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Published: March 18th 2023
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Tasmania
On the Trail Day 8
We left Hobart heading for Port Arthur via a convoluted route as per normal. Firstly our route took us South through a series of winding gravel & sealed roads mainly through forestry areas. Eventually this turned us North through the town of New Norfolk for the 2nd or maybe 3rd time. This was our 1st gas stop of the day. Continuing North on a mixture of roads, we eventually arrived at an intersection on a gravel road & turning right as our route planned we noticed the road had a “No Through Road” sign. Undaunted we decided to continue on our planned route as it was named as a public road. After around 15kms on a normal gravel road it transformed into a rocky track, through an unlocked gate next to an Australian military firing range. We decided to press on in spite of the risk of being fired at. This turned out to be the least of our worries as the track was very gnarly with loose rocks, the occasional stream crossing and deep mud patches. The gnarliest bit was a steep drop into a dry creek bed with large loose rocks & a steep climb out the
Geeveston
The Bears Went Over the Mountain other side. Ross' bike had a brief lie down in the creek bed and my bike tried unsuccessfully to climb a bank on the way up the track exiting the creek bed. Continuing on we had a very steep loose rock uphill where Brenton did a lot of assisting being the gnarly track expert (& the youngest) Others spent 5 minutes catching our breath. At this point we still had a further 10kms of the track to go before reaching a road but pressed on as the thought of turning back was not attractive. Being optimistic we figured the track could gradually improve – however it didn’t - but we completed the task and arrived at the main road south after probably 1.5 hours battling rocks, steep inclines & declines but generally all in one piece. Heading South we had an uneventful sealed road ride into Port Arthur arriving just before 7pm where we had dinner in a diner/roadhouse just before they were closing. Checking into our booked accommodation we had done around 340 kms for the day.
Day 9.
We rode to the the historic area after breakfast in the same roadhouse. The museum hadn’t opened so we
Muddy
Muddy Conditions couldn't visit, but later we were told it had an interesting convict history display relating to Port Arthur and Tasmania. Oh well – refer Mr Google!
Heading back up the coast we had plotted some gravel roads (one had a locked gate so we had to route around this) others roads took us through forestry areas and as we progressed we got onto an 80km gravel/forestry loop which took us into Tarraleah Estate for an early 3pm finish. Tarraleah was built in the 1930s to accommodate Hydro workers, eventually growing to almost 2000 people. It fell into disrepair during the 1980s and '90s. Tarraleah has been owned privately since 2006. All the original houses have been beautifully restored and ours had a view out over the massive pipes that carried water to the turbines. There was a large restaurant and bar, both with roaring fires essential for a Tasmanian summer.
More minor bike maintenance ensued until Brenton, who had his bike booked into a shop in Hobart tomorrow for a new stator, found that it had a new problem. The countershaft sprocket nut that was partially stripped was failing to hold the bush through the oil seal causing a bad
oil leak. Contacting a company in Hobart “Motorcycle Ambulance” he departed with bike in their transporter back to Hobart to get the Suzuki shop onto the issues first thing the following day. We meantime, warmed ourselves in the restaurant and had an enjoyable meal. 326kms today
Day 10
Leaving Tarraleah we were now down to 4 riders as Brenton was back in Hobart having repairs effected. Back on gravel roads through commercial forests (apparently Mountain Ash) we wound our way Eastwards through the small town of Ouse where we gassed up and had breakfast. Continuing on we had more gravel forestry roads and then turned North heading for our destination of Lake Leake. An unfortunate name for a man made lake with an earth dam which was built in 1883 at a cost of 12000 pounds. The hotel here “Lake Leake Inn” looks like it was built around the same time as the dam. The bar restaurant areas were in good condition as built in brick, but the accommodation wing was wood & basically falling down. However our rooms were warm & comfortable & the proprietors who had only bought the lease 5 weeks previous were great hosts. After
a couple of hours Brenton arrived complete with a new stator & sprocket nut (albeit a non genuine one) so all was right in our world.
366kms today on the route.
Day 11
Out of Lake Leake Inn after a walk to the lake & earth dam. Impressive considering it was built in 1883 & probably by hand.
Gassed up at a roadhouse out on the main road and then within 5 kms our route took us back onto gravel forestry roads. We kept up a good pace with the odd navigational hiccup but always managing to rejoin the route. Plenty more gravel roads headed us out to the east coast and then we were heading north on the sealed coast road. After the small town of Bicheno we branched inland on a dirt track which our GPS route showed was called E Rd. Not sure what the significance of this was as we were heading West and certainly there were no charging stations. The track was a genuine single track with some steep deep dry culverts which could easily catch out the unwary.
The track progressed getting more & more overgrown and after around 10 to 15kms we started to encounter fallen trees. Apparently there had been a major wind weather event in this area recently. After a few negotiable blockages we came to some tree blockages that were non negotiable. Fortunately Brenton carries a pruning saw for this purpose so we cut some branches and made another 1/2 km progress before we decided that the next lot were too big & would take too long to overcome, So we turned back. Frustratingly we could see on the GPS we were only 3.5kms from the end where it joined the coast road again.
Heading North we were on gravel again but our route had a sign “residents only” so we worked around this on a more direct route to our destination of Winnaleah. This was more direct but again we had lucked onto a climbing winding forestry road which was great to ride.
We had booked at the Winnaleah Hotel but they had lost the booking. They fitted us in to this country hotel however, which was beautifully refurbished and had a great dinner menu. Only 270kms today due to the turnback at the “residents only road” cutting around 50kms off our route.
Day12
Departing Winnaleah we stopped at a small town, Scottsdale which had a Suzuki shop. Brenton wanted a genuine Suzuki sprocket nut as a backup to the non genuine one he had fitted. The owner was very helpful & took one off a new bike as he didn’t have one in stock. It turns out this was the guy I had emailed a few weeks before we came for some route advice.
We left Scottsdale & once again back on country roads then forestry gravel roads and gradually climbing the whole time. We passed Liffey Falls a popular tourist attraction by all accounts, eventually reaching "The Great Lake" at just over 1200 metres altitude. A spectacular looking lake but only 1/5th the size of Lake Taupo. This area is known as the Central Highlands and it was seriously cold – down to 8 degrees for a while. We continued on eventually dropping elevation and receiving a lift in temperature. We crossed a few roads we had been on before - we are obviously running out of Island to explore. Arriving back into Queenstown we had booked to stay at the Railway Hotel. This turned out to be a scruffy down at heel pub that had no wifi, no restaurant and very basic facilities. However it was cheap...never mind the quality feel the price! 390kms today - a big day. Tomorrow is a rest day.
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