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| Kathi's view over Chris's helmet, driving on the left(!) |
We were picked from from Quest Trinity in Hobart at 9am and left the motorcycle shop at 10:15am. Paperwork and packing the bike was quick and efficient.
Phil Ogden is the proprieter of TMTR Tasmania Motor Tours and Rental
. He operates out of 3 Lakeland Dr, Forcett TAS 7173, Australia near Hobart.
Phil picked us up from Quest Trinity Hotel in Hobart and drove us out to his place in Forcett (about 30 minutes)
where we did paperwork and collected the Triumph Tiger 800 XCX we would have for four days of self-guided touring around Southeast Tasmania.
This is how the self-guided tour works.
Phil has provided nice day-by-day maps like the "Day 1" map below.
The Garmin Zumo GPS on the bike has user waypoints for these locations.
You just pick waypoints and visit what you want. If you pick them in the order of the map, you'll be guided on a similar route.
Today's plan is a Cafe in Richmond called Wattlebanks followeed by a Cafe in Orford called Wattlebanks. Don't get them confused when selecting in the GPS! And don't be distracted by the pouring rain when trying to find the first waypoint.
Day 1 goals
As we left it was raining but not too bad. I stopped to put on over-gloves and was happy to note that the bike had heated handgrips with a variable controller.
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| this is Phil Ogden |
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| and this is our trusty steed |
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| and this is the not-so-lovely motorcycling weather we would enjoy at the begining of a Tasmanian summer |
Well, we didn't find the Wattlebanks Cafe in Richmond. Instead we found Sweets & Treats confectionary and bakery with lots of higher-end candy and other confections. 90 meters down the road and across the street. Oh well, Kathi's happy; she got some chocolate frogs.
At 11:00, shortly after leaving Richmond, we found this lovely little botanical and sculpture garden called the Tasmanian Bushland Garden on the way to our next waypoint. Just our type of place, much more than pubs / beer gardens. I especially liked all the metal scupture art. Several of these pieces are things I'd like to try replicating at home. We had a picnic and walked around a bit in light rain. When the rain let up, we continued north towards Bicheno.
At 12:15pm we pulled into goal #4, the Wattlebanks Coastal Cafe to have lunch in Orford.
Kathi had Salt and Pepper Calamari Asian salad with mint leaves, sprouts, and other lettuces - fresia?
Chris got a Lamb sandwich.
At 12:20,we made it to waypoint #3, the Wattlebanks Cafe in Orford.
At 1:15pm we took off in nice weather to continue up the coast
This is the not-so-impressive Spiky Bridge This bridge is part of the old convict coach road that connected Swansea with Little Swanport and the east coast road to Hobart. Initially the bridge was called Laferelle's Bridge after Tomas Laferelle who surveyed and engineered and supervised construction of the bridge. It was built around 1844, so it is almost 200 years old. I guess that's old for a stone and concrete bridge. More history here
As it started to rain a bit, we pulled over to put on our rain gear. This was a very good move as it immediately began raining harder and harder.
22 minutes after donning our rain gear, we were getting soaked. My new wind/light-rain pants were not up to keeping out driving rain for more than a minute or two. We took refuge in Goal #6, Devil's Corner where it poured buckets for 15min. We had a snack. The rain alternated with medium rain and torential buckets. We checked at 4pm and the storm was going to last until about 6-7pm. At least it was scenic with big windows. We found a weather radar sight and timed our departure right around 5pm to follow a lull in the storm.
We found a weather radar site and timed our departure right around 5pm to follow a lull in the storm.
45 minutes later, we made it to Bicheno
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| 5:40pm at hotel after waiting for light rain |
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| 6:20pm Bicheno Sealife restaurant. |
Kathi ordered Blue Eye in ginger soy with bok choi, peppers, sprouts. Chris got the lamb shank with potatoes and carrots. Chris ordered a raspberry cheesecake with vanilla ice cream for us to split for desert.
We wallked across the Bicheno point to see The Blow Hole. On our way back we saw our first non-road-kill kangaroos: three skippies on front yards. We climbed to Whalers lookout, then walked on beach across rocks to find a place to wait to see penguins to come out to feed their young.
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| Thar she blows! |
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| Wait! Is that a kangaroo on the driveway up there? |
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| Flat, roadkill skink |
It was getting quite dark, so much that we probably wouldn't see the penguins without the special red lights the tours use, so we went back to the hotel to get some sleep at about 9:45pm
Good night.
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| Plan for tomorrow. Since the rain stopped us for so long today, we'll try to squeeze Freycinet in first thing tomorrow. |