Tasmania - 1 lap (and a bit)

Doonap said:

. A rich 61yo Geelong Grammar dropout, by his own admission on his 3rd blond wife as he trades them in when they reach 1/2 his age + 7. A young Canadian iced-coffee marketting manager; she was spaced out on pills and drink. Her husband who seemed quite OK with his wife hitting on Mick. A younger attractive & mixed-up Thai-Cambodian Buddhist; she was the event manager for a rock concert happening the next day. Her husband Willie, an angry 6-foot 140kg neck-tatted Samoan who was singlehandedly on his 2nd jug of Snakebite (which I learned is beer mixed with raspberry cordial).

Well, I'll let Glenn expand on the evening, as he will do it better justice than I. But its ending - which involved Willie thinking I was hitting on his wife, getting angrier than he already was and proceeding to try to kill me (or at least hurt me; my shirt was the worse for it), then seeing the error of his ways and cuddling me, Bro - was rather memorable.


More to come ........

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Holy shite!!
Sounds complicated...and adventurous.
Guess, that's what makes for all the close-relationships and the twin-heads in the end.

BTW...rode the Paradise Rd.?
And the A5 from Golden Valley to the Lookout? b
There's also a blinder (just about unknown) south of Queenstown, past the Caravan Park and through the saddle @ Mt. Jukes to the shores of Lake Burbury ( no, NOT the Lyell Hwy!)....and Grasstree Hill between Risdon Vale and Richmond (get there at the right time for some serious fun)...and...and....

Day 4 continued.

After Mick & the Ninja 1000 left us, Glenn steered a course towards Ben Lomond National Park and its access road, Jacob's Ladder. We detoured past our accommodation so I could pickup my running shoes, as I was certain I would get to Jacob's Ladder's base, park the R and go for a hike while Glenn went up it on his more dirt-suitable bike.

The approach to Ben Lomond is via yet another beautiful road



At the start of the ~20km gravel road leading to Ben Lomond, I let some air out of the R's tyres to at least get me to the base of the Ladder. It transformed the R and while a million miles from a dirt bike, made it a lot more manageable and quicker on the at-times loose gravel.

First sight of Jacob's Ladder. No way was I NOT going to do that ! I knew I'd get up, it was the coming down I was more concerned about.



Up was straightforward, steady in 1st gear, a bit of judicious clutch slipping and feet dragging on the corners, Bob's your uncle



The Ben Lomond plateau is an other-worldly place







Down took a bit more working out. First 2 corners, tried in closed throttle/rear brake only, just resulting in the engine stalling, so thereafter used a bit of front brake application/clutch feathering too, and got down fine. Just great fun.


Back to Launceston for a quieter night than the previous night !

Day 5.

Go West, Young Man. An early start on our last day in order to have time to get out to The Nut then onto Cape Grim, before making it back for the boat home tonight.


Lots of little villages with some very old buildings



Our run of fast and deserted Tasmanian roads came to a temporary end near Burnie. Being a Sunday on a long weekend, lots of people were out and about. We arrived at Stanley and The Nut in time for an early lunch.

(stupidly, I later accidentally deleted a great photo of our bikes in the foreground with water and The Nut in the background , so this average photo will have to do)



The Nut literally overshadows the town






When was the last time you saw a working red phone box ?



Glenn made an ultimatum. "Either we climb The Nut, or we go to Cape Grim. No time for both". Glenn was certain that Cape Grim was a figment of my imagination, as Google Maps doesn't show it (supposedly, it is one of a hundred or so world sites that are blocked from Google).

But ever since I was a kid, pouring over maps, imagining what remote places were like, I've always wanted to go to Cape Grim. What a name. What dramatic and raw wildness would lead it to be named so ? How isolated it is, stuck in the far NW corner of Tasmania, literally at the end of a long dead-end road. We were only ~60km away. We had to go there. And it was on my $2 paper map. Bugger Google Maps.


So out we went, travelling rather, err, swiftly on an almost completely deserted road. The bitumen ends at the Woolnorth Windfarms and turns to gravel. Cape Grim can only be a couple of kms away as we could see the back of the dunes in the distance. Last corner, and here we are .....
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Aarghh, for f...s sake. Another sign just out of shot warned of big fines and public hangings if you dared enter. Must be something to do with the CSIRO Baseline Clean Air Station there. 1 of only 3 in the world (the others on Hawaii and Greenland), it monitors carbon levels from the cleanest sites available (if you want sobering viewing, google it and checkout its charts).

Glenn was chuffed, as Google Maps was vindicated. I was just pissed.


So back the way we came. We stopped at this very long pier at Point Latta, which Glenn said wasn't long at all, but then he is from South Australia.



We cruised back in Devonport, in time for the rain to commence and to join the queue for the boat.


Each to their own, but I don't get it



Exiting the boat deck, we were frisked for weaponry as clearly we were Bad Bikers. There were Angels on board however



Spinning a vessel this size 180 degrees within its own length is impressive

Hytram said:

did you work this one out?

it was def a flame, but it have that amazing projected halo around it, I think it had something to do with the shape of the room and play visual tricks with your mind

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We thought the same as you Marty, the elliptical curve of the shiny walls creates a halo regardless of where in the room you're standing. Very cool ....

glitch said:

BTW...rode the Paradise Rd.?
And the A5 from Golden Valley to the Lookout? b
There's also a blinder (just about unknown) south of Queenstown, past the Caravan Park and through the saddle @ Mt. Jukes to the shores of Lake Burbury ( no, NOT the Lyell Hwy!)....and Grasstree Hill between Risdon Vale and Richmond (get there at the right time for some serious fun)...and...and....

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Pete I had only a general idea where I was most of the time. We might have done those roads. Glenn had the plan and mostly I just followed ......

Fair enough

5 days are an awefully short stretch for a place like Tassie anyway...impossible to get into all the nooks and crannies.
Some bewd shots there....and hopefully you can stretch it to at least a couple of weeks next time.

Thanks again for posting up the pics and yarns.

Doonap said:

A beautiful, 40kph ride up a single lane road brings us to Dove Lake. Apparently, there are only 11 days per year on average when Cradle Mountain can be seen from it. True or not, we scored a cracker of a morning.

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I think the 11 days per year are days that are fully clear, sunny days with no cloud cover. When I was younger, I heard it was 30 days a year. But anyway, you got a magic day for it!

Doonap said:

The dramatic bridge over the Tamar, near Sidmouth



He's dreamin', surely.



We said goodbye to Mick here as he headed off to Devonport to catch that night's boat. I thought we'd just head back to Launceston, but Glenn had other plans as his hangover - sorry - 'heatstroke', was getting a bit better.

More to come ......

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You were in my neck of the woods - Batman Bridge

And yes, I'd say he is dreaming. I wasn't at home, but you rode right past my place

Not the caravan for sale, though

robbieb said:

You were in my neck of the woods - Batman Bridge

................. I wasn't at home, but you rode right past my place

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You live in a beautiful part of the world. We got out of the sweltering sun at the coffee shop there and stared at the river for a while .........

Robbie I too passed through your neck of the woods but I believe you were still in NZ so didn't bother to chase you up. I will be back to Tassie for sure as I'm stlll happy to wander those great roads and this trip found some more I hadn't tried and a few more added to the wish list for next time. I managed 3 runs across Lake Leake Road as I just love the sounds and feel of footpegs dragging in the morning....lol