The other day Dianne and I decided to have a ride up the Derwent Valley. The wind was relatively light so we thought it would be good to get another 100 kilometres or so into our legs.
Here is the route we took:
You can see a 3-D video of our ride by going to this link. I've also got a new toy I'm trying to become familiar with, so I shot a bit of footage ...
As you saw if you watched the video, before crossing to the northern side of the river at Bridgwater we pulled into Goulds Lagoon to see what birds were about ...
The northern side of the Derwent River between Bridgewater and New Norfolk is slightly lumpy, but a bit more protected from the wind. And we've got a cycling holiday coming up that will involve quite a lot of climbing so we thought it would useful to choose that route on the way up and come back on the other side of the river. Just before crossing back over the Derwent at Bushy Park one goes through Rosegarland, where a contract shearer resides ...
This route is a lovely ride in all seasons. Spring of course is bustling with new life, summer means that the cherries are ripe and the hops and grapes getting bigger. In autumn, the colours change, the weather is the most stable and the grapes and hops are harvested so there is lots of agricultural activity up this way. Winter is the least attractive, but the views are still quite pretty across the hopfields at Bushy Park ...
Hops have been grown in Bushy Park since 1867, and the area is the largest producer of hops in Australia. There are a number of old buildings still standing, including this somewhat run-down dwelling that is apparently still occupied ...
For most of our ride the temperatures remained in single figures so were were glad to be well rugged-up. Here's Di coming to the top of Plenty Hill ...
... and we were glad to into Banjo's in New Norfolk after about 80 kilometres for a hot sandwich and a cup of coffee ...
On the way back along the bike track I persuaded Di to push our August Gran Fondo distance out by a few more kilometres by riding along through Battery Point and the Sandy Bay shopping precinct rather than going the short way home, so we both ended up with a 125+ kilometre ride. Not bad for late winter, eh!
