Chapter 3: Tasmania
Day 9: Devonport to Strahan
24 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Pterodactyl:
Next morning, leaving the Spirit, we started our Tasmania ride. On day one we explored Cradle Mountain, rode to Burnie on the north coast and then down the west coast to Strahan. The west coast is exposed to the frequent low pressure systems that march unhindered from the Antarctic across and up from the Southern Ocean. West coast weather conditions can often and for long periods be very motorcycle unfriendly. Heavy rain, snow and ice are common all year round. Average rainfall is about 80ins a year, producing a wilderness area noted for its isolation, rainforests, wild rivers and lakes. But we struck it lucky. The weather was cool and generally fine making great riding conditions to match some really good roads.
Cradle Mountain, summer but still with some snow and iceCormanus atop the same
Strahan at dusk
A couple of things about Day 9. This is the third time I’ve ridden the CB1100 to Tasmania and each time I’ve intended to ride the west coast but the weather has always been appalling. This time, although we had a couple of showers to contend with, it was mostly fine and beautiful. It’s a great place to ride.
Secondly, for those following the map, after leaving Cradle Mountain, we visited Waratah and then rode anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise in American) around the loop to the north. That was purely for the benefit of riding south through the Hellyer Gorge.
Wildflower at Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain
Australians seem to have a fascination with ‘big things’. I’ve talked about this before. This blow-up treasure is the Big Thylacine on the awning of the Waratah Roadhouse. It differs from other big things by not being made of fibreglass or concrete or something more enduring. The thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger is almost certainly extinct. The last one died in the Hobart zoo in 1936 or thereabouts, but there are those who keep searching for it and those who swear black and blue that it still lurks in the forests of the west coast of Tasmania. But then so does the Yeti.
The Waratah Roadhouse also sported this sign on the door of the loo. I include it because I liked it and because it seems to me to pose one of those mildly philosophical questions that amuse members of this forum in the winter months. I look forward to views on the question in due course.
Roads on the west coast contain a fair bit of quartz
Day 10: Strahan to Hobart
25 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Pterodactyl:
After a night at Strahan (pronounced "Strawn") we rode on to Hobart. On the way we passed Derwent Bridge where, thirty years ago, I introduced Darling to the joys of bushwalking in the Tasmanian wilderness. We had three glorious days of trekking, trout fishing and camping around Lake Petrach. Steep terrain, flats covered with difficult to traverse button grass, constant rain, some sleet, mud and midges with the odd snake sighting. Oh, I nearly forgot the leeches. I loved it. Since then Darling has held fast to: "Spending the night under the stars is fine. It just has to be five stars". Hasn't stopped me though.
What a glorious day it was for a ride across a road that can be wet, snow covered, slippery and in every way treacherous. My camera seized up shortly after leaving Queenstown so there are no photos of the prettiest section of road between there and Lake St Clair.
Another Big Thing: Tuts the Wooden Kangaroo at Strahan
The road up the hill out of the old mining town of Queenstown is known locally as ‘the thousand bends’. It’s good fun, but requires you to keep your wits about you as there’s no telling at all what will be around the next corner
At a look out on the thousand bends
Having reached the top of the thousand bends, the road takes you down through the largely abandoned town of Gormanston and on to a fast road around the side of Lake Burbury. After that, it’s a feast of winding Tasmanian road and spectacular scenery until you reach Lake St Clair
Lake St Clair
Days 11-13: Hobart and environs
26-28 October 2017
Pterodactyl:
There followed three days of great day rides out from Hobart. A day with Cormanus and his mate Richard and wife (on a very nice BMW) to Port Arthur; a day by myself (Cormanus doing family duty) riding to the top of Mt Wellington and then to the south west of Hobart and, finally, a day ride with Cormanus where he showed me a couple of very scenic and motorcycle challenging roads that I had missed the previous day. All very, very, good stuff.
Cormanus and BMW K1200 riding friendsHobart from Mt Wellington
Day 11: Hobart to Tasman Peninsula and return
26 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
When I was in my late teens my father, who was not a rich man, used a modest inheritance to buy a 36 foot Huon Pine motor-sailer. The family had some fantastic times on this boat. In 1974 I recall going away with my father, a mate of his and a mate of mine. After dinner we were chewing the fat and my father and his mate were talking about the nascent Tasmanian wine industry and predicting great things for it. Broadly speaking, 40 years later those things have come to pass. My father, an enthusiastic consumer of Scotch whiskey, was also fond of saying that very good whiskey could be made in Tasmania, largely due to the quality of the water. As it turns out, that has also come to pass and, in around 2014, a Tasmanian whiskey won a prestigious award for the world’s best single malt.
On the ferry between the mainland and Tasmania, Pterodactyl and I met a man called William McHenry who went to Tasmania not so long ago to join the whiskey producers. He continues to work at that. However, realising that good whiskey takes a good few years to mature, he decided to dabble in gin as a way of earning a quid while the whiskey developed and is now producing some very fine gin in Tasmania, including one for Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra. Pterodactyl and I sampled a couple on the ferry, both of which were excellent. Later I was to try a McHenry’s sloe gin which was also very good.
I tell you all this because Mr McHenry’s distillery is on the Tasman Peninsula and it turned out he is also a motorcyclist. He told us we should reverse the way I planned to ride around the peninsula from anti-clockwise to clockwise so as to be stunned by the magnificent view back to Hobart as we descended the hill into Premaydena. He was right. And we rode past his distillery.
One of the treats of riding to the Tasman Peninsula in warmer weather is that the Cubed Coffee Caravan is open for business. Offering really good coffee and exquisite sweet things, there is also a spectacular view of Pirates Bay and the eastern side of the peninsula.
Everywhere we went in Tasmania we saw old Triumph sports cars
McHenry’s Marvellous Medicine
Day 12: Pterodactyl’s solo ride
27 October 2017
I sat this one out. The persistent noise in my chain was a worry and I’d rung the Honda dealer in Hobart to order a new chain and sprockets in the event that was the problem. It was and they were replaced in the morning. I spent the rest of the day attending to some family business while Pterodactyl went riding. I’m pretty sure the map below represents his route.
Click on the image for a detailed map
We met up late in the afternoon and decided to take a walk to Hobart’s historic Salamanca Place where, amongst the Friday evening after-work revellers, we found a beer or two and something passable to eat. Blowed if I can remember where or what we ate now.
On the walk home we passed an interesting looking bar and stepped inside to take a look. It specialised in spirits, particularly Tasmanian produced spirits. Liquor, I think it would be called in North America. Anyway, after meeting William McHenry we felt we should sample one or two. This was where I drank the McHenry Sloe Gin as well as the Sullivan’s Cove Single Malt that won the world prize. It was very good indeed.
There may have been a cleansing ale consumed at the hotel before bed.
Day 13: Pterodactyl’s solo ride with variations
28 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Given the dilapidated state of the two pathetic old men who sat beside Sandy Bay Road eating greasy food late on Saturday morning, it is slightly surprising this ride occurred at all.
We went anti-clockwise around the route to point G, then E, F and then Back over the mountain giving spectacular views south. Then back to Hobart via Cygnet.
We might even have made it back to the pub to see some of the final qualifying races for the Sepang MotoGP on the TV.
The nineteenth century shot tower at Taroona, still one of Tasmania’s tallest buildings. It’s a hideous climb to the top.
Posting this photo made me look to the history of this building. See here for detail. I was interested to learn that the details of the process were a Big Secret. So this excerpt from the web page was of interest:
Moir’s process was probably as follows:
- Lead was prepared in a furnace at the south-eastern corner of the property. Moir added 900g of arsenic (to decrease surface tension) and 6.35kg of antimony (to harden the shot) to every 45.35 kg of lead.
- The resultant ‘poisoned lead’ was cast into 7.7 kg ingots, conveyed to the factory, then remelted in cauldrons on the upper level of the factory for small shot and the top of the tower for larger shot. Firewood had to be winched to the upper cauldron. The molten lead was then poured through colanders, forming droplets which became spherical as they dropped. They fell into a tub of water at the base of the tower. The size of the shot depended on the amount of arsenic, the size of the holes in the colander and the height of the fall. Watts’ patent stipulated that large sized shot required a fall of 45.75m (150 feet), hence the height of Moir’s shot tower at 48m with the colander 46.36m above the base.
- The lead cooled partly while falling, then completely in the water. The antinomy hardener ensured that it maintained shape under the impact of the water.
- The cooled shot, green in colour, was winched to the factory’s upper floor where it was dried and run over inclined glass planes to separate out defective shot (which did not roll true). Imperfect shot was remelted and the process repeated.
- The shot was polished in a revolving drum (likened to a farmer’s barrel churn) using plumbago (graphite) then lowered through a trapdoor to the ground floor where it passed through ten sieves for grading into sizes ranging from fine birdshot to large balls. The graded shot was bagged into 12.7kg (28lb) handsewn linen bags stencilled with the manufacturer’s name and sent to market. At its peak the factory produced 100 tons of shot per annum.
Looking south from the top of the hill between Woodbridge and Cygnet
On the road around Mt Wellington
Day 14: Hobart to St Helens
29 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Pterodactyl:
Leaving Hobart we rode up the east coast. Most of the moisture pushed onto Tasmania's west coast remains there making the east coast a different country. Scenic but dryer and more akin to the east coast of the mainland. We had a good run up to St Helens for the night. Highlight of the ride was some "spirited" riding amongst a group of bikes on the Lake Leake Rd up to Campbelltown (some twisties and brilliant sweepers). While in Hobart, Cormanus had a dealer change his CB's chain and sprockets and the chain needed some adjustment by St Helens, probably from piling on the torque on the Lake Leake Rd.
I can’t remember why, but I took not a single photo this day.
We arrived in St Helens in time to check into our room, buy a 6-pack of beer and watch the Sepang MotoGP live on the TV. I forget what happened now, but it was exciting and we drank all the beer.
Day 15: St Helens to Devonport
30 October 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Pterodactyl:
Next morning we did find a motorcycle workshop on the outskirts of St Helens, East Coast Motorcycles. As we rolled into the driveway I couldn't help but be reminded of Billy Bob Thornton's workshop in the movie U Turn, a 1997 neo-western neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Oliver Stone. But, in fact, the truth couldn't have been further from that. This bloke knew as much about motorcycles, and maybe more, as anyone I've known. Racing bikes to home made rat bikes, all there. And all showed the signs of someone who knew what they were doing. Cormanus' chain was adjusted very smartly and in the true Aussie tradition of helping out a bloke on the road, no charge, with the laconic "She'll be right, mate". Highly Recommended.
There were showers in the morning so I left the camera packed away for the day, although I managed a couple of shots with the phone camera.
Pterodactyl in Beaconsfield getting ready for the final leg to the ferry
The bikes were a bit grotty from days of riding and a few wet roads. However, they were completely messed up by some roadworks just before as we got to Devonport. They were filthy beyond belief; even ride4now’s wildest fantasy couldn’t approach the level of grot on these bikes. The surface being repaired was wet and slippery and we were lucky to have ridden through it without falling off. To say made a complete mess of the bikes is an understatement. I mean … even I thought they were dirty!
In light of a recent thread about dirty bikes, my failure to get pictures of the bikes before the wash is a fail of epic proportions.
We had time to spare before boarding the ferry and a Google search threw up a car wash place around the corner. Turned out the bloke was a detailer who gave the bikes a quick going over with anonymous bottles of wonder gunge. My rims have not been that clean since I bought the bike! They still look OK.
Clean bikes
