Tassie Adventure - Day 3, What Goes Up…

After an uncomfortable night’s sleep in the car (ok, it wasn’t that bad once I figured out the system but it’s still not a bed!) I got myself organised and headed to South Hobart for a day of cycling.  Tasmanian Mountain Bike Adventures offers the chance to ride down Mt Wellington and through a beautiful rainforest - and you will barely have to pedal!

Phil, our guide for the day, started off setting us up with helmets and gloves.  I had my own fingerless gloves, but with Phil’s advice, decided to opt for full hand gloves, as the temp at the top of the mountain is usually about 10 degrees cooler than down in Hobart.  This morning, the weather app told me it was 4 degrees when we summitted.  I can confirm that it did indeed feel like 4 degrees. 

Once we are all set up, everyone jumps in the van and Phil transports us to the summit, with a running commentary of the history of the mountain, the waterways we are going to be exploring and a careful explanation of what to expect on the ride today.  

The ride is split into 2 parts - a 6.5km downhill from the summit on bitumen roads, winding down the mountain, and a more relaxed 11km downhill following the Pipeline Trail, which follows the path of the water collection pipeline from Mt Wellington.  All of Hobart’s water is sourced from the mountain, so the job of harnessing it and transporting it was all part of the commentary provided today.

The wind at the top was icy, enough to ensure you had your long sleeves, thermal pants and a jacket over the top to try to keep the breeze out.  Our first stop on the way down was at a glacial rockfall, a barren landscape that marked the movement of the glacier from the side of the mountain.  It was also the worst of the maintained road, so it was pocked with potholes and lumps and bumps to keep it interesting.  Thank goodness for the disc brakes, because I would not trust my brake pads to slow my down on the descent.

Stop number two was at a natural spring, where ice cold, pure mountain water seeps out of the rocks and splashes down in a beautiful waterfall on the side of the road.  Stop number three saw us move just past the only business on the mountain, a coffee shop called Lost Freight.  Phil told the story of how the Council implemented a bylaw in the 60’s to stop any permanent structures being approved following a horrific bushfire season that saw 70 deaths and the destruction of 1300 homes - there is only the single road in and out, and it was too hard to evacuate everyone safely.  So of the thousands of development applications to build on the mountain, none had been approved until a particularly savvy entrepreneur proposed to drop a converted shipping container on the mountain to serve as a cafeteria, et voila, a loophole was found.

Thank goodness for that loophole - it was potentially the best hot chocolate I’ve had, made with their own chocolate and able to be bought to take home too.  Pair that with a delicious homemade biscuit and it was time to jump in the van and head to the start of our second ride.

We had a lovely group today - a couple from Chicago, a couple from South Australia and a couple who are currently driving around Australia - and me.  The South Australian couple were regular mountain bike riders, and I probably had the next best level of experience (but with a little less fear than anyone when it came to the downhills), so for the first part of the ride I was in the lead 3.  For the second ride, I opted to be the sweep as Phil lead us along the trail.  That is, until he said that this is the steepest downhill of the section and it can get pretty fast.  Then I jumped back in the front three!  

The Pipeline Trail was beautiful, complete with being able to view the aqueducts built to transport the water through some sections - nothing like a bit of Roman ingenuity to keep things simple and working.  The ride wound back down the mountain to the water reservoir at the bottom, where I found myself on Waterworks Road - of all places!  The final 800m where on-road back to the workshop, with one final sweeping up and down that I rode first after Phil - catching him and passing him just before the top.  There has to be a plus to being plus-sized sometime, doesn’t there?

I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, and the Hobart Rivulet (where I was hoping to spot platypus) but it was a little too early in the day - so that will have to wait for my return visit with Brendon.

Tomorrow I head to Devonport to set up ready for four days of triathlon, but hoping to find some time to explore the local coastline and discover some more hidden treasures, so until tomorrow, keep the rubber on the road and stay upright.

Tassie Adventure - Day 1/2 and I’m camping in my car

 Ok, so technically it’s day 2, but day 1 doesn’t count when you arrive at 6pm, pick up your hire car and head straight to your hotel, does it?

It felt weird flying out of Brisbane, like I was abandoning it in its time of need, but I’ve had this booked for 6 months, and there’s a triathlon in the middle of it, so unless our house had sustained damage from the wind, I was going to keep my plans as is, unless the airlines said otherwise.

I spent most of Thursday and Friday urging Alfred to cross onto land in the hopes that he would be all blown out by Sunday. While he didn’t cooperate, and only made landfall in the early hours of Saturday, he was still nicely accommodating to drop to a tropical low, with most of the wind dropping off, making flights possible - as long as I could get to the airport with the flood waters rising.  Big thanks to Brendon for braving the airport trip to drop me off.

Surprisingly not much in the way of bumps on the way out of Brisbane and it was a pretty uneventful flight.  I did treat myself to a hot snack and a drink, something I never usually do, but I hadn’t spent any money for a week, so felt justified.  Traveller’s tip, the ham and cheese toastie available on Virgin Australia flights over 55 minutes, the cookie and the alcoholic ginger beer was worth every cent of the $24 I spent!

Landing in Launceston felt a little strange, as it was hot and dry without a breath of wind.  I made my way to the baggage claim and to my surprise my bag was about the fifth off the plane, so I was out the door and on my way to the car hire place within 5 minutes of getting into the terminal.  A nice 20 minute walk to get the blood pumping after a 3 hour flight and I was picking up the keys from the lockbox for my ride for the next 11 days.  A cute little MG hatchback, which I spent about 10 minutes working out where all the bells and whistles were to ensure I could indicate, turn on lights, wipers and music without taking my attention off the road.

I stayed the first night in a cute little heritage home - The Mews - in Launceston.  The owner kept apologising that there was no air con (it was 34 in Launnie that day), but that there was a portable air conditioner in the room.  He made sure I knew about the uneven stairs (the house is heritage listed), the unusual room layouts (the house is heritage listed) - you can imagine.  But it was the perfect place to stay with a comfy bed on a quiet street with little street noise.

Got up early and checked out, with the intent to head straight to Hobart via Richmond, but a sign for Cataract Gorge caught my eye and I thought I’d drive out and have a quick peek before my return next week.  Quick peek translated to an hour and a half exploring the trails in the park, discovering a beautiful giant Sequoia in the gardens (which I picked from about 100m away) and revelling in the absolute silence of the park at daybreak.  I stayed long enough to watch the sun come up over the mountain, spotted a fire and wondered if it was a controlled burn, only to be answered as I was leaving the park when the firies came hooking round a corner under lights - not a controlled burn and they were off to put it out before it spread.  Tassie is very brown at the moment, so fires are only allowed under permit in a lot of areas.

Now for those who know me, and have travelled with me, you’ll know that I usually have everything planned to within an inch of its life when I holiday.  But today, I just knew I had to be in Hobart by dinner, so I just followed my instincts as I drove down, taking a side road to Evandale, exploring the Red Bridge at Campbell Town, taking the gravel road out of Nile (where I saw wild deer in the bush) and taking a sneaky left to head to the East Coast where I stopped in Swansea (must go back there and spend longer next time), Spiky Beach and Bridge (convict built bridge) and lunching in Richmond, which has some of the oldest buildings in Australia.  The Richmond Gaol tour was well worth the $12 admission fee, the curried scallop pie at Richmond Bakery was well worth the hype and the old Bridge is so picturesque and stately.

Headed to Hobart after that little foray - dropped in at Supercheap to buy shades for my car, as I’m sleeping in it for the next two nights at Discovery Parks Hobart - the only campsite I could get was an ensuite site for cars and motorhomes.  It won’t be the most comfortable, but I’ll certainly welcome the tent camping at Mersey Bluff in Devonport after this two night stay.

Explored parts of Hobart by car (mostly Bellerive Oval and the shoreline around, although the weather is blustery winds, so didn’t get very close to the water) before returning to my campsite.

The ensuite is very cute, and if push comes to shove, I could sleep in there if it gets too cramped in the car. I slept in the back of my Suzuki Swift on the street when Brendon was in Emergency a couple of weeks back, so figure I can tough it out for a couple of nights.  I’ve set it up so the front seats are right forward and I’ve packed inflatables to fill the feet areas of the back seat.   I’m huddled up now ready to finish this blog, watch a couple of episodes of a new show I downloaded to watch while away, and then try to get some shut eye.

Tomorrow I have a cycling adventure planned, and can’t wait to share it with you all.

For my friends in Brisbane, I hope things are on the turnaround, the waters are receding and life is getting back to a little more normal.