The pedalpumpkins trip continued...
Again the pictures are in random order but everybody must be used to it by now... and don't forget to click on them to see the full size!
The final days in Tasmania took us up to the north coast to burnie where we saw a cargo ship in the harbour, so we asked if they can give us a lift to melbourne and save us the final leg on the highway to devonport...thankfully they said yes and off we left within the hour with a truckload of sheep and truckdrivers! The next morning we arrived after a fairly bumpy ride in melbourne where we stayed for one night to sort some things out and defreeze ourselves and dry all the equipment. A train took us out of the city the next morning and we continued our ride in much nicer temperatures than Tassie but marked by the floods through a town called Sale than Stockdale-Bairnsdale-Buchan where our ascent into the victorian alps and the following adventure really begun.
As we don't like it to be flat we took the hard route up through the Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Park what was quiet a mission:
Every day we climbed a fair bit up and down again and the temperatures of course went lower as the views got better...As we took of into nearly 180kms of wilderness and hard climbs after Buchan we had to carry food for what we thought 2 or 3 days but things got a bit difficult...there is no store or any other kind of reliable foodsource or life on the way and half of it is pretty nasty muddy road or gravel road with nasty sharp big stones on it. These stones destroyed George's rear tyre about 10kms before we came to Suggan Buggan so the inner tube got punctured all the time and the first time in my travels i wasn't able to fix the bl...dy tyre to make it working...so the last chance was filling the hole tyre with bark from the trees which doesn't make a comfy ride but at least keeps the rim alive. So with this kind of riding we weren't very fast and it was cold, very exhausting so we ate a lot and quickly run out of food. The one and only car that passed us the first two days couldnt help us out but we were lucky and at the end of the day another nice car came along and the driver gave us 4 sausages and a steak what was nearly gone off...thankfully this meant we didn't have to cycle through the night to Jindabyne and enough energy to tackle the last day...George was definitely the hero off this adventure as she cycled nearly 100kms on a bark filled rear tyre which is very hard and very bumpy especially with not much food and a constant climb on the last day from 200m onto 1200m on bad muddy gravel.
Nonetheless we don't regret cycling through this beautifull and remote landscape with stunning views!
After a recovery day in Jindabyne where we were the only people in a tent and not there for skiing and a new tyre for george we made our way to Nimmitabel, over Mt. Brown where it was snowing and than down into Tathra, our first day on the beach, yeahhh! We met a lovely guy from the Surf' n' Bike Shop in Tathra who organized a spare tyre for George and a free place to camp! In the morning we shared our campground with 10 early rising surfers! So we went north on rolling hills along the coast through Narooma with the nice people at the visitor centre who took pitty on two smelly cyclist and gave us a much needed shower and coffee, thanks guys!
Because the next leg to sydney we would have to cycle only on the highway and together with some time pressure we made the decision to take the bus into sydney and out of sydney to escape the terrible traffic around there. So now we are in Laurieton after some beautifull days of cycling along the coast with many great surfing beaches and lovely people. We were even surprisingly invited by a lovely family in Nelson bay and could sleep for one night on a matress in a house and have some conversation and television! Thanks Angie and Peter! Very great to meet you and your girls!
We have to stop now, the joint is closing and we need to pitch the tent!
Hope you guys enjoy reading and looking at the pictures!
the pumpkins
Again the pictures are in random order but everybody must be used to it by now... and don't forget to click on them to see the full size!
The final days in Tasmania took us up to the north coast to burnie where we saw a cargo ship in the harbour, so we asked if they can give us a lift to melbourne and save us the final leg on the highway to devonport...thankfully they said yes and off we left within the hour with a truckload of sheep and truckdrivers! The next morning we arrived after a fairly bumpy ride in melbourne where we stayed for one night to sort some things out and defreeze ourselves and dry all the equipment. A train took us out of the city the next morning and we continued our ride in much nicer temperatures than Tassie but marked by the floods through a town called Sale than Stockdale-Bairnsdale-Buchan where our ascent into the victorian alps and the following adventure really begun.
As we don't like it to be flat we took the hard route up through the Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Park what was quiet a mission:
Every day we climbed a fair bit up and down again and the temperatures of course went lower as the views got better...As we took of into nearly 180kms of wilderness and hard climbs after Buchan we had to carry food for what we thought 2 or 3 days but things got a bit difficult...there is no store or any other kind of reliable foodsource or life on the way and half of it is pretty nasty muddy road or gravel road with nasty sharp big stones on it. These stones destroyed George's rear tyre about 10kms before we came to Suggan Buggan so the inner tube got punctured all the time and the first time in my travels i wasn't able to fix the bl...dy tyre to make it working...so the last chance was filling the hole tyre with bark from the trees which doesn't make a comfy ride but at least keeps the rim alive. So with this kind of riding we weren't very fast and it was cold, very exhausting so we ate a lot and quickly run out of food. The one and only car that passed us the first two days couldnt help us out but we were lucky and at the end of the day another nice car came along and the driver gave us 4 sausages and a steak what was nearly gone off...thankfully this meant we didn't have to cycle through the night to Jindabyne and enough energy to tackle the last day...George was definitely the hero off this adventure as she cycled nearly 100kms on a bark filled rear tyre which is very hard and very bumpy especially with not much food and a constant climb on the last day from 200m onto 1200m on bad muddy gravel.
Nonetheless we don't regret cycling through this beautifull and remote landscape with stunning views!
After a recovery day in Jindabyne where we were the only people in a tent and not there for skiing and a new tyre for george we made our way to Nimmitabel, over Mt. Brown where it was snowing and than down into Tathra, our first day on the beach, yeahhh! We met a lovely guy from the Surf' n' Bike Shop in Tathra who organized a spare tyre for George and a free place to camp! In the morning we shared our campground with 10 early rising surfers! So we went north on rolling hills along the coast through Narooma with the nice people at the visitor centre who took pitty on two smelly cyclist and gave us a much needed shower and coffee, thanks guys!
Because the next leg to sydney we would have to cycle only on the highway and together with some time pressure we made the decision to take the bus into sydney and out of sydney to escape the terrible traffic around there. So now we are in Laurieton after some beautifull days of cycling along the coast with many great surfing beaches and lovely people. We were even surprisingly invited by a lovely family in Nelson bay and could sleep for one night on a matress in a house and have some conversation and television! Thanks Angie and Peter! Very great to meet you and your girls!
We have to stop now, the joint is closing and we need to pitch the tent!
Hope you guys enjoy reading and looking at the pictures!
the pumpkins
Good morning melbourne!
thats one of our shortcuts
big seagulls in forster
The lovely Arnold family in Smithton, Tasmania
George in her Hometown but not really...
The cargoship, us, and the truckers
a well needed kip in the botanical gardens in sydney
Cockatoos, also functional as alarm clock
george and bird
our bikes on the patriotic ferry from Nelson bay to Tea Garden
Surf at the booti booti national park
the sun was with us most of the time
the friendly team from Narooma visitor centre
Sydney opera house and a much better icecream
sydney harbour bridge (bridgewalk 140$, you can see the people!)
the opera thing again
leaving the alps (mount brown)
coming closer to the coast
sunset
finally on the coast!
typicall australian postboxes?
typical dirtroad
trees and sky
road, hill, ....monaro high country is beautifull
winter gear required on top of Mt. Brown
after rolling down mt. brown my face was frozen...
looking back onto the 90kms of bark comfort and the climb
the bark...
camping at lake jindabyne
leaving the ski area
little caffee and the treat of the day
buchan campground in the morning
a wild dog, shot, very appealing if you don't have food left!
the beautifull but tamed snowy river
nearly on the hill towards jindabyne
final swing on the treehouse in Melbourne
the housemates
rolling down to buchan
kookaburrah sits on the old (gum) tree...
Kangaroo making friends with another wild animal!