• Day 9 St Helens – Scottsdale 100kms 1778m
• Day 10 Scottsdale – Evandale 86kms 988m
• Day 11 Evandale – Mole Creek 106kms 772m
• Day 12 Mole Creek – Cradle Mountain 84kms 1811m
• Day 13 Cradle Mountain – Tullah 55kms 514m
• Day 14 Tullah – Zeehan 44km 791m
• TOTAL TASSIE SO FAR – 844 KM 19632m

Our first riding day toward the famous Tassie West Soide was out of Saint Helens. A beautiful dirt road but a merciless 43 km climb for almost 1,000 meters vertical. Grades ranged from 2 to 15%. But at least there was a head wind – AND several Tassie rain squalls mixed in for maximum pleasure. Tassie rain squalls, we’ve learned, are similar to New Zealand or Newfoundland rain squalls; just colder. But here, you don’t dare venture off the road and under a tree for cover. Snakes.

This climb is similar to BC’s Creston/Salmo Pass on a cold, rainy, windy day. Winjin’ type sounds were audible from both bikes and they weren’t mechanical. Our reward after that punishing uphill was a couple of heavenly downhills, including a 26 km leg on our first Aussie rail trail. Rail trails in Tassie are different than Canada or New Zealand. Though well maintained, there are a lot of broken branches littered about. These aren’t ordinary branches. The branches are comprised of extremely hard, bouncy, menacing, hotdog bonfire type spears. They seem to pack their own energy source. Like a tightly charged bow. So if you run over a branch on a Tassie Rail Trail, you risk an otherwise benign looking branch springing up like a Taekwondo kick as high as your thigh and maybe spearing you, or worse, getting in your spokes and, well, you know the end of that. You get it, you simply can’t run the Tassie Rail Trails at as high of speed as you’d like to. But really, the gentle 3% downhill grade, travelling at a relatively safe speed of 15 kph (brakes smoking), swerving in and out of black belt branches was rather Zen like. A 2 hour down hill to cover 26 kms – saved the day.

We had our first serious bike mechanical issue when my front derailer broke at the start of a 10km climb. Gear Guy donned his cape and McGiver’d it so that the low chainring was operable. We made it into our destination town of Evansdale. Friends of Jay’s brother picked us up and we had a fantastic dinner at the only restaurant in town and discussed all things Tassie. Kim and Geoff brought their family here from Timmins, Ontario just this year, for a 2 year adventure. I suspect the warm weather, beaches and long golf season may lead to an extended stay!

Bike mechanical failures are never welcome, but if it had to happen, there are only 3 places in this state where it could be fixed. We were within 20km to one. Launceston – My Ride Bike Shop. We went in looking desperate and “poof” magician bike mechanic Geoff dropped everything and put my bike on the stand and had it fixed within an hour, apologizing for taking so long. Darn, I was geared up for a down day in the lovely city of Launceston. Back in the saddle and onward to our Mole Creek destination, where Justin greeted us and opened the bar and restaurant. The hotel (and the entire “not a town”) looked closed for the season and we had the entire place to ourselves. After a ridiculously and unexpected delicious meal, we bundled up and went in search for platypus (what is the proper plural?). Justin assured us they were there most nights, but he stayed inside and had another scotch. Smirking – tourists. Like the penguins, the elusive platypus did not emerge.

In the tiny hamlet of Legerwood (near Ringarooma to give perspective) trees were planted in 1918 to commemorate 7 local soldiers who died in WW1. When the trees were declared a hazard in 1999, town council made the visionary decision to create chainsaw carvings from each one, honouring the same soldiers. Beautiful work that we happened to come upon – on November 11. Spiritual to the core.

“The Wall” (elevation profile from last post) was the 4th major climb of that day (day 12). The description was clear, “You are at the summit, and it is “mostly” flat from here. Any self respecting Princess Bride devotee knows that means it is “slightly” uphill. After conquering the 10 – 13 degree road, it was another 25kms of uphill. Fortunately, I was on wombat watching mode after nearly causing Gear Guy to crash when I saw my first. Gear Guy thought I had crashed. But hey, we’re talking cute, awkward, Winnie the Poo like mini bears. I just had to yell to him! On a downhill. Gear Guy mumbled, “Next time, just pull over. Don’t yell. Scares me.”

We had climbed to Cradle Mountain Wilderness Resort, our home for 2 nights. Day off options included a hike or a visit to the nearby Devil sanctuary. The best decision to provide a recovery day was the sanctuary. An informative tour – everything Devil and Quoll related. The Tasmanian Devil is the largest surviving marsupial carnivore. They will eat just about anything, but are more scavengers than hunters. A devil will birth up to 60 embryos but only the Fastest Four find a space in her pouch and survive. Just four of sixty. Gear Guy doesn’t think he’d made that cut. The advent of the uninspired named Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease has decimated the native population to an estimated 20,000 left – only in Tasmania. The cancer kills 100% of the devils that contract it and it is very contagious. This sanctuary does not release any of its bred devils into the wild as the disease is still so prevalent. The thought is, if they become extinct in the wild, they can release this group. An insurance policy if you will. Interestingly, studies are showing that the wild devils are living with the cancer longer, and there is hope they are evolving to be resistant to the disease.

Gear Guy: “Ya see? They scream and spin and spit and have bad breath, just like on Bugs Bunny”.

The underappreciated Quolls are also marsupial carnivores, even more endangered that Devils. It is estimated that there are only 15,000 left. But they were not made famous by Warner Brothers, so no one seems to know much about them. These guys are released into the wild and seem immune to the cancer.

We knew the sunshine and Tassie warmth couldn’t last forever. It came to a screeching halt on Ride Day 13. “Should be fining up later mate” – desperately upbeat and overly cheery words from a chatty local whilst we searched for the nonexistent cafe in Rosebery. It was 6 degrees and pouring. The only open facility was the generously categorized “grocery store”, clearly not heated. It was so cold and wet on the road, a trucker slowed and tossed candy out his window for (at?) us on the side of the road while we were stopped to add another layer. We pushed on to the tired town of Zeehan, where upon reaching our Air BnB, we cranked the heat up to 25 degrees and stripped out of our dripping wet riding gear.

Wallaby’s are everywhere – especially in the ditches roadside – “sleeping” we always told the kids. So it was not surprising to find them on menus. Gear Guy had it. I didn’t.

• Cycle Day 1 Richmond to Orford 76 km 1623 m
• Cycle Day 2 Orford to Triabunna and back (Day off) 15 km 100m
• Cycle Day 3 Orford to Swansea 58km 385m
• Cycle Day 4 Swansea to Coles Bay 53km 330m
• Cycle Day 5 Coles Bay to Freycinet Park and back (Day off) 28km 267m
• Cycle Day 6 Coles Bay to Bechino 33km 150m
• Cycle Day 7 Bechino to Fal Mouth 52km 395m
• Cycle Day 8 Fal Mouth to St Helen’s 56km 778m
• Tassie Total so far: 371kms 4028m of elevation

Took us almost a week to get started – or just seems that way. Jay’s birthday literally disappeared as we crossed the date line. He claims that makes him a year younger and better looking. The usual travel issues – late departures, lost luggage, unexpected overnight stay (In Brisbane). But at least Gear Guy left his backpack (with everything critical in it) on an airport bus while we were trying to make a tight connection. But Gear Guy managed to muster up all bus drivers in Tasmania to locate his lost backpack within 30 minutes, narrowly escaping a “marital”. But really, all credit to correcting airline mishaps on this trip must go to Air Canada’s Gavin in Brisbane – a miracle worker. Yes THAT Air Canada.

Day 1 on the bike was an eye opening, screaming knees, tight shoulders, shocker for me. I guess my summer workout routine of wine, beer and not much else did not adequately prepare me. Amazing how only 76kms and 1600m of elevation can kick the Sh*&# out of you. It was relentless, endless, ruthlessly steep hills – one after another after another – on gravel. Gear Guy says, “Ya, a couple of short but nasty 13 percent grades on that one”. The road was fortunately in great shape, apparently because this has been a dry spring, lucky for us. People seem accustomed to seeing bike packers, but they do raise their eyebrows when we told them we did the Wielanga Forest Road. “I noiver use that road mate. Not even in my 4X4 ute.”

All the locals we asked told us, “You’ll never see a Tiger Snake mate.  They mind their own business”.  Ha.  Our first brush with one was when a farmer stopped his ute beside us and said, “Hey Mate, thought you should know there’s a big Tiger Snake just up the road right about where you are riding Mate.  Don’t come too close to it Mate, it will ruin your boike roide.”   We never did see that snake.  But not long after that, we saw this one.   I stayed perfectly calm, not panicking or getting hysterical or hyperventilating as Jay rode right by it – within 3 feet – he didn’t see it. I veered FAR right and sent Jay back to snap a couple of pics of it.  A Tiger Snake sighting is like seeing a Grizzly Bear in Fernie from short distance away – at least it had the same effect on us.  Now all the locals are saying: “Well, when they are waking from hibernation, they do tend to be a bit sluggish, so they may not get out of your way.” They are also grumpy and hungry and, well, horny and aggressive. So which is it? Sluggish? Or horny and aggressive?

Meanwhile, after days of painful neck straining in search of elusive koalas, I was told there are NO koalas in Tasmania. What? I’d been scouring the tops of the eucalyptus trees as we rode, sure I would see one. But sure as God made dumb tourists, “Thar ain’t any koalas in Tassie Mate. Too cold!”

So no Koalas and 1 snake. Not what I hoped for. Do a few wallabies and echnidnas compensate? Echnidnas are adorable hedgehogs who bury their head in the ground when stressed – like me.

Fernie legends Geoff and Shirley have a daughter and her husband living in Tasmania. We were so lucky that Sue put us in touch with them! Kim and Rod went out of their way to invite us to their shack for dinner. “Shack” is Australian for big beautiful new home overlooking the Tasman Sea. We had a wonderful, engaging dinner.

Rod biked with us into Freycinet National Park. Amazing. Worth the trip to Tassie just to see this. He took us on a route we surely would not have found – cycling beaches and trails to the hiking trail head. We hiked up to, of course, Wine Glass Bay lookout, then down to, of course, Wine Glass Beach.

We were apprehensive about planning an “organized” trip for such a long distance. And sure enough, on day two, we started with alterations. We wanted to stay a few more days on the coast rather than head inland. Our Tassie tour planner, Manfred, made an impressive and appreciated quick pivot – but cautioned us on future revisions – as “It’s starting to get busy at this time of year and you might not be able to re-book”. But really, we wanted to stay by the ocean because the seafood is, like, the best seafood you have ever had. Ever. The oysters are so plump and sweet, Seafoody Jay ranked them “Best in the World”. Even the shells have beautiful color and look edible. They aren’t.

Oysters so good Gear Guy could weep!

We were on this tremendous double track stretch in the middle of nowhere on route to Saint Helens when when we ran into this dude on a fully weighted stiff tail mountain bike. A bit disoriented to say the least, he tells us he is a competitor in the annual “Tassie Gift” race. The Tassie Gift race we learn is best described as a tough, gritty, at times ugly jigsaw puzzle – finding roads, trails, goat tracks and not tracks that are wrangled into a figure 8 loop. The route “showcases the enormous diversity Tassie has to offer yet barely scratches the surface. A dating profile if you will. A scenic trip to hell. 1780 kms 38,000 vertical meters. Off road. Off grid. Unsupported.” This dude said he was “riding about 250 km per day”. He was clearly delirious and apparently oblivious to pain but unusually happy. So we signed our Fernie buddy Don up for next year.

Other than day 1, our biking days on this east coast have not exactly been strenuous. In fact, beach walks, oysters, and flights of Tassie beer have occupied us well. Gear Guy insisted on stopping at the popular Pondering Frog Cafe; where, besides having fantastic Seafood Chowder, there are, of course, figurines galore of Frogs. And being a Frog (Fernie Retired Old Guy), the stop was mandatory. Ribbit.

Tassie Beaches – sand, stones or shells – or all three – always sensational

Weather has been perfect so far, much warmer than expected. Well, except for the odd day.

Heading inland, towards the west coast. I’ve just started looking at cycle days ahead…Stayed tuned for what happens on this day below!

Tasmania (not Tanzania, Africa where it is warm and dry) is an island state of Australia. Named after its first European (Dutch) discoverer, Able Tasman, it is affectionately known as Tassie or Tas. Tassie is located 240 kilometers to the south of the Australian mainland. Sounded warm. Gear Guy booked flights suspiciously quickly while I continued reading and realized it is also only 2500 kilometers from Antarctica. We loved cycling the Aotearoa Trail in New Zealand just last year. But really, it was New Zealand where we unwittingly began our experimentation into the Wim Hof “cold therapy” lifestyle. We loved New Zealand. But we froze. We decided we needed to find warmer routes, yet, here we are – heading just north of Antarctica in the spring. And then there is the wind. Tasmania is located directly in the pathway of the notorious “Roaring Forties” wind that encircles the globe. There’s more: “Spring (November) is generally the windiest time of the year with afternoon sea breezes starting to take effect on the coast.”

Tassie is Australia’s least populous state, with less than 600,000 people in around 68,000km2 (about the size of Ireland). The state capital and largest city, Hobart, holds 40% of the population. Healthcare is listed in the top 5 industries and the number 1 employer on the island – I am suspicious this has something to do with the venomous snakes and spiders found throughout the island. An impressive 42% of the entire island is protected as a national park or World Heritage Site. Spiders and snakes love protected parks.

Initially, I assumed that the poisonous wildlife were left on the mainland when Tasmania broke away about 12,000 years ago. But no, 3 deadly snakes are indigenous to the island, the Tiger snake, the Lowland Copperhead, and the White-lipped. Our trip outfitter provided detailed information on what to pack in our first aid kit to help prior to emergency services arriving in the many remote locations we will be biking. “You know, for snake and spider bites and stuff.” The Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, is common in Tasmania – well relatively. It is extinct everywhere else in the world. We are told that although the Devil is aggressive, it is not a danger to humans. Just like Canadian bears. Our good friend Curran was kind enough to point out that quolls can be quite aggressive as well. What’s a Quoll?

According to Wikipedia, Tassie is known as a place for unorthodox place names: like Bobs Knobs, Nowhere Else, Ouse, Egg and Bacon Bay, Doo Town, Hell’s Gates, Cramps Bay, The Nipples, Cape Grimm, Blubber Head, Chuckle Head, Bottom Hole, Secret Hole, Humungous Hole, Guys Dirty Hole… Lots of references to one’s Bottom – like Stumpy’s Bottom, Deep Bottom, Round Bottom, Officer’s Bottom, Grassy Bottom, Boomers Bottom, Prickly Bottom… Perhaps if you make a donation to a local conservation group, you can have a rock named after you; like, Gear Guy’s Bottom.

We’re doing things a bit differently on this tour. We’ve enlisted Manfred from Green Island Tours to help plan our routing and accommodations around the Island. Finger pointing about wrong routes and poor accommodations will all be targeted at Manfred. And, after carrying a tent for 12,000 km across two countries without setting it up even once, we are not bringing a tent on this tour. I’m perfectly fine with this adjustment, Gear Guy feels a bit naked. According to Gear Guy’s First Rule of Touring – the only time you need a tent is when you don’t have one. And even though we donned our sleeping bags many times in Canada and New Zealand, those too, we are leaving behind. No cooking gear either. Many of our planned accommodations have kitchens or kitchenettes. Sure they do. But we’re going lighter weight on this tour as a test, to our marriage.

Our friend Gord suggested we try bike packing a country that is warmer, flatter and smaller. Warmer? Probably not. Flatter, well, no. Tassie actually has more vertical per km than New Zealand; which was more than Canada. But – Tassie is in fact smaller! Our route is about 2,000 km. New Zealand was 3,000 km and Canada was 9,000 km. So 1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

We will cover the 2000kms over 22 riding days – so we have several planned days off – good news. Math tells me our daily average is expected to be around 100kms. We averaged 90 kms per day in Canada and about 75 kms per day in New Zealand. But we’ll have less weight on this one – also good news. So, 100 km per riding day isn’t looking too bad, but the elevation on many of these days exceeds 1200m – ahhhh – there’s the bad news!

So why Tasmania? When we were bike packing New Zealand last year we ran into a fellow bike packer who said, “If you love New Zealand then you’ll love Tassie”. Characteristically, that was sufficient due diligence for Gear Guy to book tickets….. “Bike packers don’t lie.”

My 93 year old Mom just gave me a mild case of Covid from which we are both now (mostly) recovered. Jay just had emergency eye surgery – but had the best possible outcome. Clearly it is time for more bike packing (mis)adventures and exaggerated stories of same. As always, you are most welcome to join us.

G’Day Mates