Dismantling the bike.

It took many hours work over a couple of days to slowly dismantle the bike. We had some home-built wooden ramps and stands which made the task of getting the 100+ kilogram machine inside the car a little easier. The rear seat of the car had been removed and left back in Melbourne. One feature of an AU Falcon's rear doors is that they don't open very wide and so one door had to be removed. The partly-dismantled bike was loaded into the back of the car, then the front wheel and forks removed and finally the rear wheel removed. It was a tight fit lengthwise with only 150cm of space available between the rear car doors.

Mountain passes.

There are winding mountain roads throughout Tasmania. The Weldborough Pass and Elephant Pass are well known to motorcycle riders and those roads, as well as The Sideling, are also used for stages of the Targa Tasmania car rally. Many of the side roads are gravel tracks and we travelled some of the them; along the coast towards Gladstone late one evening and, on another day, bumped our way slowly up a rutted narrow track towards The Blue Tier until encountering a 'Road Closed' sign at Lottah; the rest of the road had been severely damaged by recent storms.

Road washed away by flood.

The Sideling.

View from the lookout.

Going somewhere.

Here's a sample, travelling the highway down to Pyengana. (It takes a while to catch up with the bike and apologies for the poor quality sound.)

Food and pubs.

We spent each evening in the hotel; eating a meal then playing pool. It was the 'blind man' vs the 'tall man' and, overall, the tall man won the unofficial tournament. Playing pool while wearing multifocals proved to be unexpectedly difficult and it was better to remove them and tolerate the blurred vision. The Harley Davidson jacket shown in the photo is a recent purchase, a very practical design and worn with some pride. (It's covered by another jacket when worn on the Ducati!) There's no shortage of good places to eat. We visited the pub in Pyengana two days in a row. The bakery in Scottsdale is a new favourite where Ben bought four pies for $5 just before closing time. There's a nice bakery at St Marys too and, on the previous visit, we discovered that general stores in small towns make excellent hamburgers with the lot. As for vegetarians, chips and salad is always a good option.

Campsite breakfast.

Pub in the Paddock.
Garlic chicken and prawns, fried camembert and salad.

Playing pool.

Fish and chips on the
St Helens waterfront.

Fossicking for gems.

Our amateur gem hunting expeditions yielded a few semi-glassy stones but nothing of value, as far as we could tell. Still it provided an excuse for exploring some of the nearby streams including the Weld, Ringarooma and the Groom Rivers. There are sapphires and rubies to be found, if you know where to look and what to look for. A licence is required too, unless you're fossicking in one of the designated areas and there are two such areas near Weldborough; one on the Frome Road and another near Gladstone. There's gold to be found too.

Weldborough - population not many.

The township of Weldborough consists of the hotel, a hall and a few residences, one of which has been up for sale for two years or more. I stayed in the miners cottage behind the hotel on the first night then moved into a small tent once we'd retrieved it from storage at St Helens. The hotel's claim to fame is that it sells beers and ciders from micro-breweries in Tasmania. It really is a very nice old pub with lots of character and good food. It's a shame that many people just zoom past it on their way to or from St Helens.

The hotel.	Main road.	Beers and ciders.	Miner's cottage.	Campsite, the big tent is Ben's.

A lesson in the local geography.

The Tasman Highway stretches from Launceston across to St Helens and then down the coast all the way to Hobart. Locations mentioned here in recent weeks are highlighted on the map. The key to travelling is not to hurry from one major town to the next, rather to stay a while at the places in between and pay attention to what's there. Tidying a hotel garden, reading in a myrtle forest, fishing as night descends, camping in a storm, noticing that the moon is full, dealing with the repair man who 'smiled with too many teeth', managing after a motorbike crash, living on a low budget while purchasing necessities (and other stuff!), seeking a healthy climate - are all part of the experience. It's been three months since a tall young man wearing new motorcycle gear and riding a recently-purchased VTR 250, loaded with full saddle bags and a tent strapped to the back, queued with all the other vehicles on Station Pier. Much has happened since then.

Shepherds pie.

It's 100km from Pipers Brook to Weldborough and Ben had done 20km of the return trip when he realised that he'd left something behind and had to turn around and go back, making it a 140km trip late into the night. It was freezing cold riding the mountain roads and not all the wildlife was intimidated by the sound of a 600cc Ducati Monster Dark thudding along the highway. At one point a dazzled possum brought him to a complete stop and required some gentle nudging with a boot to persuade it to get off the road. By the time he arrived back at Weldborough, the hotel was closed. He'd had nothing to eat since lunch but the only option was to retire to the tent for the night. After a while, he noticed an odd smell. He looked around but couldn't see anything in the tent then opened the door. There, on the ground, someone had left a plate covered in aluminium foil, and under the foil there was a hot shepherds pie; the perfect meal for a hungry traveller on a cold night.

Welcome to Spirit of Tasmania’s Sailors Club!

(web image)

"Congratulations on becoming a member of Spirit of Tasmania’s Sailors Club! We warmly welcome you aboard. Your Sailors Club member number is..."

Looks like I'm becoming a "frequent sailor". Next trip is at Easter (and the blog postings will stop for a while). Oh, and if travelling to Tassie, you can save by booking tickets well in advance. The $79 seat that I booked a month ago now costs over $190! Cancellation insurance was inexpensive too, only $16 extra, making total cost of a return trip $377, including the car.

Pipers Brook.

Visiting Pipers Brook today, about 100km from Weldborough. It's near Pipers River which is shown on the map. The hotel was busy at the weekend but is fairly quiet during the week.

The Weldborough Hotel.

(web image)

Little Plains lookout and a full moon.

(web image)

An earlier session.

The view during the day.

Phone call at 7pm from Little Plains lookout. Ben rode up there to see the view of the Pyengana valley on a clear night and under a full moon. In response to my concerns about riding at night, I was told that he uses a lower gear so the bike makes plenty of noise to warn animals off the road.

There was a music session at the Weldborough Hall yesterday and plenty of visitors in the hotel last night. One of them offered Ben an electrical apprenticeship in Launceston, after testing him with some trigonometry questions written on a scrap of paper. Not sure if the recently-appointed hotel grounds keeper is interested in a four-year course at this stage. It seems that a few hours of gardening each day is an enjoyable part-time occupation.

He also said something about a 'cute little cottage' in Weldborough but I don't know what that's about yet.

Cold ginger beers and hot soup.

Out of hibernation.

Yanni's is for sale too!

I've left a regular reader in suspense so am pleased to report that Ben phoned yesterday and he's fine. He spent two days in a sleeping bag inside his tent, only venturing out when he had to (the toilets are a short walk from the campsite). Part of the tent collapsed in the teeming rain and all the wet clothes have been taken to Yanni's Laundromat and Cafe for a wash, dry and iron (all for $15). He's been slowly dismantling the camp and moving items into storage. The storage shed was discovered open on Wednesday; with nothing missing though so it's slightly mysterious. The most likely explanation is that the door didn't lock properly. Ben's heading up to Weldborough soon.

It's still raining!

(but the air is clear).

Weather stats for today

Cecelia St, St Helens
(ABC news file image)

The strong winds died down in the early afternoon but heavy rain continues to fall and flood warnings have been issued for rivers in northern Tasmania. All the other campers packed up and left before the storm leaving just one person with two tents and covered motorbike to survive the inclement weather.

News reports mention 170mm of rain since yesterday, landslides, fallen trees and the closure of the Binalong Bay causeway. Homes in Binalong Bay have had to be sandbagged. I've tried to phone but it sounds like the phone battery is flat (again).

The chart shows how the last 20 hours have been recorded at the local weather station. Rainfall, the dark-purple line, rose rapidly after 8am and didn't relent for 10 hours! Wind speed, the light-orange squiggly line, suddenly dropped around noon. This is the second bad-weather event in less than a month and I wonder if this is unusual or not.

Bunkered back by the beach.

Weathering the storm.

Heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the next three or four days mean that our traveller isn't travelling anywhere. He's secured the campsite and has bunkered down in the new tent. Temperature is 12°, wind 30kph gusting to 50kph, and 30mm of rain has fallen in the 12 hours since since midnight with more on the way. According to the latest message:

"I bought supplies for a few days. Two loaves of bread, a pack of rice thins and two packets of mint slices. Have apples and condiments already. Tied down the bike with ropes and covered."

ABC news item, Heavy rain lashes north east.

Shifting to Weldborough.

Planning to stay for a while at the Weldborough Hotel, about 50km north-west of St Helens. Weldborough is on the road between Scottsdale and St Helens; not really out of the way except that it's out of reach of even the Telstra mobile network. Fortunately there's a payphone. The arrangement is free camping and use of facilities in return for some work each day. Yesterday's smoke has disappeared but, at the moment, there are too many campfires at the Cosy Corner campsite. Shifting camp will require a few trips to and from the storage shed in St Helens. The Weldborough Hotel sells microbrewed beers and ciders, and is well worth visiting. Speaking of brewing, there's a plan brewing to repair the Honda.

Warning signs!

12 midday

4PM

Today's map of burn offs in Victoria

The orange line in the graph indicates an increase in fine particulates (PM2.5) most likely due to wood smoke. Another graph on the EPA website shows increasing temperature and wind speed of only 1kph, so smoke will just hang around and not dissipate. There are no planned forestry burnoffs shown on the web maps but somewhere nearby there's a fire burning.

4PM update. Much worse. Wind speed in St Helens is still low. Nothing appearing on forestry websites.

However... the source could be further away. I can even see one of the burn offs in the nearby Dandenong Ranges, and smell the smoke which has been in the air since last Wednesday. This has happened before in St Helens, in March 2010, see news story.

Phone still recharging.

St Helens Online Access Centre

The mobile phone is still at the Online Access Centre. I rang today and another lady answered, "Ben's phone." He hasn't been spotted today and she was kind enough to take a message. The annual Swimcart Surf Fishing competition will be held this weekend. I wonder if the mainlander is intending to enter.

The lady with an Irish accent.

"BH phone home" equipment

I phoned today, expecting Telstra to automatically tell me that the person I was calling was unavailable. Instead, a pleasant lady with a lovely Irish accent answered. Somewhat confused, I asked to talk to Ben but he wasn't there. He'd left his phone recharging at the Online Access Centre in St Helens. The lady at the desk was hoping he'd return before the centre closed. The Access Centre is community run and provides internet access, printers, landline phone, fax and even office space; all available for a few dollars per half-hour, or free if you're local. Soon the mobile phone could be recharged at the campsite using a home-built solar kit including a 4W solar panel with built-in regulator, a 150W inverter and an adaptor for connection to a battery. The plan is to use the battery out of the damaged Honda, although the inverter could be clipped onto the Ducati battery. Other possibilities open up: recharging batteries, listening to an ipod, and electric toothbrushing. Let's see if it works first.

Why westerly winds are not welcome.

There was a westerly wind last night and smoke from camper's fires drifted towards the beach. When you have breathing problems, smoke is hazardous and difficult to avoid. A news item caught my attention today, "Smoke blankets Burnie". The smoke was caused by Forestry Tasmania burn offs and some are planned for NE Tasmania, which is where St Helens is located. It will all depend on the wind, any direction with an easterly component should be fine while other directions could be problematic. There are Forestry Tasmania web pages with maps of planned burns and EPA pages with air quality monitoring data and we'll have to keep a close eye on them.

Does Cod Exist?

Sitting back at the campsite and pondering such big questions. How to identify the large slimy fish hauled in just after dusk? The printed poster was unclear and it took a long phone call and internet search to establish the answer. The answer is 'yes', cod does exist, Red Cod to be precise. Not so interesting to catch because they give up as soon as they're hooked. Not so good to eat (if you don't know how to prepare them properly) because the flesh is soggy.

The sport of fishing could be loosely compared to the non-sport of insurance claims, though with insurance it's difficult to determine who has been hooked. The car driver's insurance company has put the blame fully on the 'other party' and, as well as not paying for the damaged bike, intends to claim cost of repairs to the car, which is very unsporting to say the least. The tussle continues...