We pulled upto the dock about an hour before we were due to board.
I noticed a bunch of bikes with Tassie plates, so I parked next to them.
"Oh hey, I see you're from Tassie, So I guess you've done this trip before so I hope you don't mind me tagging along behind you"
"Sure thing, stick with us" they said.
Brilliant, straight onto the ship and positioned to be first off, all the while these guys were a wealth of advise.
The trip over was pretty uneventful. Did a couple of laps around the ship, eat dinner went and took a nap. When I woke up and looked out of the window, I could still see Franksten.
3 hours it took to get out of the bay gah!
Arriving in Devonport, we stopped at the café just before the round-a-bout for some breakfast and coffee, the fuelled up and heading West.
The coastal road towards Stanley was postcard pretty. I railway line (not sure if it operational or not) would be an amazing trip to take, and the coastal towns of Penguin and my favorite, Wynyard were very nice.
Heading into Stanley was a sight, looking over at the nut and sea on both sides. The wind there was pretty strong around there though, the town itself looked like it was trapped in the time bubble. It reminded me of the English Island TV shows.
After having another coffee at the café which only does breakfast food (weird, but wasn't complaining). We did the usual walk around
We then moving on towards Strahan.
Thinking I'd have enough fuel to get me there, I got to the Waratah turn off, and decided to head there for fuel and some lunch.
As we pulled up to the pub and dismounted and took in the wonderful waterfall right next to the pub, there were a few car tourists there and they told me the pub was shut (didn't open until 4pm) and there was no fuel here.
Gah, I thought. Ok so not much I can do here so we continued. At this point my fuel gauge was sitting on a quarter. The next town was Tullah, a big fat goose egg on fuel there as well. we got into Rosebery on one bar left on the gauge, and fuelled up. Seems every town is a mining town along the west coast.
The road conditions are great except for major roadworks between Rosebery and Zeehan, I apparently missed Zeehan altogether for some reason...
Strahan is a lovely small tourist town, seems to be all centered around the river cruise and fishing, we spend 2 nights there.
See existing thread regarding puncture :
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=8088.msg93045#msg93045Best $20 bucks I've ever spent
Heading off from Strahan we had to head straight to Hobart for the tire repaire. The road out of Queenstown as amazing. 99 corners and I made every one.
Hobart was two night spent there. Friday Afternoon/night was spent riding around the city. We missed Cadbury by 2 minutes, so went to mona instead.
Thoughts on Mona? interesting, probably wouldn't go back there though.
Saturday morning we went to Salamanca Market and had a walk around
Interesting view from mens loo at the café there
Waiting to meet up with Carsten, who kindly offered to play tour guide for the day.
What are we looking at here?
This
We then meet up with Couch, who practically walked to the cafe to meet us (but drove his car instead) it was great meeting these guys face to face.
Casten then took us back to Hobart for a final coffee, the man loves his coffee haha
Sunday see us travelling down the south to Southport. We were going to do the Strathgordon run but the weather said no... it was raining and everyone said the road would be mossy so we decided to skip it.
Hoonville and the valley was picture postcard stuff, foggy mist rolling in with the smoke from the houses wood fires gently wafting up to meet it.
Southport was ok, I guess for a look.
On our way back we stopped for the Tahune AirWalk at Geeveston (watch out for the road it's horribly potholed )
We stayed the night at my Aunties place in Lymington.
That's where my Aunt's partner showed me his shed, and inside it was this:
He and a few other guys all bought them from the Ukraine, and had to fly over there, build the bikes and ride them home. But that's his adventure...
Monday we then took off in the rain (only lasted about 20 minutes) back into Hobart and straight to Cadbury to load up. The Bike is now
heavily loaded.
We head off to Richmond which is another postcard town to get the obligatory bridge pic
From there we make our way up the east coast to Swansea for the night.
The wind (tail end of storms in Victoria) really thumped us hard the next day from Swansea to Campbell Town on the lake Leake road, great riding road though... :D
From Campbell Town to St-Mary's then onto Elephant pass and the pancake place... see thread
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=8128.msg93536#msg93536
From there we rode into St Helen for the night. lovely tourist town, went to take a look at the famous Bay of Fires. To be honest I didn't even know we were there until we got back and saw a picture of it. I just thought we'd missed it.
The next was spent heading to Launceston and stopping there for lunch and quick tour of the city, which is my favorite city so far, I love it there.
Launceston to Devonport, we decided to get off the freeway. Glad we did as we ended up in Westbury. reminded me of old english roads with hedges down either side, rolling farmland... Westbury and Deloraine outstanding.
Devonport, Boat, home.
All up 7 days in Tasmania, I had more days up my sleeve but the wind really knocked my wife around she just wanted off the bike.
We absolutely loved it there. And would without a doubt move there if we could get work down there.
We're coming back for sure
