Paul's Touring Blog

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Update Day 51 19-3-2026 (3-18-2026 in the US)

Added posts for days 29 & 30. We’re in Tea Gardens at a hotel. Our tent and sleeping bags were still wet from the drenching we got two days ago, so we spread everything out and managed to get everything dry. Heading along the coast to the Forster area today, hoping to camp, then on to Port Maquarie to catch a train to Brisbane.

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Happy to report no kanga intrusions last night. Our planned short day today allowed for other activities and we walked to the beach where we watched our uni-student-trio attempting to surf. The surf was pretty rough and they aborted their first try as the current was pushing them toward some rocks. Dana went for a run/walk on the beach and I headed back to camp and the kitchen to charge up and work on the blog. Ian and Janet stopped by and Janet left us a bag of blackberries to go with our breakfast. They were planning on going birding again and that if they were gone, we knew how to get our cooler items. I said thanks and good-bye in advance in case we didn’t see them again.

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We left Apollo Bay after a pretty good night’s sleep, and though my cold was still a presence, I felt better and ready for the first climb that started 2 mi outside of Apollo Bay. The short day yesterday allowed us to change our destination to Princetown, which avoided the almost 10 mile round trip detour into Johanna’s Beach campground. I was happy about that!

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A good night’s rest, a warm breakfast, and we were ready to move down the GOR to Johanna Beach campground.

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Back in Geelong again. It’s 7 AM and we had a mixed night of sleeping and short naps. We hopped on the bikes without a plan of what we were going to do next, heading to a McDonald’s for the free wifi, some coffee and some what ifs.

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After we got back from the penguin & possum hunt, we had a relaxing sleep. We packed up, left our bags at the reception office, and left for the Tasmanian Arboretum in search of our next wildlife experience: platypuses.

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We packed up early and rode the very short ride (for us) back to Devonport. Rain was called for and we got some on the way, and we rode to a little bakery near the ferry terminal and had breakfast and coffee. We had a reservation at the Eli Hotel on the other side of the river and headed there in hopes of dropping off our stuff and being free to tour around the city sans extra weight. The hotel folks were delightful and helpful and let us check in early since the people who booked our room the night before never showed. What a surprise bonus.

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In the morning we packed up camp and hiked back up main drag. Got some coffee at a local shop and had our breakfast at a park bench on the busy main street. We got on our way to Sheffield and our intent was to go past a wildlife reserve that also had devils and then do a big climb over to Sheffield. 

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After a good rest and a good breakfast and much discussion with Malcolm, we decided doing the wine trail was not going to be something we could accomplish and make it back to Devonport by Monday for the ferry. So, we decided to head back to Deloraine and on the way visit the Tasmanian Zoo where Tasmanian Devils and other creatures were kept. 

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We had a pretty good night, that is until the video family decided that a common sleeping area, surrounded by dozens of snoring and dozing passengers, was a good place to have a 6 AM video call. Rude, to say the least. We weren’t that close to them, and none of the closer passengers called them out (they were obviously from more polite societies). We did catch a few more Zzzzzs and the ferry was about an hour and a half late getting into Devonport, so we had the extra time.