Tassie, where things are getting better

Port Arthur

After Mark left me I went back to the youth hostel in Hobart to recover from the shock and make new plans. After I had treated myself to wonderful food in a great Indian Restaurant and having had a good night's sleep I decided to start my tour around Tasmania by cycling to Port Arthur to learn about Australian convict history. I really liked historic Port Arthur, but was still not too enthusiastic about cycling. Everything seemed to be so difficult: Getting water, finding campsites, dealing with the weather - I did not feel in my element.

Wielangta Forest Drive

 On my way back I ran into another cyclist going the opposite direction. There are not many cyclists around, so we both stopped to talk. We talked quite a while and even longer and then decided to camp together. We got along so well that John gave up on his plan to go to Port Arther and decided to cycle with me in Tasmania. John is cycling around the world and has been on tour now for 22 months. So we have many stories to tell each other. He loves stealth camping like me so we are in for an adventure every night. Actually we are having so much fun that I will follow him back to Melbourne from where we will cycle to Adelaide together. There are so many forest fires in the bush now that hiking does not make much sense.

Waiting for the ferry

Our first day of cycling brought us to Wielangta Forest Drive, a dirt road through thick forest with even some primeval forest left. Although very interesting cycling on rutted dirt roads was too much for me. John had to wait for me a lot. We cycled to Freycenit National Park to see the famous Wine Glass Bay and in order get there you can either take a long detour on roads or take a pedestrian and cyclist only ferry. We opted for the ferry which turned out to be a one man operation with a sports boat - but it worked.

John looking over Wineglass Bay

We even did a cheesy touristy thing and visited a zoo where you could feed kangaroos. It was expensive and tacky, but so much fun! I really start to enjoy cycling now and thanks to the adjustments Alan made on my bike and have not had any hand problems any more. I even start looking forward to cycle in Japan! Life is good again.