June 17th, 2011
Denmark to Walpole
Distance: 87km
Total distance: 5821km
Karen and Corinna each had an opportunity to try my trike before I leave. Unsurprisingly, they both enjoyed it. 🙂
I left Denmark in the hope of reaching Shannon before the day ends, but gave up after stopping for more than an hour at Williams Bay, where I visited Green Pool and the Elephant Rocks. Nothing spectacular there but I chatted with some strangers and took some silly photos. Met a 40-year-old man who looked like a typical aussie family man with big belly and all. Until I found out he was formerly a soldier and completed a few Ironman triathlons in his younger days. Not one but a few Ironmans!!! Work and family has taken over his life now although this is not a bad thing at all. However, he did mention that those days were good and advised me to treasure every moment of my adventure days as the next big adventure will almost certainly be when I retired. This conversation made me think for the next 3 hours or so how my future is going to be like. It’s hard not to think of conversations with strangers when riding solo.
The rest of my journey was showers and hill climbs, appearing one at a time or both, but seldom none. My next stop was the Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants, a 600m walk among the gigantic tingle trees 40m above the ground. These trees are absolutely gorgeous! I also did the Ancient Empire Walk which is also a 600m walk but on the ground. There I spotted a pair of quokka! I think I spent nearly 2 hours in there, so by the time I got out, it was almost dark. With still about 15km to Walpole, and the sky gets dark in about 30 mins time, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to Walpole before dark. Saw a roadie while riding the Valley of the Giants Road and wished I’m on his seat, simply because all I needed was a 40kg-lighter bike to get to Walpole before dark.
As expected, I arrived Walpole in the dark. Couldn’t find the direction to the backpackers so I asked a local resident. The resident pointed me to a backpackers which I thought was YHA, because I thought there was only one backpacker here in Walpole which was YHA. The one I’m staying now is not but I quite like this place. Julie, the owner and manager of this backpackers was very friendly, and because there weren’t many guests tonight, I got a 4-bed dorm all by myself!
While preparing for dinner, I had a conversation with Julie and found out that she was a post-doc in immunology! Another jaw-dropping moment for me. She had only recently quit her research job and took over the management of the backpackers with her husband, Steele. All along they owned this place but was never involved in the management. The previous manager left the town permanently so they had the opportunity to take over and continue running the backpackers. Julie said that she enjoyed doing lab work but now finds running a backpackers even more enjoyable. Again, I couldn’t help but to ponder about my future after completing my PhD and/or post-doc training.
Not long later, I met a couple who are also staying at the backpackers who are currently bike touring! This must be the cycling duo that the German ladies talked about. Greg and Kathy are both retired and have been travelling from Sydney in the anti-clockwise direction for about 20,000km for the past 3 years, stopping for months at times. They are on the way back to Sydney travelling in the same route I took and they are predicting it will take another 2-3 years. We didn’t talk very long as it was getting late so we decided to continue our chats tomorrow.