Headed to a Farm

Well, we have learned that sometimes it is easier to set up camp and cook your own dinner to avoid awkward conversation with strangers... it was nice to get cleaned up and off to a fresh start, but it is sometimes work trying to be a polite guest...

At any rate, our bike ride today was wonderful. We got an early start and headed back down Elephant Pass (aka Pancake Hill). Our road returned to the shores of the ocean and the morning sun was casting a warm glow onto the water. We rolled along the coast for a while with frequent glimpses of empty beaches and blue skies highlighted with a dim pinkish color near the horizon. We also passed a lagoon filled with at least a hundred black swans... I had never seen so many unique birds in one place.

We arrived to St Helens for a morning break and a bakery snack before heading inland through forested hills. We ended up passing Dave, our friend from Colorado, once again as we headed towards our big climb for the day. At the summit of the climb, almost 600 m up, we stopped at a lookout point to enjoy some lunch. Dave joined us at the top and we had a relaxing break with a wonderful view. Many people came by to enjoy the view and commented on how fit we must be and how Tasmania is so hilly (we have figured that one out). One of the couples passing by was a young Melbourne couple we met in St Helens. It is always fun to see people multiple times along the road. They later cheered us on as they passed in their van.

We began our descent after lunch, but stopped a little way up the road to walk along a short rainforest walk. Our scenery had changed to lush green vegetation with flourishing trees and giant ferns bursting from the soil. Once we returned to the road, we had a long winding descent through this lush foliage. It was one of the best descents we've had all trip. A beautiful winding road that we could glide down without having to break hard on the turns... a nice breeze blowing past our faces... and the shade of the trees to keep us cool. On the way down, I just had the urge to sing with joy so I broke out with a little zippi-dee-doo-dah.

After our spectacular descent, we didn't have much further to ride before we reached Derby, our home for the next few nights. We saw Dave once again and parted for a final time and then set out to find Peter, the owner of an organic farm where we will be WOOFING for a couple days. We went to the online center to check our email and see if we had directions to his place, but it turned out that he was at the online center... Mally asked him if he knew Peter Coxhead and he said "Yes, I am Peter"... so we headed off up the road with him back to his farm... just missing a huge downpour. Phew.