TASSIE’S EAST COAST – the full cycling story

The view from Devil’s Corner. That’s Freycinet National Park in the background. I’ve ridden from there. Well, I say ‘ridden’ but I wheeled the bike up the steepest bit.

That long, sweeping descent comes only after you’ve slogged up to the top of the hill. Push into that gale for a day and it may eventually become a helpful tailwind. For every idiot driver who almost squeezes you off the road, there are many courteous ones who overtake slowly, giving you wobble room and a ‘good-on-yer-mate’ wave.

Cycling the wild east coast of Tasmania certainly brings its share of both challenges and joys.

2015 – FACES AND PLACES

The cool dudes at Jang Island School, Indonesia

So here we are, nearly ready to tick the calendar over. It’s been another busy year on the road, nine countries, a few walks, some good bike rides, a lot of spectacular locations, and friends, new and old.

Apart from some travel articles for the mainstream press and a new play, I’ve been more active with the camera than with the keyboard this year. So it seems appropriate to look back on the year through the lens. A few shots worked out well.

A PARADISE FOR PRISONERS AND DEVILS?

If every day could be like this, I’d almost be content to stay for the term of my natural life.

Many of the first white residents could wait to get off Maria Island.

Convicts transported here in 1825 built Aboriginal-style canoes, begged or bribed whaling ships to give them a ride or tried their luck on the swim across the strait to mainland Tasmania, a few kilometres away. To see the island now, you wonder where they’d rather have been.

TASSIE RIDE #2 – out to Freycinet

Nearly there. Just a short ride around Coles Bay and I’ll be able to get off the bike and climb those Hazards.

It’s a relief to have an easier day in the saddle. 50 kilometres, 26 of them along the flat of Coles Bay Road, where the shoulder is wider, the traffic is generally slower and there are encouraging glimpses of the Hazards Range ahead.  

And Freycinet Peninsula is one of Tasmania’s most popular natural wonders – with good reason.

TASSIE RIDE #1 – Scottsdale to Bicheno

Gentleman, start your engine. The road at Scottsdale is downhill…for the first few hundred metres anyway.

I’m the guinea-pig, apparently. I’m certainly not the first to ride a bike along Tasmania’s East Coast, but I am the pioneer on Tasmanian Expeditions’ self-guided version of the adventure. 

All up it will be six days in the saddle, with a little time off to rest the rear end by doing some hiking in the national parks.

Tasmania is not yet well-developed as a cycling destination. That day may be coming, eventually. That the island has more than its fair share of spectacular scenery is a given.

PRESERVING THE POINT – Lake St Clair

Is there a better destination anywhere in the world? We’ll be staying at Pumphouse Point. Yes, in that little building at the end of the causeway.

Backtracking: My article about our recent trip to Tasmania has now been published in mainstream media, so the full story can now be released on the blog…

There was bound to be opposition. The friendly Wilderness Society volunteers we meet at Hobart’s Salamanca Markets don’t like the idea that a few privileged people can fly into remote Tasmanian lakes in a seaplane and ‘spoil things for everybody else’.