A long time between posts!
I’ll wind the clock back to Derby! Mountain biking mecca of North East Tasmania.
Day 1, mid afternoon arrival, we decided on a ride called Kings Wall, an 8km mostly downhill “difficult” classed ride. A reasonable ease-in after not riding much through winter due to the wind and rains.
The second day we tackled The Blue Derby!
A 21 km ride to the Weldborough pub, classed as “more difficult”. A group of E-bike riders behind us – but no motors for us!
I was hungry after a great ride, so eagerly ordered a beer and chicken parmi. BIG mistake, see, we were only halfway through! After gutsing down lunch, back on the the shuttle and into a decent climb at the start on another 17km down Atlas and then a blur of other awesome tracks to get back to Derby before dark. We hit the local pub for another feed!
Day three we shuttled and rode various Derby trails, a little sore from the previous day this limited the amount of uphill. We were lucky to pick the weather as it was torrential the week before – the creek had washed out most of the trail ends and a large landslide had taken out two tracks on the other side of the valley. The next week (2nd of my holidays) was terrible too!
Ev took this one for my boss …
Day four was beautiful and another full day of riding local trails and walking up the river.
On our way home we stopped by Mt Paris Dam (shots which I’ve yet to edit), then the Blue Tiers BIG tree walk …
And that’s not the big one … the track passed through one of the best and largest Man Fern forest I’ve ever seen!
This is the BIG one, an old Bluegum, one of the tallest flowering plants in the world, sadly there aren’t many left this size in Tasmania.
We drove home via Tasmania’s East Coast, with miles of lovely, unspoilt empty beaches.
I’ve been enjoying moments like these between the busyness of work and windows in the weather, off social media, blogging and into life, earlier nights and rest, but also working on an ongoing photography and design project which will involve an album cover – how could I say no? … but more on that later. One day 😉
These photos were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Thanks for dropping by, time for bed!
TasView 
Quite a wild ride! The huge trees and ferns are phenomenal! Is that a dinosaur peeking through the trees? 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Could be a Tassie Tiger Morgaine! It was a great little holiday, very sore legs for a few days after but so worth it 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is clear to see that you enjoyed the ride Tone ! That makes it nice for us readers to continue following the story. Stunning trees there, and huge !
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Marc, it was so much fun, different styles and variety of tracks compared to the one’s around home. Some new local one’s are being built, can’t wait to ride and share them 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos, Tone! The forest is so beautiful, I have never seen anything like it. You are getting lots of exercise! It seems like all of the mud on your bike would mess up the gears. Be well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the comment John, I took lots of video too but yet to edit that, I just haven’t felt like sitting behind a computer lately, I’d rather be enjoying the outdoors 😀 My bike had a big expensive service before we left … an unexpected problem with the front axle/hub added $$$, and now I have a ding in my rear rim after Derby, it can be an expensive hobby
Sticks can be a bigger immediate problem than mud but the bike gets a good wash and lube after every ride!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve had that happen to me where a stick gets jammed in the wheels or elsewhere, not good! Makes you fall and go splat! It’s better to get out there instead of looking at a screen, I had a bike ride today, and it was 66F. You mentioned that there was a group of e-bikers, do those folks stick together and stay away from the non-powered bikers? What a click!
LikeLike
What a beautiful place you live in, Tone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Anneli, such a diverse little island, there’s so many varied surprise pockets to explore 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
What an awesome ride in one of the most amazing places on the planet! I remember the Weldborough pub from a previous visit. It was definitely a pro-timber workers pub back then!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed 😀 looking forward to my next riding trip but no plans yet. There’s some new local tracks that should be open soon to explore but it’s always great to get on different trails. Most of Derby has embraced the onslaught of mountain bikers but there is one pub in Derby who’s owner is apparently not very happy. We didn’t visit that establishment.
LikeLike
Ah, looks like you had a great time away! Love the fern forest … and those big trees (even the one that is not the biggest, looks pretty big to me)! And I will always look twice at a lovely beach like the one you showed here!
LikeLike
Wow, what an amazing adventure. And fabulous photos. Thanks for sharing it with us!!
LikeLike
WOW! Spectacular route and the trees are something indescribable in words… the pictures are gorgeous!😍😍
LikeLike