Day 4: Strahan to Bronte Park
Posted by Melissa on | March 9, 2008
MC 132kms, BB 157kms
Goodbye busy touristy Strahan. We climb up and out, ascending for 13-kilometres through heavily timbered country to take in great views from mountain lookouts before descending into Queenstown. Famous for its ‘moonscape’ landscape that was created by years of copper mining, Queenstown has more trees that I remember when I went there in the nineties. The fellas try out the town ‘velodrome’, a sealed track that encircles the local (gravel) footy oval, before we head out of town. The climb out of Queenstown is a fairly steep and winding 6-kilometre road with great views of the pinks, yellows and greys of the surrounding exposed hills. There’s another 40 kilometres before lunch so we line up and draft efficiently behind the superior power and muscular legs of locals Dash and Simon, all the way to a sunny spot where Sam awaits us at Lake Burbury.
Our task this afternoon is to conquer Mount Arrowsmith. It is a universal truth of cycling that the only way to climb a hill is at your own pace. There is a natural hierarchy when the altitude increases, with part of the group speeding up and the rest settling in for a slow climb. My climb up this formidable and seemingly never ending incline is indeed slow, but rewarded with glimpses of the magnificent Frenchman’s Cap along the way and the rusty colours of high-altitude grassy meadows. At the top, triumphant, we eat lollies and then roll towards our new home in Bronte Park. The final leg takes us through Derwent Bridge where walkers of the Overland Track (Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair) emerge, and past busy echidna. We are in alpine fisherman country (a strange breed that we observe over dinner).
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