I can't believe that I have been without a wifi signal for so long !!! Seems like a million years :-) Anyway here is the next taxi in the rank, so to speak.....


27/01/2013

I woke up at about -0330 this morning to the sound of rain beating down on the tent. Great :-( With a bit of luck it will be over by 0630, I thought. Ha ha ha . What a joke !! It was still raining and the wind was still 'huffing and puffing' and I thought "this little pig was going to have to pack  up in the rain!!. Not a nice thought as it was bloody cold!! I put on the thermals and the waterproofs and was steeling myself when the tap upstairs was turned off!! I looked out and there was more on the way so everything was packed up quick smart . The inner of the tent was dry as and I was able to shake 90% of the water off the outer shell. I had already packaged up everything in the tent. It was just a matter of getting everything into the trailer before the next wave of rain. I headed to the markets for a bite to eat and coffee. As I parked the bike, down it came !! A quick dash and I was in a small cafe and polished up a large coffee and a larger breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, grilled tomato and mushrooms. It could rain all it wanted now, I was right :-) Oh Yes, it was 9 degrees! Ahhh summer...

After a bit of a wander I picked up a shirt each for the littlies and some woollen socks for myself. Nothing like having warm feet when I'm  riding !

Waiting at the Ferry Terminal

I headed to the ferry terminal early and the area was jam packed !! It was worse than a can of sardines ! No parking anywhere. I could not park on the footpath with my trailer attached! Then I remembered that there was bike parking by the gate leading to the ferry.

 Cars could not use it because the bollards were too close together. BUT :-) just far enough for me to get my trailer through!! :-)

The boardwalk goes off into the distance

Apparently there was some sort of festival on at the far end of the boardwalk. People dressed in period clothing, live bands everywhere and all  the little cafe's were bulging with bodies.  They ware all having a great time of it. People in their cars and caravans trying to park near the terminal gates though were pinged off as there was no parking at all and had to park up to 250m away from the terminal gates. As it was, when the gates opened the only vehicles waiting at the gates were all the motorcyclists. About 30 of us!!

Ferry just berthing

Relaxing in the lounge

28/01/2013
The ferry arrived in Deavonport at 0600 and instead to the 30min wait we were told to go down to the vehicles as soon as the ferry had docked. The had to reload and leave in less than two hours. I was out pretty quick and after a coffee at McCafe and a quick visit to the information centre I was on my way!! Tassie here I am!!

I was the first vehicle to go off the ferry

I decided to head to George Town via Beaconsfield and used all the secondary roadsI could find. What a fantastic ride!! the only straights were the immediate approaches in and out of the small towns :-) I particularly liked the Holwell road through the hills . Twists and turns like there was no tomorrow :-)

To get to George Town I had to eventually get onto the main road again :- ( The road designers had no imagination. Either that, or they all road Harleys.) George town was quiet. Too quiet.. Then I realised that it was a public holiday! I rode through the town to the water front looking for somewhere I could get a warm coffee. Nothing! As I headed back to town I spied a building which had a large sign "BASS - FLINDERS". It was a museum (?) dedicated to these two sailor explorers. Worth a look - and it was!!!

35 ft long

The 26ft skiff Bass used to explore with

The couple at the reception were more than welcoming and kindly relieved me of some money (less the grey hair allowance :-)) and gave me a precis of what to expect. When I asked the whereabouts of a coffee shop offered to make me one! And as I sat to watch a short film brought my coffee in along with three plain bikkies and three chocolate bikkies! On the house! coffee and bikkies!!. The museum was tiny but chokkers with boats and artifacts from these two men.

The NORFOLK replica

The centre object was a replica of the boat they used in their explorations of theTamar river. The boat, NORFOLK was 35 ft in length and built using original plans sent to the builders from England. No nails were used, just hand made dowels with wedges used to spread the dowels. Every wedge on the whole boat was vertical!! A work of art. It was sailed to Sydney across the Bass Strait for a major celebration and then sailed back. They had rough weather and their radio went out. The S&R sent out planes and helicopters and they found the boat in huge seas sailing unharmed towards Tasmania. The skipper apparently was pinged off at the rush to send out the S&R planes. He said "It was only our radio that went out, and only 6 hours later there's planes and helicopters everywhere".

As I was about to leave I was asked it I had seen the motorcycles?? Aparently on a small mezzanine there were a few motorcycles worth looking at, so off headed. There were only 8 bikes on display but what works of art!!  They were an assortment of 50 - 125cc racing bikes from the late 50s to the early 70s.

Immaculate!! The bloke who restored them, and had raced them only had use of one hand. The other was always in his trouser pocket. To get the bikes checked by the marshalls before each race he had someone else present them for fear that they would not let him race if they knew he had use of only the one limb. He has stripped and rebuilt every one of them with no help. One handed, amazing!!







From there I went to Low Point. The entrance to the Tamar river. It was from here the pilots would be rowed out to the ships waiting to go upriver. The lighthouse was run by whale oil originally, then kerosene and is now electric. There are/were several wrecks around the entrance with several reefs just  below the water. Now days the pilot boats are motorised but still leave from the Low Point pilot house which is now a heritage area.

Pilot's original house. Still in use!!

A quick ride to Bidport and to the van park by the sea. The park stretched for nearly a kilometer alone the water front. It was packed and the woman behind the counter said it was the last weekend before school starts. I got a good spot under a tree and power alongside. I slept like a log and woke to the sound of the waves on the beach.