11th FEBRUARY
Barry had always dreamed of riding his Triumph GT Sprint 1050cc around Tasmania and so given that we had mutually dedicated our lives to travel and adventure, naturally I encouraged this dream of his. I had only ever ridden on the back of his bike for an hour at a time and even then my backside would become really sore, so I had some trepidation about how I would cope with rides of up to four hours at a time. I was very impressed with myself that I managed to squash 5 days of clothes, medications, cosmetics, shoes etc., into one miniscule panier, but I did it! Off we went to Station Pier to go through the slow and arduous process of boarding ‘The Spirit of Tasmania’. Why can’t they send some staff members to Europe to see how efficiently the boarding of car ferries can be done?
12th FEBRUARY, 2016
I had found a very nice one bedroom apartment on the river at Salamander. It took over two and a half bum numbing hours to reach Scamander from Devonport, but the scenery along the way was marvellous. Scamander is a lovely sleepy little town and served as a good base for us.
It was unseasonably warm and we broke our golden rule and didn’t wear full protective gear for our trip to The Bay of Fires to marvel at the incredible orange hued granite rock formations. The orange colour is actually formed by lichen.
We enjoyed our day trip to Bicheno beach. It was only an hour each way. Bicheno is a pretty little fishing village which also houses a motorcycle museum which was unfortunately closed on the day that we were there.
It took three gruelling hours on the motorbike to reach Hobart. Of course Hobart is always a delight. We stayed in a lovely serviced apartment right in Salamanca: Salamaca Wharf Hotel. We packed in a lot in our few days there: wandering around the lovely Salamanca area, especially the wharf and market areas, a catch up with Andrew, one of Barry’s former motor cycle racing team mates, a trip to the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA), and a visit to one of our top ten favourite restaurants ever, aløft.
If you ever get the chance, do NOT miss this restaurant. Aloftrestaurant.com. Pier one, Brooke St. Hobart.
It took more than Four painful hours to reach Devonport from Hobart. As I hobbled bow-legged down the street, I caught the eye of one of the many bikies, sitting in the gutter by their bikes waiting to board the ship. He gave me an almost toothless smile and said, “if you think you’re sore now love, try riding across the Nullabor”!
It was really rough crossing back to Melbourne. We had a suite right on the bow and felt a bit disconcerted watching huge waves breaking over the top of our windows. We arrived in Melbourne unscathed, save for a rain drenched ride back to Rowville. It was a fabulous experience but one I am not anxious to repeat!
maryannsholidays 