I was up early today so went out and Flyboy and Craig were about so we wandered up main street looking for a coffee. We found a reasonably average coffee at the train station where all the crowds were today, it was busy as the train was about to leave. I've done this Western Explorer train ride down to Strahan with my wife and 1st Daughter about 10 years ago. It was actually a lot of fun and would recommend it to anyone. It has some really steep climbs and has this abt rack and pinion system to get the train up the hills, apparently the only one in the southern hemisphere.
Today's ride was going to be another different ride. As we have 2 days left in Tassie and I wanted to do the Western Explorer which is dirt, it would be better to do it today rather than the day we have to be boarding the boat for the north island because if anything went wrong out there we would be stuck. So the other guys took to the tarred roads with a few loop rides and Flyboy and I took to the gravel roads up the Western Explorer route. I can see this is going to be a big day looking at the map.
We got underway just after 9:30, running about half hour later than I would have liked, we took the twisty Zeehan Highway which is a great ride to Zeehan, plenty of twisty bends. Riding north out of Zeehan it was just after 10am, the sun was flicking inbetween the tree's making it difficult to see, with the constant flicker of bright light and dark shadows of the tree's. Suddenly I see a kangaroo about 1 meter in front and to the right of me heading towards me. "FUCK" I thought and then, a big thump through the bars/bike followed by some weaving. I then slow/pull on the brakes but have to setup to enter the next turn. After the turn I come to a quick halt. Flyboy pulls up alongside from following behind. We both exchange a few more "Fuck" words, then turn around and go back around the corner to have a look and inspect the damage.
I hit this Wallaby at about 110kmh on the gas as I couldn't see him and had no reaction time whatsoever. Probably turned out to be a good thing being on the gas at the time and we were only 2 km's out of Zeehan. Sphincter is definitely puckered.....
Africa Twin 1, Skippy 0
Inspecting the bike there was no damage at all, smacked the critter fair on the front tyre I reckon. How lucky that was I can't describe. The next 30 minutes had me riding along at 90-100kmh, I'm sure Flyboy was getting annoyed at my slow speed but something like this does things to your mind.
As we popped out of the tree lined forests we could see the ocean in the distance, coming down the hill below there was a massive wind farm up ahead. Probably a great place to have one here on the west coast. We stopped for a few photos' before proceeding onwards to the Corinna turnoff.
Turning down the Corinna road towards the ferry, I stopped for a quick pic. The road is super narrow here and is all dirt on google maps, but found about half of it was tarred now. The dirt was good compacted gravel and easy to ride.
We arrived at the pieman river and stop as we can't go further. There is a button to press to call the Fatman Barge across. The barge is big enough to put about 2 cars on or 1 car and 2 motorcycles. Corinna is on the other side of the river.
The Barge came across picked us up, a couple of minutes later we were in Corinna. We stopped at the Tarkine Hotel to pay for the barge journey. 13 beer coupons for the ride one way. We stopped also for a coffee and sat out the front. Geoff would of been on his second beer by now I reckon.
Everytime someone would press the buzzer the guy would have to come out of the hotel and go to the ferry and ride it across. He must get sick of that everyday, quite an inconvenience.
It was now 11:30am and time to get going. Taking off down the road from here was all gravel, turning onto the Western Explorer about 3kms from Corinna, continuing straight would have taken us to Waratah.
The landscape change drastically going along the western explorer, we started in thick forest with winding road then it opened out into vast hills with views as far as the eye could see over hilly bush terrain. We couldn't have asked for a better day to do this trip, sunny and about 20°C. The surface on the southern end was a little slippery in places but rather good otherwise.
We came to Donaldson river lookout on the western side of the road. The views from here had big hills on one side and forests on the other, with the river running through the middle somewhere down below.
Donaldson River Lookout
One minute we would be riding up and down hills through forest then next we would be riding out on open plains over the hills where you could see what was coming over the hills in the distance. Made for spotting oncoming vehicles easy as you could see there dust kicking up. But we probably only saw 3 cars going either way, that's how remote this road is.
Every now and again we came to a really steep section, and they had tarred that little bit, it helped getting up and down them, would be narly in the rain if it wasn't tarred. In all there were about 4 little sections like this which last for maybe 1km or less.
The last 10 kms of the road opens up into a very wide road and the surface is super grippy and easy riding. I was doing 110kmh along this last section until it came to the T intersection at Tarkine Drive. I waited for Flyboy to catch up as he was staying out of my dust trail.
Good to see Tasmania is full of responsible shooters.
It was now 1pm and we were a little hungry, so we made for Arthurs River. To our disappointment it was even smaller than I'd read about, there was only one shop and it was this tiny little cafe below, as we entered the girl behind the counter said they have no power an electrician is coming so she can't cook anything. So ham cheese and tomato sammiches it was for us then. I asked about fuel as I wasn't going to make it back to Zeehan. She said no fuel here you need to go to Marrawah about 15 kms north. We sat in the shade and discussed options on the return route whilst munching down our lunches.
We saw two signs about the ferry hours, one sign said 7pm, the other 5pm closing and the alternate route to Zeehan was through Waratah, which would be 150 kms out of the way with no fuel as they were closed due to covid from a few days earlier. This could be bad if we got to the ferry and it was closed. We also discuss riding around and down through Hellyer gorge to Queenstown, except that was going to be 292kms and about 4 hrs. The sign also said 2 hours from Tarkine Drive to Corinna. We were a little unsure how we would go, minimal photos stops from this point was in order.
We blasted up to Marrawah and filled the bikes with 91, that's all they have then came back to Arthurs river, it was now 2.25pm by the time I stopped at the bridge and took these photos.
The first 10kms of dirt we rode side by side to minimise one rider being so far behind because of the dust, until we started hitting the hilly twisty section then went single file again. There is one really interesting section that rises up over a pass that has these really tall gums trees that rise up really high. I didn't stop to take any photos of that maybe next time but was spectacular.
I actually think the road rides better from North to South and the scenery is more spectacular in this direction and the riding is also better. I had to stop at this hill top for a photo, only 1 of 2 spots on the way back I stopped for a photo, we didn't want to miss the ferry.
We arrived back at Corrina just before 4:30pm, the publican confirmed the ferry was running until 7pm today. Flyboy said let's have a beer, I'm good with that but I said let's jump on the ferry as its about to go and we will have the beers on the other side then we don't have to wait on the ferry to come back.
Happy boy with 2 beers in his tankbag
Fatman barge driver looking bored
Riding off the barge we parked up on the other side. Opened the cans of beer high fived each other and said cheers. A well earned beer today I must say. There was a small path here that lead into the woods we went for a quick walk. It lead up into the hills to a grave site of early settlers.
The beers went down a treat and now it was time to get going as it was getting late in the afternoon and I really didn't want to encounter any more skippys today. It was 86kms from here to Queenstown through some twisty roads and still a bit of dirt. Getting into Zeehan both petrol stations were closed, so lucky I didn't risk trying to make it here. I would have run out by about 1.5 litres and had to syphon Flyboy dry then we would both probably got stuck here. Lucky there were no Tuono's on this leg otherwise they'd still be out there.
We got back into Queenstown about 5:40pm and the other boys were sitting up having drinks. We retired to the bar for drinks and dinner. The boys were amazed at me hitting the wallaby and not coming off. The pub closed early tonight about 9pm, but the barmaids allowed us to buy take aways and sit in the bistro area. After the wallaby incident and about 180kms of gravel roads today I really needed a few more drinks.
I was up fairly early this morning around 6ish and was hungry so I made my way to breakfast. The other guys slowly arrived. We packed the bikes and headed back to Westerway for fuel. We were going to do some riding around the bottom of the great lakes but looking at the forecast they were predicting rain in Queenstown from 2pm-5pm so we changed the plans and headed straight for Queenstown so that once there we could decide on riding options with whatever the weather was doing at the time.
We headed back up the way we came the yesterday and crossed the Derwent River again and got back onto the Lyell Highway heading toward Derwent Bridge. The Derwent River was so still this morning it was a mirror lake, stunningly beautiful and I only took 1 photo.
We passed some bicycle riders on the steep winding hill at Tarraleah where the power station is right beside the highway. I thought of my brother struggling up those steep hills, whilst I gently rolled on the gas and shot up the hill like a rat up a drain pipe. Man invented engines for a reason, thank you Yamaha for that sweet sounding crossplane engine.
We stopped in Derwent Bridge at the Hungry Wombat cafe for coffees. The two young girls serving us were both backpackers, one from France and the other from Nepal. I wonder how they met up and how they ended up here in the middle of nowhere?
The Lyell highway from Derwent Bridge onwards to Queenstown is fantastic for the whole way. Its 86 kms of twisty tarmac and when its not twisty there are sweeping bends galore, with so many elevation changes and beautiful scenery. I really was enjoying this part of the ride so a good flowing road with lots of twisty bits and the scenery is magic, thick forests, big lakes and large mountains. What's not to like really.
R1 on the Lyell Highway
Along this section of road we saw a lot of bikes heading in the opposite direction, sportsbikes, touring bikes and a few harleys at the back. All the local riders must be out for a saturday ride. There must have been about 30 bikes in all. It's easy to see why this section of the Lyell highway is fantastic, the surface is mostly good with the occasional rough patch but on the whole the road is very good.
The road bursts out of thick forest and onto the bridge at Lake Burbury just before Queenstown. The scenery here is beautiful. The view from the bridge over the water towards vistas in the distance is sublime. I noticed that even though it was saturday there wasn't a single boat out on the water. Surely these waters are full of trout, where are all the fisherman and recreational boats?
As I'd stopped a couple of times for photo's the other guys had gotten ahead of me. So I took my time now and cruised along at whatever pace I felt comfortable. Climbing up the hill from the lake I came upon the guys, they were heading up to Iron Blow Lookout.
Iron Blow lookout is a lookout over the surrounding mountains but with a difference. It also looks out over the Iron Blow open cut mine. The whole of the Queenstown area is a large mining area. The slopes of the mountains here are mostly bereft of tree's and vegetation due to acid rain from the smelting and mining dating back to the late 1800's.
Pulling into the carpark we walked out onto the cantilever bridge and lookout over the surrounding scenery to the east back to Lake Burbury. Beautiful in it's own unique way. Looking down was an amazing view over the old copper mine. The water was an amazing emerald green colour. The water gets it colour due to all the minerals and ore that is in the water.
Iron Blow Carpark
Iron Blow Copper Mine
We stopped in briefly at the look out over Queenstown and took a couple of quick pictures. I also put the gopro on to grab some footage of this magic road. I think it would be much better riding the road up hill rather than down hill the way we went, but still it was good fun. I was in first gear the whole way down the hill it was that tight.
Bushpig riding the Queenstown bends
Welcome to Queenstown
Road down to Queenstwon
Another short video this time of the 99 Bends into Queenstown. Skip if you don't like videos. Thanks Bro it's no spielberg effort.
By the time I got to the bottom of the hill and into town the boys were already at the pub. Our accommodation for the night was the Empire Hotel. Funny enough it's the same place Flyboy and I stayed at 15 years ago, but I couldn't remember much about the place.
Again we unloaded our luggage from the bikes so we could ride them without the extra load but we took our wet weather gear just in case. The clouds were starting to roll overhead now getting darker and the clear blue sky's of this morning were gone. It was quarter to 1 and we decided to head over to Strahan as it was a great ride and we would grab some lunch when we arrive.
Empire Hotel
The pub was built back in the 1800's and it had this big majestic staircase that went up the centre of the building and turned around and went up to the next level and to the accommodation.
Awesome stuff that you don't see much these days. I love coming to these little country town pubs, it's amazing sometimes what you see.
It probably stems back to when I used to live in a small country town in central western NSW. Most of them were built in the 1800's and had intricate detailing on the ceilings and the mason work is just not done these days.
Queenstown
Queenstown Train Station
Bikes overshadowed by Mt Lyell
I lead us out the Zeehan Highway to the Strahan turn off and out past Queenstown airport. It looks like a very small airport. Just as I was about to er, ahem start the spirited riding a police car passed us going the other way. That was a bit of a surprise. Then we came into the twisties and I put the hammer down. Yeah I was having fun here. So much fun I didn't take any photo's, but the road into strahan is not a road that you can photograph as you would only see one bend anyway.
We parked out the front of the pub in the main street, prime parking spot. There were not a lot of people about for a saturday afternoon in such a beautiful tourist location, strange really. Oh well better for us then. I really hate busy places. Makes me wonder why I live in Sydney sometimes, it doesn't get much busier than that.
There wasn't much in town to eat at so we found Banjo's bakery and got some lunch there. The great bakery tour continues. Sitting out the front of the bakery watching the world go by, I was enjoying the serenity. It was so peaceful and quiet in Strahan.
Strahan Village
Strahan Harbour
The weather was still ok by the time we finished lunch in Strahan so we made our way towards Zeehan. We could see darker clouds approaching but it was still good riding weather so we pressed on. The road out to Zeehan from Strahan has a lot of big straights on it but also has some twisting hilly terrain with great views to mountains in the distance.
We turned off on the outskirts of Zeehan and headed back towards Queenstown. The road was a little straight for a while but then soon got very hilly and twisty. I loved this section of road it was fantastic fun and we didn't really come across any traffic on it at all. The road surface was great and it was so twisty, up hill down dale sort of stuff. The boys were having a great time.
Zeehan Highway
The closer to Queenstown the road got the windier the road became as it gently descended down into Queenstown. Such a great piece of road with fantastic views in the distance of large mountains. The weather was still closing in and was starting to look like rain but lucky for us we were very close to town now.
Zeehan Highway
Main Street Queenstown
I got back last again due to taking photo's and looked up the main street there was nobody about. You could have fired a shotgun up the main street and not hit anyone. It was eerily empty. The mountain was now covered in cloud, you could smell the rain about now. Looks like we just beat it in and had a fantastic day out riding as well.
We had a couple of quick beers in the Empire then went and tried out the Railway Hotel, we may as well spread the wealth around. Just as we were having a beer in the Railway the heavens opened up, the rain was really heavy so much so you could no longer see the mountain. In fact there was that much rain the roof in the bistro in the Empire collapsed due to a massive water leak.
The rain in the video below was just after it started, we went back inside and it got 3 times as heavy as in the video but I was too lazy to come back out and video it again, haha.
The railway hotel had a rock band that had come out from Hobart so we spent the night drinking and having a great time. Disco Stu was busting some moves.
Tomorrow was to be our last day in Tassie before we get back on the boat to the mainland.
