Tasmanian Trail MTB Ride 2014: Day 4 Miena to Ouse

"Down hill" day today as we drop off the edge of the central highlands and make our way to Ouse.
Today started with our customary 8:00am start (nearly missed it trying to get day 3 blog done) and we left the Great Lake Hotel refreshed for a "rest day" ride to Ouse. We set off down the gravel Marlborough Highway which was fairly flat until the edge of the central plateau then the road descended and we set a cracking pace I reached 60kph on gravel at one stage. The air was cool so I wore my roadie sleeves I bought just before the ride which worked a treat except they were a little big in the bicep area so obviously it was a manufacturing fault and not that I need to work out my upper body a bit more. We followed the highway down into Bronte Park which seemed like only 10 minutes we got there that quick. We grabbed a bite to eat and a drink before setting off down the highway again.

Heading out down the Marlborough Highway

The view over the side of the valley

Entering Bronte

Refuel

The Marlborough Highway then meets the Lyell Highway and we were on sealed road again but only for a short while as we slipped off down Victoria Valley Road and back onto gravel. This road threads it's way between several lakes and through a little cluster of shacks called Dee. With a undulating course we had good pace and the road eventually breaks out into farmland and then back into light bush again before we leave the main road and head down a small gravel road sign posted Victoria Falls and past a washed out bridge and across the creek ford next to it and after we climbed back up the other side of the bank we were rewarded with and awesome flowing dirt fire trail that for once I could hold my own out in front. This trail continued and descended into a little more rocky trail before coming to a boom gate around a blind corner at about 10km from the main road. Dale had made us aware of this so it would be wise to check your speed when getting that far in as the gate is pretty solid and there is no going over or around it at speed. Back to reality and we were on the slightly more mundane Lines Tier gravel road, still the was a lot of descent to be had and the pace was hot at times and we made good time to and met up with Victoria Valley Road again. This then took us finally down to Ouse where we stopped and had a feed at the Ouse Road House and then moved on down the street to the Lachlan Hotel where most of us would be spending the night. We had a few drinks in the bar and then an excellent dinner in the restaurant before calling it a night. Didn't seem like a big day but we still managed over 83km (we did average over 22kph) and even though it was a down hill day we still climbed 944 meters but we descended a whopping 1915 meters Tomorrow the plan is to head to New Norfolk but the weather is not looking promising but we will see.