Date:     Mon, 6 Jun 2005

To:         touring@phred.org

From:    “Michael Ayers” <michael@terminalia.org>

Subject: Gondwana - A Tiring Traverse of Tasmania

 

G’Day Phreds,

 

/Began this post on June 3.../

Tonight I am here in Devonport Tasmania, with just a few minutes before I board the overnight ferry, The Spirit of Tasmania, back to the mainland.

My circle around the island of Tasmania is complete, though, as usual for me, the start of a big tour was not especially easy. I seem to have a knack for torturing myself on the first few days of any tour, and this one was no exception.

Many things conspired to bring that about, most notably my wobbly “Sea Legs”, the short days (9.5 hours of usable daylight really puts a crimp in my touring routine), the typical Tasmanian Autumn weather (cold with rain), not to mention lots climbing right out of the gate.

No worries, though, as I know from experience that that sort of thing never lasts. And, as expected, after about a week (the length it always seems to take for me) my legs returned. At just about the same time the Sun came back out and the riding got a little bit easier too. So, I made it back here just in time to catch my scheduled ferry.

As it turns out, with my slow progress during the first few days I had to ride through some of my planned rest/sightseeing days. However, that may have been for the best since it was a little too cold to enjoy very much sightseeing off the bike anyway. And, I realized as I pushed along that as this tour progresses, I may really wish for the chance to be cold and wet once again. This is the desert continent, after all...

/Continued writing post on June 7.../

Ooops, ran out of time to finish this post before the ferry left, and I could not find another place for ‘Net access until today.

Back to Tasmania. Don’t get the impression that I did not have a good time. It was quite an interesting place. I enjoyed the rainforest on the west coast in spite of the cold, damp weather (it is a rainforest, after all). There were few people around and the wetness of the skies only added to the eerie atmosphere of the forest.

I was especially impressed by the amount and variety of bird life on the Island. Big flocks of Black Cockatoos, Sulfur-crested Cockatoos as well, Green Rosella parrots, Black Swans on every pond, the occasional Kookaburra, and more. As a fan of parrots, I was on cloud nine. And the best part is that I know that the next several months will bring the same, and even more!

The roads in Tasmania were generally quite narrow, but I am used to that so it did not present any problems for me. In the hilly regions, there were some significant grades on the climbs (with my aforementioned sea legs, that did present some difficulties ;-) ). However, the road surface was uniformly very smooth and that was quite nice.

So now, I am back on the mainland, and am rather looking forward to turning north, towards the equator, in a few days, heading for a little warmer weather and (slightly) longer days.

No worries!

Mike

 

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The Tour of Gondwana

May 02005 - Oct 02007

http://www.terminalia.org/tour