Apr 1: A Trifecta and a Story

First a penguin update. Last night I made my way down to the place where the penguins are supposed to come ashore at last light. I sat a the picnic table with a couple from central Queensland. We waited and waited for the little penguins to come ashore. Other people were walking around, shining lights (a no no if the penguins are to come ashore), and making too much noise. I guess those people didn’t read the rules. Anyway, while we didn’t see any penguins, we did provide a nice dinner for the blood sucking mozzies. 

 

Earlier in the evening, I had a great conversation with a young man who is a snake handler. When people have a snake in their yard, or wherever a snake is not supposed to be, he gets a call and goes out to capture the snake. I told him of all the jobs in the world, that would be the LAST job I would ever do! He said he has never been bitten, but his boots have been venomized many times!

 

So, onto today...The trifecta of today’s title comes from the fact that not only is it Easter today, but it is also April Fool’s Day, AND the time changed to Standard Time (the sun came up at 6:00 instead of 7:00!). As I’ve said before, Easter is a big deal here. Good Friday is almost an even bigger deal. I was lucky that the Easter Bunny visited me too, and left me these Cadbury Caramello eggs (okay, not really...I bought them at the IGA in Bicheno).

Easter treats!

 

 

The time changing was good in that I was on the road an hour earlier than usual. It was bad in that a place I kind of wanted to visit not far out of Bicheno did not open until 9:00. I was kind of waffling anyway. The place was called Natureworld. It was a sanctuary. I’ve seen many of the animals they have, so I didn’t feel too bad about missing it.

 

The ride was 75km to St. Helens (no volcano here). Today was probably the flattest ride I’ve had my entire time on Tassie. Tomorrow it is back into the mountains. It was overcast, but there were some nice beaches. Here’s some photos of Four Mile Creek Beach. There were lots of free camping beaches along the way. Most were packed with Easter Holiday campers.

Four Mile Creek Beach

 

Four Mile

 

 

I at one of the Discovery Holiday Parks again (stayed in one at Cradle Mtn). It is pretty well packed here, but I’ve got a little patch of ground. Cam and Will, who I met in Strahan are here too! They are the couple from Seattle. I think I mentioned them in my post from there. They head to Hobart tomorrow to turn in their van and head for home.

 

So, now for the story...

 

The following story is true, not an April Fool’s joke. I will call it “Leapfrogging With Daniel”

 

I was riding along today when up in the distance I could see another person. Slowly, I caught up to him. As I passed him, we said hello, and I said what a nice day it was for a ride. Then I pulled on ahead. Further down the road, I was going up a short hill, when the guy caught up to me. I said to him how he was pretty fast. We talked a little bit about where I was going. I told him St. Helens. He said I had about 40 km to go. 

 

 

Once again, I pulled ahead. I continued riding. At Four Mile Creek Lookout, I pulled off to take a couple of photos. As I was getting back on Tilmann, I saw the guy go by. I pulled back out onto the highway. Slowly, but surely I was reeling him in again. He’d pull ahead a bit when there was a rise, but I’d get closer on the flat. It took me about 5 or 10 minutes, but I finally caught up to him again. This time I took a photo. When I came up to him, I said he was amazing! I asked his name. It was Daniel. I told him mine. I told him this would make a great story for my blog...I told him what my blog was. He was turning off just up the road at Falmouth. He still had to go back to where he started. Oh... one thing I forgot to mention...he was RUNNING! I might be Super Biker Woman, but he is definitely Super Running Man!

Daniel aka Super Running Man