Strahan to Hobart

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We knew this was going to be a long day. It is only 300 km but can take over 5 hours depending on conditions, other road users and road works. As luck would have it we got all 3. The road from Strahan to Queenstown is very twisty and is around 40 km, even so it could take over 40 minutes to ride. As we rode through we could see where trees had fallen and were cut to allow vehicles through. We made it to Queenstown unscathed and after 45 minutes of intense cold riding. Thank god for heated grips, and heated seats on the beamer. Ann had her heated gloves on as well but it seems had an issue with the power switch. Even so, these gloves were much warmer than her normal riding gloves.
As you ride out of Queenstown en route to Hobart, you come across the '99 bends'. It is exactly that, 99 bends with no straights as you climb to the top of the hill. The big beamer needed some manhandling to get around some of the corners but thankfully no traffic in either direction made it somewhat easier. As we crested the hill we came across our first bit of traffic with a tourist parked in the middle of the road taking in the view. A long blast on the horn and he soon moved to the side of the road.

The road for the next 100 kms was a combination of open plains and twisty roads. We stopped for fuel at Derwent Bridge as well as a coffee and a curried scallop pie. Scallop pies are a Tasmanian institution. Our first was at Stanley in 2018 and in all honesty we have not found one anywhere that comes close to that one. Ann and I decided to try a scallop pie wherever we went, a scallop pie crawl! The scallop pie here was better than others we had tried but rated 7 out of 10.

Something else worth seeing here is 'The Wall in the Wilderness'. This is a massive 100m long wooden wall that has been hand carved out of Huon Pine. We respected the artists request to not photograph it but photographs would not do it justice anyway. 

Bikes and bodies fuelled up we hit the road again heading toward Hobart. The hills finally gave way to open plains and crop lands and after a couple of hours the traffic started to build and we knew Hobart wasn't far away. We rolled in to our accommodation for the next 3 days at St Ives Appartments at Battery Point. We were lucky enough to have a park right outside our room so we didn't need to lug our gear up the stairs. It was a good 5 hours since we left Strahan and our shoulders were feeling the effects of all the twisties. A neck and shoulder rub was our first priority once we had settled in.......

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