23/02/13
Woke up to a sunny sky, hooray!! :-) I was packed and on my way by 0900. Had to stop at Banjos on my quick circuit  of the water front for a coffee to warm myself  up though..... (Too much coffee on this trip :-))

I headed  North, towards Cradle Mountain via Zeehan and Rosebery. About half way to Zeehan the clouds began to roll in from the coast. I stopped at Zeehan to put on the wet gear to keep me warm. By Rosebery it was raining (lightly) again! until 15km out from Cradle Mountain.

Button grass and peat

The country side between Strahan and Zeehan was mostly low grasses and peat. It was like walking on a wet mattress. The button grass has dark button like tips and is high in volatile oils. Aparently it burns quite hot!! It then gets the peat smouldering and one of the locals was saying that it may take months for it to go out!!

The blustery winds along with the rain and I was feeling the cold through my (supposedly) winter gloves. By the time I reached the visitors centre my fingers were close to being frozen! The rain had stopped and the sun was finally out, but the wind!! Damn cold ..

High in the blustry winds looking toward Cradle Mountain, The valley is button grass and peat.

The first thing I spied when I walked in was a rack of thin thermal gloves. At $15 a pair were on my hands in a flash :-) Bliss. I paid for a day pass and after a warming coffee and a beef burger with the lot I was ready to explore the park.

Just in the park, as I came over a rise, I saw the officer with his hair drier aimed at me. I was OK, I thought, as I was about 10km below the limit. He waved me down though. WHAT??? It turned out that he had seen the trailer and just wanted to have a look at it and to chat, whew!! :--) By the time I left him I had a list of good bike roads to investigate. (He owned several bikes and rode on his  days off :-))

Another 100m through the park and there was a ranger blocking half the road with his 4x4 and indicating for me to pull up. He wanted to see my day pass. By the time I got one glove off and removed my helmet he had walked to the back of the bike and had seen the NT plates. He was no longer interested in seeing the pass but wanted to talk about the warmth of the Territory. He had been a ranger at 'the rock' for 10 years and while he loved Tasmania he missed the heat of the NT. :-) Go figure !! Again, he too was a motorcyclist and talked about a few good roads to travel. ( that, apart from family, was a  drawcard for him to come here)

Cradle Mountain with Dove Lake in the foreground

The sun was in full bore now but the wind was lazy!!! The Cradle Mt area is beautiful and I went on several short (30 - 45 min) walks. In the King Billy Pine forest there was wombat crap everywhere!! This area of Tasmania is thick with them... In the shade, with the wind, it was almost shivering cold. No wind in the forest though as it was too  thickly wooded. A large bowl of wombat stew and some crusty bread would have gone down well :-)

It was getting on and I didn't fancy staying up on the mountain for the night so I headed back down and towards a small ex hydro village called Gowrie Park (just south of Sheffield) where I stayed in a cabin for $30. A HOT plentiful shower was the first thing, then a quick stir-fry of fresh  chopped veges and noodles topped off with a glass of a classic white and I was off to a dry room with double blankets for the night.

24/02/13
Up early this morning. Heavily overcast ??? The weather man had promiised a sunny day !!!. I checked it out. Sunny for the East coast.  I was on the West side of the island. Prediction; rain!!  Sure enough, by the time I had breakfast and packed the trailer it had started. Lightly at first.

I had to back-track a km to get onto the Mole Creek road. By then it was a heavier drizzlle. The road wasted no time in going up the mountain with switchback after switchback. The forest was  heavy and in numerous places covered the roadway. With 'slippery when wet' signs on every corner I was taking it VERY easy. Coupled with the rain and low (road height) cloud obscuring the road, there was a definate clenching of the cheeks on a few of the tighter corners. There would have been some glorious views without the rain and heavy cloud.

I called into the King Soloman's caves. It was closed today due to the weather!! Missed out again (last year I had lost my wallet and they would not take cash, only card)!!  On to Mole Creek, still in the rain, where the servo had closed down by the look of it. I still had enough fuel for about 100km so I was not worried as the  small towns are only 30 - 40 km apart at the worst.

Was about to ride through Chudliegh to Deloraine when I passed the honey shop / museum. Worth a stop I thought. After shedding the wet outer gear on their verandah I went into the warmth of the building. Beautiful!! So many varieties and all the natural varieties had not been heat treated as is the norm for the commercial honeys. I sampled quite a few, even the blended produce. I settled on the leatherwood as I liked the taste of that honey. They had  honeys blended with things like caramel, strawberries, chocolate, ginseng and truffles to name a few.

The museum section was very interesting and  I spent the better part  of an hour looking and reading about early honey production in Tasmaia. The early hives were made of grasses internally coated with dung to keep them waterproof. There were no racks in them as today but reeds were hung and the bees attached their combs to them.

A Dodge Fire car

Time to go and onto Deloraine where I refuelled the bike and myself. It was still raining but the road had levelled out after Mole Creek and the coners ware all above a recommended 45km/h. From there to Westbury where the steam  engine museum was housed...

One of the many German tractors

Operational Traction Engine

There were three of these operational

Still raining  when I reached the museum. Two big sheds full of steam operated tractors, some completely restored  and operational. Massive machines!! There were conventionally styled diesel and petrol farm tractors from pre WW2, most of which were of German origin..

There was even a steam powered 16ft open boat!!

There was an interesting pair of steam traction engines that were made and used as a pair. One had a huge cable drum on the left, the other on the right. One would be on one side of a field to be ploughed and one on the other. The heavy plough would be winched across the field by one then the other would pull it back, ploughing as it was skull dragged over the paddock. The engines were setup to move forward the width of the furrows and then the same would happen again. This went on until the whole field was done. Engenious!!









Time to go and I picked the back roads to head back to Franklin. I was going to be baby sitting whilst Kate was in hospital for the day.

The rain had eased to a drizzle again I headed South with a bit more speed as the roads were through farming country and were generally straight with the corners being 90 degree bends until I  started climbing up towards a small hydro village called Poatina. I pulled in for a coffee. Expresso machine was not working !!!!!! Had a cup of tea instead :-) It was STILL raining!!

Onward ever onward they say and by now I was looking for somewhere to stay the night. As I left Poatina it started to really bucket down, not only that but the roas started climbing quite quickly and that ment sharp hairpin corners, and, 'slippery when wet' signs everywhere !! I tucked behind the screen a little, clenched the butt cheeks and hit every corner with respect. Halfway up the mountain I saw a bunch of riders huddled under a small tarp, their bikes out in the heavy rain. They probably couldn't believe their eyes !!! Some clown riding up the cliff face in pouring freezing driving rain !!

They didn't know I was frozen to the seat and that my hands had death gripped the handle bars :-)

I eventually reached the top and as I crossed to the other side the rain just stopped. Must have been a master tap somewhere... Not only that, the sun was out and there was very little cloud in front of me... AND ,,, it was warmer!!! What gives ??  Ahhhh, orographic lift in action !! :-)  From there through to New Norfolk it was sunny and having made good time on the now 'Harley Road' I decided to push on to Franklin and Kate & Adam's place. I arrived at about 1830 after a wettish long day.

 That was it for me and early into the sack, having kicked Rekysha out of her bed once more.