A Splendid Day

Well, the bike book said that our ride yesterday was near dead flat (which we read as pancake flat... always have food on the mind). We started off by heading back inland through more fields and farms. Every little hill made us doubt our trusty old cycle book... we soon decided that the ride was more like "blueberry pancake" flat... and there were lots of blueberries! But overall, the day of riding was quite pleasant for the legs. After pedalling through fields for a while we came back out to the edge of the ocean and cycled along one of our most beautiful stretches of road in Tasmania. The sun was shining brightly and sparkling off the array of blue colors in the ocean. The road winded along a cliff that provided us a spectacular view of the endless water with hills of the Freycinet peninsula standing proudly in the distance. I don't think I could have dreamed up a more beautiful road to cycle along.

We took a break in Swansea for a bite to eat and a rest off our saddles before continuing down nine mile beach road. The road was a small secluded street with little traffic and lined with green shrubbery blooming out of the sandy ground. While we couldn't actually see the ocean, the endless skyline and cool, fresh breeze told us it was close by. When we got to the end of the street we came out to a secluded beach... there were no shops or houses or facilities of any sort (except a small bathroom). The road continued across the inlet of the ocean, but there was no bridge and no phone to call our dingy service to get across (doah!). Luckily there was a family enjoying their day off for Labor day and they offered us the use of their mobile to call our boat (phew!). Within minutes a kind gentleman arrived with a little motor boat, loaded our bikes, and told us to hop in. He took us to the other side of the inlet and we were back on our way towards Coles Bay (all the cars have to drive a much longer way around). A short ride later we pulled into the little resort town of Coles Bay. It didn't take long before I found a nice little ice cream shop that sold Tasmanian made ice cream. I bought a nice big mint chocolate chip cone (MMmmm - Tasmanians make nice ice cream) and then we headed on to set up camp.

After setting up the tent and finding some more substantial food (Pizza - Mmmm), we decided to stroll out to Wineglass Bay to take a look at what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. What we thought was a short ride up the road ended up being a 6km up and down ride down the road until we reached the trail head. We then zoomed along the path to get a glimpse of the Bay before the sun disappeared. The path was spotted with large rock structures full of pinks and reds which looked lovely in the dimming evening light. We arrived to the lookout in time for a wonderful sight of a semicircle beach with white sands and blue waters. Beautiful hills surrounded the beach and diminished as they ran further out to sea. Large grey clouds loomed over the hills threatening rain for the next day. We enjoyed the delightful view as the sun began to fade and daylight diminished. We walked back to our bikes, put on our flashing lights and headtorches, and headed back to camp thoroughly exhausted and minds full of the picturesque images of the day.