On some Adventures You Fail

Failure and Adventure

The two go hand in hand, I am certain. I say this because the whole idea of adventure is putting putting yourself out of your comfort zone.. you may train hard but the outcome is unknown...you may have done it before, but conditions must be perfect for success, or, something totally unpredictable crops up!

So anyway, for this adventure I had 5 days spare, so what better thing to do than my first short bike packing trip in arguably Australia's most stunningly beautiful state? The great thing about this route to Tasmania, is that I can ride out my front door and onto the ferry in just a few hours...with an overnight sailing you can be on the road early morning the next day. Once docked in Devonport it wasn't' long before I was riding out of town...there is a good bike path over the river then its quiet back roads but with not much of a shoulder. Within 10km I hit the first steep climb ominously called 'Gentle Annie' which was short and sharp...a theme that will permeate every day on this route. I later found out the hill got named from a local trying to get his horse down it...e.g "Woooah easy does it, gently Annie..."

I took a pit stop at the village of Wilmot. There is only a very basic store here, but they let you fill water bottles from a hose outside which is quality bore water. This is the last place you can get water before Cradle Mt, and its wise to get extra here as there are some very steep climbs from here. 14.4% at one point, according to my route planner. Get ready to work.

Ride profile - Devonport to Cradle Mt

Once up those you are on the plateau, and some of the best riding I've experienced anywhere. Open roads, beautiful lush forests and distant craggy peaks all abound...total heaven.

It was a short day today as I was not sure how I would cope with the climbing, 1700m up and I felt amazing despite some pain that comes with the territory. However I was about to discover this trip would fail...

Day 2 - Disaster

There were not many options for early morning eating at Cradle Mountain so I munched on some muesli bars and drank as much water as I could in anticipation of a big day to Strahan. For this mini tour it was important to feel good still on day 2 after yesterdays 1700m climb, as I had much bigger days to come. Tassie at dawn... Just wow...and even more wow up on the alpine plateau. The air was dead still and a very familiar alpine mist amplified an unfortunately equally familiar haze of bush fire smoke... all the way from the mainland hundreds of km across Bass Strait. Nevertheless today was a mouth watering and thigh wrenching prospect for any keen cyclist, the road was dead quite this early ...and the land in the mood to strut its stuff.

About 10km west of Cradle I was feeling a vibration on the bike when pushing hard. Yesterday right at the end if the day I had felt it also and thought a spoke might have popped on the rear wheel but found nothing on inspection. This seemed to be getting worse. Hmm next town was a long way today, in fact only a village...I'd better stop and have a really good look.

Oh no. Game over. Trip over.

I had no mobile signal but Cradle Mt had amazing tourist facilities so I turned around and road back there standing only on the pedals and not using the seat in order to keep all weight off the crank and with my speed low, as a complete collapse of the frame looked likely.

Once eventually back at the centre it was time to eat humble pie and ask for help. I got directed to their transport expert Mel who works for McDermott's. What an amazing women she had me sorted in no time, and way out of the bounds of expectation in her role. "We look after people at Cradle" she assured me, after validating I was genuine and not just under prepared, though still obviously an idiot.

She arranged a ride down the hill with one of her team members also going way out of his way to help for later that afternoon, so I had half a day to kill and did a great walk up to Marrions lookout, smokey but still stunning and got some great ideas for return trips with my wife.

The ride down to Devonport was entertaining thanks to great banter. In typical Tassie spirit he was both a driver, local farmer, and general mr fix anything guy. Far sooner than I'd wished for, and thanks to the immense generosity of others, I was back at the ferry...on my way home.

This time, I failed. I'm gutted because I wanted this challenge, hills and all, I was not riding in west Tassie in ignorance. But a snapped frame is just that. Tassie, I will be back (perhaps with a tougher bike..)

A bit of info about the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry for cyclists

The ferry connects Melbourne with Devonport, sailing overnight is a fantastic option for cyclists.

Bikes are an extra $20-$30 (depending on current fare offers) and when you book the option is available under 'vehicles'.  You then choose how you want to sleep...

Its 45$ for a reclining chair or much more for a cabin. I took the recliner option and slept ok-ish. When you get to the terminal in Melbourne, join the slow moving car queue. The staff will then direct you on to a gangway on the side of the vessel. Take anything valuable off the bike, whilst access to the decks is not allowed during the sailing...a bike still could be a target for opportunists. You can get pretty good food on the boat, albeit overpriced.

When boarding from Melbourne: your bike is treated like a vehicle. E.g. join the vehicle queue and you are then directed to the passenger boarding entrance after security etc

When boarding from Devonport: your bike is treated like a passenger, join the passenger queue