Beyond the bush

Hobart, a sweet little port town on the opposite side of the world. We've come through all types of terrain to get here, turns out Tasmania has a decent number of switch back ascents that almost proved too much for me. Great ride, the route was 180km and Tasmania's answer to the Yorkshire Dales. There was also an Alarming amount of roadkill on the route...

Overland - The summit

Today was summit day, an early start with lots of porridge gave us plenty of energy to climb out of the forest for several hours until we reached the Pelion plateau. The weather seemed to have cleared, and despite a bit of wind we decided to attempt the Mt Ossa summit. We left our packs at the trail fork (safely protected from Currawongs by tying the straps together) and started the ascent. The climb took about 2 hours and involved trudging through leech infested pools, climbing through river gullies carved into the rock and much sketchy scrambling over large boulders, but we made it to 1617m for some fantastic views and a well deserved lunch on the summit. The way down was harder on the knees but the breathtaking views were worth it! Another few hours and we reached Kia Ora for a night under the stars, we claimed about 1000m of vertical ascent today and made the most of the weather. Check back for photos.

Those big wheels keep on turnin`

Phase 2 begins! Having walked over 80k across half the length of the country, we're now cycling the other half down to Hobart, hopefully to make it to the coast. Yet another Tasmanian thinks we're insane for attempting to cross the country on our mountain/touring cross bikes, but we are hoping the suspension forks come in handy! We are all packed up in 4 panier bags each, and caught a beautiful sun rise to start the day. Wish us luck!

Overland - d1

Writing this from memory alone is quite hard as it's been a while since we were on the track, luckily I wrote some notes so I'll have a ganders first. Now all is clear, the first day was an absolute beaut. By Tasmania standards especially but also elsewhere. First wombat was spotted dozing at the side of the duckboard (wooden boards for moving across the marsh). The scenery was beyond impressive and we met unknowingly one of our partners for the whole walk, Mark the man of steel (his job title) from Sydney about 2 hours in. After some brief discussion he informed us that we would be sharing huts with two "banana slingers" (guys from Brisbane) and a Frenchman. By this point the 22 kg ish bag was now beginning to dig in around the hips and the rough terrain was dealing some blows as well. Luckily we made it to the camp in around 4 hours 30 only to find a broken stove that would need fixing before we could eat and the banana lads, who preferred to be called Gavin and James cooking away. The Frenchman Benoite however was elusive and would remain so the whole trip, always being one step ahead of us. We never did meet. So two bananas, two red heads and Mark it is, aka the team.

CL

we're off!

After much planning we have finally set off forTasmania! It will take us three days to get to the island, so watch this space for updates on our progress. So far we've fallen asleep at the check in just to wake up in time for the final boarding call, and been trapped in Australia s longest known customs queue. Fingers crossed for a smooth ferry crossing...