Northwest Tasmania
I took the Spirit of Tasmania from Melbourne to Devonport. It is not the cheapest form of transport. I understand that this is an issue for the Tasmanian tourist industry. There seems to be a simple answer – lower the prices.
Anyway the trip was comfortable and the meal on-board was good.
Railway Museum and Ride
I headed off west from Devonport. I didn’t get too far before I stopped in a small own called Don. The reason was that I saw a rail museum. I am a bit partial to old railways.
This particular railway does not run far, however it is good to see that it still exists.
Ulverstone
I stopped in Ulverstone and checked into Furner’s Pub. This was my first experience of a Tasmanian pub. Unfortunately, it was to turn out to be typical of many of the pubs in the state. It is really just a mini casino will lots of poker machines being played by some very sad people. It is such a shame that so many of these places exist.
Along the Coast to Wynyard
The next leg was to Bernie via Penguin. This is a very pleasant piece of coast line. The narrow gauge rail line runs very close to the coast. The line is still in operation for freight trains. The passenger trains ceased operating over 20 years ago. It is good that line is still in operation. I guess that it possible that it sometime in the future, the passenger trains may be brought back into operation.
Burnie is not a very nice place. It is industrial with a very large timber clip mill and loading facility. I am not sure if that is really a long term business proposition.
On the way into Wynyard, I ran into a fellow cyclist – a bloke from Toronto. He was somewhat mortified by the state of the roads. This was to turn be a common view held by foreign cyclists I met on the trip.
Wynyard
I checked in the camping ground in Wynyard. This is top spot. I had a bit of difficult erecting my new North Face tent. Once I finally got it erected, I was very satisfied. It is an excellent tent.
A feature of the camping ground is the kitchen – it is excellent and has comfortable sitting room and television. I decided to stay a couple of days.
Ride to Stanley
The ride west from Wynyard was pretty steep.
I had been told about a place called Port Harbour. It turned to be a very pretty place – pure white sand and azure sea. There not too many people in the water. I soon found out the reason why – the water was bloody freezing.
The local Surf Club was serving fish and chips. I had a great lunch and ended up having some long chats with a number a people who were fascinated with the setup of the bike – notably that back wheel.
After lunch I headed west to Sisters Beach which is in National Park. It was worth the visit albeit it necessitated doubling back on the same road – I hate having to do that.
As I headed west I could see the ‘Nut’ which is where my destination, Stanley is located. The ‘Nut’ is what remains of a volcanic plug. The volcano is long gone. It seemed to take forever before I made it to the turn off to Stanley.
I checked into the camping ground, set up the tent (in minutes this time) and headed up to pub for a beer and a meal. The food was great and the Kentish Ale was excellent. I was to learn more about this ale later.
Stanley is a very pretty little town. It is famous for being the home of Joseph Lyons, a former Prime Minister. His cottage is a tourist attraction. It is also known for its lobsters.
The next day I ran into a very attractive women taking photographs with a camera with a very large lens. She told me that she was a professional photographer, doing a assignment for a country life magazine.
I walked up the Nut via the Zig Zag track. This is a must if you visit Stanley, don’t take the chairlift unless you are really unfit.
That night I ran into photographer again in the pub. During the day I had noticed that the War Memorial in town had the dates of WW1 as being 1914 to 1919. I checked out the internet to find out why. See the URL http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/memorials/tasmania.html
The pretty photographer did not seen to be overly impressed with by local knowledge.
Off to Smithton
I headed out of Stanley via an old farmhouse situated above the town. As I rode slowly up the hill a 4WD bleeped its horn as it came towards me. Short time later the same vehicle passed me from behind and stopped ahead.
It turned out to be the photographer. She told me that she was heading back to Nut to take some more photos as “the light was really good”.
I told that one look at the Nut was good enough for me. She said “that was a pity as it was a chance to take a picture of two Nuts”. She giggled, said “see ya” and roared off down the hill.
The farmhouse was established by the Van Diemen’s Land Company in the 1860’s. Apparently the plan was to grow sheep on the land. They invested millions of $’s in today’s money on what turned out to be a failed venture. The sheep died on the cold and wet weather. That seems to be a bit odd given sheep live, and apparently prosper, in places like the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.
Smithton
I stayed in Smithton and won’t do that again.
To Arthur River
Leaving Smithton, I rode west towards Woolnorth. The wind was behind me and I made surprisingly good progress.
Woolnorth is another of the properties developed by the Van Diemen’s Land Company. It is now owned by a New Zealand Diary Company and by all accounts they are doing very well. Cows must be tougher than sheep.
Short of going right into Woolnorth, I headed south on dirt road to Marrawah.
I stopped in the Marrwah Tavern for a late lunch and beer. I chatted to two blokes from Melbourne that had walked up the coast, mainly on the beach, from Zeehan. That must have been some walk.
The barmaid in the Tavern told me that there was nowhere to buy alcohol in Arthur River. She asked me what I would like her to take to the shop down there for me to collect later. She told me that she lived in Arthur River and “this was a service she offered to cyclists and walkers that were heading that way”. There seemed to be no question as to whether I wanted to buy something – that was simply assumed. I bought a bottle of red wine.
Arthur River
I check into the Arthur River camping ground which is about 2.5 klms out of town. It seemed to be a very strange place to locate the place.
I then headed into the town for a ‘Hamburger with the lot’, at one of two small shops. The other one was closed. The choice of meals was what I ordered and a Hamburger with ‘less than the lot’.
The bottle of red tasted remarkable good. I guess everything is relative.
It was a very wind night in the tent. It look it very well.
The next morning I headed back into to town to take the Arthur River cruise. The boat is owned and operated by a bloke called Gagy. His off-sider is character named Mouse. There was about 20 people booked for the trip – mainly people of my vintage with one young family.
We headed up the river and Gagy and Mouse told us about the wildlife and the history of the river. At one point we stopped to feed two sea eagles that swooped down to collect some fish that Mouse through on the river bank for them. Apparently there are two schools of thought regarding whether you should feed wild birds. I suspect two small fish once a day at most, isn’t too bad.
We stopped for lunch about 14 klms up the river. Before lunch Mouse took us for a short walk into the bush. It is incredibly dense. Many of the trees are many hundreds of years old. This an area that the Abbott government is proposing to remove from the Heritage listing and thereby allow logging.
After lunch we head back down the river. Gagy let most of the passengers have a go steering the boat.
We got back to the town in the late afternoon. This gave me time to head out to a place called the ‘End of the Earth’. This is the most westerly point in Tasmania. It is aptly named. If you travel due west, you would come to Argentina – missing the southernmost point of Africa. Put that in your trivia file.
South and East
I got up reasonably early to head back to Stanley.
At one stage I had thought of taking the road that goes to Corrinna, however this has been washed out in a section and is closed to vehicular traffic. It is possible to ride a bike through the closed area, however, the local police advised not to do it alone.
I rode south into what seemed to be a gale. I stopped briefly at place called Cuta Rocks where I had a conversation with some locals. I made a comment about the extraordinary strength of the wind. The response was: “yeah it’s a bit breezy” . I would hate to see when it is more than “a bit breezy”. It would be impossible to ride in those conditions.
As I turned east and headed inland the wind finally dropped.
After a long day in the saddle I finally made it back into Stanley.
Bus to Devonport
I had decided to take the bus back Devonport on account that I cannot abide doubling back on the same roads I have already ridden on.
This meant staying another day in Stanley. The photographer was nowhere to be seen. I did however, have opportunity to get a very cheap haircut from a girl called Ashlee, who operated her business in shed in her backyard. When I looked at the result in the mirror I thought $20 was probably too much to pay.
Next morning I caught the bus to Burnie with an onward connection to Devonport.
Flickr Link
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjQmogYi
Garmin Links
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/426901905
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/427013713
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/428569499
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/430253218
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/431101235
billrider2013 