Viva Bali!

I made it back to Hobart after a total of 1200km, give or take. In western Tasmania I cycled through rain, sleet, hail and snow. Not exactly what I had in mind for my "summer" vacation. At one point my shins were completely numb; brrr. The last few days got nice again, though. The sun came out and I actually had a tailwind. A really good one, too. It was finally a joy to be on a bike, watching people drive by only seeing the world through their windshields, traveling at such a pace that they miss many of the simple things that make cycle touring fantastic: an echidna (an Aussie porcupine) on the side of the road, a butterfly, a wildly patterned ladybug on the handlebars, a quick glimpse through the trees of a grassy meadow. At a bike's pace you can see these things. You see the bugs coming at you in enough time to flinch, if not dodge. Sometimes that flinch is just a quick sucking in of breath, and if you're lucky you'll also suck in the breath that was just sucked in by the bug...

Oh, and I found another poppy field:


I'll be in Bali in just a few short days, where my time will be spent perfecting a sun-burned, heat-stroked, sand-swept, drunken stupor!