Saturday, June 9, 2012

Touring Tassie Part 3 of 4

DAY 5
In Hobart we stayed in the Shipwright Arms hotel, the owner was pretty motorcycle friendly letting us put the bikes around in the lock up garage. The meals were great as well. I remember sitting at the bar having a few beers with my bro and watching tanks on tv rolling into Iraq for the second time .

Shipwright Arms Hotel
The Cascade brewery one of Australia's and Tasmania's oldest brewery's was calling. I had always wanted to go on a brewery tour as I am also an avid home brewer myself. So this tour was interesting on a number of levels, not to mention the free beer at the end. We finished the tour at about 2:00pm and then decided we would head off on the Lyell Hwy to Queenstown on the West Coast.


Cascade Brewery with Mt Wellington in background


Sweet Beer


The Lyell Hwy was one of the best rides in all of Tassie. It is one of the longer rides and through some of the most remote areas of Tassie which winds its way through forests, Hills and mountains and past some large lakes with beautiful scenery. We stopped at a lookout in the mountains that had great views over a power station.

Power Station Look out

Lake Burbury


 It was getting late in the after noon and we wanted to get to Queenstown before nightfall so some spirited riding was called for. We were on the perfect road for this sort of thing as it actually encouraged it. We had stopped several times to look at some of the  spectacular scenery. All along the way here we kept overtaking and also being overtaken whilst at stops by the guys from Melbourne we had met a couple of days ago on the ship. Sadly I did not take many photos along here. Having to much of a blast riding I guess.

Bikes at lookout - Queenstown
A short stop at the lookout on the outskirts of Queenstown was a refreshing stop after the hard riding we had just done. We didn't  get here till about 6:00pm so the sun was starting to get low in the sky. Their were lots of bikes here as well and they just started to move off into Queenstown not long after we arrived. Time to hit the pub for the night.
Road to Queenstown
Below is the view from our hotel window in the centre of town. We had stayed in the Empire Hotel in the centre of town. That night we had a fantastic time chatting with the guys from Melbourne over a few beers about our different travels and experiences on the isle. It was decided that the next day we would hook up with them and ride with them as they were pretty much going to the same places we were.
Mt Lyell


DAY 6
Today we road from Queenstown down to Strahan. This is another piece of motorcycling heaven. We rode this section as a group with the Melbourne guys. From Strahan we turned off and headed up towards Zeehan. Then we turned again back towards Queenstown for a little until we could turn off at Anthony Main Rd which runs up past Lake Plimsoll and the mountain passes. Here we took a few action shots.
Flyboy doing what he does best

Flyboy

Me - Cruising


Rest break near Rosebury
We fueled up in Rosebury then continued up to Hellyer Gorge. This is a great piece of motorcycling road and I'd have to say one of the best winding mountain roads that tassie has to offer. We were also coming back this way tomorrow so we get to ride it again, that put big smiles on all of our faces. We stayed in Burnie that night.

10 comments:

  1. Wow !! Some awsome shots there!! Really love that shot of the bikes on the road to Queenstown. You did say the west side of Tassie is the best in an earlier post didnt you?

    Tis funny the differences with blokes and chicks eh, you visit Tassie and want to visit a brewery, when I visited I had to visit the Cadbury Factory, I still know which one I'd prefer :)

    And there's that bike riders meeting and being like buddies straight away thingy happening .. I love it!!

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    1. Oh looks like I forgot to put in that we went to the Cabury Factory and did the tour there, but didn't take any photos. That was part of our day off in Hobart where we just did touristy stuff. If anyone is planning on doing the Cadbury tour soon then I'm afraid your too late. They stopped doing tours of the factory about 3 years ago, we found that out when I took the family there about 2 years ago.

      Your right its pretty easy to meet other riders and instantly begin a friendship as we found out on this tour. We ended up riding with these guys for the next 3 days.

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  2. What a bunch of gorgeous pics, I love the one with the band of motorcycles.

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  3. Thanks Sonja, thats one of my favourite one too.

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  4. I find it cool that you and the band of riders from Melbourne were pretty much hitting all the same stops and roads.

    Great pictures. I like that Cascade Brewery picture. That building is way neater than any of the ones holding the breweries in these parts.

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    1. The front of the brewery sure looks sweet but out the back it was pretty run down looking. Still it was an excellent tour.

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  5. Mmmmm beer! Queenstown...Mt Wellington, any one would think you were in NZ with names like that. Looking forward to the last bit.

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    1. Well Rog to be honest Tassie really has the feel that New Zealand has. Its hard to describe just what it is. I guess its just good freindy people and great scenery combined with being on holidays makes it just perfect.

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  6. Steve,
    You're causing me a real problem mate. Jennie wants to do Tassie by car and thanks to you, I don't :-(. Could be a bit of a domestic down the track!

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    1. Well Geoff I can see your dilema but your in luck because I'm an idea's man. If you both Fly into Hobart where you hire the car you can then drive that to the bike hire shop, whereby Jennie can cart your luggage around leaving you a very sweet unencumbered ride and her a fabulous drive through the country side in the nice comfy car. Win win in everyones book.

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