10 Wheels to the Berry Patch

10 wheels? Yes, that’s 3 trikes and 1 e-wheel riding part of the NW Coastal Path in north-west Tasmania

The NW Coastal Pathway is the initiative of a number of Councils along the coast with the goal of creating a shared pathway with a length of approx 110 kilometres. Quite a bit of it is in place now with more to come online in the next few months. Today we cycle one of the latest lengths to be added between Don and Turners Beach.

Four older guys with a combined age of 316 decided to ride this short stretch of the path. For a year or so Ken, at 91, has been wanting to give this a go on his trike. Andrew lives close by Ken and arranged to share the driving from Huonville in the south of the state to make it happen. Colin and I tagged along.

Between us we had a Greenspeed GTO (Ken), Greenspeed Magnum SD (Colin), Greenspeed Magnum XL (Tony) and an e-wheel (Andrew).

Ken and Andrew had driven around the 250k mark yesterday and today’s drive from Longford to the ride starting point was another 100 or so this morning.

At the joining point close to Don a new parking area has been installed since my last trip. That was good because I was wondering where I could park a car plus trailer. We were all a bit quiet as we got set up but soon things started to happen.

The first part of this leg of the trail involves an underpass to the other side of the highway. There is a bendy stretch to circumnavigate farmland plus gates that can be closed across the pathway to enable the local farmer to get his livestock from one side to the other. Today no animals were being moved so no delays.

From here the path is less curvy and there are no worries re animal control.

After the viewpoint we descended to run parallel to the Bass Highway for a while. There is a bit of noise from the highway but it isn’t too loud or intrusive. Really it’s just great to be on a pathway and not have to worry about passing traffic. (NB: In the video traffic sounds noisier than I recall when riding.)

so they need to take multi-point turns. The one-wheel had no such issues.

Today was a cyclists delight. No wind, cool but not cold, looking great with the sun out and ground dry!! How good was that

The vague plan was to have a coffee at the Berry Patch and lunch in Ulverstone. As the ride to the Patch was about 10k we soon had the idea of coffee and a cake in our minds. Before then though

only to dive back down under the highway a second time to get into Leith. The pathway designers had a lucky find with the two underpasses which were installed originally for the farmers. They can be interesting after heavy rain as all sorts of stuff gets washed in.

The way through Leith is by a new concrete path which includes a stretch that runs alongside the Forth River before taking users up and onto a converted railway bridge. I was looking to confirm the name of the river crossed and I noticed on Wikipedia that apparently Leith is home to the oldest Wishing Well in Tasmania. Crikey, how odd. If I had known we could have visited it and made a wish.

On the other side of the bridge is a network of new and old trails through the Turners Beach coastal bush helping to provide access to the pathway. I think the Council(s) has/have done a great job with this leg of the shared pathway. It is certainly being well used by the community.

Now though it was time for coffee so we headed through the town to get to the Berry Patch. This is a very popular cafe and on summer weekends you have to book ahead. Today, it being a late Autumn Saturday, we were not expecting issues and had none.

After some refreshments we checked how Ken was going. All was OK but riding in an area not known to him was taking a bit of a toll so we didn’t go to Ulverstone for lunch but headed back for a feed in Devonport instead.

The trip back to the vehicles was as delightful as the ride out and the day remained one of those magical ones.

We all enjoyed the interesting ride and a day spent with good company. Thanks Guys.

Here is the video :

’til next time …………………………………