Devonport to Hobart
We are writing this 5 years after the fact, to remind ourselves of happier days. It was the start of the Covid epidemic, but just before lockdowns and restricted travel. We rode, with somewhat less clue than we have now, from Devonport across the north coast to St Helens. Heading south from St Helens required some bus travel (bikes can be carried on regional buses in Tamania), with a side trip to Maria Island, and an unplanned backward leg from Hobart to Sorell. It was a happy tour, but cut short by the death of Maree’s beloved little sister, Katie. We returned the following autumn to finish our Hobart visit and to seek out platypus in the famed Tasmanian Arboretum.
And five years later, we returned to Tassie to mark another sad loss, of our dear friend Shazz. Our 2026 return was a time to reflect on those past trips, of which Shazz was a big part. On our return, we discovered that most of the idiosyncracies of touring Tassie remain unchanged since 2021.
One thing that has changed is that the mainland Spirit of Tasmania terminal has moved from Port Melbourne to a less picturesque (and less well-served by public transport) location in the industrial suburbs 5 km north of Geelong.
Five years ago, our trip to Tassie began with a leisurely ride into the Melbourne CBD along the Yarra River and out to Port Melbourne on the bike path along the tram line. Today, getting to the Geelong terminal requires either riding the 78 km from Melbourne, or as we did (without our bikes on the latest occasion), catching the train to North Shore station and then riding (or calling an Uber if on foot) for the last 1.6 km.
That was all fine on the way there. It was somewhat more tedious on the return journey after a day sail, when our inexperienced Uber driver chose the wrong lane on his way to pick us up and was stuck in the queue for cars going to Tasmania for 20 minutes until they could let him out a side gate into the pedestrian pick-up bay. It was then a long, cold, late-evening wait on North Shore station, where we discovered that every second train to Melbourne is an express that doesn’t stop at North Shore. We arrived home late and tired, and decided that next time, we would book a night in a hotel in Geelong rather than doing all that again. We did that on our most recent return visit, and it was much more pleasant, but it sure makes for a slow travel experience.
On our bikes, five years ago, having arrived at the port, we just wheeled our bikes on with the pedestrian traffic and leaned them against the wall at the bottom of the escalators. Today, bikes are less welcome and have to be handed over as checked-in luggage where they are hooked onto the back of a trailer to go into the car bay. (We were told that e-bikes would go in the van rather than on the hooks). At Devonport, the port precinct is in a state of flux (in 2026) as it is being redeveloped to make it big enough to fit the two new ferries that were ordered in 2021: both have been sitting idle in Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne since 2024, waiting to be brought into service.
All in all, the experience today feels a little enshittified compared to the heady days of 2021. The planning decisions made by the Ferry operators since then do not fill us with confidence that bike touring to and from the Devonport ferry terminal will improve with the launching of the new boats.
On our European adventures we have generally not booked accommodation ahead more than a day or two at a time. Options in Tasmania are somewhat more limited, and we did book all our (non-camping) stays some weeks in advance. It wasn’t necessary everywhere, but we would have been stuck in Gladstone, and probably not have scored as good accommodation elsewhere on this trip. And options were very limited east of Gladstone, so we took camping gear for two (good) nights.
Day 1. Devonport- Railton
27 Feb 2021. (33 km)
The internet tells us that the cute little pedestrian Mersey Ferry that connected East Devonport to Devonport was still running in 2021 (having ceased operation in 2022).
We think not at 5:30 am when we disembarked into the early morning gloom of East Devonport, so we jumped on the bikes and road south to the cycle path across the river at the A1, and north again into town. We headed straight for the surprisingly groovy, surprisingly open, Laneway cafe where we had a good first breakfast for the day.
After hanging around in Devonport until a respectable morning hour, we followed the flash new bike trail along the Mersey to LaTrobe, where we enjoyed a second breakfast and a bit of window shopping in the antique stores.
Today’s ride followed the Tasmanian Trail which one can follow all the way to Hobart. It’s a more mountain-bikey and remote experience than we are into, so we left it to just the one day. We should have done a bit more research before attempting even one day though, because we found ourselves having to hoik our bikes and gear over a few unfriendly-looking locked gates. We subsequently found out that you can ask to have keys for these gates mailed to you (here). But without that inside knowledge we felt very sheepish doing it the hard way.
The gated section was unsealed, and challenging enough to confirm that we didn’t want to take the trail all the way to Hobart. It finally popped out through a mowed laneway between two properties at the hilly, sealed road that we followed into Railton. Railton’s topiary was fun, and the pub (our only accommodation option) was your classic country pub. We arrived early enough to wander around the corner to the Seven Sheds Brewery for some beer tasting, before dinner at the pub.
Day 2. Railton - Westbury
28 Feb 2021. (63 km)
It was mainly a day of undulating, relatively quiet, backroads, with lots of blackberries to be had along the way. We stopped for lunch in Deloraine to catch up with our friend Clare, and then on to Westbury, to stay at a great B&B - sadly no more, now five years later. The charming host was looking to sell back then.
Day 3. Westbury - Launceston
1 Mar 2021 (42 km)
These were the days before we had discovered cycle.travel, and we took a route into Launceston that avoided the 5.5 km of busy road (including 1.5 km along the way-too-busy A1) along cycle.travel’s suggested route. Instead, we headed north on the slightly hillier backroads to roll down the steep road into Riverside on the Tamar, 5 km north of Launceston. All very lovely.
We tackled the busy streets of Launceston to get to our fairly flash hotel on York St (The Florance), where we had booked two nights. On our rest day, we wandered around Launceston, and out to Cataract gorge. We struggled to find great dining options on either night, but the swishness of the hotel made up for it.
Day 5. Launceston - Georgetown (and Day 6 to Low Head)
3 Mar 2021 (74 km)
In contrast to our ride into Launceston, cycle.travel suggestions of backroads to Georgetown would have been much better than our decision to head down the A8. Actually, it wasn’t too bad for the first 25 km -first through the relatively bike-friendly suburban roads of North Launceston, and then after a brief 2 km on the A8, onto the much quieter C742, along the Tamar into a surprisingly suburban big-block neighborhood of Swan Bay. Quite a climb back to the A8 from Swan Bay had us questioning why we didn’t just take the high roads across to the east coast.
And from there we were pretty much on the A8 all the way to Georgetown: we hadn’t expected a lot of traffic, but we didn’t count on the big industry along the North Tamar creating lots of traffic…of the worst kind: logging trucks with drivers who, it would seem, see cyclists as sport rather than vehicles to share the road with. We were greatly relieved to hit the industrial edge of Georgetown for a quiet ride around the outskirts into town.
An odd, but comfortable, little B&B was our accommodation for the night and a take-it-easy rest day. On our rest day, we took the much more bike friendly road out to Low Head and back. The one Italian Restaurant in town was welcoming and not bad.
Day 7. Georgetown - Bridport
5 Mar 2021 (55 km)
A further lesson in how cycle.travel has changed our approach. He would have had us going out north to Beechford to miss much of the B82, which we took all day. Not as bad as the ride to Georgetown, but we certainly encountered our fair share of big trucks on the long road to Bridport.
We managed a coffee and a snack at the Pipers River store, but otherwise it was a dry argument all the way there. Bridport is a pretty place and we were very happy with our picturesque tent pitch at the Caravan Park. We clocked the ferry to Flinders Island, perhaps planting the seed of a future trip.
That night, we had dinner at the pub with Maree’s cousin Donna and her partner Fred, who live in Scottsdale. After dinner they drove us up to their big house on the hill, which would have been a challenge had we decided to take the inland road.
Day 8. Bridport - Gladstone
6 Mar 2021. (79 km)
We started the day with a minor morning-coffee detour to the flash cafe at Barnbougle Golf course, with a fine view out to Bass Strait and back to Bridport. While the cycle.travel map suggests there is only one way in and out of the Golf Course, there was another exit road to the east (shown on Google maps) that avoided the 10-km back-track to the main road east.
After that, there was really only a single route possible to get to Gladstone, through not hugely inspiring country, and through not a single town to speak of. Five years later, I have a vague recollection of taking a detour into Tomahawk - the coastal town that is not much more than a large residential caravan park. But perhaps I am confusing it with an earlier car trip.
Through the scraps of lost memories, there is not much I remember about the day until our arrival in Gladstone, where we booked a unit in the duplex which was the only accommodation available in town at the time. Reading the recent favourable Google reviews of the Gladstone Pub, it is clear that it has changed hands since 2021, and may well be a good place to stay and eat now. On 5 March 2021, it was a different story.
Having settled into our unit, we wandered down to the pub to check out what might be on offer for dinner there. We opened the bar door to silence as the barman and barfly stopped their conversation to inspect the two newcomers. On being asked if a meal was going to be a possibility tonight, the barman looked at us silently for a moment, and then turned to his barfly companion, and asked him whether they would be serving meals tonight. Nup, said the barfly. The barman turned slowly to us and said Nup, with a look that let us know we were dismissed.
A little shell-shocked we went across to the service station/general store and managed to find frozen pizza that would have to do us for dinners over the next two nights. It certainly appears from current-day Google reviews that hospitality to tourists has since returned to (or arrived at?) Gladstone since 2021.
Day 9. Day trip to Musselroe Bay
7 Mar 2021. (48 km)
A gentle ride out along mostly unsealed roads to Musselroe Bay and back. We stopped in at the Tebrakunna Visitor Centre, and digested the the shameful, sad history of Tasmania’s aborigines. While we were there a convoy of vans arrived carrying the film crew from SBS’s ‘Who do you think you are’, filming Uncle Jack Charles’ story. We had to hide behind the centre while they filmed some drone shots, but afterwards we also had a nice chat with funny, charming Uncle Jack about life in inner Melbourne.
We left them to their filming and headed for the Bay. They overtook us on the way there, and they were filming on the beach at Musselroe Bay when we arrived. We made ourselves scarce by walking around to the next beach for lunch. We ended up sharing a rock with Aunty Patsy, a local elder, for a bit. She was very welcoming - even inviting us back to her place in Tomahawk, which unfortunately was too much of a back-track for us.
Despite our shaky start at Gladstone, it ended up being quite an inspiring rest day. It is however sad to think that we must add Uncle Jack to the list of sad losses since our 2021 visit.
Day 10. Gladstone - Policemans Point
8 Mar 2021. (41 km)
A mostly unsealed road to the coast. We took the sealed road down to Ansons Bay, surprised by the complete lack of shops - nice place for a holiday house though. A surprisingly steep, fortunately sealed, hill, rising out of Ansons River was a challenge. We found a fine camping spot at Policeman’s Point at the mouth of Ansons Bay, where we were treated to a spectacular sunset.
Day 11. Policemans Point - St. Helens
9 Mar 2021. (41 km)
It was a long unsealed ride to St Helens without any highlights that have stuck in the mind 5 years later. After our night camping, we lashed out on a night in the Panorama Hotel at St Helens, which did indeed provide a good view out over the flats to Georges Bay.
Day 12-13. Bus - St Helens to Bicheno, Triabunna, Ferry to Maria Island
The only road south of St Helens is the busy, hilly A4, with not much in the way of a verge. So we decided to take the bus to our weekend destination of Maria Bay. On the upside, the Redline bus service, as it was in those days, took bikes in the luggage compartment. On the downside, they didn’t have a direct service south that could be tackled in a day, so we had to make two days of it.
The bus south to Bicheno took us inland via St Mary’s. As the bus climbed the narrow winding road up the hill out of St Helens, we felt happy with our decision not to ride this leg. Having been deposited at Bicheno, we had a short ride up the hill to our cute cabin at Bicheno by the Bay.
Day 2 of bussing got us to Triabunna in time to meet Shazz and Angry and their friends who had arrived from Hobart for their annual weekend on Maria.
Day 14-15. Maria Island
Shazz, Angry and their friends had been spending the March long weekend at Maria Island since all their kids were little. Now, with their kids grown up, they continued to reconvene each year for that special March weekend. S & A kindly let us join them and share their cell in the penitentiary for the weekend. It was a lovely weekend of eating, drinking, drawing, walking, riding, singing and laughing, which remains a treasured memory.
On the Sunday, with much of the group heading up Bishop and Clerk, Maree and Chris took the bikes to explore the south of the island 40 km return. Painted cliffs, quiet forests, beautiful deserted beaches, a bit more sand on the tracks across the isthmus than Maree would have preferred.
Day 16. Lift to Hobart, Ride Hobart to Sorell
15 Mar 2021. (28 km riding)
The ride from Hobart to Sorell, across the Tasman Bridge, out past the airport over the fingers of land that separate the arms of the Derwent estuary, had settled in my memory—a frequent setting for dreams—, but the details of how and why we came to be riding north from Hobart to Sorell (or even where those remembered hills and causeways were) had faded until our recent return to the area in a car. And with some effort we pieced together how that odd day worked.
We had originally thought we might ride to Hobart from Maria along the unsealed roads south of Orford to Marions Bay. But the prospect of 18% gradients on unsealed roads, versus the option of throwing our bikes into the back of Shazz and Angry’s ute for a lift to our booked accommodation at Sorell, persuaded us to choose the latter. We were also drawn by the possibility of attending the March 4 Justice in the Parliament Gardens, where Shazz’s choir was singing.
So, on the drive through Sorell, we dumped our bags at our accommodation at the old Sorell barracks, and continued, with the bikes still in the ute, to town. Having added to the voices demanding the government give a shit, we farewelled Shazz and Angry, and jumped on our bikes and headed out of town up the estuary to the terrifying Tasman Bridge.
The bike path over the bridge is adequately separated from the car traffic, but the height makes it a breath-taking experience. We marvelled at the thought of riders who use it as their daily commute. The bike path turns off into the quieter streets of Montague Bay. Other than the moderately busy Rosny Park shops, the designated bike route to the airport is along good-quality, quiet back roads that wind along beside the freeway.
After the relatively quiet back streets of the industrial area of Cambridge around the airport, we had to rejoin the busy Tasman Highway for a km before joining an off-road trail along the causeway across Pitt Water. The small climb over Midway Point was complicated by roadworks, but we were soon back on another off-road trail across Orielton Lagoon and a civilised bikeway into our welcoming home for the night at the Sorell Barracks.
Days 17-25. Sad complications, a ride up Kunanyi
That night in Sorell, Maree received the call that she needed to be with Katie. With a flight back to Melbourne quickly booked for the next day (16 March), our last night together in Sorell was anxious and sad. Maree booked an Uber to the airport, and Chris came along, watched the plane take off, and walked the 9 km back along the causeways and across Midway Point to Sorell and our two bikes.
Our good friend Angry saved the day, and happily drove out to Sorell to collect me and the bikes on the 17th to deliver me to our booked North Hobart airbnb. My week there was busy and a bit lonely and sad, but made happier by a day outing (by car) to Shazz and Angry’s lovely place, and a swish lunch in North Hobart with them. I organised to pack up and ship Maree’s bike back to Melbourne (mainly from the quiet, sunny courtyard of my house for the week). And during that week, Katie passed away.
I decided to ride up Kunanyi (Mt Wellington): the very antithesis of take-it-easy bike touring.It was nevertheless a therapeutic thing to do. 43 km return: three hours to get up there. 15 minutes at the top - enough to get cold. And 40 minutes down and back to North Hobart.
On 24 March, I caught the bus with my bike from Hobart to Devonport, rolled onto the boat alone, and on reaching Port Melbourne, rode through the dark, early morning bike trails back home.
Day 355. A return to Hobart - MONA, New Norfolk, Sandy Bay, Huonville
In the sad time that followed, we decided we should return to Tasmania the following autumn to complete our cut-short tour. We booked into the same great North Hobart airbnb, and caught the ferry back across to Devonport and the bus (with bikes below) to Hobart for a re-visit.
It wasn’t primarily a bike-touring holiday. We had a few car outings, including a gorgeous day to Fortescue Bay with Shazz, a girls’ weekend for Maree in Binalong Bay, and a couple of big day walks in Mt Field NP and on Kunanyi. But we also explored some of Hobart’s more bike-friendly parts by bike:
A trip to MONA and again to New Norfolk (28 km return to MONA, a 65 km loop extending the ride to New Norfolk)
Battery Point, Sandy Bay, Long Beach 12 km return. A classic tour of old Hobart. The trip back includes a crazy steep stretch ( up the hill to Battery Point from Sandy Bay) which cycle.travel doesn’t even register as a 5% incline. It has to be more than that.
The Hobart Rivulet trail up to the Cascade Brewery for lunch 10 km return.
Bellerive to Tranmere and back 28 km. We put the bikes on the cute little ferry across to Bellerive and headed up the steep hill to Mornington Hills and from there down to Rokeby and around Doughty Hill. It wasn’t entirely clear that we were allowed on the trail we took around the point, until we got to the locked gate at the Derwent Shores that suggested we weren’t. The undeveloped part of the point was bare and a bit bleak. The ride is no doubt a different prospect now, as the point is being developed. We ended our trip feeling a greater affection for the south side of the river.
The Huonville loop. 27 km. We hired a car and drove to the Summer Kitchen Bakery at Ranelagh for lunch. Then we set off on a quiet loop up and around the Huon Valley. A pretty little ride.
Day 374. Devonport to the Tasmanian Arboretum
7 March 2022 (28 km return)
On all of our Tasmanian (and Victorian) adventures, Maree had been repeatedly disappointed not to have encountered a platypus in any of the many alleged platypus-spotting places that we visited. But happily the Tasmanian Arboretum on the Don River, south of Devonport lived up to its reputation as the premier platypus spotting destination.
We spent a couple of nights in Devonport to fit the arboretum trip in. The ride out there started with 6 km of good off-road trail up the Mersey to Spreyton. It was then quiet back roads over the hill to the Arboretum. There, on wandering down to the lake, we found maybe 10 platypus having a grand old time. Maree’s dreams were fulfilled.
On our return to the arboretum (by car) in 2026, the paddle of platypus were still feeding around the lake, and we decided to wander further afield. We stopped for lunch on a bank of the Don. While we quietly ate our sandwiches, a platypus popped his head up out of the water in front of us, and looked us straight in the eye. Magic.
—ooOOoo—
On our 2026 return we spent some time with Shazz and Angry on a couple of beautiful days in Hobart. We really didn’t expect it to be the last time we saw Shazz. But only a few weeks later, we were back for her memorial service: she was dearly loved by Angry, by her beautiful family, and by so many friends.
We count ourselves blessed to be among those friends, and miss her desperately. To Shazz!
