| Home | Whats New? | Cycling | North America Tour |
|---|
In December and January of 1997-98 my partner Jody and I did a 3 week bicycle tour of the island of Tasmania. Tasmania is a moderately large island (just a bit smaller than Washington State USA) located off the South coast of Australia. Melbourne is known as the gateway to Tasmania from the mainland as it is the closest major city. There is also a 22-hour ferry service to Tasmania that originates in Melbourne. Tasmania is one of the 6 states of Australia and is known for its remote wilderness areas with 20% of the island being World Heritage listed. The most famous of Tasmania's parks is Cradle Mtn. / Lake St. Clair National Park and World Heritage Area. This is largely due to the popularity of its world-famous bush-walk called The Overland Track.
To begin the trip, we awoke early one Saturday morning and rode to the Melbourne International Airport in time to catch the 8 am flight to Launceston (Tasmania). Launceston is located near the North coast of Tasmania and would be the starting point for our ride. We had originally wanted to take the Spirit of Tasmania ferry but it was slightly more expensive than flying and would take 20.5 hours more than the 1.5 hour flight to Launceston.
Unfortuantely, the flight over The Bass Strait did not yield any views due to the cloud cover. We arrived safely at Launceston where a ladder was lowered to the tarmac and we walked across the runway to the terminal. The atmosphere was extremely laid-back. The weather was sunny and warm and it appeared that a great day of cycling awaited us. After collecting and assembling our bikes, we rode about 25 K to the city of Launceston, where we haunted the shops for a while and did some sightseeing. One of the highlights of the city was The Cataract Gorge, which had a nice walking track that leads to a park that houses a kiosk and a swimming pool. There are also peacocks and wombats roaming freely here. We camped at the local caravan park which was located near the freeway and a bit noisy at night (due to the traffic).
From Launceston we cycled West along the highway to a very small town called Mole Creek. Along the way we passed the Tasmanian Wildlife Park. This first part of this ride was not too spectacular and I hoped there would be better things to come. Fortunately, there was and towards the end of the ride we could see the rugged mountain range ahead of us and I knew things would get better. We camped at Mole Creek campground ($5.00 AUS pp/pn) which had basic supplies including showers, toilets, and water.
From Mole Creek the scenery became more dramatic as we visited the Mole Creek National Park and World Heritage Area and toured the Marakoopa Cave, a large cave that contains glowworms and large stalactites. This was a very nice ride and a beautiful area but at this point I became sick and we had to camp illegally at a very nice picnic area in the park until I recovered enough to ride again. Note for visitors: in Tasmania, many places have 2 water taps - only one of these is for drinking!
The next day we climbed up into the mountains on the way to Gowrie Park, a very small town located in a beautiful setting below Mt. Roland. The area is known for its well-done scenic murals which appear on the sides of the local buildings. Due to heavy rain we stayed at the backpackers here, although we later found a nice free-camping spot near the creek by the restaurant.
From Gowrie Park, we faced the steepest climb of the trip, a stiff 21K grunt up to Cradle Mountain. The first 7K were the steepest, and we stopped for a rest at the kiosk in Moina where you have to choose between continuing on the main road or turning off to Cradle Mountain. We chose the latter and continued the climb. After a while the weather became quite cold and it began hailing very hard. We stopped to put on our cold/wet weather gear and by the time we reached the campground it was snowing large flakes. Again, we decided to stay indoors due to the extreme weather and rented a heated room in the bunkhouse ($20 AUS pp/pn). We stayed here for 3 days and did some excellent bushwalks and mountain bike rides around Lake Dove. We also visited the original lodge, Waldheim (Forest Home), which was built by Gustav Weindorfer, the founder of Cradle Mountain National Park. The country here is quite spectacular and not to be missed if you come to Tasmania. Unfotunately though, we never got to see Cradle Mountain itself due to the bad weather.
After 3 days of bad weather we descended Cradle Mountain and passed through the small towns of Tullah, Rosebery (where we stayed the night), and then to the tourist town of Strahan, located on the West Coast of Tasmania, approximately 1/2 way down. The cycling along here is through mountainous country and quite demanding, but the rewards are the beautiful sceneary and low traffic. There are heaps of things to do around Strahan and we stayed here 3 days, including Christmas Day. Besides cycling and hiking activities there are nice cruises around the harbour that are quite good value. The cruise we took lasted a full day and included a tour of Maquarie Harbour and an old convict settlement on a small island called Sarah Island. This penal colony is not as famous as the one at Port Arthur but it was the first penal colony on Tasmania and is said to have been even harsher than Port Arthur. Many ruins remain which are interesting to see. The cruise finishes with a cruise up the Gordon River (where you can do a short bush-walk through the forest at Heritage Landing) before finishing in Strahan. They also have a smogasbord-style lunch available for an additional $8.
On Christmas Day we went to the picnic shelter at the campground to cook our Christmas Dinner (pasta with chocolate for dessert) and met up with some travelers, a Canadian named Matt and 3 Irish girls, one named Blonnet, who we would meet again down the road in Hobart. They offered us wine and we all had a nice Christmas dinner together.
From Strahan we proceeded inland toward the old mining town of Queenstown. This is quite a nice ride and the road rolls gently through lush green forest. After about 40 K's you are suddenly presented with a strange sight. For miles the hill suddenly become barren and are colored with the red-ish colour of copper. Queenstown was the site of Australia's largest copper mine and leaves behind a legacy of destruction even today. It is quite an amazing sight. There is not a tree to be seen and even the soil has been washed from the hills. Today the town is depressed and lonely. It is also known for its gravel footy oval. Those guys must be tough to play on that! We stopped for lunch and to get groceries before climbing out of town through the strange mars-like countryside.
The climb out is long but not too steep and before you know it you are descending steeply down the other side where you get a good view of the mountains and Lake Burbury. We camped at the picnic area near Lake Burbury which was nice but the weather turned cold and wet.
From here we continued through beautiful wilderness to the Frankin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park World Heritage Area. There are plenty of hiking trails along this route, but the Franklin River is most famous for its white-water rafting. We didn't do any rafting but hiked out to Nelson Falls and partway along the famous Frenchmans Cap walking track (the entire track takes 4-5 days).
At this point you begin climbing over the mountain pass which is a fairly long grueling climb. Upon reaching the summit at King William Saddle the landscape changes again. Due to the high rainfall on the West side of Tasmania, the forest is lush and green, but on the East side the mountains block the rain and the country is much drier (similar to Western and Eastern Washington state in the USA). You can see both from versions of Tasmania at the same time from the top of the pass if the weather is good.
The descent down the mountains is nice and before you know it you arrive at Derwent Bridge, where you can make a small detour North to Lake St. Clair National Park World Heritage Area. This is one of the more famous parks in Tasmania, as it is the finishing point for the Overland Track (mentioned above). It is a very nice park with a large visitors center and excellent camping sites right on the lake. We met a couple from Hobart (the lady was a kiwi) who let me take their sea kayak out on the lake which was good fun.
Our next destination was Mt. Field National Park. Here we did a bushwalk which took us to Russell Falls, Horseshoe Falls, and Lady Baron Falls. We were tempted to ride into the higher areas of the park but we were a bit tired at this point and decided to take it easy a bit.
We were now reaching the end of our trip and the next day would take us through the Hops Country of the Derwent River Valley on our way to Hobart. We learned that much of the hops grown in the Derwent River Valley are exported to the USA and used in beers such as Budweiser and Miller. On the way to Hobart we stopped at the town of New Norfolk for lunch. We were excited to reach Hobart because Jody and I had read a popular novel by Bryce Courtney that depicted the life of the early settlers in Hobart. The novel is called The Potato Factory and is highly recommended reading.
Hobart is a scenic city located on the Derwent River at the base of Mt. Wellington. There is a lot of history here and the atmosphere is a mix between working-class and outdoorsy types. We happened to arrive when the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race was finishing and the atmosphere was very party-oriented. We toured the Consitution Dock where all the racing yachts were docked and we got to see some of the boats come in.
Since it was New Years Eve we had dinner at the campground, which was completely chock-a-block, and then caught public transport into town with some mates to watch the fireworks show. The party atmosphere in Hobart on New Years Eve was very alive, the streets were packed with people and the pubs were packed with people to the point where they had to sell beer out the windows and even that got to be impossible after a while. Most everyone was drunk and we saw very little police but fortunately there were no incidents.
The next day we got up early and cycled into town to catch the bus into Port Arthur to visit the famous convict ruins. Port Arthur was unfortunately also the site of the mass killing of 34 people in 1996 by a lone crazed gunman. We were cautioned not to speak to Port Arthur staff about the shootings as many of them were still recovering from the trauma of the event. The ruins themselves are quite impressive and are in the process of being restored. There was also a small remembrance area with a cross and the names of the people who were killed.
The next day we rode out to the Cascade Brewery in Hobart at the base of Mt. Wellington and did a brewery tour, which was quite interesting, especially as the brewery was a fixture of The Potato Factory mentioned previously. The brewery was established in 1832 making it the oldest brewery in Australia. It is also very close to the mountain which affords you excellent views if the weather is nice. We spent the rest of the day in town and rode out to the Hobart International Airport the next morning to catch the plane home. The "International" part of the airport name is a bit of a misnomer as it refers to its one and only international service to nearby New Zealand.
Overall the tour is a difficult one but very rewarding. The terrain is through alpine wilderness with much of the route being remote wilderness areas and mountainous areas. I am returning to Tassie to do a bicycle tour of the East Coast over this years (1998-99) Christmas/New Years holiday.
