Tasmania - 1 lap (and a bit)

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Here's my version of events from Glenn's (MGS12-8V) much anticipated lap of Tassie. Glenn will be posting his version soon.

Last Tuesday evening finally arrived, when he, Mick & I met at Port Melbourne in plenty of time to board the Spirit of Tasmania.


Ferry queueing etiquette seems to involve shedding protective layers and hanging one's helmet on the bars. Concerned of the idiot I'd make of myself when my bar-hanging helmet snagged/jammed something important and brought me down, I kept my helmet on my head.



No, you couldn't swing a cat.



Cold & clear conditions greeted us in Devonport. We setoff toward Cradle Mountain at milking time.



The Cradle Mountain plateau



(David Attenborough voiceover - carefully, Glenn stalks his prey on its blind side ........)



(..... and is rewarded with a sighting of bike-hieroglyphics)



The prologue ended at the Cradle Mountain National Park



A beautiful, 40kph ride up a single lane road brings us to Dove Lake. Apparently, there are only 11 days per year on average when Cradle Mountain can be seen from it. True or not, we scored a cracker of a morning.



Unfortunately, we didn't have a spare 6 hours to walk to the top & back (next time), so we setoff for lunch at Strahan via Roseberry (not enough time for the Reece Dam detour either).

This would be another great means of doing a lap of Tassie



After lunch, a bike swap saw me on Mick's Ninja 1000. It is a bad bike. It made me go very fast and it felt fantastic.

After stopping in Queenstown for fuel, I got talking to a Blackbird-riding guy in another biking group, who we soon established was married to my sister's best friend from primary school in Vic. What are the chances ?

Then onto Hobart via Derwent Bridge and Ouse. Are these roads biking nirvana or what. Quiet, well surfaced, well cambered, great scenery, police who do policing and not cash-colleccting.

The night ended in Hobart, warm and mellow, drinking beer from 1-litre glasses and eating bloody magnificent souvlakia in Salamanca.

More to come ......
 
Last edited:

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Day 2.
I felt every one of those 1-litre glasses of beer this morning. I wasn't alone. Not to be dissuaded, we setoff up Mt Wellington, which was clear when we left, and cloudy by the time we got up there.







The driver of the 'cruiser took this cheesy happy-snap. More on him in a minute.



From WA, the 'cruiser driver has owned 43 bikes in his life. His life also included time as a baggage handler for Qantas, where he caught a flesh-eating bug when offloading a South African plane, which resulted in this


:killingme:killingme:killingme



Mt Wellington's TV & radio tower is shaped like this to prevent ice from building up, then breaking off and falling on people



A break in the cloud



Lichen. Mt Wellington, like other Tassie mountains, isn't volcanic but has been exposed from groundrock over the last ~170million years. The rock has then been split by repeated freezing and summer heat.



The only colour around (it's probably a weed)


I've always wanted to ride my pushie up Mt Wellington, as much for the descent as the ascent. Now that I've experienced its winter-destroyed coldmix though, I'm in no rush. Glenn and Mick headed down before me, and I was entertained by a tourist-minibus of people who pay to be driven to the top, then jump on an MTB to ride down. OMG, most of them looked like they'd never ridden a bike before, and a large percentage of them almost speared off the road at a fair clip on the first lefthander. Needless to say, going off the road up there would not end well. I couldn't bear to watch any more so gingerly overtook them and headed down too.


Then off to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in time for lunch and to watch its ferry arrive



All I can say about MONA, is go. A couple of exhibits really play with your head



Then cross-town to go 'home' for the evening. Hobart might be a tiny city, but its CBD peakhour gridlock would rival any city I've been in. Don't scoff, it's truly bad.


So endeth Day 2.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The prologue ends at the Cradle Mountain National Park



A beautiful, 40kph ride up a single lane road brings us to Dove Lake. Apparently, there are only 11 days per year on average when Cradle Mountain can be seen from it. True or not, we scored a cracker of a morning.



......

OH YEAH!!!!!

PRIME stuff... This is blooody magic!:glu:glu

(beating the drum) MORE, MORE, MORE!!

Brilliant pics, Pete....what a joy to watch.
Many thanks and PLEASE, let there be more :clap::clap::clap:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Mt Wellington's TV & radio tower is shaped like this to prevent ice from building up, then breaking off and falling on people


Until not long ago, only the top 2 sections were covered.....it was known as the Ansell-dome.
 

BB63

SV, DRZ & now DL Rider
popcorn.gif
 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
Keep it coming ...........

... Glenn's (MGS12-8V)

.... married to my sister's best friend from primary school in Vic. What are the chances? ....

Glenn with the monster Moto Guzzi with the monster tank and riding range? He would only need to fill-it-up once to ride the whole lap .....

Well, not so surprising - everyone over there is related after all ..........
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Day 3. It does rain in Tassie, well, at least a bit of cool drizzle greeted the dawn as we loaded the bikes and setoff up the east coast. Exiting Hobart, I watched Glenn try an AFL stiff-arm 'Don't Argue' with a rubbish truck at a roundabout. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work, which resulting in a little extra detour for us all before we found our way over the Tasman Bridge.

Unfamiliar, slippery looking roads kept the pace moderate as we passed through Black Charlie's Passage (!) and arrived for coffee at Orford in moody mist



Missing a runner ?



Mayfield Bay



Spiky Bridge, convict built





Turned right onto the Freycinet Peninsula and stopped for lunch at Coles Bay. Google 'Coles Bay' if you want to see its gobsmacking views, hidden here behind cloud





Onto Bicheno and its bike museum











Tasmania's roads and scenery continued to blow my mind, and the road to and beyond Elephant Pass was no exception. Just endless smile-on-your-dial stuff.

We got to St Helens and swapped bikes again. I'd had a couple of turns on the Ninja 1000, and now was the time for the Stelvio. I wasn't keen to ride it in anything too tight, lest its general heft cause something expensive to happen, but Glenn said, Scout's Honour The Road From St Helens To Branxholm Just Has Nice Sweepers, as he jumped on the R and setoff in pursuit of Mick.

He lied.

Just an awesome road, more awesome than awesome, dipping, diving, twisting through cold rainforest and rich dairy country. The Stelvio is a brilliant bike. Once I got used to its front-fork dive (it IS tall), it tips-in and handles beautifully. It shakes like a tractor if you pull too-tall a gear, which I quickly stopped doing. It also does a lot of speed, as Glenn pointed out when we re-swapped later and he checked his computer to find that the maximum speed recorded was 1?5kph, which surely can't have been me but he said it bloody well wasn't him.


Into Launceston after a great day, digs for the next 2 nights



OK, it was dead but perfectly preserved it was



The weather was hot and humid, so I left Mick & Glenn and did a quick trot over to the Launceston Gorge to swim a lap of the Gorge which was, umm, refreshing.

By the time I returned, Mick & Glenn were well settled into The Sportsman and had already sunk a few with their new friends. A rich 61yo Geelong Grammar dropout, by his own admission on his 3rd blond wife as he trades them in when they reach 1/2 his age + 7. A young Canadian iced-coffee marketing manager; she was spaced out on pills and drink. Her husband who seemed quite OK with his wife hitting on Mick. A younger attractive & mixed-up Thai-Cambodian Buddhist; she was the event manager for a rock concert happening the next day. Her husband Willie, an angry 6-foot 140kg neck-tatted Samoan who was singlehandedly on his 2nd jug of Snakebite (which I learned is beer mixed with raspberry cordial).

Well, I'll let Glenn expand on the evening, as he will do it better justice than I. But its ending - which involved Willie thinking I was hitting on his wife, getting angrier than he already was and proceeding to try to kill me (or at least hurt me; my shirt was the worse for it), then seeing the error of his ways and cuddling me, Bro - was rather memorable.


More to come ........
 
Last edited:

Hytram

<-- now went that way
All I can say about MONA, is go. A couple of exhibits really play with your head

did you work this one out?

it was def a flame, but it have that amazing projected halo around it, I think it had something to do with the shape of the room and play visual tricks with your mind
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Day 4.
Mick had to be on the boat tonight so the day was spent locally. Glenn said he was suffering from 'heatstroke', given the hot weather and the Stelvio's massive fairing preventing airflow. I reckon it might have had something to do with the beer, Snakebite, red and white wines drunk last night, but what do I know ?

We cruised north up the Tamar River valley to Georgetown.

A true artist





Just out of town, proof that not all old Tassie houses are immaculate. This photo captures a tiny percentage of the incredible pile of crap in this guy's yard. I didn't want to take the time to frame a better photo as I expected him to greet me at any second with a shottie over one shoulder and a banjo over the other.



Onto Low Head at the mouth of the Tamar River. This is at the pilot's station which contains a great little museum













The dramatic bridge over the Tamar, near Sidmouth



He's dreamin', surely.



We said goodbye to Mick here as he headed off to Devonport to catch that night's boat. I thought we'd just head back to Launceston, but Glenn had other plans as his hangover - sorry - 'heatstroke', was getting a bit better.

More to come ......
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom