18/02/2013
Gave all the family a goodbye hug and left this morning for Bruny Island. Went via Cygnet and then, via a back road that I had spied, to Kettering. Every new road I travel amazes me!! Not just because it's a fantastic road to ride but for the scenery. Most of the little roadside farmlets were growing their own fruit & veg, and a lot had either signs up or roadside stalls offering their produce for sale.

With the trailer back on I felt more comfortable taking the occasional bit of sand on the  corners without the clenching of the bum muscles :-). This back road had some of the most magnificent homes, set with landscaped surrounds and/or on peaks with spectacular  views. Too soon I was at Kettering (passing the fruit & veg place that I would buy my sourdough from on the way back). As I pulled up at the ferry terminal gate a woman came out and said "you're just in time, the ferry leaves in 5 minutes!" I paid $10 for a return ticket for the three of us, me, myself and Irene :-) seriously !!  Nahhh  :-) I travelled for free and so did the trailer. The bike was $10 return :-).

Leaving Kettering

The ferry trip was only 35 min in slightly choppy water. The ferry was smooth as and the trip seemed like only 15 min..

 Oh, did I mention that it was a beautiful day ?? Turns out it was 35c !! Lovely!! I headed off to Alonnah and then Lunawanna in slightly undulating countryside that looked like it could do with some rain. The sealed road was pretty good until I reached the penguin rookery before Alonnah where the road became gravel.  The trailer didn't sway too much in the corrugations but the 4x4's speeding past raised dust plumes that had me pull over on several occasions. In some sections the gravel was that loose that the bike became a bit skittish and the butt muscles had to work overtime :-).  Back onto a sealed road  I upped the pace again. I passed through Alonnah, then Lunawanna,  just out of town the road turned back to gravel. I was OK until a damn huge loaded truck came towards me without slowing a little. I had to stop as I could not see and after that I thought "buk buk buk buk!!" and turned around and headed back to the ferry terminal. (I know, I know...chicken!).

Pulled up behind one of the 4x4's that had overtaken me in a great hurry :-)For all his rush, he had missed the ferry!! I walked into the small shop for a cold drink and spied the hot pies (probably didn't need the pie as I had eaten enough dust !!) . Tried the wallaby pie. A thin home made crust, chunky meat in a thick gravy topped with mashed potato and chutney. Yum yum !!. Back at Kettering I stopped to pick up a loaf of sourdough rye with molasses to throw into the esky and downed a bottle of ginger beer with chilli. Nice bite :-)

I then headed to Mt Wellington on the old Huon road. What a great run that was going up. An even better run coming down!! The view at the top was spectacular and it seemed as if all the south west was on display!! Met quite a few motorcyclists at the top who were interested in the trailer, the solar panels and my esky conversion :-)  I met one couple travelling on an overloaded BMW K1200. She was rapt in the trailer but I think it offended his thought of having his sports bike pulling a trailer :-) She wanted to know what gear I had in it and then looked at their overloaded bike and then at him.... I think there may be some discussion on the rest of their trip...

Pano from the top of Mt Wellington covering Hobart & surrounds

The Notorious 

I sent Kate a MMS showing Hobart from the top of Mt Wellington and then rang her. She said that the crew of the Notorious (the replica Portuguese carvel that was berthed in Franklin) would be at the Wooden Boat Trust to talk about their boat and that an invite had been extended to us.

Russian Longboat

        

  What could a bloke do ?? I headed back to Franklin and stayed the night at Kate & Adams - again!!! :-) I WILL BE LEAVING TOMORROW !! There was a reasonable crowd there but unfortunately no discussion on anything to do with the boat :-(

 

 19/02/013
A couple of good rolls of thunder woke me up at  about 0430 and I could hear - RAIN!! Bloody hell!! why does the weather man have to be accurate here in Tassie?? I was not looking forward to heading off in the cold rain. I stayed at Kate & Adams until 1300, the rain had temporarily stopped, and headed to Hobart and then to New Norfolk where I had planned to stay the night.

It was raining when I reached there so I continued to Hamilton. Raining there as well, so the next stop was Tarraleah where I stayed last year. By the time I set up camp it was bloody cold. ( Shivering cold!!) A couple slices of the rye and molasses bread, some nice cheese and a glass of red (Oh.. and a few of the fresh prunes that Kate loaded me up with :-)) and into bed for me!! Boy it was cold!! It bought back vivid memories of when I stayed there last year. About 2200 I got up and put on my thermals, woollen socks AND a pair of gloves,Brrrr).

20/02/2013

 Out of bed by 0630 (it was too cold to get up any earlier!) and the whole place was shrouded in heavy mist. Everything outside was wet and cold! I grabbed the gear to make a tea, the container of veg soup (still frozen)and the bread and headed to the kitchen to warm myself up! No wonder I felt cold, it was -2 degrees!!!!! (that's MINUS 2 degrees!!)

 I met a couple  in the kitchen who had slept with 2 layers of clothes on! and they were from the NSW highlands!! I didn't feel as much as a wurst then :-) I had to wait until the mist cleared and rotated the tent to let each side face the sun to dry off so it was 1015 before I left Tarraleah. In thermals AND the rainproof over-pants and jacket on to keep the cold wind out. Mr Blimp had nothing on me :-)

When I reached the Wombat Cafe at Derwent Bridge (just the other side of the 'Wall in the Wilderness' I refuelled and shed all the warm clothing. Just my kevlars, Darwin riding jacket and warm weather gloves. By then it was beautifully warm (24 degrees) and sunny. Lovely. (It was here that I had to fix the damaged water pump on the Hyosung last year).

It was just passed here that the great riding became fantastic riding!!  Curve after curve. I stirred the paddle up and down between 5th and 2nd gear from one sharp corner after the other. It came to my mind as I was setting myself up for each curve "put your left cheek out,.... put your left cheek in,..... - put your right cheek out,..... put your right cheek in and do it all again" :-).

 Just so much fun and 86km of it!! Queenstown came and went. Another 36km of sliding from one side of the  bike seat to the other.Bliss :-)

First copper mine outside Queenstown. Trees killed by acid rainss

I reached Strahan about 1500 and went and booked a boat trip up the Gordon River to Sarah Island for tomorrow and the steam train ride up the mountains to Queenstown on Friday. Booked myself into the Y for three nights and relaxed for what was left of the day.What a great day!! As the Toyota ad says "Oh what a feeling, Bike Riding !!!"

21/02/2013
Headed into town to the local bakery and had a coffee after having started the day with a hand full of fresh prunes. I had paid extra to be on the top deck by a window and, which included free tea/ expresso coffee and nibbles throughout the day. Lunch was provided as well .

Strahan Harbour

We headed off to Hell's gate under a beautiful clear sky. Boy, could this cat move!! I sat in the co-pilots seat for a while and saw that we were travelling the equivilant of 56km/h yet it seemed that we were just dawdling along. I went to the bar for a coffee. "Would sir like a hot muffin with that?" Yes Please "What seat are you in" "there's no charge for that sir" Lovely I thought with a smile. The only thing I had to pay for was the beer I had at lunch. Did I just mention lunch? A beautiful smorgasbord of a large assortment of salads, cut fruit and piles and piles of cold meats and even greater piles of smoked salmon. They called us up in groups of 6 and you loaded up with whatever you fancied. I fancied the salmon (lots of it). As a certain tray emptied they just kept bringing out another loaded tray!! Once everyone had been up they then replaced all the trays and then invited people up for seconds. I just had to get up for more of that lovely smoked salmon :-) I then wandered back up to the bridge with 4 cracker bikkies each topped with a large roll of salmon :-) (oink)

Hell's Gate to the left. The ONLY entrance/exit to the harbour. Between the headland and the lighthouse

The Sorell lighthouse

We went up to the mouth of the harbour up to what was called the Macquarie Heads through Hell's Gates. A very narrow opening into the harbour. There were rocks and sandbars everywhere and in the days of sail, ships sometimes waited weeks for favourable conditions before attempting to pass through Hell's Gates to get into the harbour.



 
From there we went back up into the harbour, passing large salmon and trout farms on our way to Sarah island (a  horrific prison island for re-offenders). The commentary was fantastic with the guide explaining the life on the island in an entertaining way. (The book 'For the Term of his Natural Life' was written by an inmate on this island). This prison was used before the one at Port Arthur was built. Not much remains of the buildings as much of the brickwork and stonework was relocated to Port Arthur. Some was taken by locals as building materials for their homes alone the coast in later years and some damaged by vandals. It's all protected now!!

Solitary Confinement

Bakehouse

Prison, mostly destroyed by  vandals

   From there we travelled up the Gordon River to a bush walk through the forest. We passed a huge log that was, apparently, over 2500 years old and  had only fallen down in the late 90s. Apart from the new growth over the log, it was still suitable for quality lumber!!

The Gordon River

The under growth was so thick it looked almost impossible for anyone to walk through!! No wonder escaped prisoners had a hard time. Shooting at these prisoners was, aparently, an acceptable passtime.....

 An early evening for me and I hit the sack after a meal of cabbage rolls packed by Kate :-)

22/02/2013
Another breakfast of fresh prunes, museli and a mug of tea and I was ready for the train trip to Queenstown. What !! It's only 0630 !!

 I have 3 hours to kill before heading to the  train. I went for a walk into the rainforest (3+ metres of rain a year here!!). It was a 40min walk each way and by the time I go back I was hungry again... Off to Banjos (the bakery) for a coffee and a toastie.

  Went to the train station, - still too early :-) and went to have a look at the small loco that was going to take us. It was a diesel and not a steam train and I was a little disappointed until I found out that it would only take us up the lower slopes to a stattion called Dubble Barrel.




 Aparently trains are pushing(?) to get up anything greater than a 1-in-40 slope. (That's a 1 metre rise in 40 metres). After Dubble Barrel the slope would be 1-in-20 and only the steam trains were equipped with an ABT system. That's a middle rail with cogs to pull the train up the mountain and too keep it going slowly down the mountain (which  was a 1-in-16 slope).

On the ABT line

Any boy's dream job.

Could not get to photograph too much as the glass windows reflected to much but the scenery was beautiful. We stopped at Dubble Barrel for lunch ( brown box) and watched as both the steam train and the Diesel were rotated on the manually operated turntable and reconnected to their respective carriages.




The Diesel going back down with the people who had travelled down from Queenstown and the steam train travelling up to Queenstown with us who had come from Strahan. The commentary was great with amusing stories of different people and experiences during the construction of the line. It was a great experience, not on the same scale as the boat trip, but great in it's own right.

One of the 35 odd we had to go over

King River

The Queen River, Killed by early mining practices

Back to Strahan by coach by 1615 and the end of another magic day. If I did this again I would do the train ride first, though from what I hear, it may end in April as there is some arguement over who was going to continue maintaining the line and the trains. The local business say  that it's the state govt's responsability and the state govt say it's the Federal govt's.  It would be sad to see it closed....

Off tomorrow to ???? Somewhere northwards I think.