The end of the cycling portion of our cycling tour — Tasmania, Day 11

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +1100

Well, fuck.

We awoke late and had a nice breakfast, then packed up, checked out and headed off. At first we made good time. Back past Coles Bay to the Tasman Highway and another stop at The Pondering Frog. It was drizzly but not too bad, but by the time we reached Cherry Tree Hill it was bucketing down. We had to be very careful, as its a very well known black spot.

We got to about 10 kilometres shy of Swansea today when my wheel went awry again [Update: It turns out Kai being a bit of a newbie when it comes to wheel building, didn’t tighten the spokes enough.] and we called an end to the cycling portion of our cycling tour.

My wheel was wobbling side-to-side and got worse as we progressed, but got so bad that it was rubbing paint off the frame! I had to stop, but Danielle — riding in the front position — never looked back, because

she was pushing hard due to the rain [I’m actually really proud of her, in retrospect. She was struggling, but so determined to keep on trucking!], and
because I have served as her mirror and radar detector for over a week…

She kept on riding for a few kilometres, and I was forced to keep pedalling behind furiously on a very shaky wheel and screaming for her to stop, but she couldn’t hear me.

Once reunited, we walked with thumbs out for about 4–5 kilometres, but were ignored by drivers as they sped past, before a legend of a local fella named Jacob pulled over in his ute and drove us the rest of the way to Swansea. Jacob got drenched helping us get our heavy bikes and bags on and off the ute, and was just so great about helping us out. We thanked him and his partner Claire — and I’ll thank him again: wherever you are Jacob, thanks mate! — and called around for some accommodation.

We’re in the Swansea Holiday Park and booked on the 09:24 bus to Triabunna tomorrow to at least see Maria Island before returning to Hobart by bus. We ate a big dinner of fried eggs and Ben’s rice in wraps. It wasn’t quite like the Freycinet Lodge dinners, but our bellies are full and we’re dry and warm.

On our way to Biche—oh no! — Tasmania, Day 7

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +1100

Today was… well… let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

We awoke after spending a beautiful night under the clearest skies, to a gorgeous sunrise on the Bay of Fires. As we packed our tent, the sun poked up with beams of light streaming through the clouds and spread across the bay, and it was marvellous!

We had a good chat to an old Tasmanian bloke, then set off. The hills were easier at 7 a.m., and we made great time. I had a huge shot of adrenaline as I started just thoroughly enjoying the tour and being out on the road, and was dancing and singing to the groovy beats of Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam, as we careened down coastal roads past spectacular azure bays, with 360º of either beautiful water or nice coastal bushland.

A swan swims towards a yacht in St. Georges Bay.

We stopped in St. Helens for a great coffee at Coffee Away in the main drag. We also had another good chat to a few Tasmanian types.

We headed off towards Scamander. There is a cycleway that follows the water out of St. Helens towards Stieglitz and like much of the rest of this region, winds through gorgeous scenery.

When we got to the A3 Tasman Highway, and faced with a big hill out of the cove, we opted instead to follow a mountain biking (MTB) trail along the highway. This is where we became unstuck.

The trail followed the highway for a little while, but then suddenly left the highway altogether and became harder MTB [MTB: mountain biking] territory: singletrack and switchbacks and ‘technical’ terrain. At the trailhead we saw evidence of the massive investment in this region’s MTB infrastructure.

The trails around St. Helens, much like the Derby trails, show signs of huge investment in the local MTB infrastructure.

We headed back to the A3 and rolled into Beaumaris and onto Scamander. My back wheel was wobbling like crazy since the MTB trail and we stopped at a park for fish and chips, and to check the bike.

My heart stopped when I saw my rim: I had pulled 9 spokes almost through the rim — the rim on each side of the spoke nipple was broken and pulling inwards.¹ We were fucked. Bikes without wheels don’t tour very far.

We called Giant St. Helens and spoke to Kai and Steve. They didn’t have any road cycling stock because it’s all about the M.T.B.’s up here, but advised us to limp back to St. Helens and we’d see what could be done.

We managed it, and Danielle was really inspiring in how she battled up the pass on Artemis, and we clocked up 50 kilometres on the GPS by the time we got back to St. Helens. My wheel was wobbling like crazy².

Kai at Giant St. Helens was a godsend. Kai is a young 18-year-old recent-graduate from high school, who’s awaiting news of an offer from Sydney University for Engineering. Fingers crossed Kai! He salvaged a rim from an old customer bike, found the one 32-spoke 29″ road rim in the shop and rigged us up a new wheel!

We checked into the Bayside Hotel and at 17:00 Kai was still going! He got it done and Steve has kindly offered to drive us on to Bicheno tomorrow. So, we’re saved for now. So fuck you NE [NE: north-east] Tasmania, you haven’t beaten us yet!

It is difficult to describe this malfunction, and as I have posted the wheel home without taking shots, I’ll have to update this post when I finally return to Victoria. ↩︎
Another customer at Giant St. Helens was driving behind us and noted how absolutely fucked my back wheel must have been. ↩︎

Break-Down — Getting Out There

The end of the cycling portion of our cycling tour — Tasmania, Day 11

On our way to Biche—oh no! — Tasmania, Day 7