Australia's Tasmanian Trail

In Fairy Tale Land..

"The Tasmanian Trail is a long distance multi-purpose recreational trail extending from Devonport on the northern coast of Tasmania

to Dover in the south. It has a length of 480 kilometres.

The trail links up existing forestry roads and fire trails, country roads and occasionally crosses private land. Up to 90% of the Trail is on

some form of made road or track. It passes through a wide range of environments including some of the most beautiful and fascinating

areas of Tasmania. Through forests and farmlands, across highland plateaus and past the buildings and bridges of some of Australia's

oldest towns, the Tasmanian Trail provides a journey rich in cultural and natural heritage."

Taken from http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/recreation/tastrail.html

The information on the official Tassie National Parks website is misleading. The official blurb makes the route sound like a walk in the

park - well sign posted and a well documented book is available. Sadly, the route is poorly and incorrectly documented which is not

the impression the web site gives. The official book which should come with a Monty Python style disclaimer "all characters and way

points marked in this book are completely fictitious" is SHIT. It is out of date (2002) and much of the trail is cut up, disjointed and

dangerous. By dangerous I mean it is easy to get lost. There HAS to be a certain amount of responsibility here by National Parks as

people rely on these publications - after all $25 is a lot of money - you would hope the information contained therein is accurate.

So we cycled for a few days, got hopelessly lost in the heat and thought sod this - if we ever get to safety we'll hire a 4WD and get

pissed. Which we did. We chucked the bikes in the 4WD and had a ball touring the little island on the bottom of Aussie.

For those of you who have 3-4 weeks to spare the tasmanian trail would rock-but-here are some do's and don'ts.

Do buy this book: TASMANIAN TRAIL www.forestrytas.com.au

Don't: Rely on it. You must buy proper maps and go prepared for a hard trip. It is not in my opinion 'a family ride' at all. It is actually

fucking dangerous to market this trail as a family trail. My friend and I are well travelled bikers and have been fortunate to ride all over

the world so take my word for it - the website talks utter shit! Sorry to use bad language but I have to get the message through. Plan

the trip without the official book. Plan as if there were no book available. The distances in the book are totally inaccurate.

It is without doubt the worst book ever published. I recommend buying a copy and in front of the sales assistant in Devonport take a

match and set fire to it laughing maniacally. Right I'll stop now.

Do: Go prepared for a tough ride: Carry food, water, first aid kit (we saw brown snakes), spares, tools, sun block

Don't: Think the trail will be well marked - IT *SO* ISN'T