A Very Fuzzy Tassie 2014

dougman1

Part of the furniture
Geez Mark, That Sony of yours takes some great photos. It's nice to see the trip from anothers perspective. :chug:
 

Fuzzy Dunlop

Unleash the inner wombat
[Insert Jealousy Here]

Great pics, le drool, le drool!

Thanks mate!

Geez Mark, That Sony of yours takes some great photos. It's nice to see the trip from anothers perspective. :chug:
Yeah the RX100 II is the bomb. Should be for the price, though. :wink:

I do also give most photos a light treatment in Lightroom (clean, straighten, crop, temperature etc), and some of them with crappy exposure are rescued to become crackers.
 
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Fuzzy Dunlop

Unleash the inner wombat
Day 4

Request denied, Derek. The show must go on! :scull:

Day 4

Taken the day before as we approached Queenstown.



Morning dawned in Queestown foggy and damp. The plan was to head east toward Derwent Bridge, take a gander at The Wall and then down to New Norfolk where we would stay the night.

Before hitting the highway we headed south to take a gander at the south end of Lake Burbury, moving in and out of fog banks until we climbed high enough. The views were amazing and the photos don't do it justice with the tricky shadow and light.

Got one above the fog though.

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We headed down to the lake from the mountains but the valley was shrouded in fog and we turned around and headed back to town.

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The fog had mostly cleared by the time we returned to town and another sunny day emerged from the gloom. How lucky are we? We started the twisty climb over the mountain to Gormanston when disaster struck. It was a few corners in when I head the unmistakable sound of a Bimmer hitting the tarmac. I knew because I'd head this before in Strahan and luckily I wasn't wearing earplugs. I was second last in the group and I turned my head to see tail gunner Crusty on the tarmac next to his prone bike. I quickly swung around and went to see if he was OK. Fortunately he was OK bar some scrapes and bruises and the bike was saved by the crash bars (you listening, Charley?), leaving a set of very impressive scrapes on the road.

Honestly, what some people will do to get out of being tail gunner! Says his front TKC went out from under him. Pffft.

Anyways I did the right thing and took some photos, then helped Derek get his bike upright. Except in the wrong order. Damn!

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The drama didn't end there. Crusty was OK to ride and we headed up the mountain to the lookout above Gormanston, near a big hole in the ground where I met some of the others who had not know of Derek's demise. Very pretty place.





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We'd been there a few minutes when an ambulance and a copper came roaring up the road and stopped at the lookout, asking Derek if he was the old geezer reported to have been in a motorcycle accident. This puzzled us because no cars had come past us when Crusty binned it so no one could have possibly called it in. Crusty admitted that he might be said geezer and that he didn't need help. The cop and ambulance asked if he was sure and then headed quickly off in case there was another 'older gentleman' in a bike crash. Couldn't possibly be two could there?

We head back to the main road and continued the journey. The mystery unfolds in this video. Get a load of the serenity!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb8wOmyTrRQ

The old geezer by the side of the road and nearly run over by the slow driving idjit was none other than Hans, 'The Ghost who Rides'. He had a low speed off coming out of that corner where we found him and was searching for missing XT vitals, and it was he whom was reported to the emergency services. He was fine, being an incredibly tough bugger, and Pete helped him quickly fix his bike. Another mystery solved!

We continued on down the highway to Derwent Bridge. A cracker of a road with fast bits, twisty bits and loads of eye candy. I gave the Katoom some berries and caught up with Andrew, who promptly turned up the heat in the twisties and left me behind. Note to self - get better at slow corners.

I found Andrew at a little touristy lookout thingy by the side of the road near Derwent Bridge where we waited for the others.

Mixed emotions in this photo. Poor Derek looks like he'd just fallen off a motorcycle!

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We grabbed some tucker at Derwent Bridge then went to see The Wall in the Wilderness.

Amazing wood carvings of local history on huge walls, as well as incredibly life-like wooden sculptures. Its a very solemn place, like a mausoleum to a lost way of life. A must see if you pass through Derwent Bridge.

We continued on the highway toward New Norfolk where four of us took a little dirt interlude while Doug and Crusty decided to take the fast route and head for town and get some rest. Back in the KTMs element, it was a pleasant ride through some forest and past a lake, where we stopped for a gander.

Le Awesome!



Further down Victoria Valley road the valley opened up into an amazing Strathbogies-like landscape, except on a grand scale. The road was fabulous and the riding fast. Bags of fun. I stopped to let the other catch up :)





Pete took us down another little dirt bit as Andrew headed direct to town. This was mostly fun, but the road turned to thick monster marbley gravel and being quite tired after a full day, this wasn't very welcome. Fortunately there wasn't much of this, and we headed along the back road to new Norfolk, stopping off in Ellendale for refreshments and a rest at the milk bar.

The Junction Motel at New Norfolk had a restaurant with an all you-can-eat buffet thing going which was actually very good, and we all had a slap up meal. Hans showed up during the meal and shouted us some drinks. Cheers Hans!

Another awesome day in the bag!

The route.

Morning

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Afternoon

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Overall

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twowheeler

two wheels are best
Nice pics Mark !

I do also give most photos a light treatment in Lightroom (clean, straighten, crop, temperature etc), and some of them with crappy exposure are rescued to become crackers.

I need to learn how to do this, instead of just taking what the Sony gives me.
 

Fuzzy Dunlop

Unleash the inner wombat
Day 5

After a dodgy nights sleep due to the traffic noise from the highway 5 meters away (actually I was fine - ear plugs!), we awoke to a damp morning with more rain threatening. It looks like the weather gods would require another goat or two in payment. We discussed today's plans and it was decided that we would spend another night here despite the noise, as today was pretty simple. Head to Strathgordon and back with a dirt detour or two. Crusty and Pato were feeling a little sore today and decided to seek medical attention and make this a rest day.

Five of us headed into town for breakfast and then on to Maydena to top up with fuel. We got there and there wasn't any. Some delivery cockup had left them dry and this left us scratching our heads, shivering with cold and looking up at the weather closing in. The petrol lady called Strathgordon and checked to see if they had fuel. They had plenty, so off we went expecting to cop some rain or possibly snow.

We didn't. Clearly one of the team has sneaked off in the night and sacrificed that goat, as the weather remained dry. The roads turned wet for a bit though the forested bits, but when the landscape opened up the roads had dried out. Awesome roads ruined by rain, but there was always the return trip!

A couple of bikes passed us the other way and it turned out to be Kenny and crew returning from Strathgordon. We stopped for a chat and some photos.



The scenery became eye popping as we approached Strathgordon, and we stopped for photos all the way to the dam.







The Gordon dam was very impressive. The weather looking dodgy but still remaining dry due to the power of animal sacrifice.



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One of the benefits of working on the scheme was the free roller coaster rides, though we refused to accompany Doug as we all wanted to go for lunch.

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We stopped back in town for fuel and an early lunch. A communication error left Pete chasing Goodie back up the highway and she enjoys the klacker so much she apparently led Pete a merry dance.

The weather still fine, we head back down the highway to Scotts Peak Road, where Pete suspected we could head south to the bottom of Lake Pedder for some eye candy. How right he was! A cracker of a dirt road. Wide, very very fast and smooth as a babies bum. I chased Andrew at high speed and I was catching before he stopped for photos and spoiled the game. The scenery was amazing howling down the road between lake and mountains. We eventually made the bottom of the lake and crossed the spillway between lake and Edgar's Pond.

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We waited for the others to catch up and pressed on into the unknown, not really knowing where we would end up following the bottom of Lake Pedder. Where we did end up was a lookout called Red Knoll (dubbed Red Knob by Andrew and myself, as my command of the English language is dubious). Probably the most spectacular 360 degree eye popper of the entire trip. Surrounded by lake on one side and the ring on mountains on the other, we were all completely floored and the weather still held out.

I was disappointed that the photos don't really do justice to this incredible place. I urge anyone who heads to Strathgordon to take the time to visit. The road will be fine for road bikes and even Williamson's Queen Mary should survive it.







We lingered here a while cameras clicking away furiously, then headed back along the Scott's Peak speedway reaching speeds that might have somewhat exceeded the weird 80 kmph dirt speed limits that Tassie advertises for time to time. I waited back at the main road for what seemed like hours, passed by a group of three tigers, a speed triple and a KTM 990 enjoying the road to Strathgordon.

Time was running short so we headed directly back to New Norfolk and another awesome buffet meal and dark brews.

Another cracking day in the bag.

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