I figured the most direct route to Sheffield (town of murals) while avoiding the main highway would be to head 7-8k's west of Deloraine and get on the C163 at one of two roads. I turned onto the first road and there sat a policeman in his car next a "road closed" sign. "Really? Road's closed?" "Yep. But maybe try the next main road up, that should be open." Hmm, okay. I went to turn around when a half dozen pumped up cars go racing by. Mmhmm, interesting. So much for the policeman's knowledge of the roads, the next road was closed supposedly as well. I rode up to the first dirt driveway and pulled out my maps. I had basically three options:
A) Ignore "road closed" sign and continue with original plan. Dart off road into bushes should any race cars head towards me.
B) Ride the 8k's back to Deloraine and get on big, mean highway to Sheffield.
C) Go the "scenic route" via Mole Creek and skip Sheffield all together, or cut back towards Sheffield at a later point and add 10-15 k's to the trip.
Always being one for safety, I chose option A, 1/2 naively thinking I could go along unnoticed and 1/2 thinking this was pretty stupid and dangerous cause who knows what Tasmania lets its racecar drivers do. Well, option A didn't last long. Two k's further up the road, the street was blocked completely with 2-3 dozen spectators watching cars rev up, zoom by, rev up, zoom by. Car racing has got to be one of the most ridiculous wastes of energy for the sake of "sport." After some super cool young blokes told me it wouldn't end till 1:30 and that there was a back way, but I'd probably get lost in the bush, I backed up and pedaled back the way I'd come from. Down to option B and C. Clearly B was out since I am not a fan of backtracking or big highways. Left with option C, I cycled towards Mole Creek shouting, "Bring it on, Tasmania, bring it on!"
And Tasmania did! With the Honey Farm!!! When I first saw the signs for "honey" and "free tastes" I thought, oh no, I am not falling for that. Get off my bike for a few samples of honey and a shop shouting, "buy! buy! buy!"? But then I saw the next sign: "Honey ice-cream." EERRRRTT. I was in! I sampled about 12 types of honey and was wowed by the cinnamon and lemon honeys the most. Mmmm. At the counter there were 6 types of honey ice-cream. "Um, I'll get an ice-cream too." "Okay, one scoop coming up." "No, two, definitely two, I have a big day of bike riding ahead." Leatherwood honey flavor and chocolate honey. Yum! I win! Best ice-cream in Tasmania I'd say. After enjoying that special and unexpected treat, I consulted with the map again and saw I had two options.
A)Go the scenic, scenic route with more hills and more k's to get to Moina.
B) Cut up the middle road that would put me 5 or so K's W of Sheffield and on a more direct route to Moina.
B! I knew there was a big hill on this road too and I wan't disappointed. Luckiliy, I took the jacket off before the starting the Gog Range climb because I was beat red and sweating up a storm right away. But after 3k's it was over and I was rushing downhill. Wee! The terrain was very undulatey (I know this is not a word, but I like the way it sounds) and on one short, steep hill I swear my front tire actually came off the road for a second! As I was riding up to the intersection I wanted I felt pretty pooped, realizing my honey and ice-cream energy had been used up long ago. Sheffield or no Sheffield, that was the question. Half of me said, "C'mon Kels, this is your last weekend in Tasmania, go see the murals!" while the other half said, "Who cares! It's at least an additional 10k's. If you don't go you could possibly cycle all the way to Cradle Mountain instead!" In the end, I decided that if the sign to Sheffield was less than 5k I'd go, more than 5k I wouldn't, and if it was exactly 5k, I'd stop and think about it. Sign: 4k. "Dangit!" But I went. Sat in the mural park and had 2 sandwiches, the orange/lemon cake from Alice and Janet's, and 5-6 dried pieces of papaya. Usually my energy would rebound pretty quickly, but not this time. I walked around to see the murals up close, then took a short walk around town to see some of the building murals. Some were really beautiful and others, bleh, really unrealistic. I left feeling like it was the sort of town you'd need at least a couple of days in to fully appreciate it.
Leaving Sheffield, with 30 or so K's till Moina is when the headwind really kicked in. It had been around earlier in the day, but hadn't really slowed me down much. Its a tie between strong headwind and corrugated, sandy, dirt road - I'm not sure which gets me crankier faster. Once the larger hills started rolling along, my energy kicked in - go figure! There were a few gradual climbs before a superb, windy zip down. "Wahooo!" I'd been warned about what was on the other side of the downhill: "a pleasant, 6k grind up." An hour going that slow and the talking to self gets more interesting. I was too out of breath to sing, so I recited bits and pieces of poems I could remember. A bird would chirp and, "oh hello, where are you, I can't really look now." A bull ant on its way across the street, "oh, hi! I'm so glad I didn't squish you!" Who knows what else I started talking to or about. Lots of "way to go! you are awesome! you can do this, if you did the Rossarden hill, you can do this!" This was the first big climb where I stood up a tiny bit to get going faster. On other big hills, I was too scared of running out of energy. Eventually, I could see it, the sun blasting its setting way through the trees and the cafe/hotel Janet had told me about, the seemingly only populated building in Moina!
It was 5pm and while I might have been able to make it UP to Cradle Mtn. before dark, I'd had enough. A guy from the hotel came out to see if I needed anything and I told him I was waiting for friends and was about to come in to see if I could wait inside with a hot chocolate. "We're actually closing for dinner. I can bring you one to go?" I said no thanks, he could save the cup and sat outside. An hour later it was dark and cold and finally the hotel people came out and said I could come inside, if I sat in the corner! Wouldn't want a dirty, smelly, mismatched cyclist to offend the proper dinner guests now would we! I ordered an overpriced hot chocolate and was happy to hear Janet and Alice pull up a half hour later. We loaded my bike on top of her car and were off to the Waldheim cabins at Cradle Mountain. Go figure that we would get stuck behind the "Night Bus" for the last 10 k's and so it took quite a long time to get there. "Night bus." Searches for wildlife with a massive, blinding spotlight on the side of the bus, another stupid thing!
Once we got to the cabins we were met by Brad, Ros, Sean (age 8 or 9), and Hugh (age 4, i think?). Everyone gathered in their cabin while I sat on my bunk in the other cabin getting a few things together. Almost went off the emotional deep end due to tiredness and hunger until after a few sobs I told myself, "Just cook some pasta. Eat!" And so I did and was restored to normal. The first and last time I wait two hours after riding to consume my food! I managed to somehow stay awake for a hilarious game of speed monopoly (Australia version) with Brad serving as the aggressive banker and time keeper: "Who's turn is it, roll! Okay, you owe him $140k. Ros, help him count his money. Janet, c'mon, your turn, lets keep this moving." And I'll just say, it is a sad world we live in when monopoly places the Great Barrier Reef as the cheapest piece of property on the board.
Deloraine to Moina
Total K's: 87.33
Avg Spd: 15.1 k/hr
Max Spd: 57.4 k/hr
Hours on bike: 5:44
KM Scary Hill Rating: 5/7
KM Scary Wind Rating: 3/7
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