Day 13 Hobart Gordon River Dam Road and Salamanca Markets

I really wanted to do the Gordon river dam road. It appeared that to fit it in the only time was to get up and leave early. Warren and Logan were committed to coming with me so" I will wake you at 5.30" I told them. New ground I slept in. Warren woke Anna who woke me at 6. We were still away at 6.20 and it was cold enough not to be too upset at being a little late. The forecast said this was to be the only day so far that Tassie was in full sun. They lied. While it was not raining we did not see any sun until the second half of the return journey. We fuelled at New Norfolk and headed west.
This is an amazing place. The contrast in the country always takes your breath. The road was in excellent condition and great fun to ride. Because we had left so early we had it to ourselves. We made a couple of stops to get photos. Nothing prepared us for what we were to see at the end of the road. The dam is simple amazing. There was, what on the way back up felt like, a thousand steps down to the dam wall. Once you were down there you could walk across the wall. The workers have this frightening cable car system that transports them to the bottom of the wall with a number of stations on the way. We rode back to a photo shoot at the highest point in the road sign that told us it was 651m and the annual rainfall was 190 cm. My motorcycle map book said "come to Tassie and don't ride this road is like going to Disneyland and not having a photo with Goofy." They are right.
We stopped for some breakfast at Maydena about 11 and then meet the girls at the Salamanca markets. Here we caught up with another ex student Arunua. She was working in a coffee shop there and loving life.
By the time we got back our day was done. The girls went to the movies while us bloke made leftovers into tea and watched Evan Almighty on TV.