A perfect day for ...

 Forestry burnoff
(web image - David Fitzgerald)

It's fine and calm in NE Tasmania, a perfect day for ... lighting fires! Let's hope Ben's nowhere near this:

"Forestry Tasmania will today conduct a large burn on East Coast...  We've been waiting all season for the right conditions, and today is about the best we can expect to achieve a good burn and minimise smoke impacts... While we expect most of the smoke will move away to the south and south-east, it is possible that there may be some smoke in St Mary's if there's a strong afternoon sea breeze." (From today's Forestry Tasmania press release.)

edit: Phone call from Scottsdale (well away from the East Coast) where Ben's getting lunch at his favourite bakery and buying medications at the chemist just over the road. A couple of "old blokes" (60+) sought him out recently for advice on finding gemstones. They happily accepted his invitation and accompanied him on a fossicking expedition the following day.

Ten ducks.

Minus something!

It was cold last night, certainly below zero. Ben phoned from the Weld River this morning where he's out and about looking for gemstones. He recently replaced a broken indicator on the bike and also needs to top up the hydraulic clutch fluid and possibly bleed air out of the line, something he hasn't done before. We're not sure that he has the right tools for the job so it might require another visit to Scottsdale. There's also a lapidary faceting machine for sale in Hobart that he's interested in. However he needs to learn more about cutting before laying out any cash. In the meantime, a 1980's book on gem cutting has been bought on eBay for delivery to the Weldborough Hotel sometime next week. The hotel is very quiet at times and the kitchen is closed some evenings.

New bike boots.

(web image)

The old boots have fallen apart. New boots have been ordered and should arrive in the post next week.  Boots are from Andy Strapz in Frankston: Forma Adventure Boots, black, size 12. They fit me so they'll fit Ben.

Bikers need alot of gear: helmet, jacket, gloves, pants (kevlar or leather) and... good boots.

Lapidary in Launceston.

Ben's on his way to Launceston today and intends to join the Lapidary Club of Northern Tasmania. The club has tools and equipment for gem faceting and polishing as well as plenty of local knowledge and expertise. He's also hoping to meet an 83 year-old gem-cutter named Rex who lives in Riverside, a suburb of Launceston.

This kit might have saved
the day - and the tyre!
(web image)

11AM edit: May not get there, the rear tyre is flat. Hoping to re-inflate it at Branxholm and limp the next 20km to Scottsdale where there's a bike shop. RACT is another option. It's odd that, just yesterday, we were talking about tyre repair kits - should have remembered to 'touch wood' or something like that. It could be worse though, at least it's daytime.

12.30PM edit: Rode back to Derby, pumped up the tyre at the service station, then rode to Scottsdale where it was replaced. The tyre was worn through to the belts - probably from riding on a deflated tyre. The now-expensive trip to Launceston continues...

Where's the cheese?

Pyengana cheddar
(web image)

The flying visitor has returned from across the Tasman. For some unaccountable reason, the request for a small wedge of Pyengana Cheese wasn't acted upon and the bars of  Mt Elephant Fudge were accidentally left behind. According to reports, the rather hurried trip went well.

VTR roars into life.

Honda VTR 250 at the Doublecheck
Auto and Bike Repair Shop.

Ben phoned today from Launceston. His flying (and driving) visitor arrived safely and spent part of the day in Tasmania's second-largest city. The trip didn't quite go to plan owing to a mix up with place names; Winnaleah and Weldborough aren't really close to each other geographically but both names do start with 'W' and end with 'h'.

Fishing and fossicking both start with 'f' and end with 'ing'. Fishing has been a useful beachside activity and fossicking in the mountains looks like it could yield some interesting results. The local jewelry wholesaler was impressed by some of the stones.

The big news of the day is that the VTR 250 has been reassembled and the engine was run for the first time in over three months. It didn't exactly 'roar' into life, the sound was more like "putt... putt... putt." Initially it seemed that the engine had completely seized however the problem was due to excess oil in the cylinder. Once running, it would only idle but not rev and that was due to loose carburettor mounts. Finally it ran smoothly but would not climb the steep driveway and that was due to me not being able to ride a motorbike. Not having a helmet or other bike gear, personal safety equipment consisted of a Tasmania baseball cap, a Las Vegas hoodie and garden gloves. Will the bike ever return to Tasmania? Stay tuned.

A flying visit.

This weekend there'll be a flying visit from a flying (and driving) visitor. Tuyet will head to Launceston tonight, stay somewhere near the airport, drive to Weldborough tomorrow and return on Sunday night - that's the plan anyway. Ben phoned from Derby this morning and has become more skilled at fossicking, or 'gemming' as the locals call it. He now has "a bag full of sapphires" with some of a size that can be cut and also some topaz. One of the locals is impressed enough to think about including him in their own gemming outings while also suggesting that, if Ben's too successful, they'll have to "knock him out and steal the gems - and the bike too". Of course they're not serious and it sounds like our traveller may be gradually traversing that invisible border between 'visitor' and 'local'.

The Sideling on a clear sunny morning.

View from The Sideling lookout
(taken in April).

It's a brilliant sunny morning and the panoramic view from The Sideling lookout at 9.30am is even more spectacular than usual. Ben's heading to Launceston today with a bag full of 'potential gemstones' to have them checked by an expert. The collection includes two small, actually very small, sapphires. He's also intending to do a lapidary course sometime.

Ghost towns.

Derby, once a busy tin-mining settlement, is a pleasant small town with a population of around 160. It has a general store, petrol station, a couple of hotels, coffee shop, gallery and police station. Ben phoned from there today where he was reading a newspaper and having Sunday brunch. Other towns, like Lottah for example, are more remote and haven't been as fortunate. Lottah is now a small cluster of houses and sheds while nearby there's a ghost town that doesn't appear on the touring map. It can only be reached via rough four-wheel drive tracks yet the Ducati can get there if driven very slowly and carefully. Ben's thinking of camping there, though you have to wonder about camping in a ghost town.

Real Estate bargains.

The estate agents in Scottsdale list properties for sale in NE Tasmania and some places are very reasonably priced, especially when compared to Melbourne prices. The Dorset Hotel in Derby (pictured in the previous posting) is for sale at an asking price of around $600,000 which doesn't seem too bad for a two storey hotel in a former mining town. This 3 bedroom renovated house with a mud brick cottage on 1/2 hectare of land is for sale in Weldborough for $190,000. Cheaper still, and slightly more remote, is a house at Gladstone described as a "character weatherboard cottage featuring 2 good sized bedrooms with pressed tin ceilings, kitchen & dining combined with inbuilt woodheater, formal dining & front lounge with open fire, serviceable bathroom with shower over bath, vanity & toilet, and a spacious back verandah area for laundry" and on the market for $89,000.

None of this is particularly useful for Ben at the moment since he dwells in a tent and enjoys the freedom of being able to move around. But who knows what the future will bring? In the meantime, another family member who has a propensity for real-estate purchases finds this all very interesting.

House in Weldborough with mudbrick studio and timber interior (web images)

House in Gladstone
(web image)

Gemming, location top secret.

Dined at the Dorset Hotel in
Derby (web image)

A Branxholm local noticed the handle sticking out of the Ventura bag on Ben's bike. It's only a small camper's spade but useful when fossicking for gems. "You're German," said the man in some kind of weird Tasmanian accent. Ben looked at him. "Germing!" repeated the man who had yellow stained teeth. "I know a good spot, lotsa gems," the man continued. The secret location is a little out of the way, in a creek that's not shown on the map and an initial search today yielded some interesting finds. Ben plans to take some of the stones to Beaconsfield (location of the Gold mine disaster) where there are experts on gems and polishing.

Sunday feature, mother's day special.

In the absence of any real news, here's a selection of interesting (1), amusing (2) or artistic (1) photos taken in February. Click on an image to view full size and see if you can correctly classify each photo.

Seafood restaurant,
Swansea.

Bumblebee.

Luggage.

Drying shoes.

Ben just rang from Little Plains Lookout where it's a cold clear night and fat wallabies stubbornly hold their ground in the car park. He was keen to know how the VTR250 restoration at home is progressing. He reports that an old lady 'flashed' him at the Pub in the Paddock at Pyengana. She was part of a raucous gang of three old ladies and possibly had too much to drink with her lunch. Everyone in the pub found it very amusing (they're a cultured lot). Then the phone cut out... flat batteries.

One hard core camper in sub zero temps the last few nights!

Today the Weldborough Hotel posted this picture of Ben's tent on their Facebook photo album with the caption, "One hard core camper in sub zero temps the last few nights!"

Ben phoned from Agfest today and reported that it was a huge agricultural show, much bigger than the Royal Melbourne Show. He was impressed by the sheep dog trials, traction and steam engines, displays of old motorbikes and the really cheap food. ABC report on Agfest.

There was a visitor sniffing around inside the vestibule of the tent in the early hours of this morning. It was possibly a spotted quoll which ran off when disturbed. Also, it was extremely cold this morning with everything outside completely covered in ice.

The nights are getting colder...

Reading in the
tent at night.

... and so are the days as winter is approaches. The temperature in Derby right now (10pm) is 1°C and St Helens is 5°C. Also, on a still night like this, smoke from nearby chimneys is trapped in the layer of cold air near the ground and it makes breathing difficult.

Ben's planning to visit Agfest tomorrow.

A week in Weldborough.

Some of the stories of the week have been posted and there's a link to the photo album at the end of this post. Places visited included; Bridport, Tomahawk (a remote caravan park), Gladstone, Pyengana, St Helens, Derby, Scottsdale, Launceston (motor bike shops including the Harley shop), Lottah (well off the beaten track), Winnaleah (where the local kids encourage riders to "do a mono" in the main street) and St Marys.

Tomahawk.

Helping out at
Weldborough.

Lottah.

Bakery, St Marys.

Shop window in
St Marys.

All the pictures and a few short videos are here.