Paul's Touring Blog

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More catching up

I’m caught up to Day 46 49 51 and our arrival in Sydney. More coming and only 18 15 13 more days to document. Also, I’ve added this blog to the Table of Contents (There’s also a link in the right panel). Should make it easier to find where you last left off.

Some stats from the trip. I’ll include these in the final post, too:
4,200km, 2,600 miles, 110,000 ft of climbing, 20 days camping, 18 days with Warmshowers hosts, 12 days in motels, 14 others, days with friends or friends of friends (2 of those on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry).

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One of the good things about the power coming back on last night: we could make coffee in the room. All the hotels (and many of the campgrounds) we’ve visited have coffee, but it’s instant. Good for the caffeine fix, but less satisfying taste and texture wise. Still, the sun was shining and the coffee along with breakfast of yogurt and granola got us going. I put the tent out in the sunshine for one last drying session, and we repacked everything that was scattered around the room — all fully dry now.

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The best way to start a day on a tour — having had a good rest, and having a good breakfast. Having a good breakfast served by a wonderful host is the best. We had them all today, and coffee, of course. We caught Sam just before he left for work, and Tess for school, and El laid out a breakfast spread for us, replete with Vegamite (a very little bit goes a long way!). El and Sam, it turns out, aren’t touring cyclists, but do commute. It’s El’s parents who are the bike tourers and I jotted down their route from the Brisbane area to Newcastle that El told us they used. It included a river crossing where you had to wait for a boat to come along and flag them down for a [possible] ferry across. Dana continued the chat with El while I packed up the tent and clothes.

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Uggh. Everything was wet this morning: the tents, sleeping bags, bike seats, shoes. Sand covered, too. My least favorite way to start the day. We got up early, but not early enough for the 6:30 AM sailing. We packed up and went to Pronto Creative Foods, a bistro we had seen last night and had coffee and an egg/spinach/feta wrap. Then it was back to the ferry dock to catch the 7:30. Apparently, it’s quite the commuter route from Ettalong as folks leave their cars in the wharf parking lot and pick them up to finish their commute.

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Our last morning in Sydney. Dana coaxed a late checkout from reception — not very hard as the place wasn’t very busy on a Tuesday — and we did a last hurrah walk to the Botanical Gardens and Opera House. We did finally get to see a live Kookaburra. We had heard their songs and calls so many times, but hadn’t been able to spot them in their roosts in the trees.

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Today is “Explore Sydney” day and we started it off with coffee and breakfast in the hostel’s kitchen. Second order of business was waiting until the staff came in to extend our stay another day. We quickly realized that one day in Sydney wasn’t enough. Probably could use a week, but another day will certainly be more relaxing.

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Another filling breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon started off my day. Dana went for another run as we were going to be in the car for a 5 hours or so on the drive to Sydney. No more cattle work today. Just packing up, loading the bikes and and getting the bags into the truck. The last four days here were wonderful — enjoying Stephen’s hospitality (though he claims to hate people, he’s really a sweetheart), meeting Tic, John, and Lily, lending a hand when we could, and basking in New South Wales’ abundant sunshine.

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This morning we were treated to eggs and on the barbie, and I got the added protein of thick slabs of bacon to go with my eggs. We talked over the plans for the day; Dana was ready to head to Sydney that afternoon or evening, but Stephen was insisting we stay another day. I was in Stephen’s camp as I had some work to do on the bikes and leaving in the afternoon would put us in Sydney at night — much harder to get your bearings in the dark. In the end, Stephen won her over however reluctantly. She finished her breakfast and headed out for a run! Another positive was that we’d get to do some more cattle herding.

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A good rest, a hearty breakfast, and we were ready for a new challenge today — a cattle roundup. Stephen will be helping his neighbor Tic with moving cows from one paddock to another and separating the heifers from their calves. Until it was time to head over to Tic’s, we lingered over our coffee, did some laundry, and kept learning more about how Stephen came to be in this house.

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Despite the proximity to the highway, we did get a good sleep and heard from Stephen as soon as we got up. He was on his way and would be to Cudal by 9. We made breakfast and broke camp and were all packed up and ready when he arrived. We loaded our bags into his pickup bed and put the bikes on the rack and off we went.