Tandem Bicycle touring Australia
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Bicycle touring Australia
The idea of going to a different country and experiencing the way other people live and seeing new and interesting things has always appealed to me.
After a few months of putting it off I eventually decided that it was time I chose a country and just go and tour it!
So Australia it was. Wonderful hot weather, beautiful people, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast - the biggest Cycling holiday of my life.
I felt this trip wouldn’t be complete without my Tandem
partner so by default he was going to come. - (He reckons bicycle touring Australia is a crazy idea and to give him credit getting a tandem bicycle on a plane and touring Australia for three weeks with just under a thousand Australian Dollars, is a sort-of crazy thing to do.)
At first I was worried about how the bike would get to Australia, my fears were all alleviated by the Air new Zealand staff. The bike only counts for 15Kgs of your luggage no matter the actually weight of your bike (they take anything under three meters long). The bike went in its original box, I was worried some idiot baggage handler would end up damaging it but it turns out that they’re very careful and pay attention to the stickers on the box (Fragile and “this way up”)
Flying from New Zealand to Australia actually didn’t cost as much as I thought it would. In fact the whole holiday cost just under $5000NZD (Including spending money!) – which is great seeing as I haven’t recently won the lotto and don’t have thousands of dollars to waste on accommodation, clubs and copious amounts of beer.
So we arrived in Sydney, got picked up by friends we’d met online and the first thing we did once we got to their house - which is near Bondi Junction - is unpack and assemble the bike.
Half an hour later we were off on our first ride in Australia, I’d never been to Australia before my tandem partner on the other hand had been a few times, we went for a five hour ride… it was only supposed to be a two hour ride but we got lost, terribly lost.
Every person we asked for directions seamed to be a tourist and to add to that we didn’t really know the name of the street or the area we started off in. I’m usually very good with directions so we really didn’t think it would have been an issue.
Eventually we found our way home, (Recognized the road we’d taken from the airport) and followed that.
After that we came up with a cost effective solution, we went onto google found the route we wanted to take on google maps and printed off the directions. We taped the directions to my tandem partners handle bars.
The second day was more successful, we cycled to the opera house. It was bigger and even more interesting than I thought it would have been – I also discovered an interesting fact: the opera house and the Sydney harbor bridge are pretty much opposite each other (They’re roughly in the same location).
It was very easy finding the directions to and from the Opera house using the goggle map directions we’d printed.
Sydney is very hilly and unfortunately Tandem bicycles don’t really do well on hills. It was a bit of a struggle going back and the humidity didn’t help. The weather was way hotter than I’d ever expected it to be.
That evening we got back and the people we were staying with told us about a cycling race – Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
It’s a charity race and is 100kms long, it’s always nice to do a hundred km race, the thing is we didn’t really plan for it.
We’d been averaging about 50kms a day so we knew we could do the first 50kms, so we decided we’d give it a go, we went online and got plane tickets to Brisbane, phoned up a friend who lives there and found out they now live in Bribie island.
Bribie island is a little out of the way but still close enough for us.
The next day we woke up early printed off our directions and cycled to Watsons bay, the way there was almost all downhill. We cycled passed Bondi beach and took pictures of the scenic locations (Don’t know the names of these cliffs).
My tandem partner has Cerebral Palsy and walks with crutches so we’ve got to take the cycling panniers with, it’s also why he’s at the back (Technically I’m the stoker).
It was an awesome ride and I would love to do it again sometime. We had lunch at “Doyle’s fisherman’s wharf” the food was spectacular and the view unmatched.
Our friends took us out that night and we had an awesome night out on the town, in the morning we packed the bike back into it’s box, packed all our clothes again and headed off to the airport, we were going to Brisbane.
Moving a box that big through an airport is not easy, if you put it on the trolley vertical you can’t go through the doors and if it’s horizontal you still can’t go through the doors and you risk the chance of knocking into things and people.
The best thing to do is to carry it in first then put it on a trolley once it’s passed the doors (Vertical) – the only downside is that your view is blocked so you’ll have to look around the box.
Tandem Bicycle touring Australia
We left Sydney at 2:00pm and arrived in Brisbane at 2:30pm – The plane flight was an hour and a half! (you go back an hour or something).
From there our friend who incidentally, also entered the Brisbane to the Gold Coast race picked us up from the air port it was another hour before we got to Bribie island.
Once we got there we unpacked the bike set it up and went for a cycle.
RMy next hubpage will be about anything interesting we do here (on Bribie island) and the Brisbane to the Gold Coast cycle challenge!
A few tips for people wanting to tour with their tandem:
- Make a few friends online or through someone you know (Free accommodation!).
- Don’t pack unnecessary equipment, you only need one pair of cycling shorts, one pair of cycling tops each, (I started by packing all my cycling gear and realized I most probably didn’t need it) – there’s always a chance to wash whatever gets dirty.
- Get a travelers card & also carry cash as some places don’t accept the card.
- Take a tandem partner you get along with, when the shit hits the fan you want someone you can count on – I believe that made the difference on my trip – I can count on my tandem partner to say “Flip this is fantastic” – when we’re totally lost.
- Last have fun, even if you get lost along the way enjoy the view you would otherwise never seen.
- Get a pair of really good pannier, we took ours on the plane as carry on luggage, it’s got a strap etc, wonderful bag, things would have been way harder without it.
- Don’t forget the bicycle tools!
CommentsLoading...
It's well worth it - I can't explain how relaxed and happy I feel.
Nice hub and informative. I think you are a very energetic and active person.
Loved to read your hub! You guys make a great team ;)
Cycling has always been a stable part of our lives, it's something that's always there - That's one of the reasons I decided that tandem bicycle touring Australia would be heaps of fun.
I like the blue colored dual ride bicycle.
Great post! Please keep up the great pedaling and writing!
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reversecharles 19 months ago
Man, this hub makes me want to hop on a plane down under tomorrow. Thanks for the great pics.