Vanderpants Oz Tour

Distance: 64.59 – TOTAL SO FAR – 2,263 km’s

Avg Spd: 15.9

Max Spd – 50.8

Saddle Time: 4:03 – Total saddle time = 142:05

Elevation: 600mtrs

Quote: To Begin…..BEGIN. I think I remind myself a lot in this blog to …’Lean in’ and just ‘begin’. We make it hard in our own minds don’t we. Uncomplicate it Adrian and just ..BEGIN. Good lessons that one.

Song of the Day: Elvis Presley – Suspicious minds – I just found myself singing this a lot today and on repeat – great song

Album of the Day:Ben Harper – burn to Shine – one of his best work I think – so much rhythm, soul and uniqueness
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Today I knew my mate was coming from Adelaide to hang with me for a few days and that was a pick me up from tired ass legs. Althought tired, I can feel them getting stronger and adapting and my rests on the hills are becoming less frequent and like a train, they just keep going more and more every day and that feeling I remember from my Europe tour of that ‘keep on going legs’ feeling is coming back to me. The hamstring pain is almost non existent but there is always management of other pain but they are my injuries that I can manage. it’s the new one’s that allow doubt to creep in but i’m learning to cope with them…stupid blown up knee for example. Those legs are feeling better and that’s good because i’ll need it for the 100km’s per day required for mountain biking in NZ for 30 days straight.

So anyway, on goes the wet shoes (Lovely) and as I hop out of the tent I see a few other people had my idea of sleeping under the bbq area so as 5am crept in i’m sure they didn’t love hearing me pack up all my gear – i tried to be quiet hehehehe.

Off I went into the rain again but I knew it would clear and as the day passed the sun came out and dried them out. I did not see a town all day until Queenstown (3.5 hours) and I cycled through the wild west as the signs say. Dense rainforest, open mountainous areas, over lakes and the Gordon river which is beautiful here and through mountains. i was in my element – i rode through a beautiful sunrise and heard waterfalls and animals Chirping and clicking for hours without a car. It was amazing.

my campsite last night

So after endless ups and downs again (I still think google aps elevation is wrong and when i leave Strahan i’m going to turn on my garmin and compare a big climb day and let’s see). I made it to Queenstown mostly wet, hungry and tired and someone came up to me when all I could think about was a toasty and a coffee haha. I always give my time though because if someone takes the time out of their day to want to know what I am doing I respect that and always (even if on repeat I don’t care) I always give them the time of day and have that conversation And be inquisitive to learn about theirs. They are always different and you learn so much about other people’s lives and what makes them tick. This guy in particular purchased a shut down hospital in Queenstown and is renovating it to become a hotel/restaurant. I love closed down buildings – I don’t know why – just love the thought of ‘what was’ and all the stories behind it so when he gave me his life story then finished by ‘if you’re coming back this way, knock on my door and i’ll give you a grand tour’ …..i said ‘yup – i’m in I would love that’. I said i’m not sure if I am coming back this way (i still might) but if i do – that would be awesome. I had my toastie and coffee (knocked my coffee over and the lady made me another one which is nice). Whilst in queenstown, I had 4g for the first time in days so I researched accommodation, two tours and places to eat so I was ready and didn’t have to think when I arrived. That was all done in an hour and was so nice to think i’ll be chilling in Strahan for a few days and actually see some touristy things with my mate – so good. So on I went to Strahan and I went shopping, pharmacy, unpacked my clothes, done a load of washing and waited for my mate…………

I looked at a nice restaurant to go and have a nice meal with a view and enjoy a chat with a few bevvies

Had a great night and slept early for tomorrows cruise

We went on a river cruise (Ship built in hobart and ran by tasmanians) and saw a 3,000 year old huon pine tree (and rainforest full of them), lots of world heritage listed rainforest which was beautiful and also went to Sarah Island which is famous for the penal colony from 1822-1833 and synonomous for it’s brutality And it’s initial intention of raw punishment. The guided tour had great stories and all with an enthusiastic delivery – all along the Gordon River. This island housed up to 500 re-offenders at a time and it had a great story behind it – I won’t bore you but it was interesting to hear how manY people at once were on this island and how they manually reclaimed a lot of sea. The story I like is from it’s original intention of raw punishment and harsh conditions with many attempted escapes (and sometimes committing murder to be sentenced to death to escape), it turned out that a ship builder came there and transformed it to give them better conditions in reply for him teching them ship building skills to build ships. It ended up being a place where some convicts wanted to stay longer then their sentence and finish the build of a ship And no escape attempts. Then politics got involved and converted all to Port Arthur and designed a harsher prison. I like the Huon pine and how they built the ships with the oil stained long living pine. It takes 800 years for the tree to fully grow how crazy is that. It grows 1mm each year. They have a very high oil content which preserves them and makes them good for ship building. Ok enough boring facts LOL. The harbour here looks like black tea and the island accompanied with the rainforest was pretty surreal to be honest.

We also Watched a play last night that reenacts one of the escapes Where they built s ship and sailed it to Chile (yes u heard correctly – a play hehe.) Followed by a countery and some liquid of the alcoholic sort

The next morning we booked a train ride to hear about and see the copper mining and the horrific and harsh conditions in which they built the line to bring copper (instead of a failed gold mining industry). Was a nice couple days here to be honest and enjoyed spending time with my mate and resting and seeing things like an actual tourist. Tasmania is BEAUTIFUL and full of amazing walking tracks (which I want to come back and see more of) plus a rich history Including mining, world heritage listed rainforest, convict history, dairy (nice ice creams hehe), yummy honey, fishing and many more things but so may things to see and do. Tomorrow is back to the riding and I am looking forward to my last few days in tasmania and then onto melbourne to sydney and dodge any dangerous areas relating to fire and make my way to syd then to NZ for my adventure race.

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Vanderpants OUT!!