General Comments.

The 8 of us totally enjoyed the trip, and proved to be good company throughout, keeping the Ulysses camaraderie alive.

We were blessed with ideal weather conditions all week – no rain, cool but sunny, occasionally warm.

As we all know Tassie has great roads, a variety of styles from twisties to fast sweepers – we enjoyed them all. Road surfaces were generally very good, we were stopped several times for road repairs. Not much traffic encountered this time of year

Scenery is varied and always interesting, bush to coastal views, rich green pasture usually with red-brown volcanic derived soils.

Fuel stops in the north-west sometimes were self-serve credit card affairs, easy to use after the first time. Occasionally only 91 grade fuel was available in small towns.

Sunday 26^th, meet up. 8 of us gathered at the regular Werribee South meet point in heavy rain which thankfully eased for the ride to Geelong to catch the 5pm ferry. We were Mike F (ride leader), Jeff P, Andrew K, Jack F, Sam S, Terry H, Gary P, Colin V – a BMW touring group really ! After check-in we were lined up inside the covered area, just as well because it bucketed down for 15 mins ! We soon settled in, drinks and dinner done before turning in for the night.

Monday 27^th. Devonport to Smithton. We got off the boat at 7am and rode to Ulverstone for breakfast (recommendation from Graham Hart). A friendly local pointed us to 33 Cups café, for a very good feed. After a fuel stop we rode south and inland in cool sunny weather, beside the river through Wilmot, with great views towards the Western Tiers mountains. We got to Cradle Mountain visitors centre in 4 deg ! after starting at 14 deg, so coffee inside the café was enjoyed. We rode west to the Murchison Hwy and south on the Ridgley Hwy to the coast, through beautiful green rolling country with red volcanic soils – great roads. Lunch was had at Wynyard before following the coastal Bass Hwy to Stanley and the distinctive ‘The Nut’. Most of us went on the chairlift to the top, and enjoyed the great views. With plenty of time in hand we took a quick run and back to the west coast at Marrawah (and cold windy beach !). The road included fast sweepers and flat to rolling country, so was enjoyed by all. We arrived at the Bridge Hotel in Smithton at about 5pm, after about 500kms for the day (cool, sunny). Dinner and drinks at the busy pub were very good.

Tuesday 28^th. Smithton to Queenstown. Breakfast involved a 5min walk into town to a busy café, bacon and eggs being popular. We backtracked on the Bass Hwy to Somerset for fuel, and then took the Murchison Hwy inland through the twisties and Hellyer Gorge – ride leader pulled a quick stop which was missed by most, and then required a mad chase to catch up with the group (this was not a deliberate strategy as alleged by some !). We continued on south to Tullah, and pulled up for a coffee stop – with four local cops on a break. We passed through the mining areas of Rosebery and Zeehan, with lunch at the bakery in Zeehan (some attractive old buildings). Strahan was next stop, and included an obligatory u-turn before finding the foreshore area for a bit of a wander to stretch the legs. We rode on to Queenstown, to check in at The Empire Hotel (with grand staircase) in the middle of town about 4:30pm and 300kms for the day (cool, sunny). A very good dinner was served in the busy dining room.

Wednesday 29^th. Queenstown to Hobart. A light breakfast was had in the hotel, and fuel topped up in town – increasingly common, self-serve by credit card affair. We managed to temporarily lose Andrew, then rode up the famous twisties through the ‘bare coloured rocks’ with a photo stop halfway up. The road took us east through bushland and high plateau country, good bends but watching for damp sections and loose stones, before descending down into the Ouse Valley – more beautiful green rolling country. We lost the days tail-end, Sam, for 10mins before finding him pulled up with a puncture in the back tyre. With plenty of advice and puncture kits, he was back on his way after 20-30 minutes. Lunch was next to the historic Hamilton Hotel (1826, convict built). A cross-country run to Bothwell, through sweepers with great visibility, was enjoyed before riding south on the main road into Hobart and traffic. We checked into the Marquis Hotel, uphill and west from the CBD, with great views, at about 4pm after 300kms for the day (warmer, sunny). Cleansing ales went down well, and then an excellent dinner at a local Italian restaurant two blocks up the hill.

Thursday 30^th. Day off in Hobart. The group split up for different activities for the day, some went into the centre of Hobart, some went to MONA. Mike, Jack, Sam, Andrew rode to Port Arthur (after immediately getting split up !). Mike, Jack, Sam went on the 1.5 hour boat ride out to Cape Raoul and back (classic columnar dolerite rocks). We lucked into a beautiful sunny trip with minimal swell (1.5 m), Jack and Sam took plenty of photos as usual ! Dinner that night involved a walk into town, dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, and a stagger back uphill to the hotel.

Friday 31^st. Hobart to Bicheno. Thanks to some research by Colin we had another good breakfast at a local café near to the hotel. We travelled out of Hobart to Richmond and the historic convict bridge for a quick stop. We then enjoyed a mixture of open road and twisties before pulling into Triabunna, and lucking into a café run by a welcoming Thai/Aus woman for a coffee stop. The Tasman Hwy took us north before turning off to go to the Freycinet Peninsula and having lunch overlooking Coles Bay. We then backtracked up to the highway and into Bicheno. A puzzling feature of this area was the number of scarecrows seen near the road, often dressed in hi-vis clothing ! – which turned out to be a local mental health initiative. We checked into the Beachfront Hotel/Motel about 2:30pm after 270kms for the day (cool, sun/cloud). Once again we had a good dinner in the pub, with a good range on the menu.

Saturday 1^st Nov. Bicheno to Launceston. A 5min walk into town led to breakfast at a local café – bacon and eggs for Jack again ! After going north on the Tasman Hwy, we turned off for the twisties of Elephant Pass and St Marys, and then a slow descent down to the coast and on to Binalong Bay/Bay of Fires area. Unfortunately the only café did not open until midday, and two back at St Helens port were also closed. The caffeine deprived of us headed into market day of St Helens, and did find a park next to the bakery ! while the rest relaxed in the sun. We then rode up through bush and over Blue Tiers country into more sweepers through green/red soil land into ex-mining town of Derby for a short break. This is a serious mountain bike area, as shown by the many bike shops in the main street. We stopped in Scottsdale for lunch, passing up the opportunity to lunch with 40 Harley riders at the pub ! We then rode west and north to the mouth of the Tamar River, to the historic lighthouse at Low Head. The ride into Launceston took us over Batman Bridge, then checking into the Park Lane Motel about 4:30pm after 350kms (warmish, sunny). The sloping car park required some careful manoeuvring of bikes ! Dinner was a very good Nepalese curry 10mins in town, with a quick beer on the way back. Terry was intrigued by the karaoke setup in the bar, on Halloween night – there are no reports of him taking it on !

Sunday 2^nd. Launceston to Devonport. We packed up and went to Cataract Gorge for a leisurely breakfast, with a view across the gorge. It was then on to the historic town of Evandale (home of the annual Penny Farthing bicycle races) and a wander around the Sunday market. From there we rode west to Deloraine for lunch in a local café, and then had a good ride from Mole Creek up and over ranges and down into more rolling green/red soil land around Sheffield. It was then a short run into the Devonport ferry terminal, arriving about 2:30pm after 250kms (warm, sunny). Mike left the group at this stage to visit friends in Somerset.