Chipseal and Cycleway.

I worked at keeping the kilometres happening over the past week. Initially around the Norfolk Plains and then a social ride with Ken in the south.

To vary things a bit I rode Bluey on Monday, Bikey on Tuesday and Brompton on Wednesday. The trike ride was a dash – practising for the group rides Bluey and I will be leading in May. I still have a little problem with using the higher power settings but I’m getting there. Monday’s ride covered 45 kilometres and used about 2/3rds of the 16 amp/hours in the battery.

The local Council has been organising new coverings of chipseal spread over the existing chipseal. Sometimes the reason for the new covering is obvious but other times it must just be working to a schedule – the old covering seemed OK!

The above is new chipseal on Armstrong Lane, heading towards Bracknell. It’s OK. In fact, once the loose gravel has been removed it will probably be good. Thank you Council.

Here, Brompton and I came across some more new chipseal down Panshanger way. Once again, it’s OK.

Nice, good sized gravel nestling closely together making a smooth(ish) surface. This is in contrast to the large, lumpy stuff recently used on Cressy Road and some junction repairs which are now very bouncy riding a trike over.

OK. I am sure you are thinking “Enough from the chipseal quality analyst”.

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We are moving into Autumn, the sun is lowering in the sky and this is typical of the view from under the helmet.

When not looking into the sun it looks like this.

A constant reminder of Autumn was the work all over the place to plough in the poppy stubble. I kept coming across dust clouds like that below drifting across the countryside and, sometimes, the road. Is it just dust or dust laden with various chemical residues? I don’t know. I don’t cycle through it.

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Then, it was time to head south

On Thursday we headed south for a few days visiting friends in the Huon Valley. We had 4 beautiful days of sun, temps into the 20s and rapidly burning off river fog. Each morning the tent was soaking. The first morning inside as well as out; we soon learnt to shut the tent up at night.

On Saturday Ken and I put his trike and the Brompton into his car and drove to Cornelian Bay on the timtumili minanya / River Derwent which runs through Hobart. The “Intercity Cycleway” goes past the bay and that’s where we were starting the ride.

The cycleway goes from the Hobart Wharf area through to Glenorchy and beyond. Today we were riding from Cornelian Bay heading upriver to the end at Claremont.

The cycleway runs alongside the old railway line running through the suburbs into Hobart. This means it runs past the back of a lot of warehouses, work yards and what look like material dumps. The image above shows that some action is underway to brighten things up.

It being Saturday the track was reasonably busy. The cloudy weather was keeping the skate and scooter people away but the cyclists were out in numbers. Great to see it being used as intended. Ken found some portions a little narrow as cyclists rode past two abreast.

When I lived in Hobart this railway was used to take goods down into the distribution centre near the Regatta Grounds. At places where the cycleway crosses the rail it could be a race to get to the crossing before the train – they were long and slow and a long holdup meant getting to work late.

Today though the trains (all goods trains) park at Brighton where a transport hub has been built, allowing goods to be loaded to/from rail to/from road. The shunting yards beyond the Regatta Grounds are being redeveloped for public and commercial use.

On arrival at Claremont Ken was eager for coffee – so we pulled in and he found one. Not in the Bakers Delight though – they don’t “do” coffee.

We rode on to the end, turned and cycled back. As we returned the clouds started to break up and things warmed up nicely.

Another good ride completed.

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I had hoped to drive to the top of Mount Wellington with Brompton and coast down into Hobart. It’s surprising how hard it is to get a free half day! This ride has been stored away in the “things to do” brain store and will happen another day.

The next few days will be a bit wet so cycling will not be happening.

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What? Oh Yes! The front picture. It was taken at Cygnet. The bike was in the car but not being used as we walked from Cygnet town to the Yacht Club. I wonder what lives in the tree house ?

A final picture for this post. The walkway up to the Cygnet Yacht Club. Just past the bridge we spotted a decent sized Tiger Snake wriggling along. Luckily Oscar didn’t spot it.

Til next time ……