Day 312, Thursday, 4 February, 2010

Distance travelled – 94.4 km
Avg speed – 18.4 kph
Max speed – 52.9 kph

Tarraleah to New Norfolk

Before we left this morning we checked with the Tasmanian Fire Service on the status of the Ouse fire. Their advice was that it was safe to travel on the Lyell Highway but we should be ‘extra cautious’ as fire trucks and large machinery would be using and working beside the highway. We, therefore, expected a very busy road so we were surprised to discover that the edge of the fire was well away from the highway and whilst we travelled between Tarraleah and Ouse we saw no fire fighting vehicles on the highway. Being on bicycles we were very grateful to find the situation was not as bad and as busy as we had been led to expect.

As we have cycled through South Australia and Victoria there has been a lot of media comment regarding advice and warnings from the authorities regarding the status of various fires. The 2009 Victorian fires have made everyone more fire conscious but today we did wonder if the TFS operator had over stated the situation along the highway.

Some very excellent long downhill runs today and we made good time to Ouse, Hamilton and eventually New Norfolk. One of the highlights today was to observe a platypus as we crossed the bridge into Hamilton where we stopped for a most enjoyable lunch.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

The Ouse bushfire

Just outside Ouse

Climbing out of Hamilton #1

Climbing out of Hamilton #2

Near Gretna

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