Day 13 - Rest Day (Bay of Fires)

This morning was great. The sun came out and made everything a lot easier. I was worried last night that it would continue raining into the morning, but it must have stopped around 6 this morning. It really made a lot of difference. I was able to get all my gear together and keep it dry, whilst sitting my tent in the sun to dry off all the dampness.

After packing up the site Briggite and I made pancakes at the public bbq. These were great, mixed with oats, cinnamon and some pepita seeds. After brekky we shot off in search of proper camp site. We asked a few locals and headed off in the direction of Bay of Fires. After about 10km and a few steep hills we made it to a perfect location.

At our camp site is a French family (on bikes as well) and an Aussie lady, her daughter and her mother. It's great to see the three generations out here on the country together.

I had a good speak with the Aussie family. I'm always pleased to learn more about other Australian people, although most Australians I've met all share a similar nature and persona. It made me realise that many Australians lack many basic world knowledge skills, many that are required in the modern world. This had built further off a discussion with a man from Taiwan the other day in Hobart, when he put it politely "Australian people are innocent, but dumb". At start I wasn't sure how to react to him, but with further thought I can understand his reasoning from a foreigners perspective.

This made me realise that what these Australian people do and say, represents what every Australian does or says. I would like to feel pride in whenever a foreigner visits, or meets an Australian abroad. This means not only basic respect (from what I've observed it is also common for Australians to not even deliver on this when abroad) but also an understanding of foreign culture and perhaps being capable of conversing in a foreign language. In a world privileged country with all the adequate resources and learning capabilities these should really be introduced properly into our system.

In saying this the lady here at the camp site works hard and her sole mission in life is to look after her daughter. This is something to be proud of as well and by her own rights contains all the knowledge she needs to know. My observation on this is from the perspective of a globalising world, and more so for Australia being one of the culturally diverse hubs in the 21st century.

Now after a great feed and a sit around the fire I'm ready for sleep for an early wake up tomorrow and a big ride of around 120km.