Monday, 09 Feb 2004

Location: Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia

From Marrawah, Tim and I headed down the West Coast Explorer - over 100 kms of dirt road. I had a flat after 15 kms due to split inner tube, then the new tube went flat due to me pinching it when putting it on; fixed that, then 10 kms later it went down again (patch didn't hold). By now I'm thinking the isolated dirt road with no spare tube might be a bad idea. Decided to sleep on it. Bush-camped and next morning decided to go back to the bitumen road. Tim convinced me that the worst that could happen was I'd have to catch a lift with my bike - so decided to carry on. Glad I did as it was a great ride - luckily no more tyre or wheel troubles. It was a hard ride though with first a head-wind then very hilly.

When we reached bitumen again, I was glad...and a little sad too. The dirt road was somehow closer to nature and there was very little traffic. A short ride then to Zeehan, pop. less than 200 as the silver mine closed in 2003. We had a rest day here. Tim and I split here as he had a different cycling strategy: all bush-camping and more dirt rides. His enthusiasm and youthfulness carried him through as he didn't have much equipment: no rain gear, no cooking gear, 1 pair of shoes with holes in them...

I had a short 45 km ride to Strahan, a tourist town on Macquarie Harbour where one of the worst penal colonies was run nearly 200 hundred years ago. Another rest day with bacon, eggs, toast, muffin and cappuccino for breakfast on the esplanade....a hard life on the west coast! Stayed at a lovely backpackers.