An overview of the road covered during our second week of cycling in Tasmania.

2018.03.19 – [AU] Coles Bay ==> Swansea (29 kms | Total: 4841 kms) – We heard the wind blowing throughout the night. We left our backpacker accommodation without knowing quite well how the wind would challenge us today. We cycled back the 27kms to the main road towards Swansea. During this stretch, we did not struggle too much with the wind as we were sheltered by the forest. Unfortunately, as soon as we turned west onto the main road, the wind picked up significantly across the open fields. We stopped for breakfast at a café only 400m further. As we stepped out of the café, we had to pickup our tandem from the ground as it had been blown down by the wind. Using our lowest gear, we started cycling but after one or two kms, the wind gusts and the absence of any road shoulder proved to be quite dangerous. Needless to say, we were reminded of our day at the National Park on NZ north island when we had to catch a ride to the next town due to heavy wind gust and rain. We opted to walk for a while and then re-tried cycling again, but the wind gusts kept on throwing us off balance. We continued to walk, which in itself proved sometimes difficult, hoping that we could reach what appeared like a more sheltered area a few kms down the road. Under these harsh conditions, we could relate to why bicycles were referred to as push-bikes in Australia. As we were walking (Jenny was a few hundred meters behind me), a small campervan stopped behind me. The occupants, two young women, had clearly recognized our struggle with the wind and had probably heard Jenny’s prays for help. Melissa and Mirjam were on vacation in Tasmania and knew well all about some challenges of cycle touring from their own experience cycling from Portugal to Italy over three months. We were quick to accept their offer. We unloaded the tandem and trailer. We appreciated again the benefits of our tandem’s SS couplers which allowed us, within a few minutes, to remove the front tier of the tandem. We managed to snuggly load everything onto the campervan. We were very grateful to Melissa and Mirjam for their kindness. We had some enjoyable chat along the 30kms to Swansea. We even dropped by a winery store along the way for a quick visit. Our “angels of the day” dropped us at our backpacker accommodation. Although our travel guide spoke highly of our backpacker accommodation, we were quite disappointed by our first impression. It felt like we had walked into a refuge/squatters camp, guests were lying all over the sofas watching tv in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully our room was a bit more appealing. We checked the weather forecast and noted that the wind had been blowing at 30km/h with gusts of 55 to 60km/h. We walked to the town center for lunch and later bought some groceries at the local IGA. We also walked back to the town center for our evening meal but we ended walking back and having our meal at the tavern next door to our accommodation which proved to be a good choice.

2018.03.20 – [AU] Swansea ==> Orford (59 kms | Total: 4899 kms) – We left our strange backpacker accommodation and stopped at the next door bakery for a quick breakfast and some take-away sandwiches for the road. We were again, this morning, a bit apprehensive regarding the wind. Our challenge for the day was to cycle against a moderate headwind while keeping a close watch on traffic as the main road had no shoulder for most of the morning’s journey. The sky was covered and the weather was rather cool at 15C – nonetheless some good cycling condition. We stopped in Triabuanna, some 8kms before our day’s final destination, for some lattes and snacks. After cycling 55+kms, we arrived in the small town of Orford, a bit tired from the extra effort due to the wind. We checked into our motel with a (very) partial sea view. We had a good evening meal at the motel’s restaurant.

2018.03.21 – [AU] Orford ==> Richmond (53 kms | Total: 4953 kms) – We left our motel before 8am, a bit earlier than usual. We had been recommended, a few days earlier, to ensure we cycled the first 10kms out of Orford early in the morning to avoid any heavy traffic. The narrow road was apparently squeezed between a cliff and a stone wall. To our surprise and relief, the road was not bad at all even though it did not have any shoulders, the road was much wider than expected. We stopped in Buckland for breakfast at a roadhouse, some 17kms from Orford. As like yesterday, the sky was covered and the weather was still cool. We encountered quite a few hills during the day. We walked the steep hills as our legs were still tired from yesterday’s windy day. We checked into a room at a beautiful Manor on the edge of Richmond. We enjoyed our nicely decorated room while feeling good knowing that we only had another 30kms to cycle tomorrow before wrapping up our five month cycling adventure. We had our evening meal at the Manor’s restaurant.

2018.03.22 – [AU] Richmond ==> Hobart (32 kms | Total: 4985 kms) – We left our Manor accommodation and cycled a few kms into the town’s historic center. We stopped at the local bakery for breakfast before continuing our route towards Hobart. The road was again without any shoulder and fairly busy with tourist driving up to Richmond for a day trip from Hobart. Crossing the Tasman highway bridge from Cambridge to Hobart proved to be a bit of a challenge because of the elevated and narrow sidewalk. Our gps guided us against on-coming traffic which made it even more distracting/hazardous to cycle hence we ended walking the full length of the bridge. Cycling in the city center proved to be much easier. We stopped for lunch at a good dumpling restaurant. On our way to our accommodation, we met Dylan (?), a solo cyclist from New South Whales whom we had seen glimpses of yesterday on the road. On the way to our accommodation, we realized that it was located atop a very steep street. We struggled to push our tandem up the road which reminded us of our experience in the very hilly city of Dunedin on the NZ south island. Although there were no fireworks when we finally arrived at our last cycling destination, we both felt an inner celebration knowing that we would be putting the tandem aside for the next few weeks. We had cycled a total of 5,000kms (3,200kms in NZ and 1,800kms in Australia over four months – excluding our non-cycling stays in Auckland, Fiji and Sydney). We bought some wine and beer at the next door bottleshop to celebrate. We had a very good and plentiful evening meal at a nearby Italian restaurant.

2018.03.23 – [AU] Hobart ==> Hobart (0 kms | Total: 4985 kms) – After a slow morning start, we left our motel and headed out on some sightseeing. Along the way, we marveled at the steepness of some of the streets. We stopped at a nearby café for breakfast. We bought a few supplies and did some unsuccessful shoe shopping for me. After having the soles re-sewn in Fiji, my cycling shoes were now clearly shown their wear and tear. Before starting our afternoon self-guided walk of Hobart, we had lunch again at yesterday’s dumpling restaurant. We walked for a couple of hours along the pier and other historical neighborhoods. We stopped along the way for some coffee and cake. As we finished our walk near a grocery store, we opted to buy some take-away food for our evening meal. On the walk back to our motel, we did a slight detour to locate the bus terminal where we would catch the bus tomorrow to return to Devonport.

2018.03.24 – [AU] Hobart ==> Devonport (3 kms | Total: 4988 kms) – As the weather forecast called for rain, we stayed in our motel room until 10am check-out. We cycled to a McDonald’s (yes -we found one in Tasmania!) near our bus stop/terminal. We had breakfast and waited around for a few hours in the restaurant while we watched the rain fall. At 1:30pm, we cycled to our bus stop and unloaded our gear and prepared the tandem and trailer for our bus ride. The bus showed up promptly at 2:20pm and we took place with three other passengers. It rained most of the way to Devonport but it stopped about half an hour before we arrived at the Spirit of Tasmania ferry dock at 6:45pm . We re-assembled the tandem/trailer and reloaded our gear. As we had unsuccessfully tried, for the past few days, to modify the date of our return ferry sailing, we visited the ferry ticket office with the hope that we could get on-board at the 9pm departure instead of tomorrow morning namely to avoid the rain forecasted overnight. Unfortunately, due to the ferry’s computer system and/or their policies, it would have cost us an extra $200 for this change. Hence, we cycled to the nearby campground, where we had stayed upon our arrival in Tasmania. We managed to setup the tent and walk to a nearby restaurant for a late meal before any further rain fell again.

2018.03.25 – [AU] Devonport ==> Melbourne (8 kms | Total: 4996 kms) – We heard in the early morning the rain starting to fall. We broke camp, under the rain, shortly after 7am. We cycled to a café near the ferry’s dock where we had breakfast and bought some take-away sandwiches for our 10 hour crossing. Our boarding on the ferry was even quicker and easier than from Melbourne. We were among the first foot passengers to board. We quickly located our porthole cabin and dried up. The ferry scheduled to leave port at 9:30am was delayed by 45 mins. The sea was much more agitated during this crossing with swells of 2-3 meters. All exterior decks were closed to passengers. The ferry finally docked at 8:00pm – an hour later than expected. As we walked out of the ferry with our tandem, we were confronted to darkness, heavy winds and rain. We turned on our tail light and activated our dynamo powered front light and started cycling in this ugly dark weather. We followed the route outlined by Maps.me for over 7.5 kms which would bring us to our motel. Along the way, we noticed some barricades and many cars parked on some green space. We later learned that the Australian Grand Prix had just ended a few hours ago. By the time we arrived at our motel, our nerves were pretty much shot. We had never expected to be cycling in the city center at night, under windy and rainy condition.