Tasmania 2018 - Day 7

DAY 7

Tasmania Day 2

Checking the weather for today it said rain, heavy rain. Consulting the radar it gave a grim picture. Mmmm riding in that sounds rather unappealing. The rain was coming in from the northwest heading in a south easterly direction. So two options for today.

Sit in the pub and drink all day or head east away from the rain and hope for the best. Despite Geoff's protests that the pub needed us we headed east to try and out run the rain. We left our bags behind so we could ride un-encumbered but did take our wets in Stu's Tank Bag. I forgot to put my gopro in today so only got some photo's for today's ride.

Taking the scenic route out of Deloraine we saw our first police car had stopped someone and was giving them a talking to, better them than us I say. It wasn't long before we arrived in Launceston and refueled and then took the A3 Tasman highway out of town towards the east coast. The road slow wound its way up into the forested mountains out east of Launceston. The road here was in need of some repairs was was still great fun. A lot of the tight corners had banking on them assisting you hook into the turn. Fantastic riding.

We stopped in at the Sideling lookout, beautiful views of the valley below and surrounding scenery with Scottsdale in the centre distance. There were a few fires down below and it was a little hazy, but for predicted heavy rain we were doing very well with sunshine and perfect conditions. Doug said"Shit" We all looked and he had lost part of his rain suite off his bike. Bruce said I saw something on the road about 2 km's back. Doug remounted and went back and found his rain suite intact as well. It hadn't been mangled by any cars yet.

The last 8km of winding road down the hill from the lookout had gravel all over it which was a bummer as it would have been great riding at normal speed. The scenery all around was spectacular. We passed a Lamborgini and McLaren going the other way, it looked like they were out having a bit of fun as well.

We stopped along the way as we got separated again, so I took a couple of pics whilst we waited. The other guys arrived in a couple of minutes. Turns out Doug had been stung on the elbow by a bee that went up the sleeve of his jacket, incredible really. Dave also got stung by a bee on the trip so that made 3 of us in a couple of days. They also have those huge bumble bees here similar to the one's we saw in New Zealand last time. I never seen some many bee's before, we certainly don't see this many on the mainland.

We stopped in for fuel at the roadhouse near St Columbia Falls and it was right on lunch time. I'd been here previously on other trips and I knew there was the famous Pub in the Paddock just a short distance from here. I suggested we visit the pub for lunch and there wasn't any arguments against that suggestion so that's what we did.

You couldn't miss the Pub as there was a huge Beer sign on the side of the road at the entrance but somehow Geoff managed to ride straight past, Dave had to chase him down. Not sure why he couldn't smell it, he was that close.  It was a dead end road that went up to St Columbia falls so he would have to come back eventually, about 5 minutes later he rode back into view.

I ordered a grilled chicken sammich which was fantastic, it hit the spot just right and wasn't too filling. Looking around the bar area they had hundreds of pictures on the walls of motorcycling groups pictured outside the pub. I noticed Charlie Boormans photo amongst them.

We met a local rider on a ducati and spoke with him briefly about the roads in Tassie. He told us "You have to do the Lake Leake road it is a stiffy inducing ride". Now that is setting the bar high.

The pub is a popular tourist spot and it's also a popular bikers stops as well. We parked the bikes under the shade of the shed, by the time we came out from lunch there were a lot more bikes in there as well. The pub is also famous for their beer swilling pig Priscilla. I found out Priscilla had died and now they have Priscilla II as a replacement. There is a little shrine in the pub that was cornered off to everyone and it had an urn with presumably Priscilla's ashes and photos.

Beer swilling Pigs, maybe they can fly too

We could see dark clouds now starting to come over head and to the south, we'd been lucky so far with dry roads and blue sky's, however the western side of the island was copping a hammering in rainfall, we had been outrunning it for the time being and hopefully that will continue. We were still travelling to the east down to the coast.

We rode the short distance down to St Helens which we simply passed through on our way to St Marys. There were some dark clouds ahead in the mountains where I was intending on going, or we could take the road down the coast which was clear. We consulted the rain radar and it was clear so I made an executive decision and we headed up the St Marys pass, a superb set of twisties that was over way too fast.

We stopped briefly in St Marys to consult google maps. I would have liked to ride down Elephant pass but it was getting late in the afternoon now and the guys wanted to get back to Deloraine. Oh well we missed a great bit of twisties but they don't know that.

The road from St Marys across the Esky highway was more or less just boring straights and bits of curvy road. There was some road works to negotiate where they had put down lime and then just watered it. The bikes got covered in crap. We turned onto the main road between Launceston and Hobart called the Midlands highway. This was straight and boring and with lots of traffic. Luckily we were stopping off after 10kms at Campbell Town for fuel then turning up back roads to Deloraine.

Subway with a drive through

Doug had the great idea to tub the bikes with the car window washer at the petrol station, it worked a treat to get most of the heavy crap off the bikes. My brake light and number plate weren't visible.

On the way back we took the C522 back road out to Cressy which is in the top 50 rides in tassie. We were heading in a north westerly direction and there were huge storms coming over the highlands in  that direction. The clouds were black and green with flashes of lightning. I was leading here and kept upping the pace to try and get around the top of the storm before we got a hosing and it was working. The road would turn west towards the storm so I'd speed up and it would turn north again getting around the storm so I'd speed up some more, this repeated several times.

Three off us were thinking the same and the other three decided to stop and put their wets on. They ended up getting an absolute hosing for 5-10 minutes whilst we out-rode the lighting storms and made it into Cressy dry as. However we stopped in the petrol station and put our wet weather gear on as it was looking bleak still. As we finished the others just pulled up.

Photo courtesy of Doug

Riding out of Cressy heading to Deloraine we encountered a few small showers not much really about 5 minutes worth, my boots and gloves didn't get soaked so there mustn't have been much in it as luckily we skirted around the edge of the really heavy stuff. I noticed that all the little tiny towns that we went through had interesting looking little pubs right along the roadside. It would have been good to be able to stop at these and check them all out, but then it might take 3.5 years to tour around Tassie.

Yet another fantastic days riding in Tassie and for a day predicted with rain we actually hit less than 5 minutes worth with some good planning. So it was back to the pub for more beers.

Day 7 Map Reference

Tasmania 2018 - Day 6

DAY 6

Tasmania Day 1

It's day 6 of the trip but only day 1 of actually riding in Tassie. I was up at 5.45am but was awake from about 4:30am and couldn't get back to sleep due to our cabin being like Hacksaw Ridge. The ship had been docked in Davenport for some time but I couldn't be sure how long as we had no window view. It was a fairly calm trip across so that was a bonus.

After yesterdays failed effort of disembarking the ship we regroup quickly and stopped for breakfast not far from the port, at you guessed it yet another bakery. I'm starting to think that this isn't our tour of Tassie but rather the great southern bakery and pub tour of 2018. Well if your going to stop in at a bakery it may as well be the best one.

I asked our fearless group captain what the plan was for today and was surprised to hear he hadn't made any, just the destination for the night Deloraine which is in the middle of the top end of the isle. So we all hastily surrounded some maps over breaky and devised a route plan. As Bruce would be leaving us in Hobart we decided to head west and take the road through Hellyer Gorge, something I was not at all displeased about. It's an excellent bike road. Sitting eating breakfast I could feel myself rocking backward and forward, great I'd gotten sea legs, hope that's not bad riding a motorcycle with my balance being all stuffed up.

The ride out on the highway to Burnie was only a short trip of about 50km, and it was pretty cold out this morning. When we stopped for fuel in Burnie most some of us put on neck warmers if we had them or another layer. I didn't bother as it would warm up right?

We turned off at Somerset and took the Murchison Highway up into the hills, where we came through the famous Hellyer Gorge. I think the Tasmanians spelt Hellyer wrong.

Hellyer Gorge Road

Lads in Hell? Yeah

Stu joins the party

Here's a short video of the Hellyer gorge and Murchison Highway.

Heading out of the gorge chasing Geoff was a lot of fun, it was over all too soon as we headed out on some of the long straights out towards Cradle mountain. The higher we got and closer we got the cooler it became. It was down around 11-12°C. We stopped again for a, ahem boys break and I decided it was too cold and put on an extra layer as did Geoff. This is summer? The scenery here reminded me much of the west coast of New Zealand. You can see the moss in the centre of each lane.

The road up to Cradle Mountain is open and sweeping up over the huge hills. We stopped at the Cradle Mountain lookout but the cloud was so low today you couldn't actually see the mountain. But the views over the valleys were glorious.

There's a mountain shrouded in cloud out there somewhere

Mountain Selfie goodness

We stopped at the boom gate on the road into Dove lake and the sign said to purchase tickets at the cafe. So we rode back to the cafe and had a spot of morning tea and to warm up a bit. I would have liked to take a photo of all the bikes in front of Dove Lake with Cradle Mountain in the background but at $16.50 each to get in and to have the photo's of mountain covered in cloud it was a bit like throwing money down the toilet. Besides there was more good riding to come yet and it was only early in the day.

We continued on out of Cradle Mountain and headed for Mt Roland and the road that goes around the back of it to Mole Creek and then on into Deloraine. The ride along here was cold still around 11-12°C, decidedly chilly for summer. The road here was very winding and I was having a lot of fun leading the group. Coming down a large hill we could see Mt Roland looming up high in front of us only a few kilometers away. The ride down to the valley floor and back up again was good fun.

We stopped at the look out and looked down on the valley below. You could see the road winding down the hill in the photo below was the same section that I stopped to take a photo on, in the photo above.

Mt Roland

We continued on down the back of the mountain range with more superb sets of twisties. The road was just about deserted everywhere we have hardly seen any traffic since we left the highway at Burnie. We did come upon a truck in the twisties but he moved over and let us all through, not before the mighty crossplane surprised the f*ck out of him.

Making our way into Deloraine it was still only just after lunch, so we got into our rooms and dumped some of our gear and continued on up towards Exeter and Beaconsfield.

Deloraine Hotel

Main St Deloraine

On the way to Exeter I felt a huge thump on my leathers right near my neck. Shortly after there was a painful stinging sensation in my neck. Swiping frantactly at my neck I quickly pulled over to look in the mirror, feels an awful lot like a bee sting, lucky I'm not allergic to them, just the pain from them. I couldn't find the sting as I might have brushed it off before I stopped but boy it was hurting for a while.

We made our way into Greens Beach was was quiet and relaxed looking place. There was not a sole on the beach except a guy walking his dog. Such a beautiful place. All the beaches we saw were all deserted across the whole island as well as most of the lakes, it was a bit bizarre really.

Greens Beach

We returned to Deloraine via an alternate route out of Beaconsfield which was also very twisty through the hills and farming land, quite a nice little ride.



We are staying 2 nights in the Deloraine Hotel. It was a nice central location in the northern part of the island for days trips out and it turned out to be a great decision. It was a great little pub the rooms had been recently done up and were clean and the beds were in good condition. The bathrooms had all be refurbished and were brand new. A single room was only $50 per night. Bargain really. You can contact the Deloraine hotel on 03 6362 2022 they are highly recommended.







Map Reference - two maps as there were too many way points for google to calculate

Ride to the Spirit of Tasmania - Pre Tassie Day 5

Day 5

Today was a bit of a nothing day really as we only had to be in Melbourne 1.5 hours away to catch the ferry across to Tasmania. What could possibly go wrong? Well, when you have a Bushpig in your group anything can go wrong and it usually does.

We got off to a slow start today with no one seemingly having much enthusiasm for a ride. The great Ocean Road was suggested by we would have had to leave 3 hours earlier to get that happening. So the group decided to head over the Sorrento - Queenscliff ferry and then get lunch. By the time we fueled up had breakfast and actually left it was getting late. The ferry leaves on the hour every hour, we just rolled up to the ferry toll booths right on 12pm, there were still a couple of cars being loaded and we just made it onboard. Phew how was that for timing.

File photo from the Internet - Sorrento Vehicle Ferry

Bikes on the Ferry

Sorrento Wharf

Two handsome Roosters

Getting off at the other end we were a little seperated and I thought that our fearless leader Doug would stop so we could regroup somewhere soon. Well that didn't happen and after about 30 minutes I noticed there were only 4 of us instead of 6. Yep that's not good. A little while later texts and calls were made and Dave and Bushpig were in Geelong and would meet us for lunch in Torquay. So we had made it to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, but are unable to actually ride it. So close yet so far.

We were waiting in the bakery in Torquay having lunch when Dave and Bushpig pulled up, Dave ordered some lunch but Bushpig was outside frantically looking through his pockets and the ventura bag, Stu laughed and said 'look he's lost his wallet'. When he finally came in and dropped the bomb that he actually did loose his wallet we all laughed then thought, Oh Shit!

It was just after 2pm by now and what happened next was a frantic ride through the quite busy streets of Geelong looking for a mystery Petrol station and mystery car wash the only 2 places the guys had stopped and used their wallets. Time was ticking away whilst we were getting lost looking for these places as both guys struggled to remember how to get there, google maps was consulted several times slowing us down considerably. We had to be boarding the ship for tassie by 6:30pm and it leaves at 7:30. By the time we had visited both places it was after 4pm now and we weren't sure how long it was actually going to take to get to the ferry. The wallet was lost now and we had to make a dash for the ferry otherwise we were going to miss it. We arrived and there were only a couple of bikes and cars waiting to get onboard so we didn't have to line up and wait at all, we were just about the last to board the ship.

Spirit of Tasmania

Bikes loaded and being tied down

Leaving Melbourne Docks

Melbourne

Whilst we were sitting having the beers pictured above Bushpig received a facebook message. The guy that had found his wallet tracked him on facebook and messaged him. He was going to send it back to his address via post. It just goes to show that there really are still some good people in this world.

We retired to the gaming lounge before hitting the sack for the night.

Gaming Lounge

Oh yes those little cabins that you couldn't swing a cat in and with 3 other guys that snore heavily I knew I was in for a night of no sleep. This reminded me of the nightmare we had in Queenstown NZ 4 years earlier. There was a symphony cacophony of snoring, Recordings were made and used in evidence. Everyone was red eyed in the morning when we were awoken by the ships PA system at 5:45am pronouncing the 6:30am departure.

I cant really put a map reference up for today as I've no idea where we went for half of it.