How many Grannies ride 900 km to see their granddaughter? Not too many I suspect, but yesterday we would finally arrive at my eldest son’s place in Acton Park, on the eastern shore of Hobart.

We left Port Arthur heading towards Dunalley, retracing our previous day heading in. There we would take a different route towards Hobart.

The air was still, with the forecast NE winds not yet being felt.

We had an excellent ride out to Eaglehawk Neck with minimal traffic. There Tony and I parted ways to tackle the climb out.

As we paid for dinner the previous evening a local lady, Audrey, upon discovering our ride around Tasmania, had exclaimed ‘but how will you get to the top of Eaglehawk Neck’? ‘It goes up like this’ indicating steepness with her hand.

Tony chose to head straight up the highway and I chose to climb Pirates Bay Drive to the lookout. My way was longer with a steady gradient of 6-8 % whereas Tony’s way was up to 10%. We both made it ok and met at the Tasman Lookout for a last look over the Peninsula.

The coffee van guy was there setting up but would not sell us a coffee for another 30 minutes so we were not waiting and pushed on, as todays ride was undulating.

We rode straight on to Murdunna to stop at the roadside house for some breakfast.

As we finished our breakfast and headed off, the first of the NE breeze was noted. At Dunalley we turned off the Arthur Highway heading towards Carlton River.

Fulham Rd followed the coast in a westerly direction then bearing north westerly. Our next stop was Carlton Beach where we stopped to visit my cousin Phil P and his wife Marcia. Phil has been kept very busy in supposed retirement converting bikes to electric. His own bike has ‘incredible speed’ capacity. He converts around 5 bikes per week.

Leaving Carlton Beach our next stop was to my Uncle Stuart and Aunt Janine who live in Lewisham up the top of a very steep hill (21%). I walked that bit!

I had not seen either for around 15 years since my Nan’s funeral and that was far too long a gap. I had been a junior bridesmaid at their wedding in 1972 when I was 10.

We sat outside where they have amazing views, these photos not doing it justice. The gaps show the two causeways we will shortly ride across.

I think next visit we will drive up to their house.

Leaving their home we headed towards Forcett and Sorell. The Arthur Highway was very busy by now and quite narrow, and we just put our heads down and concentrated on the slight verge.

From Sorell there are two causeways to cross, and fortunately both have dual pathways keeping us separated from the fast traffic.

We skirted around the Hobart airport boundary, through Seven Mile Beach, up a final hill and then we arrived at our destination. Granny arrived to a lovely hug from Sienna.

Today has been our one and only scheduled day off the bike. A busy day that included coffee at a cafe, waterfall walk at Strickland Falls, weeding the garden, covering fruit trees and playing with Sienna.