Hills and headwind
Giddy and nervous under a sunny summer sky, we pack our gear and join the throng of tourist traffic pouring east out of Hobart. Halfway towards the Tasman Peninsula we detour north, rumbling off the bitumen and onto the washed-out Wielangta Forest Drive to begin the long, rugged climb to Marion Bay Lookout.
It’s a tough first day with full-laden touring bikes, lots of get-off-and-push hills and plenty of breaks. But when we top out above a deserted arc of coastline and stoke our first Tassie campfire, this freewheeling adventure from Hobart to Launceston, the long way, has us smiling.
In true Tasmanian style, the wind begins to howl, the temperature plummets and rain falls in earnest. We attempt to sleep through it, cook in it, pack our bikes in it and ride in it beneath a finger-numbing downpour that batters us without reprieve.
The hardy six-year-old on the back of my bike isn’t complaining but we eventually hunker down roadside to wait it out, playing paper-scissors-rock under our tent fly as splendid fairy wrens flit among the moss-covered king ferns all around us.
When we get riding again, the downhill run off Snake Ridge to remote Rheban Beach is a
