Sydney times: The Epic Tassie Ride

This January my dad and I joined 900 crazy-fit individuals to ride bikes along the north east coast of Tasmania, from Launceston to Hobart. Not my standard adventure, I was recruited when mum decided that she didn't want to go through the pain of training. I didn't either, but that didn't stop me. I turned up ridiculously unprepared, and paid for it the whole way!

The aim was to cover about 450km in 9 days, cycling over rainforest passes, along pristine beaches and through verdant fields. The pristine beaches arc'd like gulls in the salty breeze. The verdant fields shimmered in the hot summer sun. When we finally got to their lofty heights, the rainforest passes were cloaked in low fog, spitting rain and temperatures of less than 10 degrees. It really was four seasons in a week, and more extreme ones than we see here in Sydney.

The most striking thing about Tasmania for me, apart from the incredible natural beauty, was the connection they seem to have with their past. They seem to value their heritage more than we do here in Sydney. I'm not sure if it's because of the tourist dollars it brings (or because they don't have the economy to replace charming old infrastrcuture with shiny steel new stuff), but they seem to conserve, reuse and appreciate old buildings, roads, bridges which we would just replace. I guess it's hard for us here in Sydney to keep those old bridges that used to transfer 100 horses if we now need to transport 100 000 cars.....but it was really nice to spend some time in a place where things move more slowly, there are smaller spaces but more wilderness, fewer people but more conversation.

As for the riding - it was the toughest thing I've ever done!!! Hills like that.....enough said.