TravellingStrom

Well, the day started off excellent, the sun was out and it was quite warm, what a great feeling, I could actually wear my mesh pants for a change 🙂 The sea views were also calm and smooth as I headed off down the coast.

I had taken the coast road past Lagoons Beach and then back to the west towards St Marys, it started to get a bit narrow tight and twisty and there are signs to prove it, but I am unsure about the backing up business 🙂

After some lunch at St Marys it was on to Fingal where I got off the main road and headed north to Mangana, this is a very nice ride, there was even an old quaint church there.

Then I had some tight upward roads, but there are logging trucks on this road, so there is dirt on some corners, but nice views of the Ben Lomond range in the background.

Just before Rossarden there was a few huge piles of rocks and small stones, right at an S bend, I have no idea what they are for, but could be road base maybe for an upgrade?

Then it was downwards through some more nice roads on the other side

Then it turned to dirt, but no worries it was only 6 km of quite hard packed good gravel before arriving in Avoca 🙂

This was the end of the western run and now I headed back on the main road towards the coast again. I was looking for fuel as I was down to the last bar but each town I passed through either was closed or like the servo at St Marys, had none at all. My only choice was to head down to Bicheno where they may be open, or go back up to St Helens, after thinking about it, I decided to head back north. It was not all that bad though as I only had to get to Scamander where a BP was open, good on em! I fuelled up and went south covering the same ground as earlier along the coast. I had spotted this advisory sign earlier on and this gave me a chance to take a photo. On these roads, it is good advice I reckon.

I eventually got to Bicheno around 2pm a bit later than I intended, but who cares. They have a nice harbour here as well as some scenic rocks along the foreshore.

And they actually had a blowhole right there that actually works which is a bonus for this blowhole watcher 🙂

I headed inland after this towards Swansea, after a while there was this nice panoramic view of the Moulting Lagoon Game Reserve.

The weather had gotten a bit colder by now and the wind was quite strong which made this view across the Great Oyster Bay not as good as it could be.

On the other side of Swansea there is an old bridge called Spiky Bridge, there is no real reason explained in the advisory signs about why the spikes were put on the top.

I was riding along a bit further when I saw this strange fence covered in shoes, it was right next to a sign advising of a turnoff to a kids fun camp and park, so I guess these are all the shoes left behind over time 🙂

Once I got near Sorrell I had a right turn towards Richmond, this was so I could meet up with Dan, or JustDan from VSRI where I was staying while in Hobart, the road followed the cliff and it was susceptible to falling rocks.

I had phoned Dan and he met me as expected at the pub in the main street.

I duly followed him into Hobart to his place where he was putting me up. There were a few other people there, including Justin on the left and Tracy and Phil on the right, that is in the first photo and then Dan and Ian in the 2nd. We had a few beers and a chat. We had a ride planned for 10am Sunday so it was not a real late or heavy night.

Day – 403km
Trip – 23,217km

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