the spokes had to be tuned .
We used up more quarantine waiting time by spending some days exploring St . Kilda , a nearby seaside suburb .
Nice as it was , it wasn ’ t really what I ’ d come half-way across the world to explore . We wanted to ride our bikes in Tasmania , Australia ’ s island state . I felt increasingly uncomfortable at using up my fellow traveller ’ s time and being incumbent on him and our host . I had flown the bike rather than shipping it to avoid this very situation . My ‘ pick up the bike and go ’ plan was scuppered by stink-bugs .
It was almost three weeks before a quarantine inspector was available to check my bike . It passed the inspection , and we went to fetch it . My delight at seeing it faded to despair . During the flight , air gremlins had broken the luggage rack , bent the decompressor lever and wrenched open a locked petrol cap . And it wouldn ’ t start . I tried
TRAVERSE 58