Bike Touring East Tassie - bus travel to Triabunna

19 Jan 2023

I was woken up in the middle of the night by some loud sniffing again, but this time I had already hidden my food bag in a new friend's car. So I didn't stay awake for too long. I will definitely need to get some large ziplock bags as an extra layer between my food and my pannier bags when I go through Kingston today.

I got ready pretty quickly this morning, and then lazed around waiting for my new camp friend with my food bag in his car to wake up, so I could grab it and head off. I finally got going around 10:30am, and headed into Kingston since it would be a nicer ride than going into Hobart. I'd been told that I could put a bike on a tassielink bus between Kingston and Hobart, but couldn't pre-book.

In Kingston I stocked up on groceries, got a greencard for a discounted bus fare, and walked past a cafe that has a 'Signature Rose Latte'. Now, I love anything rose-flavoured (maybe a bit cliché, since my last name is Rose in polish, after all) so I was keen to give it a try for 5.50. I took a couple of sips and it tasted delicious but... I was totally expecting there to be coffee in it and have a mix of coffee and rose flavours! So I was a bit surprised, especially since it was the same price as coffee. But I'm not really sure how much rosewater or rose syrup or whatever they used is. I was a bit surprised with the price once I realised it lacked the great brown bean, but it was lovely to try once. I think I'll be looking into how to make that myself when I get home!

I got to the bus stop early and prepared my bike. The first Tassielink bus said there wasn't enough space for it since so many people were already on it, so I'd need to wait for the next one. This made me a bit nervous since now I HAD to get onto the next one or I'd miss the bus to Triabunna from Hobart. I didn't want to gamble with whether I'd get an uber or taxi large enough for my bike if I ordered one. Luckily, when the next bus came 50 minutes later, there was barely anyone on it and the driver happily let my bike on, and didn't even charge me for it!

In Hobart, I found a macpac and got a freeze-dried outdoor gourmet butter chicken so I wouldn't need to do any soapy washing up on Maria Island for dinner, and could just boil water. I ate my way through Liverpool street for lunch, before going to the bus stop for my Triabunna bus. As we got further towards the east coast, the route became more and more scenic and it was lovely to watch.

Triabunna

I arrived in Triabunna and stayed in the Spring Bay Hotel backyard, as it was too late for a ferry to Maria Island. I met a muralist who taught me a bit about caravans and how he built up his business, and then he even gave me some pecorino to go with my lentil pasta dinner! I also met an American backpacker who was going to Maria Island the next day. He'd been travelling for 2.5 years and was soon going to be going to Southeast Asia to travel too.