There’s been a bit of cycling in January, I have averaged 1 ride a week (!), some of them only shopping trips, all to get to a total of 71 kilometres!
Yep – not a lot…. But, Mrs C and I did have a shakedown trip to Ross to test the tent / stretchers prior to a car camp and cycle weekend in February.
We decided we could manage a centre-poled safari style tent at our advanced age, we felt we should be able to deal with this over summer. In the event, tent setup was easy with Sue holding the inside centre-pole while I banged in 4 pegs, one in each corner, to get it to stand up. The other guys can be pegged out later once the thing is up. It’s turned out to be a lot easier than our previous OzTent to handle as it weighs 8 kilos less, is NOT 2 metres long folded up and takes far fewer pegs.
I first tried setting it up by myself and the results were not satisfactory.
Back to Ross – the main trouble we hit was with the stretchers. I bought nice big ones to persuade Mrs C we would be comfortable and, according to my measurements, they should have fitted in easily. But they didn’t. Unfortunately the length/width dimensions of the tent fall away rapidly as the height increases. So much so that the stretchers, being 2.1 metres long and 1 metre wide, pushed up again the tent canvas. It was hard to get the door zipped up and, at the time of writing, we still wear the bruises and cuts on our shins from “walking” about inside the tent/
There were a number of cherrypickers in the caravan park. Not pieces of machinery but real people who are picking cherries. We were given a large bowl of freshly picked deep red, large cherries – delicious.
As soon as we got back home the stretchers went on Gumtree and new, smaller ones were ordered.
Colin and I tried to fit a ride or rides in each week but we both found too many conflicting things that needed to be done. Medical, Dentistry, Hearing, etc, we had the whole lot to deal with. We did manage a ride out past Woolmers and one to Bishopsbourne – rides we have ridden many times over the past few years.
To end January, we decided on a different type of ride – to take a look at some of the trails in Launceston.
Were there too many coffee shops?
We met at Civic Square planning to get a coffee from the coffee truck but it was absent. Probably due to Festivale (a music festival) happening in City Park. So I introduced Colin to the coffee shop in the Library instead.
Without a real plan for the day, we started by riding down Cimitere Street to the new University buildings being developed on the site of the old Gas Works. Past them we turned up to access the new shared pedestrian / cycling bridge over the North Esk river. The purpose of the bridge is to connect the university buildings to the student accommodation. There was hardly anyone around and we had space to check out the new bridge and enjoy the views.
After travelling along the levee top past the old Railway Workshop at Inveresk, we headed to Heritage Park and took a tour around there.
The weather was really good – sunny, 25°C and no wind. It was a Friday and the kids were still on summer holidays but there were very few people in the park. I think it would be busier on a Saturday with events like Park Run and Dog Club training taking place. Also, a lot of people are holidaying at the coast right now!
Following that loop we went along to the Community Food Gardens situated on what was a sizeable part of the car park for the Inveresk Museum and Art Gallery. It has now been repurposed. The gardens are a joint venture between the Launceston Council and the Tasmanian University plus the Community who share the produce. I have never seen so many steel sided raised beds anywhere – all filled with healthy looking plants – very impressive. They sure would look good in my backyard!!
That got the stomach rumbling – it was time for lunch. We headed just across Invermay Road to the Bizy Bee cafe for some grub.
After refreshments we decided to head for kanamaluka / River Tamar. The trail to get there runs along another part of the levee system and past a big-box shopping complex, alongside roads which are quite busy. Our only hassle was when crossing said busy roads.
On reaching the river we cycled downstream a little to one of the old wharves. This is an area where, until recently, homeless people had set up tents. They have been “removed” and we noticed some now living on the river side of the North Esk levee – out of sight (and mind?). Like many places, Tasmania has recently seen rapidly increasing rents linked to a shortage in places to rent. It’s a seemingly difficult issue to deal with although things are not helped by places closing as they don’t meet updated regulations.
Cycling back via the large kids playpark, the Seaport restaurants and other tourist sites one ponders on the different lives being lived in such a small area.
Up past Kings Park and we had a chat. Colin was heading inland to meet his significant other while I was headed to a city car park. There we parted, having had a different but very good ride in great weather.
And here is the video !
Plans are in place for more riding in February.
’til next time …………………..
Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog 