Sheffield Steamfest

Being a slow learner we (I) decided to take another shortcut…which wasn’t, didn’t matter as the main road was very very scenic anyway.

Arriving at Sheffield we couldn’t get accommodation anywhere as we had to be  self contained, we managed to do a dodgy deal with a local and camped stealth behind a house….perfect.

Wandering into town there were 5 steam engines at the pub, glamour old girls of yesteryear puffing away when suddenly one popped and started spraying steam and hot water out.

 

The girl standing on the steam engine bailed off quicker than a thieving magpie and a young fello piled on just as quick steering the machine away from the pub and into the carpark, them was a scurry of activity and they cleared out everyone from the rear bar covered area in case it let go completely.

The young fello cranked the engine up to use the energy to try and deplete the now fully fired and furiously burning boiler as it was essentially turbo charging itself.

The quick action of one of the steam engine drivers with a bottle of C02 from the pub and he quickly poked the gas bottle pointing into the burner to try and extinguish the fire to drop the heat.

This worked very well but alas it built up considerable heat so took 20 odd minutes more to stop it fizzing at the seam.

They then towed (pushed with another steamy) back to the show grounds for repair.

For a few minutes it looked nutcase but the reality is these guys seriously knew what they were doing and took care of it quickly, full marks to all.

The following day at the steamfest event we had a chat to the fella again and he said it was being repaired, we also saw ol mate with the 5/8 Landy and many more.

Hot dogs, chips, iced coffee and some donuts we were eating very well with no salad in sight …some days ya just get it right.

Leven Canyon

 

Leven Canyon, pretty cool looking place so we headed there before doing the Sheffield Steamfest.

Trying to outsmart the GPS we took a road which involved a wee back track, turns out the GPS knew better in this case.

Our new track led us through forestry roads etc and we came upon a massive yellow gate that was locked, the main road was literally on the other side, I checked out an ATV track which looked doable ….I then went to the gate and pushed it to find there was no lock and it swung open…woohoo.

Arriving at camp it was a very nice place, again we got a perfect spot secluded and quiet, something we have come to treasure.

The short walk to the lookout provided the aftys entertainment, we had planned to do the second Canyon floor walk the next day.

Canyon floor walk to Devils Elbow, 1.5 hours return, we weren’t really paying attention and kinda walked past the Elbow and started climbing…literally with 3 sets of ladders to start with.

After a considerable while we checked the map to find we had blazed past the Devils Elbow and were well on our way to Dukes Lookout.

We decided to carry on up, it was a very grunty climb with all fours being common theme.

Both Ellen and I got soaked from sweat as it was quite humid but it was really cool at the lookout.

Back to camp to pack down and head to Sheffield to the Steamfest.    

             

 

 

Mt McCaw, Kelly Basin Road and Pillinger

Saying goodbyes we headed off to Strahan, Mt McCaw on good advice from Phil, our mission took us to Queenstown again.

This time, no weather bomb, nice and warm and even spectacular views this time as last time it was like riding inside a Tupperware container.

Kelly Basin Road, the most southern part you can ride to from Queenstown, it is simply a stunning area.

Arriving at our camp we set up in a great spot, the nights were cold and again the fire kept spirits up along with sky TV with bright clear nights.

Mt Mc Caw, 4WD only for most of it and it takes you right into the top of the world, reaching the end of the road we had been advised to walk it if possible as it is very steep.

The Ranger was right, the bike would have struggled back up, we could have done it but to risk damage etc the 570m we walked it, the walking track starts from there and is only 500 m long BUT has a 300 m vertical drop including ladders and chains to hang onto.

Since neither of us bought our Re Bull free climbing insane gear we gave it a miss.     

Making our way back out to the road we hit it left to the end of the valley to the Bird River track out to Pillinger.

A historic site it was a harbour and port in its ha day with 1000 residents, now mum nature has reclaimed it with vigor and only a few of the remains still stand as well as some boilers.

On completion of our walk we were buggered, with ½ hour to go we had both run outa puff having already done Mt McCaw, Skippy was a great sight and we returned to camp stopping to get fire along the way.

Another nice evening and the following day we piled off to through the inland road through Tullah, just as we approached Tullah 3 HRD Vincent moto pulled in so we followed them to the car park enquiring as to what was going on, turned out it was a classic bike run with about 150 bikes.

Not every day you will see a Ural and 3 HRD Vincents. 

Our destination was Warratah as we hadn’t been there yet, again our local knowledge c/o Phil and Beth we ended up in a place called Magnet mine were we camped, we had the whole place to ourselves, it was so quiet and peaceful.

We did some off roading in Skippy before turning around to set up camp and make a fire.

 Next up before heading away from district was Philosopher Falls, a nice walk in and out with nothing too difficult.

 

 

   

 

 

Phil, Beth, Ella and Bon At Granville Harbour

 Burnie, home of Beth, Phil and Ella the golden retriever as well as 8 Alpaccas.

Arriving to their home we were instantly made welcome and shown to our accommodation, a unit in the end of the shed with everything needed to be super comfy (sound familiar)

Скиппи had vale parking, the workshop had a clean flat and dry floor which was a treat, we had a little list of things to do to Скиппи and Beths bike named Egor ...the big bad Ruski.

Most were only 5 minute jobs and the first one was not even on the list.

Phil had two hydraulic jacks and a flat floor, everything you need to make some slightly major adjustments, our sidecar wheel with a 3 degree inward camber chopping our tires out so the mish was to try and correct it….looking good so far.

With the right gear the job was done along with a few other maintenance and Russian fixits completed yet again flash as Michael Jackson.

Beth wanted to her amo case mounted so I offered to fabricate the mount for her as Phil had his hands full doing an 80k service on his Triumph 800 XCX adventure bike, I was the apprentice when required to assist, Beth accepted this and the resulting rack to hold it completed….nice rack Beth.

I had ordered a new tire for Skippy and the one I had ordered even tho a 4.00X19 so same size had a profile height of 45 mm less, this threw in a large curveball as we are 2wd so I ended up ordering the same tire we had which are slightly more knobbly which we really don’t get the use of because they wear much faster, doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.

The Duro on the left and the K37 on the right.

 Beth ran the same one I had bought on Egor so she took it off our hands as a spare.

From being busy to nothing, I had to wait for my new tire to arrive and Uralla did a quick send which was good as Beth and Phil had planned a ride for us and I got my new tire just in time…the original one was spent.

In between it was decided we would hit Cradle mountain and summit it, the morning (5.45am) was cool and slightly foggy, as we hit the mountain it was all clagged in however while walking and making progress the fog started to abate and the curtains previously drawn were pulled back to unveil the beauty.

We are from New Zealand so we partly qualified in beauty ….this was worthy and by the time we summited after climbing the rock faces it was completely clear….OMG what a view.   

Next up the local ride, we were misguided around the back of the district through secret little roads, dams, firebreaks and general awesome wee tracks with a whole lot of stunningness thrown in, again we would have no idea at all about 90% of these wee roads of entertainment so once more local knowledge overrules GPS hands down. 

We were invited to go to Granville harbour along with Bon another friend of theirs, we hadn’t been there yet so we accepted the invite to camp a few days in a local place with local knowledge and lots of grog and fud.   

What a wild place with the weather being awesome to awesomely bad but with a decent camp fire it was no problem we also made an escape to the tallest waterfall in Tassie, although not a hard walk was really social having a yarn along the way.

  Phil and I did some tracks he knew of, Phil on his Canam 500 quad and me on the XT250….ALL tracks out of there involved sand varying from firm, short patches to 300 meter long sinkholes one of which was so deep it took the little XT out of 2^nd gear, by the time I chopped into first meant I lost all my momentum as it was uphill, poor wee bike was nearly swallowed whole and I had to do a lot of paddling much to Phils amusement.

I am used to riding sand and the XT250 was mostly enough but the depth and fineness of the sand made it fun testing my skills to the limit, I was very happy to have ridden hundreds of km in Mongolia in this sort of stuff and also having a trials bike at home to practice, great experience leading to relaxed riding.

Having not ridden two wheels since about September 2023 I had to retrain mee ol brain a bit, just simple things like putting ya foot down when ya come to a stop LOL.

The last day we were there mum nature gave us a doozy of strong winds and very rough sea looking more like a washing machine mix than a harbour.

We could see from camp across the harbour and town with the small hill that was behind getting sprayed from the waves crashing heavily on the rocks and blown way into the air upwards to 50 to 60 meters, spectacular.  

Some random pics

All in all an absolute blast see countryside we would not have seen otherwise, our next mission Lake Dawin and Pillinger.