, currently on fishing duty only as he’s recovering from an infected “carpenter’s knee”. He’d built his house, and although he claimed it was a simple build, there was a boat recessed in the ceiling, which looked far from simple. He admitted he built the house around the boat. I neglected to get a photo.
His house also had a piano, which we noodled around on (gosh I’m useless without sheet music!)
This was not the boat that was in the ceiling, but probably the one responsible for the butter fish.
The Three Capes Track is a 48km hut-based track, which requires boat access to start and bus return.
Day 1:
We packed everything into Alice’s big backpack and into Jessi’s little blue drybag pack.The boat ride over to the trailhead involved a few scenic detours.We stopped to look at cormorants, and found a couple of fur seals who were warming up by hanging out with a flipper in the air. Because of the calm weather, we were able to nose into a sea cave, but the swell was still pretty alarming.We admired the rocks: Jurrasic dolerite cliffs, some mudstone like that which formed the tessellated pavements, but differently eroded.The purpose-built boat had a flap ramp bow (technical term :p). After disembarking, we all had a lovely swim before trekking off.Given the three sleeping bags and four days worth of food for three people, it was a heavy pack.
It was a short hike to find the “camp” – which was gorgeous and luxurious. Surveyors camp had incredible infrastructure: toilets, cookers, potable water, pots and pans, mattresses (three layers of foam!) on assigned bunks, decking, library, ranger, etc!
Other campers had brought steaks and wine and we had fresh wraps with tinned salmon. Luxury indeed.
Day 2:
Given that today wasn’t going to be a terrifically difficult hike, we had a lazy start, and were last to depart, except for Amanda, one of our bunk mates who had unfortunately forgotten some integral supplies in her car and went back to the trailhead to pick them up.We saw several helicopters coming and going. Apparently, their heaviest loads are the 800kg full poop canisters, colloquially known as “sputniks”.Standing at Jurrasic Crack, looking back past Arthur’s PeakAll along the trail, there were marked spots, which corresponded to sections of an educational trail manual.One of the many species and ecosystems involving EucalyptusSome of the other species seeds require extreme heat (read: bush fire) to germinate. Eucalyptus seeds require a Phillips head screwdriver.Deliberate burning to mimic typical ecosystem cycling without roasting (m?)any cape walkers. Although there were many cliffs, the trail was 1m wide and often boardwalk, and F insisted she could’ve managed it with a bike… even the stairs!Looking towards Cape PillarWe arrived at Munroe Hut with time to enjoy a hot shower from a bucket on a pulley contraption before the ranger there gave the nightly talk. This ranger talked so fast that he was nearly incomprehensible. Sputniks at sunset!
Day 3:
Jessi was the only one of us who was up to see sunrise. Amongst our camp compadres, we have established a reputation as ‘take our time’ folks……and today, this was the right choice.We hiked through mist and fog…and loitered at all the stopping points and J read aloud from the information booklet.We met many hikers from our cohort who had already been out to the viewpoint and were on their way back.When we arrived at Cape Pillar, the fog lifted and revealed the spectacular views.Views that those eager morning beavers would have missed!Looking past The Blade to Tasman Island, with a remote lighthouse posting on it. While watching the fog lift, we were visited by a cute echidna. Echindas are monotremes: mammals that lay eggs! Like platypus. But echidna eggs have soft leathery shells, and baby echidnas are called puggles! They mostly eat ants, and we watched this munchkin digging it’s nose through gravel, between the rocks and into the crannies in tree branches.With the lifting fog, the wind picked up. It was quite gusty enough to discourage standing near this edge, which is the end of The Blade. It’s difficult to capture just how sheer the drops were – dolerite is a very hard rock, and is resistant to weathering, so the track is able to be right near the edge without worrying it will collapse in a few years. Eventually, we picked up the pace and headed off to our next hut, Retakunna Hut, followed by the sounds of a thunderstorm that passed well north of us. Definitely wallaby. We’re much better at distinguishing between kangaroo, wallaby, pademelon, and potaroo now!Tonight was our last supper with Jessi.
Day 4:
We startled our fellow hikers with an early start (J was booked on the bus that left Fortescue Bay at 230)But we kept up with rigorous stoppingAnd dedication to the educational manualPhoto credit to J, who spotted many purple mushrooms!The trek out to Cape Hauy involved a lot of stairs – we were glad we didn’t have to carry the big pack for that part.The ‘Totem Pole’ is the spindle of rock closest to the Cape Hauy cliff; it’s popular among rock climbers. There’s an epic story of a couple in the 90’s who were climbing this together when a boulder fell on the fellas head, knocking him unconscious and leaving him bleeding and dangling. Incredibly, his partner hauled him up the rope by herself and hiked into town to get help out to him, and he survived.
It was wild to be looking down on the birds as well as the climbers and seals.
We made it to Fortescue Bay in time for a refreshing swim.Our last day as a Trio! 😦F and I caught our later bus back to Port Arthur where we retrieved our gear and some fish and chips, before heading off to camp stealthily near Eaglehawk Neck.
Distance cycled: 17.3 km Ave: 18.6 km/h Max speed: 54.7 km/h
Overall, the Three Capes Track was a lovely walk going through amazingly varied ecosystems along the coast full of incredible cliffs, and I’m glad we were able to do it all together in the end. It was much more posh and accessible than expected. The trail was easy, with lots of amazing stairs, stonework, and boardwalks. The huts felt more like chalets than camps. Apparently, it was inspired by NZ’s “great walks” and overly high demand for the Overland Track. Three Capes opened in 2015, and is already so popular it books up as well. Given that we didn’t need to carry a tent or mattresses, sharing a pack was totally doable. And as I prefer carrying the pack on the uphill, and F thinks its easier carrying it on the downhill, and Jessi thought the blue bag was much lighter to carry, we each thought we were getting the best deal.
– Alice with photos and input from both Jess and Flis
PS: Jessi says I missed the most exciting fact about the echidna – it’s the only animal whose penis has 4 heads!
Distance cycled: 112.2 km Ave: 16.9 km/h Max speed: 63.3 km/h
Starting riding after 10am isn’t really a good strategy for putting in over 100km in a day, but it was the best we could do because the first ferry off Maria island landed at 10am.
At the 7km mark, we stopped for coffee (surprisingly good from a post office!) and croissants (not quite so good), and then steady on. Navigation points were helpfully in ~15-30km increments, so looking at the elevation profile for each section as we went along was entirely unintimidating.
From F: When you’re crawling up a hill at about 5km/hr attempting to draft off the cyclist in front of you and the bicycle in front of you stops unexpectedly, you don’t have a lot of time to unclip your cycling shoes. This is a totally unglorious way to fall over while attached your bike. Also drafting at 5km/hr is not a thing. Why in the world was I following so close?!?
A again: Our route (which I had looked at on street view to minimize unpaved bits) did have an unpaved section for 15-30km, but it was hard pack with little traffic and only a small stretch of energy was wasted on super twisty downhill.
It was followed by a stellar section of paved quiet road with swoopy hills, and then back on the main A9.We stopped for (expertly divided) cheese and juice, which turned into an over long lunch stop (I figured I’d use the break to book a few things for future us).
Somehow the long lunch didn’t bog us down too much – we were in such good shape with time that F let me take us on the scenic route via tessellated pavements (ok, since F’s phone battery had mysteriously run itself mostly out of juice the previous night, she was really at my navigational mercy!)
Dinner (take away fish and chips) was not up to SFG standards), but eating it on the tessellated pavements was scenic.
The tessellated pavements are 265+ million-year-old siltstone, which fractured due to stressors on the crust along 3 directions: NNE, ENE, and NNW. The fracture lines are weak points. “Loaves” form near the sea edge where the rock remains wet most of the time; sand and other particulate in the water erode the fracture lines more. “Pans” form further from the sea edge where the water evaporates more quickly on the surfaces, leaving salt crystal development to expand and preferentially erode the surface, leaving the fracture lines as “rims”.
Lucky us – we happened to be around precisely at low tide!
We arrived in Port Arthur with a full hour in hand before dark. Jessi set up our tent for us while we enjoyed the excellent showers.
After a brief visit to the beach (which Jessi assured me was great for swimming), we called it a day.
Encampment Cove, Maria Island -> Darlington, Maria Island
Distance cycled: 13.9 km Ave: 12.5 km/h Max speed: 33.2 km/h
I’d talked Flis into a future big day (110+kms and well over 1200m of climbing) in order to spend 2 nights here, which took very little convincing. Glad we did.
Maria Island is big!You could easily spend a week exploring here and still not see everything. There are multiple full day hikes, and plenty of smaller walks as well as historic buildings.Initially, I had aspirations of climbing tall things and seeing fossils, but after a leisurely roll to the campsite (stopping to oggle the wildlife and the views), I settled into a more restful mode.Maria Island is a no car zone. Passengers come on foot, or can bring bikes.If you zoom in you might be able to recognize the figure on the beach.The trails are mostly beautiful – I think it’s pretty ideal for cycle tourists (or boat folk), as without a bike, it would be hard to make it far from the Darlington area.Going across the isthmus to the south portion of the island was going to take 8 hours walking over soft sand, so we turned around and kept to the north part of Maria.We saw few other people south of Darlington.The grasslands were all over grazed, but the succulents were going strong. We had a leisurely beach swim with nobody in sight for hours.Even in Encampment Cove, there was only one other group, so in the relative privacy, I had a great campsite bath.For dinners, we had SFG soup and stir fry with noodles, and tested out some new “bush spice” which I’d picked up when we ran out of salt.Like many areas of Tassie, there is a colonial history of penitentiary use, which didn’t last. These cells, built in 1846, were only in use for 5 years.
In the 1960s, it became a kind of “Noah’s Ark” where threatened species were introduced and encouraged. This explains the abundance of grazers. We saw echidna, wallabies, cape barren geese…
potaroo (large kanga-rat things)pademelons (easy to confuse with wallabies, but they’re a bit smaller)possums (not as destructive as raccoons as far as we have seen so far, but equally agile) …… and so many (ever so endearing) wombats!Fun fact: wombats’ main defence is their super tough ass (mostly cartilage) which, when attacked, they use to block access to their burrows.I made sure we visited the painted cliffs: The unique colouring is from iron rich water which leached down through the sandstone during wet season, and then was pulled up again through capillary action in dry season during its formation.It was also quite entertaining photographically.
We camped at Darlington, ready for the first ferry and the long day tomorrow to pay for our extra Island time.
Swanwick, Freycinet Peninsula -> Encampment Cove, Maria Island
Alice’s stats: Distance cycled: 82.5 km Ave: 17.9 km/h (19.9km/h before Maria Island) Max speed: 47.1 km/h
Jessi’s stats: Distance cycled: 69.2 km Ave: 15.9 km/h Max speed: 47.3 km/h
A “brief” note from Jessi about how we met our man with a boat (aka Captain Colin): Yesterday, after the hot tip from Martin, F and I headed down to the jetty to try to find a boat. Unfortunately, the only boat there was occupied by two unhelpful youths who said their boat was too small and we should find someone with a bigger boat… but no, they didn’t know anyone with a bigger boat (likely story, we know youths lie!). So we took to the streets. Quite magically, within 5 houses from the boat ramp, we found a large boat in a driveway AND there was someone in the driveway doing some beltsanding. After loitering awkwardly until he finished his sanding, we scared the bejusus out of him by saying “hello!”. We introduced ourselves and explained we were looking for a kind soul with a large boat for a short term arrangement. Colin took very little convincing and within seconds, he agreed to take us, and our third friend, and our three bikes… and all our gear across the river in the morning.
Back to Alice:
F and J had arranged for us to meet their ‘man with a boat’ at 8am, and to fairly divide the efforts, I had been tasked with drawing our thank you picture card without having seen them: A: “Ok, what did he look like?” J: “He’s probably in his 60s, maybe 70s, but fit” A: “What was his hair like?” J: “No idea, but he was wearing a blue tshirt, oh you only have a black pen, I dunno, maybe say he had hair!” A: “Okay, how about the boat?” J: “It was a big white boat…” A: “Did the boat have a cabin?” J: “There was an awning-like bit, I think?” A: “Outboard motor or built in?” J: “Not sure, definitely had a motor and fishing rods, he likes fishing!”
Colin and his partner, Rose, and their boat turned out to be efficient and competent. We were all aboard in one trip and unloading on the other side of the river within 15 minutes.By 8:20, their boat was back on the trailer and driving on their side of the river while we were still reloading and desanding on our side.This short boat trip across the river meant we could skip cycling back up the C302 and down the A3 (51km with a steep 250m hill)……and instead cycle Dolphin Sands Rd (15km of flat, deserted road)Great road with a great name…Jessi has plans to move there someday!
This effectively cut our day from 104km to a much more manageable 69km. Which meant F and I had a much better chance of arriving in time for the last ferry to Maria Island, which left at 3:15pm.
Best shortcut ever.Looking across towards the peninsula as we cycled south along the coast – Mount Freycinet is the taller of the two lumps on the middle left.
Jessi’s bus connection was too tight to join us on the side quest to Maria Island, but we’ll meet her in Port Arthur on Feb 1. We had a quayside lunch and chatted to Jo and Bryan, Kiwi adventure cyclists in their mid 70s before getting on the foot passenger ferry to Maria Island, which was nearly as efficient as Colin and Rose’s craft!
One of the bizarre things has been that F and J (both on the main Telsra network) have had no cell reception at our Airbnb. My news had to wait for my tired legs to deliver it: a spot had opened up on our dates for The Three Capes Track (a famous 4-day hut-based trek which had been fully booked, preventing J from joining us).
It took a few frenzied rounds of booking bonanza, but Jessi succeeded in getting a trail pass, buses to get herself and her bike to and from the trailhead, and accommodation for the night prior. Wahoo!
We spent the morning kayaking around and across Coles Bay with a group of other tourists. The HMS Singalong kayak team, last seen in NZ’s Abel Tasman! As per usual, Jessi steered and Felicity paddled; a match made in heaven.Afterwards, I was introduced to the local essentials: the ice cream shop
Although the idea was to do some resting and recouping, it also became a day of repairs:
1. I sewed up my pants.
2. Felicity cleaned the stoves’s fuel line and shaker pin.
3. Jessi fixed her squeaky front fender.
4. I adjusted my front rack.
5. Felicity fixed my little Pannier attachment, whose bolt had gone awol. (Okay, okay, this actually happened in Chain of Lagoons, and required both F AND J’s multitools)
6. I reworked Felicity’s knitting pattern.
7. Jessi figured out how to use the Airbnb’s heat pump for good (cold).8. Felicity fixed her broken rack by following a local lead to a guy, Martin, who knew how to weld… or at least to his garage, where she lurked until he came home. Martin offered a non-welding creative solution and also gave the most useful tip: someone with a boat might be able to make our ride tomorrow significantly shorter.
9. F and J befriended Colin, a man with a boat.
We visited the local Sandspit beach, had the briefest of breezy swims, and headed home for dinner and a few rounds of laundry vs packing.
Alice (with the usual editing and revisions from F and J)
The Freycinet Peninsula has many trail options – by far the most popular is the walk to Wineglass Bay Lookout, which we all included in the routes we took.
Felicity’s version:
J and I chose to go for the moderate hike option to go to Wineglass Bay, over the Isthmus to Hazards beach, and around back on the hazards beach track.
There were a modest amount of stairs on an extraordinarily well-made trail up to the famous lookout, and we carried on down to Wineglass Bay. J had a brief swim, we had lunch, and took the “long way” back to the trailhead.
This still left us time to catch some ice-cream, ginger beer and juice.And stop at yet another good swimming beach – this one is Muirs Beach
We then headed back home to the Airbnb to make some SFG food for ourselves and the exhausted Alice (who showed up uncharacteristically on time).
Jessica’s Bug Removals Co had been hard at work making sure the incursion of insects was dispatched before Alice got home.
Alice’s version:
After cycling like a maniac, I changed gears from biking to hiking: I showered, did a load of much needed laundry, made a heap of my bike stuff at the Airbnb, repacked the essentials into my backpack, and strapped it on the back of my bike for the 9km to the trailhead.
The Freycinet Circuit is a 30km trail with several optional extensions. Two or 3 days is recommended, and for the 2-day version, the challenge is pretty heavily skewed to the second day, which is why I figured I could manage day 1 after cycling 70km.
The 8.8km of trail out to hazards beach camp was gorgeous and easy going – which is just as well because after the time-pressured cycling, my legs were pretty cooked. Mystery bubble bath packets on the beach??After the last few kms of beach walking with a tail wind, I set up Flis’ Lippi tent – it’s a very similar design to the 2 person MSR hubba I have, but there’s more storage and less mesh. The warm evening breeze made drying off after splashing around in the waves easy, but also made it easy for the mosquitoes to drink their fill. It was breezy enough that the kayaking J and F had booked for the 28th was deferred to the 29th (no complaints as it means I’ll be able to join now!). F’s Lippi tent was just fine in the wind.
I woke before my alarm to the harsh chatter of tassie crows (okay, I have no idea if they’re crows, but they’re as relaxing as crows), and figured I might as well get started.
My legs felt far from fresh, but they were on the trail at 7am.I figured my strategy would be frequent stops for snacks to keep me fueled, but soon decided this needed to involve boots off as well: drying my feet out was the best way to prevent the multiple blister hotspots I could feel brewing. I don’t know if wallaby or I was more surprised by our trail meeting.
I had started with 3.5L because I knew water would be scarce (there is no water source at Wineglass Bay) – I felt vindicated when I passed multiple dry stream beds. But then I passed 4 or 5 water sources that would have been tolerable to filter. Oh, well.
Wow, a 1″ diameter snake! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that big in the wild! (ok, of course I didn’t get a picture, so here’s a pic of one of the many lizards instead)
For the first day, the trail had been more like a walk, but after the first few kms, it got more hike-like.
The side trip up to Freycinet summit was steep, but rewarding.Proof I was there (working hard at not being blown off the edge by the wind)!“Did I mention my legs not feeling so fresh? I’m 12km / 900m of climbing in and they’re not getting fresher!”On some of my stops to air out my feet, I snacked, sometimes I drank rations of water, sometimes I caught up on banking and correspondence. Bizarrely, I had cell signal almost the entire route.Wineglass Bay campsite (where you’d stay for the 3-day version) was full of boaters, so I was just as happy to give that a pass.I had a nice swim and dinner before leaving the beach. By that time, there were only 4 other people on the beach… which was still more than I had seen hiking all day.There were about a million zillion stairs up out of Wineglass Bay, and even the last few hundred meters of downhill to the trailhead felt arduous.It was glorious to get back on the bike, and get home before dark, and especially to find second dinner ready from the SFG kitchen.
Alice’s stats: Distance cycled: 69.9 km Ave: 21.7 km/h (it was 22.5 for the fully loaded portion!) Max speed: 49.9 km/h
Flis & Jessi’s stats: Distance cycled: 62.6 km Ave: 17.7 km/h Max speed: 46.8 km/h
We had originally planned to stop in Bicheno, but it was making the length of cycling days awkward for getting to the Freycinet peninsula. One of the main attractions was the colony of penguins who live in town. Sadly, in the last few weeks, penguins have not been returning to their burrows in Bicheno. Experts are citing warmer ocean temperatures as the likely cause, driving penguins further for food, and driving food down below the depth penguins can dive. It’s distressing to read that over a matter of weeks this town went from a hundred or so penguins coming home every night to 8, to none.
Multiple folks warned us that it was going to be a hot day, but rainy to start. We got going pretty early, and sped with a tailwind to the NatureWorld center 24km down the road. The contents of the animal center were intriguing as well, but it was the covered picnic area that lured us to stop.
We enjoyed a delicious brunch feast. Somehow that 500g of butter we bought is almost gone…
I had been deliberating about a multi-day hike in the national park ahead, and finally made a decision: My legs were feeling fresh enough and the weather looked cooperative, so I would tackle a 2 day hike, starting today, I just needed to get myself to the trailhead with time to hike for about 3h.
So while F and J stayed to visit the creatures, I transformed myself into Alice tomato-face speed demon, and rode the remaining 40km to our Airbnb in Swanwick.
Natureworld: After Alice sped off down the road to Freycinet Park, F and I decided to venture into Natureworld, a privately run “East Coast Wildlife Park”. Along with providing tourists an opportunity to see Tasmanian wildlife, they also focus on conservation, rehabilitation of injured animals, and protection of endangered species. Since we had only seen squished Tasmanian Devil roadkill thus far, we were excited to see some live devils, and we finished brunch just in time to see a Tasmania Devil feeding session… which was quite the display. I am not sure exactly what I was expecting. Maybe someone tossing bits of food to a Tasmanian Devil? Maybe small cubes of meat in a dish? I am really not sure. But what we were not expecting was for the staff to toss in an entire wallaby leg, including the tail, and for the 8 devils in that enclosure to immediately form a melee pile snapping and tearing and crunching on the hunk of wallaby. The guide said that within 20 minutes, the devils will consume everything; meat, fur, bones, tail, foot, everything. It was really quite an impressive thing to behold. He also said that if left to their own devices, a Tasmanian devil will consume 40% of their own body mass within 30 minutes. Felicity and I were suitably shocked and started trying to figure out what we would have to eat to achieve those sorts of statistics. Scary stuff.
Sadly, Devil Face Tumour Disease, which is an infecious cancer, has been decimating the wild devil population to the point where they are now an endangered species.While the devils were certainly a highlight, the albino wallabys (above), quolls (one of my new favourite animals and scrabble words), echindas, parrots and blue tongued lizards were also very cool to see.We had seen an echinda on the rail trail a few days ago but didn’t know then what it was. F and I finished the day with a swim and a terrible game of crazy eights at Sandspit Beach.
Alice and Jessi
PS from Felicity: Alice’s odo has been a source of contention on this and other trips. When the three of us all ride together – on the exact same route – Alice’s odo will report at the end of the day, just a wee bit more kms covered than mine or Jessi’s. But on a longer riding day, this can be up to 5kms more than us! 5kms that it’s claiming she rode that apparently we didn’t! But on this trip, her odo has proved that it’s more³ fickle than benevolent: it cuts out randomly, and has sometimes skipped more than half a day. Mwahahaha
BC by Cycle 