A planned 500km ride down Tasmania from Devonport to Hobart turned into something different — and arguably better — when a writer for Australian Geographic abandoned the route, split from her riding partner and improvised her way to the capital over seven days.
The original plan was ambitious: the Tasmanian Trail, nearly 500km of gravel, fire trail and farm track running down the island's spine, self-supported with a tent and four nights camping in remote high country. The trip was also a recovery mission — the rider had recently undergone major surgery after a frightening false cancer scare, and the ride was her way back to fitness.
Day one set the tone. Riding steel gravel bikes weighing over 30kg fully loaded, the pair rolled off the overnight ferry from Geelong, climbed past apple orchards and the Spreyton Cider Co factory, and feasted on wild blackberries near Sheffield, the town famous for its murals and an honesty-box ice-cream shop. Then came Railton, home of eccentric topiary (a topiary octopus at the petrol station, a locomotive, bears) and the legend of Norman Sykes, a sock-less post-war hermit whose bequest of 40 acres made the local mountain bike trails possible. Near Deloraine the wheels came off the plan: partner disagreements over the steep climbs into the Great Western Tiers ended with the writer rolling east alone towards Launceston, 33km of road to invent a new itinerary.
The pivot produced some of the trip's best moments. Ditching ten kilograms of camping gear mysteriously fixed the bike's wobble. There was a Paul Kelly show at Launceston's Red Hot Summer Festival thanks to a friend's spare ticket, a lift down the Midlands Highway, and a quiet back-road finish through Richmond — sleeping in converted stables at the Richmond Arms Hotel in a room called The Convict — and New Norfolk, with black swans pacing the Derwent and a pint attempted under a taxidermied bear at the historic Bush Inn. Hobart arrived in steady rain via the disused rail corridor of the intercity cycleway, car-free almost to the city centre. Total: about 250km, half the plan, and no regrets.
For travellers, the takeaway is that northern and eastern Tasmania's quieter backroads — Sheffield, Railton, Deloraine, Richmond, New Norfolk — reward slow, self-guided trips even when the headline route doesn't happen. The trail itself is rideable, but the high-country sections demand serious fitness, proper tools and a partner you've actually tested on multi-day trips. And if a plan collapses mid-trip, Launceston, the Tamar valley and the Derwent corridor offer a very soft landing.
