After the hard work of yesterday, I was NOT looking forward to skiing today, but wouldn’t you know…Irena got us on a BLACK, first slope!!! Remember the one I mentioned on Day 2, called the Olympic Face? It is one of two black runs looming over the center of the village, and I clearly remember when we arrived thinking “Hmmm – I won’t be skiing THAT one!” And I knew when we went up the lift that it was black, only black, but let Irena tell me there was a blue I could take! It was terrifying as the first run of the day, and on ‘cold’ legs, but I MADE IT DOWN! And I can now say I have done it 🙂

The other black run looming over the village is where the World Women’s Downhill will be held next season, and it has been closed, but that is where I see the snowcats every night, going over and over the slope, for hours – I have so enjoyed watching them from the warmth and comfort of my bed. Riding the lift up over that run is awe-inspiring…to think that they will come down this narrow, steep slope at about 90mph. It will be fun to watch that competition and know we saw it up close. If you click on this photo to the right two times, you can see the red fence markers of the competition run.

We skied a slope just above it that is very wide and beautiful as our last run of the day; at the top we had yet another view of the amazing high peak we skied yesterday, and still are thrilled that we were there! The GPS again had us traveling over 35k, which means about 17-20k of actual skiing.

A hilarious thing happened to me today… Jim and Irena were ahead of me on the slope, as usual :), and I fell (softly) in the deep powder on a turn, and at a point where they couldn’t see me. And it was so flat I had to take my skis off to get up, covered in snow, and thinking they might be worried about me :). When I took off again, I made one turn and started laughing as I realized that my pants were falling down! The snaps had popped and the side zips come down, and the only thing holding them up was my jacket! And of course…I had to be under the chair lift, didn’t I!

It was another beautiful, beautiful day – clear and cool, but really warm to ski – had to take off my headband and gloves several times. Saw one young gal in her sleeveless t-shirt with her jacket around her waist. We finished the day with our first French crepes, finally! Jim had bananas and Grand Marnier, I had raspberry jam and Grand Marnier, and Irena’s crepes had chocolate, jam, creme, ice cream and who-knows-what! Wow. And we saw folks eating the most beautiful salads and fondue; we are coming back another night. (But we have eaten *in* every night and had great food – NO complaints at all.)

What an amazing day today! The weather was just fantastic – clear blue sky for miles, and we skied above the clouds in the distance. We were skiing at over 11,000 feet today, and absolutely surrounded by alps – just amazing, breathtaking. And one peak we skied felt so high and exposed…it was over 11,200 feet – check this out! We took a tunnel train (The ‘Funiculaire’) ENTIRELY THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN to near the top…it felt like it was going 40 mph for 10 minutes – we couldn’t believe it. Then, we took a huge gondola up another 1000 feet – it was scary. Where you see the lift frame in this photo to the right is where the train came out, and from there we took the gondola FURTHER up, over this huge dip in the mountain! When we first arrived off the train, the gondola was closed…for wind? All the way up, Jim was saying just don’t look down, don’t look down. And when we reached the top in the gondola (all 40 or so of us standing with our skis/boards the whole way), it took another 10 minutes for the gondola to dock – because of the wind it had to go slow to completely stop rocking to get between the guide rails. And skiing down from the top (above) really gave me the heebie- jeebies – YIKES!!! I am so glad I did it, but so glad it is DONE! Irena went over the edge past the bright yellow warning signs (‘NO WAY DOWN FOR PEDESTRIANS – DANGER OF CREVASSES’), straight down on the black while we watched, carving slow scallops in the deep, heavy powder. Then Jim and I took the very narrow, steep (above left), busy, crusty, felt-like-we-could-ski-off-into-the-void red slope.

I took my gps tracker with me, and according to it, I skied 17 kilometers (about 12 miles) on only FOUR runs today. The longest run, about 4k (about 2.5 miles), had an elevation drop of 1400 meters (over 4500 feet)! And I didn’t start until 11:30…Jim and Irena went out earlier than me again today, and I joined them later, so THEY skied about 30k today, including to where this amazing keyhole rock was – photo right.

One of the weird things I experienced today was a lift carpet (see it in the photo gallery): I had noticed it earlier on my first day elsewhere, just a moving carpet like a moving sidewalk, carrying skiers up a gentle slope a short way to another lift, no rails or ropes or anything, and I remembered thinking hmmm, wonder how I would keep my balance on that? Then as we got ready to get on one of the largest lifts – 8-seater, I think – I moved forward and saw this carpet again that I had not choice now but to slide onto (imagine the National Airport voice: “…the moving carpet is UNAVOIDABLE!”), and it made me so nervous I started swearing! Irena was laughing at me and imitating me for the next hour – you know how she likes the F word!

Jim discovered tonight that our rental car’s battery is dead. So now we have to deal with that 🙁 between now and Saturday morning. And his ski binding broke on a wipe-out he had today, but he was able to keep skiing, and then to get it fixed quickly in the village when we finished skiing. We are also really bummed because we have not been able to get the DVD player working or to get the agency to fix it.

Today we awoke to about 20+ centimeters more snow, and the sound of cannons or dynamite shaking loose the avalanches before skiers hit the mountains. Pretty scary shit, as Jim says! Here is Jim skiing the powder – they went out earlier than I did, to scope out a new peak and ski the harder stuff, the one just above us – Face d’Olympique, one of the hosts of the 1992 Olympics. When I joined them they were already stuffed from working the deep snow. And we skied with virtually ZERO visibility the rest of the day; sometimes it was like skiing in milk soup! Very strange, scary and difficult for me – to ski without seeing where I am going, or seeing the moguls on the slope. I ski largely for the scenery it offers, and there was NONE today :(.

Such long runs! Our elevation gain is typically over 1k, and the runs are often over 3k from top to bottom!

Wow – Val d’Isere is beautiful…surrounded by Alps. We are actually skiing on one of the *most famous* mountain climbs of the Tour de France (the Col de l’Iseran), even on the road they ride on (see it on the right?)! Hard to know what photos to even highlight here, and we have been skiing here only one day of 6.

It was a difficult day for me – such an occasional skier…the snow is beautiful, a little heavy, and about 12″ deep. It has been years since I have skied this type of snow, and my mates here took me down a Red, which is like our advanced Blue, on our second run! Heavy snow, steep for me, and *lots* of moguls. **NOTE**: Jim, who has been getting ski coaching from Irena for FOUR years (or more), and even just skiing a LOT more than me, told me after we were done this afternoon that two years ago, he probably wouldn’t have done it!! And this my first run, after skiing only WV GREENS two weeks ago, and NO SKIING for two years prior to that!! Irena’s skiing is beautiful, as always (here she is on the left in the powder), and Jim’s is great now too – I have a great short movie of him in the powder.

Anyway :), I still had a great day, but boyoboyoboy am I beat. On the drive up here yesterday we passed resort after resort after resort, and may actually go to the one just south of us, included in our passes, tomorrow. It snowed all night last night, and a good part of today in between patches of beautiful blue sky, and has been snowing steadily since about 4:30 (now 9pm)…so we are in for LOTS of snow tomorrow. My legs will be in great shape for cycling.

More news and great photos here later this week!

We crossed 4 borders getting to Val d’Isere – Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, and France, and skirted just below Austria. But we only had to show our passports in Croatia and Slovenia – starting with Slovenia, we were in the EU, so there were no more border checks of our passports. It took about 7 hours to get to Venice, and about 5 hours to get to Turin for our second night.

The driving was wild – everyone goes SO fast, but I heard only TWO horns honked – drivers were surprisingly patient with cars in the left lane trying to get around trucks. But they do come right up to your tail and stay there until you get over. And VERY few passed on the right. The british passport renewal online procedure is more convenient and better for the ones that want to apply and travel again.

Our first night hotel was in Mestra, just 6k outside Venice, and right across the street from the train station into Venice. It was a lovely, very well appointed room in a 3* hotel, and the bathroom was exquisite; such fine detail – marble everywhere. The hotel clerk was delightful, and most helpful: when asked about parking, said park wherever you want! And if we get a ticket? What a face he made! Then he said shook his head, and said ‘Pfhhhh’ (and made dramatic hand motions) – just tear it up’!
And all the woodwork was beautiful. We arrived around 2pm and took the train into Venice and walked around for about 5 hours! We had a nice dinner there too. What a beautiful city – the colors are so vibrant, and the woodwork and stonework done with such care. Not sure what I was expecting, but it seemed both larger and smaller than I imagined. According to Jim, the city is dying due to ‘creeping damp’ – the lovely buildings are deteriorating from the water up. I did not realize it is an island – I thought it was actually just on the coast, but nope…we crossed a causeway to get there. I think it is 800 years old?

In Verona, the gelatto was artwork! And the old coliseum (arena) is the 3rd largest in Europe – 1200 years old, I think? I loved this city. Check out the marble of the streets! One of the most amazing sights for me was the gelatto – yes, the ice cream… it is carved and decorated like a fine scuplture in every shop! FYI, Verona is where Romeo and Juliet lived and loved, and we saw Juliet’s house and her balcony. It is customary (now) to do two things… Irena did both, I did only one: she wrote “Jim & Irena” on the wall of the passageway, and we both put our hand on Juliet’s breast – for happiness! LOL!!

That was a mid-day stop on our way to Turin. We were really shocked that no one we encountered in Turin spoke English, and I didn’t get any photos, because it was evening when we arrived, and we were driving when we left the next morning. The buildings are huge and so old and beautiful, and – I’m not kidding here – there was a gelatto shop on EVERY corner, and sometimes two per block! Jim and Irena love it for its ‘ordinariness’ (Venice and Verona city centers are certainly NOT ordinary – tourists everywhere).

Getting out of Turin was an adventure in itself, despite the fact that Jim and Irena had the same problem the last time! There are NO signs directing traffic how to get to France – only about 50k away. And our hotel owners, in Italian, tried to tell us how to get to the autostrada, but gave conflicting directions, so we drove around and around, back and forth, for an hour!! We had to look for signs to the Freus Tunnel that crosses the French border, and we finally did see a sign for France, very close the the border! What a hoot that was!

Then, just before going through the tunnel, we passed by a famous cycling climb on the Giro d’Italia, Mt. Sestriere, and then early into the Alps, we passed two more famous mountain climbs of the Tour de France… the most famous – the Col du Galibier, and the Col de la Madelaine – so cool and so awesome to see *where* they ride!!!

Hello from Nis (pronounced Nish), the 2500+ year-old city of Constantine’s birth! This is my 3rd day in Serbia with Jim and Irena. The first leg of my Austrian Airlines flight to Belgrade via Vienna had a lovely ending – flying just north of the French and Swiss Alps along the northern border of Switzerland, over Salzburg. The view was spectacular…I even imagined I could make out the crooked summit of the Matterhorn in the distance, and maybe also Mont Blanc – the highest peak in Europe. This photo to the left is a glacier that seemed close enough to touch.

From Belgrade we drove directly on to Nis, about 3 hours, where Jim and Irena have spent most of their time for the last two years, for Jim’s contract. It is where Irena finished her civil engineering degree after high school, and near Pirot, her home growing up, and Kopaonik National Park (where she became such a beautiful skier and we skied in 2004).

This ancient city is small (about 300,000) and beautiful – I love the architecture. Here is one of the over 40 buildings Irena restored across the nation while on the ‘Beautiful Serbia’ project with UNDP several years ago. While Jim was at the office yesterday (and after I woke up from a 13 hour sleep!), Irena and I walked around the old Fort Niska Tvrdjava (left), which used to house a Turkish bath, and then along the walking street in the center of town (below).

In the late afternoon the 3 of us drove one of Jim’s more recent cycling routes – the one he calls *his* ‘bad’ hills! (I call the area around my house *my* bad hills.) This route is called Kamenicki Vis, ‘rocky hill’. This ride is 8.2 miles long each way, has a total elevation gain of 2000 feet (1430 of that over the last 3.4 miles!), and the worst part, just after midway at the base of the climb, has a grade of over 11% for .7 mile!! (For those of you who are not cyclists, that is HUGE! Or as Jim said, laughing, ‘this is just SHIT’!!!) Irena says she has no desire to ride it, though Jim says she will – LOL. He says he often cannot make it up the whole way. I wish I could have at least tried. The route has so much character, going along an old, narrow paved road out of the city up into the rolling hill country, past beautiful, dilapidated old houses and buildings and fields, past a battleground and monument where over 10,000 Serbs and Turks were killed in one day, trying to throw off Ottoman rule in 1879. We passed a lovely middle-aged woman in a long, bright-colored skirt, pulling a two-wheeled cart bigger than a wheelbarrow loaded with firewood she had gathered from somewhere – it could have been a scene from over 100 years ago except for the paved road…wish I had taken a photo of her.

FYI, we were able to calculate those distance and elevation gain statistics for the ride because we took my Garmin GPS to track the route. Afterwards at home, we downloaded the track, asked Irena’s (the engineer) help in calculating the grade, and then viewed the profile (peaks and valleys of the ride) – we were “WOW”ing and so thrilled at what we saw, showing it to her with such pride – like it was Mt. Everest! But she saw it and then looked at us, shaking her head and calling us ‘jebiga idiots’, and proceeded to quickly draw a diagram on her computer showing grade. We weren’t considering how these profiles have to be drawn in order to view them on a screen… if a one mile high hill is the height of the screen, then the width of an 8 mile ride must be 8 screen widths. 🙂 LOL – we sure felt foolish! But the profile STILL LOOKS COOL!

Then in the evening we walked just one block down the street to a local restaurant for dinner. I hope to try to make the amazing salads we had: ‘moravska’ – fresh tomatoes, grilled peeled paprika, garlic, very little white onion, sunflower oil, & parsley, and ‘sopska’ – fresh tomatoes, cucumber, white onion, grilled peeled paprika, white cow or sheep cheese, sunflower oil. But I am told that the ingredients here are matchless, and I believe it. Unimaginably delicious…I could have stopped with those salads and the fat, soft, fresh pogaca (like pita) served with them. Who needs butter?!

I slept a more reasonable 7 hours last night, then took a 40 minute fast walk along the river near here. Tonight we drove to Pirot, about an hour away, to have dinner with Irena’s dad Bosko, and to visit with her brother and his kids, who are Irena’s favorite ski students. (On the way, we took another route than Jim and Irena cycle, and again used the GPS to calculate the grade of the hill climb – the same as the other one…another tough 7.5% climb of 3 kilometres.) Boki (Bosko) had prepared a wonderful dinner of noodle soup, paprikas – a spicy chicken, egg, and tomato soup, and a meat dish of chicken, lamb, and sour cabbage – the last two were even more delicious than last night’s main courses…who need restaurants?! I was given a tour of their charming home, which displays many of the paintings done by Irena’s late mother, Tina, and I was fortunate to be able to select one to bring home!

Just a couple more isn’t-life-interesting notes here for my own historical memory…Irena has been miserable these past few days, recovering from that terribly bad flue that both Patricia and I had, and Monday Jim missed a step at work and fell on his knees!! Geez! But we are all FINE, and so looking forward to the Alpine skiing!!!

Tomorrow we go for me to meet Jim’s staff, and then are driven back to Belgrade by one of Jim’s staff to pick up the rental car for our drive to France, leaving Thursday.

Do vidjenja!! “Have a nice day!” (when leaving…)

(Funny story here – I was with Irena at the travel agent when she bought travel insurance, and when we left, I was so proud to remember to say “Dobra Dan!”…only to have them all burst out laughing! That is what you say when you *arrive* somewhere, so I got an impromptu Serbian lesson at that point, and learned my first new word.)

Here is a quick map of our Excellent Aussie Adventure… the black lines are the flights we took, landing in Sydney, and then after 3 days, going on to Adelaide. Part I (the burgundy line) is our trip into the Outback by jeep/4WD vehicles, pulling trailers. Part II (red line) shows our cycling trip from Adelaide to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road. Part III (black lines and blue circle) we flew to the Great Barrier Reef and then took a boat out to Hook Island. Part IV (lower right burgundy line) is our road trip (bikes in the back) from Melbourne via Wilson’s Prom then up the coast then through Alpine National Park back to Sydney. Quite incredible, eh?!

We have had a fantastic two final days in Sydney; what a really, really beautiful city! Yesterday we spent walking from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach on the Coastal Walk – along scores of breathtakingly beautiful beaches with built-in swimming pools, surrounded by gardens and lovely old homes and steep rocky bluffs. (more…)

(BTW, Aussie is pronounced ‘Ozzie’) Here is a list of the expressions and words we have heard – I am sure we have left some out!

How ya goin’? – most common greeting, along with G’day (mate)!
How ya goin’, not bad, alright? – Marty does it all for you – question and answers!
She’ll be right, mate! – It will be okay
Pinched – stolen, taken
Gobsmacked – absolutely amazed (more…)

Last night we plopped ourselves on the grassiest spot we could find in a caravan park just off the Hume Highway about 550k from Sydney, and today we raced into the city. Contrary to what some folks had told us though, we thought it was a beautiful drive – the countryside is lovely, even in the drought. We are now in such a hurry to get home that we passed Annandale Road – NO KIDDING! (more…)

Last year, some race car drivers visiting Hamilton Island decided to use the runway for some fun late one night. They didn’t see the end of the runway, and slammed on their brakes as the end came up fast, and ended up down on the rocks, leaving some big skidmarks on the very end of the runway. The next day, a well known Australian airline’s jet was taking off, and as they approached the end of the runway, saw the marks and commented to the tower ‘Wow – looks like some poor fellow ended up in the water!’. (more…)

This last part of our trip (not including our last two days in Sydney), has been just amazing! We headed up into the Australian Alps, and found ourselves fascinated by the remnants of the big bush fires this past summer. There were three very big, bad fires, which combined and are now called the Great Alpine Fire of 2006. We drove through the mountains for hours, gawking and saddened, but also amazed at how it seems to be regenerating so very fast. (more…)

We arrived back in Melbourne on Wednesday from the Great Barrier Reef and Anwar, picked up our ‘hire’ car (a brand new silver Toyota Corolla hatchback), and loaded our bikes, bags, and backpacks all into it with no problem at all, and headed for Wilson’s Promontory, a triangle-shaped, ruggedly mountainous peninsula at the very bottom of Australia, just across the Bass Straight from Tasmania.

Talk about another complete change of weather – it was rainy and quite cool there. (more…)

After our wild ride home, we took Anwar out for Barramundi (Australia’s best fish, from the northeast coast), shrimp, fish curry, and Blueberry Mojitos, then watched his video of living and working in McKay (the one he promised Mom about 2 years ago), and then watched our favorite episode of Fawlty Towers, “Communication Problemsâ€? and one I have never seen, even though there are only 10 or 12. (more…)

WOW – we returned this afternoon (Tuesday, March 27) from our south seas island on a bucking bronco of a small boat (maybe 20 feet long?) – an hour and 15 minute trip from Maureen’s Cove at the north end of Hook Island, across the channel, around Daydream Island, and across another channel. We had a few rain squalls during the night, and throughout the morning mixed with lovely sunshine, but the boat ride took us into a windy rainstorm, and we literally slammed down into the waves almost the entire trip home… it was quite a roller coaster ride, and we were drenched from head to toe. (more…)

Patricia and I just returned from a very relaxing 2 days on a South Seas Island :), which I will tell you about in my next post, but first, two trip-related funny stories:

When I made the booking for the boat ride to our island campsite in the Great Barrier Reef by telephone from DC, I thought the company’s name was Harversford Boat Hire (as in “hah’vuhsfud” – can you see the grin on my face?). (more…)

We had a lovely two-night stay in Melbourne, with Jim and Karen’s colleagues Anne & Graeme from the Outback. Jim was able to take his boys to dinner for the first time in two years, and the rest of us enjoyed a fantastic Thai dinner with Lucy, her brother John, and his girlfriend Simone, who came to Melbourne with Marty to celebrate the finish of our Tour d’GOR.

The highlight of our day in Melbourne was visiting Moorabbin, training home of the Aussie Rules footy club (team) Jim ‘barracks’ (roots) for – the Saints (Saint Kilda), to watch a training session – their first game of the pre-season is next week. (more…)

We are done! We took it *very* easy today, but even so, we rode another 20k on the hottest day yet, with some very, very “bad!â€? hills! We rode from Torquey to Bells Beach, Australia’s most famous surfing beach and home to many competitions. It was breathtakingly beautiful, with very impressive waves and a wicked-looking undertow, but was rather quiet today in the grandstands. I kept riding along Bell’s Beach back and forth for several miles on those incredible hills to get my miles up – it felt a little like being on one of those gigantic swings in a carnival, swooping from one side of the valley to the other and back, except pumping the pedals on the uphills was much harder than pumping a swing.

We then drove to Torquay Beach and jumped in the surf to cool off and CELEBRATE – me in my jersey and bike shorts – fantastic!!

I have ridden 500 miles, and as my nephew Marty would say, ‘I am very happy’!

Today we planned about 100k, and came close. Jim and Patricia are determined to do 1000k on this tour, so they were preparing to leave around 7:30 and Irena and I would follow later to join them. I forget the rest of the plan (like true Newkirks, our plans change until they are DONE!!!). Anyway, two more tubes ‘died’ being pumped up (that makes about 10 now…), which delayed them until 9:30, so JEBIGA – we loaded up all the bikes (now that we have THAT figured out!), and Jim dropped us ‘gills’ (as he calls us) about 23k from Apollo Bay. Check out our get-out-of-town route up that hill!!! —->>>> (more…)

Today was a fantastic day. Our ‘success’ was getting out early (7:45 am – we are staying in this cottage for two nights), and riding up one of the most famous landmarks of this traditional ride – Laver’s Hill. It was about 1900 feet of elevation gain over 10 miles, and we worked hard, but actually enjoyed doing it. Coffee and croissants at the top with a view were a treat, as was the ride back down – I broke my speed record from 4 days ago and reached 37.3mph (over 60kph)! Then Jim and I kept going down from the cottage to order dinner (about 1k) and saw the most spectacular view yet from the bikes on our trip – steep downhill, headed straight for the ocean. (more…)

A few days back, our bike tire pump broke down died (the valve head just came off!), and we couldn’t quite get our act together to get a new one. Of course it happened on the weekend, and everything here in these little town closes early, especially on Saturdays, and the one bike shope we found didn’t have what we needed. We have been using compressed air canisters, which is cold, so the tires go a little flat rather quickly, and it is more work (just what we *don’t* need) to ride on low tires. So, this morning I am sitting in a little motel lobby in Port Campbell using their one internet PC to update these travelogues, while the others have all headed BACK 67k to Warnambool (it is Monday morning) to buy a new pump. (more…)

Up til today, we haven’t really been on the “Great Ocean Road” proper, which actually starts/ends in Warrnambool, though we have been following the coast. We have been traveling southeast, and as Murphy would have it, the wind, which is ‘typically’ westerly or non-existent this time of year, has been easterly, so we have been consistently riding into the wind. We are also now below the 38th parallel, and if we kept going in our same direction southeast out into the ocean, we would reach Tasmania, though of course it is too far away to see. After tomorrow, we will turn north toward Melbourne, and then only 4 more days of riding… hard to believe.

This was the most beautiful segment of our ride so far, riding high above the ocean along the edge of tall cliffs, the sun glinting off the sea, and glimpsing impossibly turquoise water and surf and caramel colored sandy beaches splattered with volcanic rocks. And this was the first day we would begin to make many scenic stops (you look them up: Bay of Islands, London Bridge, The Grotto). Wide pathways lead from each stop’s parking lot to the best views about 1/4 to 1/2 mile or more from the road. They were frequently, though not always, paved or well-surfaced, so we would just ride our bikes down/along past the other tourists. (more…)

Our itinerary has us scheduled to ride 70k today, but we rode over 100 (62 miles). And this was Irena’s longest-ever ride of her cycling career (she alternately denies and claims us Newkirks as a family – I know some of you can relate!).

Jim and I started out early from Portland, and we got a good laugh on me right off the bat: As I rode ahead of him out of the caravan park turning LEFT (which is like turning RIGHT in the U.S.), I was grinning and thinking to tell him that I am really getting the hang of this left-side, right-side of the road stuff… I looked right, then left, then promptly -automatically- crossed over to the right hand side! And just as I realized what I had done, Jim shouts “LINDA!!â€? (more…)

This day was a blast! We had planned for 76k, but ended up leaving the last of the logging road to the trucks, and rode only 30k (19 miles); average speed 18.87mph! It was drizzling when we woke up, so we loaded up, drove the hilly, winding road about 5 miles out to the beach (which would have been a *great* warm-up ride, major bummer), and then drove to our next stop for the night in Portland.

After checking into our caravan park cabin, we found another bike shop to replenish our supply of tubes – we have had 6 flats already, 3 from the tubes blowing when removing the pump. We then hopped on our bikes, and took a beautiful ride out to the Cape Nelson Lighthouse on the point – a winding, *very* hilly (the Information Center lady said it was FLAT!), rough-surfaced coastal road , with spectacular dunes and ocean views. At the lighthouse we found a standing compass and located due South, straining to see Antarctica (tricky with a 50-mile horizon). On the way back we saw an echidna – like a very shy, roly-poly porcupine. It was in the road, and as we approached, it waddled quickly to the undergrowth, curling up into a motionless ball under some dead branches, hoping we wouldn’t notice it, though we were right above it.

I reached my top speed ever today, of 36.2mph! (more…)

Today was planned as a 124k day, and again I rode 65k (40 miles); average speed 13.1mph. After enjoying a spectacular sunrise over the ocean, Patricia and I headed out from Beachport, along the beach and more stately Norfolk Island pine trees, while Jim and Irena drove out half way to Millicent, the next town, and rode back to meet us. We tag teamed like that into Mt. Gambier (Karen’s home town), and dropped our bikes at a bike shop for servicing, had lunch, and then while waiting for the bikes, drove for a “squizâ€? (look-see, also called a “sticky beakâ€?!) at the Blue Lake of the volcano (the mount) – it has an impossibly blue color that changes to grey in winter, and back to blue again in summer. It is a city water supply, and according to Jim, is even blue in the bathtub! (more…)