Friday 25th Jan Bicheno to Scamander

Last night the rains continued. We were in our tent and ready for sleep at 8 PM but the rain and wind beat down hard on the tent. I awoke hours later as the rain got really hard and Catherine said she had not yet slept and it must be at least 4 AM it was in actual fact 12.30.
We were up at 6 and had the shower block to ourselves and the camp kitchen had just two others in there. Yoghurt and fresh fruit and two pint mugs of tea and we were ready to ride at 8.15.
The wind once again was right in our faces and a thick mist and cloud hung heavily. It was a day of waterproofs off then water proofs on as shower after shower hit us but the background temperature was high so at the end of each shower we were able to dry off nicely.The Tasman Highway was a good distance from the sea and all we could see was scrub. We made two detours through the scrub to see some long beaches but the wind threw sand in our face and a quick look was enough.
Again the wind held us back and we were doing good to get to 5 miles per hour. On and on we went past scrub and scrub and more scrub with long gentle accents and decents. No cafe, no shop and sitting at the side of the road with the ants biting you did not seem an option. Not even a bus stop to get out of the wind and have a brew. After just over 20 miles and over four hours of cycling we came upon IronHouse Brewery. They had a rather upmarket cafe and we decided to treat ourselves. Big windows looking out over the coast which was crashing in with massive surfers waves. We were now well fed and watered and it was only 1 o'clock due to our early start. We had both admitted over lunch that there was a limit to how much scrub you wanted to look at. We need not have worried as the road north went right next to the beach now and the wind was building up massive massive waves. We watched some very able surfers mastering the waves, this was all about twice the scale to the stuff we had seen in Cornwall the year earlier. Unable to take photos as it was now raining hard and all the electrics were well tucked away.
So we had filled our tummy, got fantastic views of the coast at last, if only the rain would stop. A line of blue came over the horizon and half hour later the sky had gone from 100% thick cloud to 100% blue sky. The temperature shot up. It was a hot summer abroad again.
Scamander is a little sea side resort and we are now at the campsite. The kitchen area is a shelter with microwave, chairs and tables and two old settees looking out over the hot campsite. Lovely shade and great to have a really comfy seat to sit in and catch up on my blog.
About 40 miles today. It is Australia day tomorrow and it is like our august bank holiday weekend as they get Monday off but the kids go back to school after the summer holidays the next Monday. So it is their last chance for a family summer long weekend and everything will be busy accommodation wise. Seems quiet enough here at the moment however but it's early yet.