Day 41 - Melbourne, Victoria to Arthur River, Tasmania - 337km

I realised after looking at my beaten and dirty motorcycle that I have been riding around Australia for over two years with my first day being December 25th 2012. Whenever I finally make it home she will need a rebuild from the ground up. Accompanying me on the equally dirty but less beat up Husky was the man who started it all for me, my father John. He taught me how to ride and brought me racing around the US through the 80's and 90's. I figured a trip to Tasmania would be a good way to start returning the favour.

We drove from Angaston to Adelaide, flew from Adelaide to Melbourne and took the overnight ferry across the Bass Strait to Devonport, Tasmania. The gentle rocking of the ferry and the engine noise reminded me of working offshore on the rigs and put me to sleep immediately. After arriving in Devonport at 6AM we rode west along the rocky north coastline until I took my standard wrong turn. With a little luck this led us to some of the best riding of the day on dirt roads through the mountains with deep washouts, hillclimbs and plant life almost completely enclosing the road in places. At one point the entire road was covered with thick green moss and the ferns brushed our helmet and both shoulders as we rode through. By the time we got back to the coast it was time for lunch and we found a little seafood shack on the ocean surrounded by old fishing boats. We each had crumbed Gumby (Fish I think?) which was excellent then filled up on prawns and chips. We kept moving NW and stopped at the turnoff to the Van Diemen's Land Companies Woolnorth property. This was a massive sheep ranch that ultimately failed and managed to do a lot of damage to the native population and species. A little pub caught our eye in Marrawah because it was one of the only buildings in town so we stopped for a beer and rubbed shoulders with the locals. The final 15min of our ride was littered with caution signs for Wombats, Wallabies and Tasmanian Devils.

The room we had booked turned out to be a cabin with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a great view of the Arthur River running into the ocean. We ate a local hamburger, made plans for the next day and started to question if we had enough fuel to make it to the next town ~200km away. There were no fuel stations in Arthur River but luckily the guy who rented us the cabin had half his garage full of fuel cans to put in his boat. We bought 10 litres off him and he helped us siphon it into the bikes with minimal spillage. It was still light out when I climbed into bed at 9:30PM. We must be pretty far South.