Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2010
Edit Blog Post
Feeling thirsty we headed up to Launey for some fine wine adventuring. I had this vague idea to ride around to the various vineyards on push bikes (no drinking and driving for us) along the Tamar Valley River Wine Route area. I envisioned gentle rolling hills, sea views and long lazy lunches. This is actually, almost, what I got!
Philip and I hired 2 bikes and a bike carrier from Ben, who is one of the owners of Avanti Plus Cyclery. He made us feel like VIP’s when we were really just regular tourists. Not only did we get 2 almost brand new off road bikes but locks and helmets for $30 a day. (That’s total not each!) Because our rental car did not have the capability of accommodating a regular travel rack Ben went home and got his own that would. And then he only charged us $26 for the 4 days we rented! I still feel remiss that I didn’t bring him a bottle of wine as a small token of appreciation for customer service above and beyond.
Lots of bicyclists use this route following the smaller riverside roads to avoid traffic. We opted to splurge for
one night and stayed at the ConMel Cottage at Rosevears ($130 a night also includes full breakfast provisions...even eggs from their own chooks) This is the place that has a Loo with a View. The second story bathroom window looks out over the sloping river banks to a gentle curve in the river. And yes you must be sitting to really appreciate it! Brett and Geraldine accommodate your every need with no fuss or pretension. The crisp white sheets were so welcoming after a day of bicycling and wine tasting. And so were the delicious homemade cookies. These are farming people…stewards of the land. We ate dinner from their garden; a summers bounty of big burgundy beets, yellow green banana peppers (which Philip sautéed in garlic and olive oil), fragrant basil and cheerful cherry tomatoes. We also had corn on the cob and strawberries warm and red and true. They had herbs of every flavor, abundant artichokes and the most lovely espairliered pear tree. They sent us on our way with bags of freshly picked green beans and zuccini!
Somehow we ended up unknowingly in town right before the Launceston Festivale. Because we had made no prior bookings…we were just
winging it…we had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay. We finally managed to find a reasonably priced hotel room ($90 studio w/ internet access) at the Leisure Inn, which was newly refurbished so was very clean and comfy (no a/c though) but cookie cutter. It did have the advantage of being right next to the Cataract River Gorge path. We spent a really nice day exploring along there. Lots of various walking and hiking paths, a suspension bridge and a chairlift ride across the river. We didn’t go on that because they wanted $25 per person. I wish I had put a swim suit in my day pack because it was a sunny warm day and there is a big huge pool surrounded by lush green grass that is open and free of charge. (Watch out for all the wallaby droppings!) The best part is they have re-opened the rock walls to climbers and we saw several people scaling the heights. You can also bring your kayak up in there until you hit the rocky rapids.
But boy are we ever glad we ended up in Launceston for the week-end of Feb 13-15…. The Festivale at
City Park celebrates all things Tasmanian. You pay $15 per person to enter and then $2 for a Festival plastic wine glass and can go to all the stalls and taste to your hearts’ content. You can also buy full glasses or bottles as well as a huge variety of fresh locally sourced foods and desserts. We went on the Friday night, arriving a bit before sunset. It was that magical time of day, the trees all glowing from the long low streaming rays of sun. Then as the twinkling white party lights came on and lit everything up, a real sense of fun and celebration started to fill the air. Several live bands played music and local school dance groups strutted their stuff. I especially liked the circus acrobat guy who did a funny routine complete with a fake Russian accent. (I know it was fake because I heard him speaking to his trusty and attractive assistant when they walked though the entrance at the same time as us and they sounded more like Sydneysiders to me!) I could still kick myself for not bringing the camera. We decided that it would be dark most of the time we
would be there and plus we would need our hands to juggle wine glasses and food plates. We probably should have staked a small claim to a couple of chairs at either one of the large tables scattered about or the tall bar tables and umbrellas but no big deal.
Somehow Philip and I managed to not realize we had very conveniently missed Valentines Day and all that silly commercial stuff. Instead we took our bikes out to Golden Valley via Deloraine. We had seen a listing in the Lonely Planet Guide (Tasmania 2008) for these mountainside retreat cabins. I wanted to book for that next night so instead of trying to go through the booking internet site I just got out the phone book and looked them up. They were happy to have us, left the key in a pre-arranged place as they were going to the last day of the Festivale in Launey, and left us pleasantly self contained in our cute little cabin. We paid them when we left. But not before we did some really fun sightseeing. We took the bikes out to the edge of Great Lake in the World Heritage listed Great Western Tiers.
This is a HUGE lake...we rode our bikes for 2 hours and made only a pinprick on the map around it. We got off our bikes and walked along the peat and heath bogs and listened to the waves being whipped by the wind. It was cloudy and windy and rainy...even dense fog obscuring the peaks. The drama of the weather made it even more beautiful. After a lunch of homemade soup and quesadillas back at the cabin, and of course a rainy day afternoon nap, we went back out to explore Liffey Falls. This is a tessellated granite formation dating back 250 mya to when Tazzie was part of Gondwanaland. It definitely felt like being in an ancient rainforest.
And that long lazy lunch I mentioned? It turns out we stumbled onto Daniel Alps at Strathlyn, apparently a very well known and celebrated chef and his resteraunt at 9th Island Vineyard. We sat on a shaded wooden deck overlooking the sloping vineyards chasing the hill down to the Tamar River and ate and drank and talked for hours. A very fine day indeed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 51; dbt: 0.038s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb