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, …
Today was another of those quiet rides through the countryside without many highlights, but a really nice day nonetheless. Torquay looks fantastic and I’m happy to spend a few days here and relax. Again, the predicted rain didn’t materialise, but it was certainly cool at night.
