I was underway by 7:30, and left the town as businesses were waking up. The highlight of the day was the stretch along the beach on the northern tip of Mersing. It was 5kms by the beach, cool in the shade and flat and quiet. Just perfect. There were some small hills as the still …
A slow start, a walk out along the marine park jetty to see the coral they’re growing, and some general lounging around. This was why I came here – to relax before the journey begins in earnest. Checkout was at 12 and I killed a couple of hours in the cafe at the accom. Then …
Snorkeling was first up. We went to two sites, the first of which was covered with crown of thorns starfish and most of the coral was dead; lots of interesting fish though. The second site was much better, a small island 100m of the beach. Lots of nice coral and fish, including a 2m shark …
It was drizzling in the morning, so I did some bike maintenance and tried to get rid of an annoying creak – I failed but I eliminated a few possibilities. I had a swim before breakfast and as I was getting out a little reef shark swam between me and the shore. I was well …
I had some issues with my banks, so I had to get to the booking office to get the ferry tickets or I’d be wasting my accomodation. All good, the 2 hour ferry ride was smooth, and I found the place easily. The ferry ride was uneventful but loading the bike on and off was …
I had 90 kms to get to Mersing with no accommodation options in between. An early start was required, but I’m a klutz with alarm settings on my phone, and woke up nearly an hour late. That meant arriving in Mersing around 12:30pm. For this ride in Asia, I want to leave early and avoid …
The 27kms to the border were meant to be easy along bike paths (connecctors) and very few roads. As it turned out, there was a lot of roadwork around these connectors, so komoot’s directions via my GPS were confusing. Result was about 10 wrong turns, and when I added this to my late start, I …
mmm… This is a culture shock to me and I’m surprised. I’m always quite comfortable in Asia, but somehow the thought of spending the next 5-6 months here has made me think – whoa, this is real. Then all of the usual bike touring anxieties surface. You know – where will I find accommodation, what …
I’m in Heathcote tonight after a pretty brisk but dry 50kms from Bendigo. Tomorrow, I’ll head to Seymour and train it to Melbourne, stay with an old friend, and spend 4 days with Timo, Kath and Minou. No more cycling for this trip, it’s getting to cold down here. Next will be Asia or Europe …
Todays highlight was the ride along the coast to Bell’s Beach. There’s a bike path heading south from Torquay most of the way. It’s not flat, but it’s stunning coastline. I went to the iconic Bells Beach where there was a small surfing contest in progress. I grabbed some lunch at a food caravan there, …
