23/01/12 (Forecast -26c)
Frozzled!! Woke up at about midnight feeling bloody cold, actually, more than cold!! Had the picnic blanket in the tent so spread it out and put my air mattress on that. That was better but it was still so cold that I'm sure that the brass monkeys had shrunk :-) I got up to a misty morning and heavy dew over my tent and a clear sky. Tarraleah is in high country and had a hydro power station in the river below.

See the cleared power lines on the hills. The power station is at the
bottom and these pipelines are pumping water UP the hill

These are moving water to the next power station

On the way out of Tarraleah. Very thick timber !!

I left as soon as my tent was close to being dry. (I dragged it out into the full sunlight and rotated it a few times). I then headed to the 'Wall in the Wilderness. You should see my back tyre !! It's almost round again, getting light on it tread, but getting rounder !! In an area through another National Park, where there was probably not one section you could call straight I came across a sign that said something to the effect 'recommended 35kph for next 10km'. I had to smile as most of the road I was travelling on was only 35 - 55kph already !!  Fantastic even pulling a trailer !!

I pulled into the 'Wall in the Wilderness" and was about 300m away from it when a car came flying out of there, sliding on my side of the road !!! Shoot !! I headed for the edge of the road and went down !!! Bugger !!! They kept going and when I picked up the bike I had the FRHS blinker broken and water leaking from the water pump!! Crap !! I rode up the the buildings with water spraying over my boot. Was I a happy chappy ........ NO !! I had a look at it and could see where it was leaking from. Luckily not from the actual casting but from a steel insert.

The Steel Wedge tail eagle

Another  view :-)

 I went into the 'Wall' for a look. What a fascinating place. Certainly a very skilled wood carver. It is a work in progress but what he has done so far is absolutely fantastic. No cameras allowed so the only photo I took was of the iron wedge tail outside. What an amazing effort by this man !! AND his son !! I saw a double pulley block with four drops of rope, all carved from a single piece huon pine. For sale for ONLY $3500.

Back to the bike .... Derwent Bridge roadhouse was only 1.5km further on so I travelled there to access the damage. Water spraying over my boot !! I was watching the temp gauge VERY closely. I started to pull the pump housing off, catching most of the water in a milk bottle. As this was happening out came the owner of the small roadhouse. His name was Glen and he was a biker as well. He took me into his workshop to show me his pride and joy. A Yamaha R1 with all the hot stuff on !! Then he showed me what was left  of his previous bike, a Yamaha FJ1200. He had done that up as well and had come to grief on a dirt road. His wife would not let him repair it. She told him to get a new one, hence the R1. He came back to my bike with a substantial socket set and gas bagged while I pulled the housing off. The steel sleeve was held in place by an internal screw and when I pulled it apart I could see that the steel sleeve was slightly bent. There was no seal in it which was what I had expected.

I cleaned everything up, washed it with metho then smeared a thin coat of heatproof silicone onto both surfaces before reassembling the pump housing. After a couple of hours I re-installed everything, filled it with water and fired it up. No Leaks !! I was smiling again !!

Glen gave me his card before I left and said that if something went wrong, call him and he would come & pick me up.

I had travelled about 10k down the road when I noticed that my boot had become wet again !! Bugger !! I pulled over and has a close look while the engine was running. It was not leaking from my repairs but from one of the other hoses where I had not put the clamp in exactly the position. Once I had repositioned the clamp it stopped leaking !! I was paranoid for the next 40 odd k, but that fixed it !! No more leaks :-)

A view from the road before Queenstown

A view of Queenstown !!

It was a bit of a shock when I saw Queenstown !! It looked like someone had come along and defoliated the countryside. And they literally had. It started of as a gold mine until they hit almost pure copper !! They mined copper from here for years. After the forests in the National Parks, this was a shock to see. Once on the other side of Queenstown the foliage was back to normal (?)

 I pulled into Strahan at about 1600. Booked into the van park by the bay then had a quick look at the town. Except for the wharf area which catered to the tourists, the rest was very small. I was surprised as I had been expecting something bigger.

Sunrise at Strahan

Sunrise from near the van park

I set up for the night and was relaxing with a cold cider when a Canadian couple pulled up on one side and a Queensland lass travelling in a van on the other. After they set up, the Canadian couple came across to look at the trailer and to just gas-bag and then the Queensland lass did the same. It was after 2200 before we all retired to our respective abodes :-) It was the first night for some time that I was not cold.

The sea breeze blew all night.  In fact, I slept with only a thin blanket !! A change from Tarraleah !!



24/01/12
Early wake up (I wish I would stop that !!) and leisurely departure from Strahan. Had been waiting to hear from Jim. Headed towards Burnie and Sandy's place. The roads became more like Harley roads again except for the small sections of heavy forest where they became interesting again. Not as much to see along here. Mostly pine plantations and a lot of them were being harvested. Went through a large tract of gorse country along the West coast. That was very different to the tall timber country .

Sandy's place on outskirts of Burnie

From her front fence

As I was getting close to Burnie, in one of my many gear changes I felt a small click as I changed gear. It felt like a strand of wire breaking. It was !! A strand had snapped on the clutch cable !! I was very careful after that. Only used the clutch to start rolling and to slip into neutral when stopping. All the other changes were clutchless !! ( I think I have changed up and down through the gears more in the past few weeks than I have in the past two years of owning the bike :-))

I arrived into Burnie, at Sandy's place, about 1500. I rang her, dropped off my trailer, then headed to her shop. After introducing myself I headed back out to her place to unload what I needed and to clean and oil the chain. It was another late night as we talked about Darwin and the people we went to school with. Luckily, she had to open her shop by 0700 the next morning and we called it a night at 2330.  Ahhhhh a proper bed !!