Tasmania – Heading South
I took the bus from Stanley to Bernie with a connection to Devenport.
Brewery in Railton
I then headed south toward Deloraine. The route took me through a small town called Raiton.
I noticed a sign saying ‘Brewery’ and decided to check it out. It turned out to be the Seven Sheds Brewery that made the Kentish Ale that I had drunk in the Stanley Hotel. I go into conversation with the owner , a bloke called Willie Simpson. He told me that he used to be a journal and wrote for Micro-Brewery magazines. He knew the owners and managers of the Lord Nelson in The Rock very well.
During our chat, I asked Willie how he was going getting outlets for his beer. He told me that it was very difficult, as most of the pubs were “controlled” by the duopoly – SA Brewing and Carlton United. Also, “most of the locals don’t even want to try a beer other than Cascade, Boags or (“for heavens sake”) XXXX. He told me that the local pub less than 400 metres away wouldn’t even try selling his beer.
Time in Deloraine
I headed on to Deloraine and checked into the Deloraine Hotel. It isn’t a bad pub. It turned out to be good place to pause for a while and to attend to some personal matters that required time sitting at a computer and connecting to the internet.
I asked the owner of the pub if he had considered selling the Seven Sheds brews. He said that he had considered it, but he thought that “only tourists would be interested in drinking it”. When I was in another pub down the road, I asked that same question. The owner there said he “would never drink that crap”. I asked him which of the brews he had tried. His was response was “I have tried any of them”. So much for supporting local businesses.
One thing I will say about Deloraine is that it does have a good café/ delicatessen.
Mole Creek and Up to Cradle Mountain
I spent much longer in Deloraine than I expected.
I took a short ride to Mole Creek. Along the way I stopped in at a honey ice cream shop. It was operated by a Dutch Family. This is a real go ahead business, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
http://www.thehoneyfarm.com.au/acatalog/visit_us.html
The Mole Creek camping is 8 klms from town. Very strange.
The next day’s ride turned out to be a shocker. It was as hot as buggery and the route took me on some very steep roads.
Check out the Garmin Link at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/436540126
Parts of the ride were on very steep dirt road. If I stopped it would have been impossible to start riding again given the weight of the gear on the bike. That meant ‘head down and keep going’. Another tough section was in the road up from the hydo-electric dam near Molina.
I have worked out that roads that were original built in early years (say the 1880’s) are of a gentle gradient, probably no more that 8%. This was due to the fact that horse and steam driven vehicles could not cope with anything steeper. Roads built in the 1960’s are much steeper, because, by this time the trucks and cars were much more powerful. Some of these roads have gradients of 10% and more. This is hard going on a fully laden bicycle.
As I approached Molina, I ran out of water and started to get cramps in both legs. Fortunately, I ran into a young woman pushing a pram. She took me into house and gave me some water. It turned out that her husband was a chef at one of the chalets in Cradle Mt. They live in an ex hydro dam house in Molina which is 24 klms from Cradle Mt. I think I chatted to her for nearly an hour and I drank heaps of water. She did confide that I was a relief to talk to an adult. The place where she and her husband live is very isolated.
The last 24 klms into Cradle Mt seemed a lot longer than that.
Cradle Mt.
I stayed in a hut on the Discovery Park at Cradle Mt. It was basic but comfortable. I had dinner at the Peppers Resort, which was very expensive, but the food was great.
In the morning I took the mini-bus into the National Park and walked around Dove Lake. The weather was just perfect. What great place this is. The walk from Cradle Mt to Lake St Clair is on my ‘bucket list’.
Back at Peppers for dinner I got into conversation with an older bloke from Alaska. He turned out to be 80 years old and had walked up to the summit of the mountain and back in less than 7 hours. That is an amazing effort.
Garmin link to walk around Dove Lake
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/436911516
Down to Rosebery
The Ride from Cradle Mountain west takes you over the highest point of the Discovery Way. This is another of those 10% plus gradient roads. The good bit is that, once you have reached the highest point, it is mainly downhill from there on.
The road leads on to the Murchison Highway which leads south to the township of Tallah. This is another hydro-electricity town.
From Rosebery, I continued on to Rosebery, where I check into the only operating hotel. Rosebery is a mining town. It is somewhat unique in that the mine is still operating. The hotel appears to be providing accommodation to ‘drive in, drive out’ workers at the mine. The food on offer was amazing. The steaks were so big I wondered why they had not decided to leave the heads on.
I ordered grilled fish. You would expect this to be a healthy meal. It was served with a thick covering of cheese and sprinkled with large chunks of bacon. Whatever benefit would have been derived from eating the fish was very much countered by the animal fats from that topping.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/437376988
On to Strahan
From Rosebery, I headed I headed further south to Zeehan. This is old mining town. Its glory days are long gone.
After a rather interesting coffee(I think it was coffee) in the only café in town, I continued on to Strahan.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/437785774
When I checked into the camping ground the woman in the reception told me that they were expecting a lot of bikers – members of the HOG i.e. the Harley Davidson Owners’ Group. She said, “it may be noisy”.
I headed of for a meal in the only hotel in town. On the way I book a trip on a boat tour that included a visit to Bonnet Island. There were a few Harley’s riding around, but not too many. Even a small number make an amazing amount of noise.
When I returned to the camping ground there were two other tents. There was a Harley next to one tent and a Kawasaki touring bike next to the other.
I struck up a conversation with the bloke of the Kawasaki. He told me that he definitely wasn’t with the HOG. He said he “couldn’t understand why anyone would buy 1950’s technology in this century”.
Troubling Story about Tasmanian Education Standards
The bloke on the Kawasaki also told me that he worked for the Victorian Department of Education. Part of his role included acting as School Principal at various times. He had recently performing that role in Morwell in country Victoria. Before arriving at the school he was provided with the resumes of the teacher and within the first couple of days he made sure he met with them.
One of the teachers had recently transferred to Victoria from Tasmania. He met with her shortly before lunch. She told him that she had “just return from a medical appointment and she had been walking down the main street of the town when she had seen two students from the school”. He was not sure if he had heard her correctly and asked: “what did you see? She replied “I seen two students from the school in the street during school hours”.
The acting Principal was stunned. Rather that pursuing the apparent truancy issue, he was more concerned about the teacher’s misuse of the English language. He told her that: “she saw two students in the street”. Alternatively she could have said: “she had seen two students in the street”. She replied: “that’s right I, seen two students in the street”.
He told me that an argument then ensued in which the Tasmanian teacher was adamant that what she had said was grammatically correct.
No Boat Trip
I woke up early looking forward the boat trip on Macquarie Harbour and the visit to Bonnet Island. I turned on my phone to find an SMS from the tour operator. The trip was cancelled due to the fact that only two people had booked.
This is the peak tourist season. I would hate to see the place when it I quiet.
Flickr Link
billrider2013 