Another Covid lockdown led to some nervous weeks and days leading up to the scheduled departure for our 2021 Tasmanian tour, a “Plan B” Victorian ride had been hatched out but in the end not needed. Terry held the lead rider position along with his trusty “paper based” GPS leading us along some great motorcycling roads…
Forteen riders boarded the Spirit Of Tasmania on the 24th Feb for the 7 day La Tour DeTassie, should of been 15 but old mate Nobby had a slight technical issue and joined us a few days into the trip. Everyone was early to bed in expectation of a big day ahead.. Ya Right !!
- Day 1 – Off the boat and straight to a cafe for a clear your head coffee and a big breaky, heading south towards the great lakes and onto some great riding roads stopping at Moles Creek and coffee break at Deloraine’s very interesting Cruizin’ In The 50’s Diner. Further down the road the road riders separated from the adventure riders who went to visit the historic Waddamana Hydro Power Station. The rain started around this time and made things perfect for the adventure bikes which consisted of Suzuki’s, KTM’s, a Triumph and one Adventure Harley, complete with forward pegs, leather panniers, road tyres and load exhausts. Rod had the Harley looking pretty sharp but after 50 odd K’s of wet dirt roads the shine had dulled a little. The two bike groups meeting up again at the 1st nights accommodation at Maydena with plenty to talk about over a couple of beers…
- Day 2 – Started with the “one way in and one way out” ride to Lake Pedder/Lake Gordon, a 170 km round trip of ripper roads and beautiful scenery. A few keen ones headed down 100’s of steps to Lake Gordon’s dam wall for a look and realized it was as many steps back up, bugger !! Woody needed a headlight globe so we all headed to a Hobart bike shop, along the way Terry handed the lead role to Woody and his ever reliable TomTom GPS to get us there. TomTom had us going the wrong way before we knew it, we eventually found the shop.. After repairs we all turned right out of the bike shop and headed for lunch, Woody who somehow missed out on the lunch discussions turned left thinking he was following the group and took chase, he never caught us :-). The group minus Woody headed south of Hobart following the coastline towards the nights accommodation at Southport Pub, just short of Southport the adventure group turned right and headed as far south as possible by road to Cockle Creek. A quick walk for some and a short ride for Bindo to visit the bronze whale monument at the bottom of Australia followed by a brisk ride back to the pub arriving around 6:30, out of the bike gear and time for a beer and dinner. Around 8pm we all headed to tables for our meals, it was around this time Woody asked what’s for dinner only to be told everyone had already ordered theirs around an hour ago and the meal order counter closed a few minutes ago, funny stuff, he didn’t starve!! Late in the night a couple of caring and strong individuals relocated spanners Vstrom to the cabins veranda to keep it out of the weather, how goods that…
- Day 3 – Bugger it, it’s turning into a novel….. just look at the photo’s !!!
