Our GS Adventure to Tasmania – Part Two
By Petra Hennig & Jamie Shotton
In Part One, Petra and Jamie made the journey all the way from Queensland down to the Spirit of Tasmania for the trip over to Tasmania, before visiting the poppie and lavender fields, Cataract Gorge and landing in Fingal.
Now their adventure continues. Take it away Petra….
Well it’s for some, but not for others, adventure riding that is. I just love all the dirt tracks, open space and getting lost in the big wide wilderness, reaching nature you can only dream of. And using Google maps put us right into the thick of that on day two….
After a long and entertaining night with Darren and Craig (the guys from NSW with the Ducati Scrambler we had met on the ferry), we left Fingal in the morning heading towards St. Helens on the Esk Hwy.
We passed the sign South Sisters Lookout near St Marys, so we took the left turn to find the lookout, as we’d discovered it had 360 degree views north to St Helens and the Bay of Fires, west to Ben Lomond National Park and south to Bicheno and Freycinet National Park.
It was a pleasant surprise as we rode along a gazetted steep uphill single track, offering a medium challenge for dirt riders with sharp negative camber bends. It felt like forever climbing uphill with deep ruts, waterholes and mud puddles.
We finally reached as far as the bikes would take us and climbed by foot another 20 minutes uphill to our final destination, and let me tell you, these adventure boots are not made for climbing… but the view was stunning and worth the long uphill trek.
Then we rode all the way back and continued into St Marys with its beautiful old buildings for a coffee and then onto St Marys pass down to Scamander. This little town is famous for its beaches and its iconic bridge over the Scamander River.
We decided to take in the ocean views and took a break for the famous Scamander newsagency and Mouth Cafe’s fish and chips. Yeah, you heard right, it is also a petrol station right in the middle of town. In true fish and chips style by the sea we lost some of our chips to the seagulls but savoured our mouth-wateringly delicious fish.
We continued following the coast up to St Helens, the stunning Bay of Fires and Binalong Bay. The sight of it is simply jaw dropping beautiful.
The ocean breaks out into this stunning turquoise colour with white sandy beaches that are scattered with these humongous boulders and rock formation, fringed with orange lichen. Before leaving we took a little sandy trail out on Skeleton Bay Track to enjoy the area a bit longer.
Continuing along the bay we rode through Doctors Peak Forest Reserve into Ansons Bay Eddystone Point. Shortly after, we turned and continued north on the inland tracks towards Pyengana where we enjoyed a cold beer from another Tassie icon ‘The Pub in the Paddock.’ We then made our way back via the Evercreech Forest Reserve and its beautiful nature reserve.
As we made our way back the clouds started to set in and little raindrops where falling. We decided to give the ride to Jacobs Ladder at Ben Lomond National Park a miss for the day and try again in the morning pending weather.
In Part Three Petra and Jamie continue towards St Marys, past Wineglass Bay to camp in Coles Bay, then continuing on to Port Arthur the following day.
