It is hard to imagine but we are in Australia for almost a whole year now and the time has passed so quickly. There were many great places we visited and beautiful people we met. We definitely have fallen in love with this country and its people and we are sad that we have to leave but at least Bruny Island means finishing on a high note. From our friend Ricardo's place in Lewisham we had to cycle through Hobart to get to Bruny Island. With Tasmania only being small, we got to the island within one day and after that one long day of cycling we knew that we could take our last days really easy without any stress at all.

Our first night we slept at the camping area at the Neck (the narrow isthmus connecting North and South Bruny). From there we only had to do another 40km to get to the most southern point of the island where the old and new lighthouse are located. It is a pretty hilly ride but the scenery makes up for that. Close to the lighthouses there is another camping area located at Jetty Beach which got its name from the jetty that was used to resupply the lighthouse and the keeper living there. Now there is no jetty anymore but a great place to pitch your tent and to relax in the scenery and tranquility of Bruny Island. We decided to stay there for two nights to take a whole day for a nice hike over the Labillardiere Peninsula and still have the afternoon off. This walk lead us through the wild bush and along some amazing untamed coast with both rocky cliffs and white sandy beaches. After about 5h we returned to our tent to sit down and have an easy going afternoon listening to an audio book.

The next day turned out to be pretty easy going again as we only had to cycle 40km to Adventure Bay where John had agreed on hosting us. He is a great example of what WarmShowers is all about and we are thankful we could stay with him. His property is surrounded by forest and it is a little oasis with all the different fruit and veggies he grows there. All the fresh fruit were a treat and he also had some great stories to share. During our time in Adventure Bay we also helped John with some small things in his garden and did a small hike to the top of Fluted cape which gave us a great view over Bruny Island and the surrounding area. Our over all time planning was pretty generous which meant that we could even spend another night on our way back to Hobart adding the Queen Elizabeth Trail inbetween. We could cycle the first half and only did the nice walking along the beach and around the cliffs at the end. The night we ended up staying with Stan, Briony and their son who we also got in touch with via WarmShowers. We had a great afternoon with their dogs and had another great experience on a little farm. 

The next day was the way over the hills and through Hobart back to Ricardo. It was our last cycle day in Australia and by the end of the day we were pretty done with it. Within the last 20km we had to flat tieres, one was because of a around 3cm long broken drill bit! We arrived just before 7pm and were warmly welcomed with a nice pizza. Now we still have to pack everything, put the bikes into boxes and get ready for the flight.

We had an amazing time cycling Australia,

See you soon and we'll keep on cycling :)

Cheers,

Droni, Joni and Vroni