So.. finally on my way to Gowrie Park. Until I was a few miles down the road and realised I left my phone charger and battery in the camp kitchen!
Those retrieved, I was faced with the Gog Ranges. A mountain range considered not particularly tough by the "Giro Tasmania", but that was written by Triathlete freaks not by Mr. Blobby on a 55Kg bike.
See Full Ride Details
| 02:19:16 | 19.15 | 8.2 | 38.7 |
The bottom of the first big hill. Hmm a river, beautiful I must admit!
The first hill was around 300m climb. That was bad enough, but the steepness was around 20% on the hairpins. Disgracefully, I had to get off and walk. Except, it was almost impossible to walk as well. The bike just didn't want to go up that hill, I had to drag it, and stop to rest. I was unfit still, and this was a struggle.
I then stopped by the entrance to a farm. The farmer came out and said, oh, you've still got another one to go up. He was right but it was only 100m climb.
Made it up the first hill. Looking quite pleased. Just one more...
OK I'm over the top of the second hill, now Mt. Roland is in sight. Gowrie Park isn't far away.
The Camp Site - O'Neill's Creek, Gowrie Park
Here we are, arrival at the site. A free site, with a great view of the 3 mountains. Roland, Van Dyke and .. another. There is a toilet, and a sheltered area for cooking. Not bad for a free site! (In fact I only found one better free site in all of my travels, that is Hamilton, that even had the luxury of a shower)
Apart from the scenery, the absolutely awesome thing about this camp site was the wildlife. As you can see it's basically bush. At night, it is the play pen of every indigenous creature in Tasmania. It's quite a sight, and such a shame my camera phone cannot take night photos.
No I don't know what this is either.
The Characters
I met Debbie, travelling with her 2 daughters, who was escaping from the bush fires in the Dunalley area. She was very kind and took me to a couple of places. Sheffield, the nearest town, to stock up on water and supplies. Then, Tasmazia. It's actually a family maze attraction, but we were there for the Pancake Parlour!
If there was one item of food I'll never forget from this trip, it's this. It had the weirdest name, something very long, like "The boar". Anyway, Debbie's daughters loved it and I have to admit I tucked in too. It consists of many pancakes rolled up inside, with ice cream, cream and many sweets, with wafers for good measure.
The Town
Not much else at Gowrie Park, just another (paid for) camp site, very good facilities there, I had a look around. Sheffield is the nearest town, shame I didn't take a photo, it has an almost "wild west" feel to it, seems very old and untouched.
Camp Fires
Ahhh... how to keep warm, cook food and boil water for tea all at the same time. Camp fires are not allowed in many places, and never during fire restrictions. So you have to make the most of it when you can.
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