This post was actually part of the
previous one, but it became too long so I split it in 2...
On
Thursday (12/04) we then started our Tasmania tour. We had been doubting
whether to take the east or west route from Launceston down to Hobart, but the
weather forecast looked pretty bad for the west, and it was recommended by
several people to avoid the west route - for the notorious bad weather, the
narrow winding roads and quite a bit of heavy traffic - which is worse in bad
weather because of bad visibility. So even though the west route is more
remote, more wild, it seemed a wiser choice to go east. We rode from Launceston
to Low Head just past George Town, around 60km all together. We kept it
relatively short: it was a less than perfect day today with lots of rain, wind
(headwind, of course), mostly riding on a busy road with trucks that wooshed
past with lots of water splash and wind gusts, and my heavy cold or flu or
whatever it is was still not completely gone. When we got to George Town we
decided to call it a day. Seems like the wiser thing to do. The day after the
weather was supposed be much better; Saturday however would be terrible
again...
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| Getting ready to leave Vere's place in Launceston; the sky already looks very promising... |
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| On the way to George Town, with the Tamar river below. While the sun is still out, the dark grey sky is slowly (but surely) coming our way... |
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| No pictures of the rainy part of the day, but at the end of the day in Low Head, this is what we were treated to. |
Friday
was indeed much nicer! We left Low Head, back through George Town, to take the
road towards Bridport. There was a smaller road closer to the coast, but it was
unsealed and would be almost 10km extra. The weather was lovely, perfect for
cycling, the road much quieter than the first day, and the nature beautiful!
This was much better!!! Towards the middle of the day there were some more
clouds, which made it still nice for cycling but a bit fresh for our breaks.
Early afternoon the clouds opened up again, and we had pleasant sunshine towards
Bridport. Once at Bridport, we decided to not continue to Scottsdale, and we
went to the very nice Bridport caravan park. Our camp spot was a nice grassy
terrace, overlooking the sea, and protected from the wind. Just perfect! The
rest of the afternoon we enjoyed the sunshine, went for a little walk, admired
the sunset on the beach, and had couscous for dinner under a starry sky.
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| On the way from George Town towards Bridport |
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| Tasmania scenery |
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| Lunch break. It still looks very grey, however the sun was shining most of the time and the temperature just perfect! |
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| Sunset in Bridport, on the beach just besides our camp spot |
Throughout
the night, the rain came, as predicted. First with a thunderstorm, afterwards
just rain and a lot of wind - luckily our spot was a bit sheltered. Everything
stayed nicely dry inside the tent, and by the morning the weather had improved
luckily - we even had our breakfast in the sun. We started pedalling a bit past
9am, and had a very pleasant ride most of the way to Scottsdale with just a
little rain before reaching the town; much better than expected, the forecast had looked so bad... We stopped for a coffee in Scottsdale, in a sheltered picnic
spot, as it was raining meanwhile - and it never stopped anymore.
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| Start with the good part: breakfast in the sun |
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| Reality kicks in: rain, rain, rain - and oh yes, strong winds, and hills |
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| You don't really see it in the picture, but the rain was pretty heavy |
We continued
towards Derby, another 32km, all the way in the rain - heavy at times, and with
a lot of wind; mostly back wind but sometimes blowing from the side. It was
getting colder as well, probably less than 10C. Luckily we had prepared well, I actually wore 6 layers of which a rain coat and a rain poncho at some point (Ellen
similar). We really needed that, not sure how it would have gone otherwise...
So after a very wet and windy ride, we arrived in Derby and had decided that
this night, we would not camp. We needed a warm room with hot shower, and also
a place to dry our clothes and shoes! Our first attempt was not successful, the
place was full, but they helped us find a lovely B&B: St Paul's B&B,
where we have had a great time. Warm, comfortably, homely, we made great food
thanks to some ingredients they provided to us, and had a nice evening sitting
in front of the fire with home-made banana muffins and a glass of red wine.
Yes, it was a tough day, but this place definitely compensated and made it all
worthwhile!
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| St Paul's B&B in Derby, in a beautiful historic building next to an old church (where the owner lived). Derby was a very nice historic town, I'd love to go back there at some point - in summer probably... |
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| Just one of the many historic buildings in Derby |
This
post was becoming long: I never had the chance to actually post it! I'd prepared
the text and photos, but: I didn't have sufficient internet access these days,
no mobile network at all nor wifi in Derby! This shows how remote Tasmania can
be - and that's exactly one of the things that makes it so wonderful!
