Monday 16th February Day 9 20150216

Day 9 – my departure from Tasmania and my return home. Naturally, as I had to be awake early, I woke at 3:30 and then 4:25, five minutes before the alarm went off. I was up early, drank the last of the breakfast drink I had with me, packed, showered and dressed. By 5:15 I was ready and checked (and doubled-checked) the room to ensure nothing was left behind. It took three trips down to take everything to the front door, the only entrance to use at this time of the day. After checking again that I had everything, I returned my key to the reception desk (no-one on at this time, but there were cleaners around). I took all outside, then had to make three trips to get everything to SUZI. I carefully fastened everything on, logged the odometer, then started her to warm her up while I fastened jacket, gloves and helmet on. It was easy to get out and less than two minutes later I was on the freeway to Devonport. At this time of the morning there was little traffic so I was in Devonport quickly. However, the freeway exit I took told me which way to the city centre, but not where the ferry terminal was. I rode slowly into town but no signs. I turned left to follow the river and … there was The Spirit of Tasmania visible – but on the other side of the river. After a quick U-turn and then a run south beside the river, I spied signs to the ferry. Great. Information when I no longer needed it. I followed the signs (and the traffic) down to the terminal, entered, got my tickets and then got directed into the “light-pole lane” – just me and SUZI. Right to the head of the queue. Other bikes came later, but they came in an empty traffic lane. We all chatted (the car next to me was from, yes, Queensland!) and by not long after 6:40 all the vehicles had unloaded. The vehicle loadmaster in the park then told us we were good to go. I had started SUZI as soon as he walked over so I went first. I rode on to the ship (G3) and then had to stop and turn as I was going to be loaded right at the rear. I stopped, grabbed the tank bag and left SUZI unlocked and in gear, handlebars just over he lashing points. I went straight up to Deck 7, but found that there were very few on the ship already, so moved everything up to the table at the port stern position on Deck 9. I settled in, looked around and got a pie for breakfast (on Deck 7, a couple recognised me from the Wineglass Bay lookout). The ship sailed early – at 8:30 she started moving and by 8:45 she had turned in the river and was on her way out. I took some photos and returned to my place. Not long after, I was greeted by Jeremy (Richard Milne’s son), his sister Candace and her family. By a real quirk of fate, we had all independently booked our passage and then were on the same voyage. We chatted, the children became restless and soon it was just Jeremy and me. The family popped back every so often and we chatted a little about their trip over to Perth. Despite being a nine-hour trip, the time went fairly quickly. At just before 6 the ship docked and we were called down. I got everything ready, made sure all was present and correct and waited for a lane to be free to drive off. And so I did – only to realise that I had left my sunglasses behind, but I think they were on the packs – so they would have fallen off coming across the gridded exit, and been crushed by the following cars and caravans. And so I drove into the lowering sun with no sunglasses. The traffic was very heavy and so it took over half an hour to get to Westgate. After that it was a reasonable run to the other side of the bridge and then a good run home. I rode in, dismounted, parked SUZI and started to unpack. Tassie trip over! Summary 1581 km. Bridport, Pyengana, Bicheno, Lake St Clair, Waratah, Ulverstone for accommodation. SUZI – no problems and all luggage items used and useful. Mislaid – soap container, sun glasses. Lot of fun, interesting riding moments, met most of Queensland’s population on holidays in Tassie. Very slow touring compared to in DOUG, but meet many people and find out more information.