It's time for a next episode of our blog! As I'm writing, I'm sitting in our tent, in a remote corner of... Tasmania! Well, to be honest, almost everywhere is remote in Tasmania - or Tassie as it's being called in Australia. Tasmania is south east, down below Australia; it really is Down Under relative to Australia...
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| Just a few nuts and bolts to fix, and we're good to go! |
We came to Australia first via Melbourne, to visit Sander for a couple of days. For this occasion we used AirAsia, and to be honest it's a perfectly fine flight - although we did upgrade ourselves to hot seats which makes a difference. We chose AirAsia because it's straightforward to take your bicycles; you pay an extra charge for them - which is not too much - but then you're also sure it won't be a problem to take the bicycles. We did have a bad experience with AirAsia however, and as they are not solving this I'd want to share it here.
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| A beautiful ride near Melbourne |
When we came back to KL from Singapore on AirAsia last month, also with our bicycles, the packs hadn't been handled well at all - that's an understatement. The bike bags - which are quite tough - were all torn and full of holes, and there were big, deep scratches on the bicycles and some
parts were broken. It seemed as if they had been thrown on the tarmac, and then dragged over it. We complained at AirAsia and had the answer: "you had no insurance, there is nothing we can do". And then, a few weeks later, this
video was made - what a coincidence, pretty sure something like this happened to our bikes as well. AirAsia publicly apologized and as a token, said all bicycles would be carried free of charge for April. Hooray! That includes us!!! Nice compensation for the damage last month... However, we had already booked our tickets much earlier, so needed to go for a refund. Now, getting a refund at AirAsia is probably more difficult than winning the lottery... We've been doing a lot of efforts, but still not result. Nice gesture to take bicycles for free, if you're not doing anything about it. Anyway, I assume the luggage handlers have been given some clear instructions now about how to handle bicycles properly...
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| Bonus: VIP view over Melbourne CBD |
So, enough of that, needed to get it off my chest (and into the public!). We flew into Melbourne and spent a few nice days there with Sander and Irene, including a day of cycling around Merry Creek and Yarra Bends parks in beautiful weather. Last Sunday early morning we then rode from Sander's place to Port Melbourne, and boarded the Spirit of Tasmania, a huge ferry that would bring us to the island down under. Getting onto the boat with our bicycles was a breeze, and we then spent about 10 hours sitting, sleeping, walking around; very relax, very easy going, on a calm sea. Once in Devonport we cycles for 5' to a camp site, and for the first time in months camped again! Nice! Clear starry skies, close to the beach, under a big gum tree; hello Tasmania!
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| Waiting to go on board |
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| The Spirit of Tasmania in Melbourne before departure |
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| Towards the evening, getting close to Tasmania |
From Devonport to Launceston - where Vere lives - is about 100km. That would be a long day on the bicycle, and as we wanted to be there as soon as possible we took a bus. Again, very easy, we booked Redline in advance however (including our bicycles). Once in Launceston it was another 20' ride to Vere; it was great to see her, and we spent a few very nice days together.
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| The last part of the motorized bicycle travel: onto the bus to Launceston |
And the rest of the story... will follow in a next post :)
