Australia Postscript

The bike riding is over and we're now traveling with Jamie and Natalia and they are getting to know some of the Australian wildlife that we've enjoyed for the last two months...



Amongst our enduring memories of Australia are the birds - here are a few more photos from the last few days...


Kookaburra

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

 

 

Sulphur-crested White Cockatoo

...other memories of Australia...

• the Outback - nothing like four weeks of riding anywhere from 120 to 170 km per day in 40+ degree heat to make you appreciate how vast and harsh it is
• the Outback road trains which were greatly feared at the outset, but we finished that stretch with enormous respect for their drivers who always gave us space whenever they could
• unfortunately we'll also remember that other Australian drivers have little respect for cyclists - even when they have two empty lanes to their right, many will hug the left side of the road when passing cyclists and the cyclist has little or no shoulder. Pedestrians are no better off unless they are on a marked zebra crossing.

Afterthoughts:

• another great adventure, a new part of the world, another super experience
• reunite with old friends, make new friends... just a great group of people, TdA staff included
• our Specialized Sirrus Comp bicycles performed wonderfully - no mechanical problems for the third excursion in a row - thank you Dave at Corsa Cycles in Squamish for selling us the right bike and for keeping it in tune and ready for these trips
• similar thanks to Schwalbe for the Marathon tires - the front ones have now done about 16000 km without any problem - we replaced the rear ones at 10000 but carried the old ones as spares because there really was nothing wrong except a bit of tread wear

Tour d'Afrique on the whole did great work, but the one disappointment was their reluctance to accept suggestions that might enhance the experience - in fact they were defensive about things and dismissive of suggestions on the grounds that they couldn't accept responsibility. Come on... we're all grown up people and as much as we appreciate that TdA might like to hold our hands the whole way, we can look after ourselves.

Notwithstanding that one criticism, we haven't found anybody that offers these experiences better than TdA. Henry Gold, his staff, and all the other riders, are a great family and have facilitated us seeing parts of the world we might not otherwise have seen.

Bye... until the next trip...

...and we wish all our followers a very merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and all the best of health and happiness in 2015...

... Ursula and Rae

into Sydney and the end of this excursion

As usual, Tour d'Afrique finds an interesting, slightly unusual, innovative way to set the route for the last day. Today we had some beautiful coastline...

...then up in the hills and forest in a national park...

...across a bay in a small ferry...

...and then some bike trail along the shore in the company of a couple of local folk who had shared the ferry with us...

That took us to the final lunch of the tour and a photo of the group that was there at the time...

Then a bit more riding on bike trails, alongside the Sydney Olympic park area, to catch another ferry that took us to the Circular Quay, only a kilometer from the Opera House where the finishing photo was to be taken.

This part of Sydney is jammed with people, so it was a 1-km walk, not a ride, to the opera house. Jamie and Natalia had flown in from Vancouver, arriving earlier that morning, and we'd hoped the timing would work for them to be there when we got in. So it was great when, just before we got to the Opera, Natalia came running up...

...so here we are with the pair of them in front of the Opera House...

...and here is the group, half of whom rode for two months in Indonesia before starting from Darwin two months ago. For us it was 5500 kilometres of cycling.

Two months... 5500 km... and a couple of hours after this photo, we were on the 25th floor of our hotel, with a great view of the city...



...and the wind-up dinner and a lot of farewells... tomorrow we'll all scatter...

 

 

We're not quite finished... one more blog with some afterthoughts.

The last leg

A rest day in Canberra which is the purpose built capital of Australia...

 

...the beautifully presented war memorial...

...the new parliament building as seen from the war memorial...

...and the war memorial from the new parliament - the old parliament is the white building in the foreground...

Aboriginal rights have been a significant issue in Australia as they have in other countries settled by Europeans. A makeshift 'aboriginal embassy' occupies a tent in front of the old parliament since the nineteen-sixties. A referendum in 1971 resulted in a giant leap forward for recognition of the aboriginal nations as equal citizens in Australia. With only a day in Canberra, we could only look at some of the outside exhibits at the aboriginal centre. This one caught our eye... if only everyone in the world could see it this way...

The next day we started the final three-day leg into Sydney, starting with a few hills...

Ursula and Dani (a Berliner) are all smiles having made it to the top of one hill
and looking forward a nice descent as the reward.

The day was beautiful. Here is one of our last looks at the lunch truck, the blue marquis and trailer between the trees. We had come to rely heavily on it... it was always a welcome sight. 

Campsite that night was a bare site in that we didn't have showers, but we were beside a pub so at least there were WCs. Morning came with the usual pile of bags to go on the truck - only once more for all of this.

Doug, in the meantime, saw fit to serve a gourmet breakfast to the local turkeys and chickens. And in case  you're worried about the poor turkey, apparently he/she/it is not in as much danger as he would be in Canada at this time of year - seems that Christmas is not necessarily a time for turkey...

But today, the second to last riding day, was not a riding day for Ursula and Rae... Bob Edwards from earlier on the trip (Aussie - lives in Sydney) had come down with his wife, Margaret, joined us for a TdA dinner in the camp last night, and picked us up a little after everybody else, baggage truck included, had left. We started with a visit to one of the beaches near Nowra and found a bicycle-friendly café for our morning coffee.

Initial intent was then to visit the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum at Nowra followed by some activities that would be of more interest to the ladies. after which Bob had arranged through some of his connections a visit to HARS - the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society - and its fleet of flying vintage aircraft. Our timetable was upset by an electrical outage at the Fleet Air Arm Museum that significantly delayed our visit - indeed the visit would have been totally scuppered were it not for the great kindness of one of the Directors who was able to get us in. Both of these sites were absolutely marvellous. Thankfully Bob and Rae have very tolerant and understanding wives because in the end, beyond a nice lunch, they didn't get any activities that were more to their liking - we owe them one (okay... much more than just ONE). Here are a couple of aircraft that we won't see in Canada...

Fairey Gannet at the Fleet Air Arm Museum

deHavilland Australia Drover at HARS

Bob and Margaret got us back to camp in time to put up the tent and have the last campsite dinner of the excursion... tomorrow we'd ride into Sydney and the excursion would be over... that's stuff for one more blog entry...

on to Canberra, the nation's capitol

Last rest day was in Bairnsdale which we'd never heard of before, but it, like many other towns we've passed through, was a pleasant, clean place with some 'typical' architecture that speaks to earlier days.

Bairnsdale Court House

Bairnsdale Railway Station

Station Hotel

stately home, now an up-scale conference centre/hotel

 As soon as the sun set, out came the fruit bats, also known here as 'flying foxes' although they are actually large bats, about the size of a good-sized crow. Forgive the photo quality, but it was almost dark.

The next riding day was to Orbost, only 88 km if we'd gone on the highway which was the 'official' route. But we opted to go on a rail trail that went between the two campsites with less than 1000 metres on the road. It was a great route but was not used by TdA because they were concerned that some people with narrow road-bike tires might have some difficulty making it more dangerous. We found it disappointing that they wouldn't even give the bike route as an alternative to a busy highway with barely a shoulder and trucks and busses whizzing by beside your ears.

...it seems we even briefly hit another continent...

 

Anyway, we were rewarded by animal and bird sightings as well as no traffic, no noise, just plain a delightful, peaceful ride, in fact from the biking conditions, probably the best of the trip.


crimson rosella

A heron alighting at a river bank...

A goanna that was fully 2 metres long nose to tail...

 

 ...and a smaller one first watching us, then calmly walking away, its tongue flahing in and out as it moved...

 

 This echidna was on the path well ahead of us. It disappeared to the side and we found it hiding in the brush beside the tree.

Just before getting to Orbost were the remains of the longest wooden bridge structure in Australia...

Once into camp in Orbost, there were a couple of flocks of Australia Ibis soared and circled overhead and apparently had been doing so for hours before we got there...

From Orbost, it was into the Snowy Mountains, forests, and a lot of climbing - 1800 metres two days in a row, a little less yesterday into Canberra.

Tall trees and ferns, evidence of fires at different places, and these cobwebs that were high up in the trees....

Ursula celebrates reaching the top of a twenty-kilometre climb that was almost as steep as the road up to our house in Squamish...

...and here a mix of morning fog and pleasant scenery (even if the traffic wasn't nice)...

 

 

We're now in McDonalds in Canberra having breakfast before wandering in town today - the free internet is the attraction to get this blog posted - the last few days we've had no internet, and often no cell phone coverage, and the wifi hotspot at the caravan park didn't work. The TV worked at the campsite, so we share this country's grief at the outcome of yesterday's hostage-taking in Sydney.

And one final thing... Bryan... happy 50th birthday - we haven't forgotten... you're getting better, not older

Now, if the rain has stopped, off to see town.