Tassie's West Coast by Friday: Bike Friday that is!

And we're off! From Devonport, after getting a few directions we head off to the town of Sheffield. We stop at a sports store for Shellite (White Gas) as the ferry folks had dumped ours; a market for some lunch stuff and the post to mail. The ride to Sheffield is lovely; rolling and not too long. A great combo!! We had a sampling of wild Black Berries on the way into town there were ton along the roads. We will soon find that they grow wild along many of the roadways in Tas. Sheffield is promoting itself as the Mural Town so it makes for interesting building viewing. No official campground here but the visitor centre folks direct us to the free campground beside the cricket oval. Departure is delayed the next morning due to an overnight water infiltration into Ian's trailer, Ian neglected to shut the safety valve on the Camel Back and of course the spigot was squeezed with the result being a collection of wet gear which required some drying time. Luckily it was a fine day with a nice breeze and that part of the operation didn't take to long. Live Learn and eventually Laugh!

After the obligatory coffee shop stop we are riding through beautiful country side with Mt. Roland dominating the view. We make it to Gowrie Park in good time and keep on as it is still a long way to Cradle Mt. which is our intended destination. The general trend in the riding is uphill; although there is one screaming big down which takes us to the Fourth River. You've heard the expression what goes up must come down? Well in this case it dawns on us that what goes down must come up; and it does. We spend a couple of gruelling hours riding an 8 Km uphill with 5 of that being steep and another 3 being a moderate climb. After lots more climbing and then some lunch we continue on through beautiful high buttongrass plains and eventually make it to the RV Park at Cradle Mt. A quick email check gets in touch with our friends Travis and Lelia in Hobart so we start making arrangements for a visit. More about that later.

Today is hiking day. Unfortunately it is also rain day. We can see the top of Cradle Mt. as we ride the shuttle to the start of the hiking trails but it slowly gets obscured by the incoming cloud/fog. We find out later that Travis is up in the clouds somewhere guiding a not too happy group of hikers on the start of a six day overland trek. They cheer up immensly over the next few days as the weather improves! We hike a few of the interconnected trails in the area; decide to give the peak of the mountain a miss as the weather was getting worst not better as we approached the turn off and opted for the return trail along the east side of Dove Lk. All in all about 4 or 5 hours of great hiking even if the weather was less than ideal.

OK now this is more what we are used to in the mountains! We wake up to a thick layer of frost on everything and clear blue skys. After taking some time to defrost and quasi dry out we head off. We decide to do a quick stop for coffee at the Wilderness Gallery which turns into a longer stop than anticipated.  One new jacket and a couple of bike conversations later we are on the road and have some lovely riding through high plains rolling hills and great scenery.

Lunch stop was in the cute little village of Tullah with Mt. Murchison in the distance. The ride up and out of town was steady but not obscene. In good time we managed to make our way into Rosebery where we spent the evening at the RV park talking to Olivier who was born in France but has been living in Canada for the past 5 years and is now cycle touring. He has a huge fasination with Yukon so we fill him in as much as we can.

There is a significant climb out of Rosebery to greet us first thing in the morning. That accomplished we spend a good deal of time riding through rolling hills with one more biggish climb. We then roll down (more or less) into the small mining town of Zeenhan and feel very much like we have dropped into Elsa or Keno in Yukon.

After a quick look around; some lunch at the Bistro we are on the road again; destination Strahan. We traverse the button grass plateau and look out over the Henty Dunes to the Ocean. We are back into the trees here and the ride is generally down into the very cute little tourist town of Strahan. We do a layover day in Strahan; more catch up and a great ride to Ocean Beach. The ride was interrupted by a huge feed of wild Black Berries. Gorging I think would be an apt description. A walk on the beach; an educational read about Mutton Birds aka Shortwinged Shearwaters and it is back to the campground for R&R.

After a morning of frustration using the telstra phone system we set off on a short day to Queenstown. The ride out of Strahan is generally up but not too steep. At first there is great Eucalyptus forest and then it subsides to scrubby sub alpine vegitation. The approach to Queenstown is reminicient of nearing any of the other mining towns you might know; Sudbury; Faro; Sydney N.S. all come to mind. We camp in a too full RV park and get set to continue on in the A.M.

We depart Queenstown with our destination being Lake St. Clair. The irony here is that this is the same day that Travis will end his Overland trek with his group. The overland trail ends at LSC. We will unfortunately not be there in time to bump into him. We will however connect soon. The ride will be one of our longest to date being just over a 90 Km. when all is said and done. It starts with a long steep uphill on a switchback filled road which gets us to a great lookout over Queenstown where the ravages of over 100 years of mining are apparent. The mines required lots of timber so there was also a lot of logging done. Combine that with acid mine drainage and the result is a fairly barren landscape that is visual testament to how not to do mining and/or logging. Hopefully we learn some lessons from places like this. The next section is great riding; with rolling hills and lovely scenery. Some thicker forests are in evidence and we ride past the headwaters of the Collingwood and Franklin Rivers. Shortly after that we begin a long stretch of uphill to King Williams Saddle.

It is 8+ Km. of sustained uphill which seems longer as we have been riding for a while now!! The good news is that this is the east west watershed divide so theoretically it is all downhill from here to Hobart!! That theory does hold for the most part for the rest of the ride to LSC. We arrive there late in the day and have a quick meal & shower then to bed exhausted.

Instead of laying over @ LSC we opt for a short day (50 Km.) to Tarraleah. It is a great ride with a screaming fun downhill and then a steep but not so long up hill to end the day. The great surprise was the resort at the top of the hill. It is a restructured hydro operation and was a really great place to stay. Arguably our best on the trip so far. Unfortunately we need to press on in order to meet up with Travis before he has to go back into the Park to guide another group.

From Tarraleah there was a series of big up and downs in the mist and fog of a cool mountain morning. The weather improved steadily as we rode east. Oust and then Hamilton were lovely. What turned out to be our last big climb of the day was just out of Hamilton and from then on it was lovely rolling hills along the Derwent River. By this point we had been in contact with Travis and Lelia several times and had made plans for Travis to pick us up in New Norfolk so we wouldn't have to deal with the Hobart City traffic. Everything went according to plan and we arrived at the designated pick up spot five minutes before Travis; loaded up bikes gear and people and were off to the city; in a real car. More later from a great base just over the hill from Hobart Tasmainia!!