Mar 18: Riding in the Rain to the Southern Ocean

Sometime in the middle of the night it started raining. It rained the entire rest of the night, and into the morning. I woke up at 7:15 and pondered how I was going to pack everything up in the rain. For those who are curious, this is what I did.

1. Pack up everything in my tent (sleeping bag, pad, clothes, etc.).
2. Put on rain gear.
3. Wait for slightest lull in rain.
4. Jump out of tent, and quickly pack stuff into panniers, leaving helmet and front panniers in tent.
5. Switch tent so inner tent can be taken down under rain fly, and pull corner stakes.
6. Unhook tent from poles and corners.
7. Forget that helmet and panniers are in tent. Fish them out, leaving them under rainfly.
8. Fold up tent, and place in bag.
9. Sit under rainfly for awhile wishing it would stop raining.
10. Realize that’s not happening, so disconnect footprint from poles, fold up, and place in bag in such a way as to prevent tent from getting too wet from rainfly.
11. Take down pole, thus dropping rainfly to the ground, and put in bag.
12. Pull vestibule stakes, put in stake bag, and put in tent bag.
13. Pack soaking wet rainfly into tent bag, and strap to rack. 
14. Put front panniers on bike.
15. Go to Bakeshop in town for breakfast.

 

Today’s ride was supposed to be the easiest so far. It was more km, but not so much climbing. What there was was shorter, and occurred in the first third of the ride. 

Different terrain

 

 

This area of the West Coast has a number of mines. Rosebery has one, I went past one, and the town of Zeehan is a mining town (apparently, tin). The climbs were still through thickly forested and fern filled. The descent into Zeehan brought me into a more open area of Button Grass and less trees. The route flattened out, but the wind was blowing pretty hard, and it was still raining. 

Mine tailings

 

 

In Zeehan, I stopped for a break and a snack. Zeehan gets about 2.5m of rain per year. While I was in Zeehan, the sun came out. Go figure! As soon as I left the town, it started raining again. This was to be the pattern for the rest of the ride. It would rain, then the sun would come out. As soon as I would unzip my jacket, it would start raining again. The wind was more of a cross wind, so only a real issue when I was going downhill (had to control my speed so the wind didn’t knock me sideways). 

 

The last 15 km or so were mostly a gentle downhill, or flat. At the top of the last high point, there was a lookout where I could see the Southern Ocean. There was blue sky off the coast, so I could actually differentiate the sky from the water! 

Southern Ocean

 

 

Throughout today’s ride, I kept telling myself I would get a cabin, or something, at the holiday park in Strahan and take a day off. I arrived at Strahan Beach Tourist Park, and asked the woman how much a cabin cost. For two nights it was $300AUD. I’m on a tent site for $30AUD for two nights. If it had still been raining, I would have been sorely tempted, but the sun was shining at that moment, so I opted to stay in my tent. 

 

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and attempting to upload yesterday’s blog post. I thought the WiFi would be good, but it wouldn’t upload photos. I talked to lots of people, including a couple who live in Seattle. Their daughter lives in Olympia! They are touring around Tassie in a small campervan. 

 

It has continued to rain off and on, and the wind is howling. My tent is thoroughly staked down, but the wind is buffeting it mightily. More rain is forecasted for tomorrow...yay... At least I won’t be riding. There is a path to the town center. I’ll check it out. Maybe check out the beach too, but not if the weather is crappy. Of course, this holiday park has a kitchen and sitting room, so I can always hang out there.

 

 

And now it’s lashing rain again...I’m going to cozy up in my sleeping bag and read myself to sleep.