Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XII)

 DAY 16

I was awake from about 3am today. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to bed so early. 😕 It rained quite a bit during the night but I was nice and dry in my Spartan 2. I'm really impressed with that tent!

The sandy ground didn't show any sign of the rain but I did have to mess around finding some direct sunlight to put the tent and fly in to get it dried out so I could pack it away - because - O.C.D. 

Once packed up I headed for the bridge over Cockle Creek for a couple of photos. A cool change must have accompanied the rain last night as there was a nip in the air this morning. Pretty much the first time it has felt cold at the lower levels since I've been in Tassie. It looked like it was going to be another great day though.

Where there had been no traffic yesterday there were quite a few camper vans making their way out today. No problem on the Twin though. They were quickly dispatched.

Apparently Ida Bay has a narrow guage railway that was once used to haul timber out of the bush. Today it is a tourist ride. It seemed to be closed for "renovations" and looked like it had been that way for a while. Private railways run by volunteers are bloody hard yakka to get and keep going.

I kept the hammer down for a while now, until I reached Geeveston as I wanted some breakfast/lunch. The road from Ida Bay to Geeveston is a little ripper with not much traffic to interrupt the flow of corners. Rolling into Geeveston I stopped briefly at the church for a photo. You don't see many churches in this style in Australia. It looked like something out of an American movie.

Pulling up at the bakery I got chatting to a young couple who were interested in the bike. It soon turned out that they did some cycle touring too and we chatted all things bikepacking and camping.

Geeveston bakery seemed to be the home of the thermonuclear pie. I can normally scoff a regulation pie in 90 seconds or so but this thing was still taking the roof of my mouth off after 12 minutes!

Geeveston seemed a nice little town and I'd like to spend more time here one day.

As I passed through Port Huon I spied a huge fishing boat. I rode down for a closer look and got chatting to one of the workers. It displaces 7000 tonnes apparently and was their small boat.

Once I left here I basically didn't stop until I was in Hobart's southern suburbs. I took the Kingston off ramp then turned left on the Channel Highway. This was a twisty, hotmix surfaced bit of fun with views to the Derwent on the right. As I passed this view I just had to chuck-a-uey and get a photo. That is an old shot tower on the left of photo.

No stops now until Hobart airport. I needed to go near the airport to find the road I needed north, so decided to take a look. I just missed getting a jet taking off in this photo from the control tower hill.

I had an inkling to head north and be within striking distance of Launceston in the morning as my flight was at 1340. So I just rolled the throttle on through historic Richmond - no viewing the bridge today. Arriving in Campbell Town I fuelled up and grabbed some food and drink for another night of camping. Being a Friday afternoon it was bit of a shock to the system to see so much traffic!

I rolled north out of town, looking for the turn east toward Fingal. At the turnoff there was much activity in the adjoining paddock as they harvested potatos (I think). I haven't seen the harvesters that were being dragged behind the tractors anywhere before so am assuming spuds.

The Esk Highway across to Avoca was a series of roadworks and in not very good condition. Once I got through Avoca though the road surface was new and well marked. It rode a rollercoaster of gentle hills and river bends. A truly top ride!

No stops though as I rolled into Fingal and turned north for Mathinna. I had been to Mathinna from the north last time I was in Tassie and wanted to check the southern approach.

At Mathinna I turned right toward Ringarooma. I had a plan to find the way through the forest to Pyengana to the "pub in the paddock" but the GPS seemed to be taking me up some "sporting" looking tracks. As it was getting late in the afternoon I decided to just follow the road I knew and head through Ringarooma. It is still a really scenic ride. It starts out sealed but then turns to dirt.

Bits of the road had been resurfaced since last week and had quite thick, loose gravel on top. Things got "squirrelly" at times but the big Twin handled it just fine.

I helped herd some wayward cattle back to the gate they were meant to turn into on the outskirts of Ringarooma and got a wave from the farmers for the help. I thought I had it on the GoPro but of course, it was in the wrong mode and missed it all. Bloody GoPros are barely useful. I'll not buy another one when this one dies. I just can't easily tell if it is on or recording or what mode it is in.

I stopped in Legerwood today to take a look at the row of wooden carvings lining the main (only) street. There are quite a few of these carvings around Tassie and they are pretty skillfully made.

From here it was only a short sprint to Branxholme where I was going to stay the night. The pub was full of motorcyclists so I was staying at the free camping ground across the road. 

Rolling into town I checked out the hop fields a little more closely.

All set up, it was time for a pre dinner wind down.

Walking to the pub I found some bunches of hops on the road. They definitely had that distinctive smell.

Dinner and beers at the Imperial Hotel then it was a short stagger to my tent. In bed early again as I wanted to get an early start in the morning. Launny wasn't far away but I had a couple of things that I wanted to do.

410 kilometres for the day was pretty solid - for Tassie roads.

DAY 17

I was up early with my alarm today but it took a while to get under way as there was a very heavy dew and it took forever to dry my tent. Once on the road I headed for Scottsdale, which was a short 25 km away. Scottdale is a pretty place. I had a quick ride around town, took a photo outside Little Rivers Brewing for a mate then headed for Launny.

The climb up over the hills to the west of Scottsdale is a good one, though the road is a little narrow in places and you can encounter trucks on it so I took it pretty easy. Having the rear brake pedal shuddering into corners is going easy, right? 😉 I stopped for a five minute break at The Sideling Lookout which gives commanding views back to the east.

Because it was such a spectacular day I thought I might ride up Mt Barrow. It is a similar mountain to Ben Lomond, a rocky Tor jutting up into the sky. However, all my tent drying faffing had cut into the morning and the 14 kilometre climb would start to leave me a little time poor with regard to catching my flight. 

Bugger.

So I rolled into Launny, washed my bike at the same car wash then went to the shed to sort all my gear out. The tent hadn't been quite dry when I packed it so I lay it out on the ground outside the shed. Bugger me, it was cooking hot in 15 minutes! I should have rolled it up wet and just dried it when I got here. I could have saved at least 90 minutes of frigging around this morning. That would have been enough for Mt Barrow. 😒 Note taken for future reference re wet gear....

Only 100 kilometres for the morning but it was time to go home for work.

To be continued.......