Paul's Touring Blog

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Update Day 63 1-4-2026 (3-31-2026 in the US)

Added posts for days 32-35. Spent a lovely couple of days with Natalie in the Clayfield section of Brisbane. Long story, but we were originally going to connect with Rebecca, a friend of Dana’s friend Lynn in St Clg, but she wasn’t able to host. She kindly set us up with her niece Natalie. We were close enough to cycle to Brisbane, and/or take the 50¢ train back and forth. More on our stay when I get the other 29 days of March done.

Natalie was so kind as to take Dana and all our stuff to the airport and I grabbed an Uber (it’s a $1000 fine for everyone in the car for anyone not wearing a seat belt, and there wasn’t room for a third person). Fortunately, Natalie lives 15 min from the airport, so the Uber was more than cost effective and avoided two trips. Also avoided getting up at 2 AM.

Now we’re at the airport and the Qantas counters are closed until 3 AM. So, we set up or own little sleeping “fort” in hopes of getting a couple zzzzzs before our 5:15 flight to Sydney.

Update Day 60 29-3-2026 (3-28-2026 in the US)

Well, we rode all the way to Brisbane from Sydney, save for a light rail bit to finish off yesterday.. Got here yesterday evening, and we’ll be here for the duration-flying out the 2nd. Have a kayaking/snorkeling trip to Moreton Island planned tomorrow, and we’ll do some cycling tours of the city. Sorry I’m so far behind on the blog, but we’ve spent a lot of time on the bikes: 4000km (2500+ miles) since Jan 30, and a lot of nice evenings with our Warmshowers hosts. I will finish it, for sure – lots of great stories and pics to come.

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We had a good rest at the campground and got up early for another long day in the saddle. We made breakfast in the kitchen, packed up, and rode out of Mansfield on our way to our next stop, Wangaratta and our next Warmshowers hosts, Ian and Prue.

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Another good night’s sleep and we were up to see Will off to a job near Mansfield, where we were also headed thanks to his pointing out “The Great Victorian Rail Trail” (GVRT) to us. We also met his neighbors, Bryan and Jessica. Bryan was the orchestrater of the garden, and Jessica is a transplanted American originally hailing from Armonk, NY. Will and Bryan loaded us up with Italian yellow beans which were part of last night’s dinner and made great snacks on the road.

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We got some sleep despite the dance party and Dana bargained with reception for a late checkout, but settled for a comp breakfast (which was extra at this hotel). We filled up on eggs, potatoes, mini waffles, fruit, and bread. Probably one of the few multi-option breakfasts we have had, but also a good start to the day.

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After a good night’s rest, we had breakfast and left Maggie’s for a walk in the rain to the train station to get our tickets for that afternoon. A quite easy process and we were soon walking around town. One thing we’ve noticed in both NZ and Australia is that the downtown areas are still very vibrant. Lots of small shops and restaurants with awnings covering the sidewalks so you can window shop out of the rain. Even when there are big box stores, they are located in or close to downtown in a mall, but very few malls or big box stores as we know them — well outside the downtown surrounded by macadam parking lots. Sunday morning the cafes were full of people as were the streets.

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Well, we got some sleep last night. Dana was kept up by some women playing tunes well after the dudes got quiet. I did not hear that at all as I had earplugs in trying to block the “hoo-rahs” and cackles coming from the guys party. Fortunately, today’s ride wasn’t too difficult: 50 miles and 1600′ of climbing. Relatively easy given the earlier parts of the GOR.

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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.