A View from Above: Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XI)

DAY 14

Flying into Launny today there was a high chance of rain. Looking out the window of the jet, toward the west as we were on final for runway 14R, it looked pretty bleak. This could be interesting....

Better in the photo than it looked in person.

Once on the ground it began to rain reasonably hard but by the time I arrived at the bike it had stopped. I had an idea to head west and climb the Great Western Tiers, even if they were in cloud. Even though it was wet it was still quite warm at 21C. I put my rain liner in, just in case, and hit the road at about 1520, with no firm destination for the night in mind.

Out through Longford, Cressy and on to the Poatina road. I stopped for a quick photo at the same spot as I did a month ago. It was looking bleak and wet today.

And here it was mid February... actually, not that different!

The closer I got to the Tiers though the more that I could see that it was just haze and not rain. Climbing, the road was wet but there wasn't anything falling from the sky. That was good. It just made for a slow, steady climb as I tried to stay off of the line of oil/fuel that was shimmering on the road surface.

Then I got to the cloud base. It began to get foggy.

All of a sudden visibility was down to about 50 metres and I was crawling along. When this cattle truck, with more lights on it than the space ship in Close Encounters went past I slowed even more and put my hazard lights on. Shit. How long was this going to last?

Then, all of a sudden, I was out of the fog! Perhaps I had outclimbed it? Anyway, I could now see that the terrain was very rocky and alpine like with small, stunted eucalypts up here. Best of all, it was cooler at 15C and there was no traffic, just a few touring cyclists. Hats off to them for getting up that HUGE climb all loaded up with gear!

I took a left at the Arthur's lakes Roadhouse to go check out Wilburville. It was meant to be dirt but it looked fairly recently sealed. This ran to just past Wilburville. I had hoped I could loop back onto the Pieman road but I wasn't sure if the road went through private property so with only a few hours of daylight I just backtracked and took the main road. The Arthur Dam wall was as far east as I went.

I then stopped briefly at the Steppes Sculptures for a photo. Not sure what that is about really. I don't know much about art but I know what I like....🙄

The countryside was quite dry as I dropped down into Bothwell. This little village looked like it had some history to it with big old stone buildings everywhere. I liked the look of it and was getting a bit weary so thought I might get a pub room. No luck on that front though. Apparently I missed the last single room by 5 minutes. Oh, well, press on then!

Bothwell cenotaph.

Not really knowing where to head, except in the general direction of Hobart I went south, out the Hollow Tree road. This proved to be a great little road, carving it's way across straw coloured hillsides with a setting sun that was muted by the cloud cover giving everything an ethereal glow. I wish I had stopped for a photo now but I was too "in the moment" at the time. This is a photo from a bit further along, on the main A10, the Lyell Highway, as I headed toward Gretna, New Norfolk and Hobart.

I stopped at the Gretna pub hoping for some food, then I could stealth camp somewhere. But no, just like the Hamilton pub which I had also tried, they had no chef tonight. I kept riding and figured I could jag somewhere to eat and sleep in New Norfolk. Eventually I found a room at the Bush Inn, which boasts being Australia's oldest continually licenced pub - since 1815 apparently! The place was pretty old and I needed to duck a few doorways but the staff were so friendly and helpful that I would happily stay here again.

View from the rear deck.

View from where the action happens.

A short day today at 228km but still plenty of drama and fun.

DAY 15

I was up reasonable early and went for a walk around town. It is one of Australia's older towns and there is some interesting architecture to look at (but I didn't photograph it😁) Instead, I grabbed a coffee and a curried veggie filo and went looking for Woolworths. I grabbed some stuff for camping tonight/tomorrow morning and went back to wrestle my bike out of the pub garage, where they had locked it up for me for the night.

Leaving town I took a right, off the main highway to climb up over the range at Molesworth. This is a narrow, winding road with a bunch of narrow 25km/h corners in the middle but it boasts some spectacular scenery. No stops here for photos as there is simply nowhere to stop. The road is that narrow!

I buzzed down into Hobart on the main drag, bumping into some guy on a Honda Fireblade (complete with RRR:21 plates) and we played tag from stop light to stop light. Rolling into central Hobart I took a couple of back streets around Constitution Dock and Salamanca Place. If you are coming to Hobart you MUST spend some time in this area. It is as historic as Australia gets and it is very pretty. My rushed photo of the old wool stores at Salamanca Place doesn't do the place justice, but here it is.

Fighting slooow traffic I eventually broke free from the city and headed for Ferntree. This road also had the turn off for Mt Wellington, just prior to Ferntree. I wasn't going to do Wellington but it was a pretty nice day with a high-ish cloud base so I though why not?

I quickly rode up to the top where the temperature was 10C cooler than down in Hobart. This is about correct as the lapse rate is 2 degrees celcius per thousand feet climbed. It did require the heated grips turning on though!

As I neared the summit I climbed into cloud. Bugger! It was also blowing somewhere between 30 and 40 knots now so with no view to stop for, I didn't stop. I just did the loop and dropped back off the mountain.

I did stop part way down for some photos overlooking Hobart. Again, Mt Wellington, at almost 5000 feet and being right at Hobart's back door, is a "must do" if you haven't done it before.

I stopped at the lookout near The Springs to take in the view to the south. That was where I was headed today.

Turning right at the bottom of the mountain I was soon through Ferntree, Sandfly, Margate, Electrona, Snug, with my next stop being Kettering. Kettering is where you catch the ferry to Bruny Island and I wanted to check out the ferry setup. I stopped on the hill overlooking the marina and couldn't get a photo that did the morning justice. You can just see the marina down in the hollow.

I had just saddled up and gone over the hill in Kettering when I was passing the Peppermint Bay hotel. Some emergency braking and I managed to turn into the carpark. The place looked amazing and it was morning tea time.

A nice coffee with a side of scones, jam and cream was enjoyed while I watched the ferry sail from Kettering to Bruny Island.

After a chat with a couple who were on e-mtbs I headed south again following the coastline. The scenery and road were amazing and I felt like I was a million miles from anywhere, not just fifty-odd kilometres south of Hobart. I stopped at Randall's Bay road for this view.

Back northbound as I circumnavigated the peninsula I bypassed a few interesting looking roads that I might investigate next trip. Into Huonville, I fuelled up and grabbed a small bottle of Pinot Noir for tonight. That would go well with the cheese and crackers.😏

The road south began as a quite wide and relatively busy main road. As the traffic tailed off, the road became narrower. The only thing that didn't vary were the bends. They just kept coming!

I went through Franklin, Port Huon, Geeveston, Waterloo and Dover on my way to Cockle Creek. The road turned to ~~good~~ great dirt from the little village of Ida Bay.

I rode through cool rainforest (or forest at least) with glimpses of ocean on the left before the road meandered right down to the water's edge.

I cruised into Cockle Creek and after a quick recce to find a camp spot, settled on a quiet corner. Just as I did it began to rain! Now, I didn't need all of my gear getting wet some I hastily threw the tent up, chucked my gear into it and piled in behind, all in a lather of sweat. Did I mention that it had been hot (28C) and humid all day? Luckily it was just a (predicted) passing shower and I was outside to cool down quite quickly.

It was only 3pm so I had plenty of time to explore this 'end of the road". You see, the road at Cockle Creek is the most southerly road in Australia. If you want to go further south, you will be walking - not that you can go much further south. The South Cape walk will take you about 8 kilometres to South Cape Bay, then you are heading west.

This was the beach opposite my camp site. If you look closely you can see the bridge (white thing) on the right of the photo. There is only about 500 metres more road after you cross the bridge. I wandered around the beach to the bridge.

Amazingly I had full phone and internet capability! I felt a million miles from civilisation but I had to remind myself I was only about one hundred kilometres from Hobart as the crow flies.

The interpretive centre looked very new (as did the toilet blocks throughout the camp grounds) and was full of information about early French and English explorers and their interactions with the local Aboriginals. I found it a bit grating that the "history" painted the French as gracious explorers who sat around the fire and sang Kumbuya with the locals, while the British were painted as rapers and pillagers. This theme was carried through several information signs around the park. We seem to have gone from just telling it as it happened to editorialising the history. 😞

I continued walking east toward the end of the road.

I finally reached the end of the road. How did I know? Because the sign said so (plus there was only ocean in front of me)

This is a life size replica of a baby southern right whale. Apparently the British use to harpoon them in this bay, then render them (and their Mums) for oil.

The Fisher's Point walk started near here. It was four kilometres return. I had all afternoon so decided to take a stroll.

Much of the walk was on the beach as the point is a couple of bays away. The passing showers and brooding cloud made for some great scenes, Shame the camera can't capture it accurately.

At the point there is a beacon/strobe light for shipping navigation, plus this pile of rock/logs. It was quite large but the panorama lens on the camera makes it look flat...

There is a long defunct pilot station at the point. The pilot would look for whales entering the bay and call the whalers out. It would have been a lonely, remote posting 160ish years ago.

By the time I headed back I was a bit sick of walking.

Back near the start of the walk I wandered under a flock of yellow tailed Black Cockatoos who were munching seed pods off the trees and also making a hell of a racket! These big birds are noisy!

Finally back at camp I tucked into my cheese and wine. I had a local visitor come to check me out but he didn't have a glass, so NO WINE FOR YOU!.

This filled me up nicely so again, I didn't bother with my freeze dried meal. In fact, I had an early night, in the tent just before sunset. I was knackered!