Good morning from Sunny Swansea Tas. We have now been in Tassie for four days. We enjoyed a smooth day trip across Bass Straight and after a very quick reconnaissance of Devonport, rode to Port Sorrell where we camped the night. It was only after pitching the tent, unpacking everything and trying to cook dinner we remembered the boat operators had confiscated our metho and we had no fuel for the trusty Trangia. Fortunately our neighbours Natalie and Brad loaned us their stove and we ate well.
On Christmas eve we left Port Sorrell late after enjoying brunch at the bakery and rode east along Tasman Hwy toward Scottsdale. Tasman Hwy is a great motorcycle road even when ridden on an overloaded BMW.
The Lavender farm was interesting in the few minutes before closing time, then we rolled into Scottsdale.
The bloke at the BP servo directed us to the free campsite on the edge of town and we settled in between a couple of motor homes for the best Christmas we've had for a while.
Over the next two nights we enjoyed good company, good food, much help from our RV equipped friends, wallaby and platypus watching and even Christmas cake delivered by the lady from the neighboring B&B!
It was hard to leave Scottsdale but Sandra wants to see the yachts sail into Hobart so away we went again heading east.
We detoured up into the bush and visited Ralph's Falls. The road was slow with the loaded R1200GS but not too bad and the falls were flowing quietly - a great view.
Continuing along the Tasman Hwy we eventually reaches Bicheno and tucked into a serving of the freshest oysters ever. We loaded up with scallops and left windy Bicheno behind us, the motorcycle museum can wait for another day.
Travelling south we managed to squeeze our tent into a caravan park at Swansea from where I write this blog. I'm not really attracted to holiday parks but the lovely Sandra was keen to stop near a shower so here we are.
The plan now is to ride into Hobart fairly soon and beat the Sydney-Hobart yachts to the line.