A very big adventure on a fairly small island

Words - James Raison
Images - Emma Flukes @oneflukeshot

Australia’s newest, and quietest, Bikepacking event the Tassie Gift kicks off on Friday 8 November. With numbers similar to the SIlk Road Mountain Race, it promises to be brutal and beautiful in equal measure.

So what the heck is the Tassie Gift, and why are you only just hearing about it? Let’s dive in!

ABOUT

By the numbers:

Depart: Hobart, Friday 8 November
Distance: 1,772 km
Ascending: 31,370 m
Dot watch the event on Maprogress

To understand the event, one must first understand its head “aggregator” Emma Flukes who compiled the route with the help of other intrepid Taswegian cyclists. Tassie Gift is meant literally. Tasmania is a gift to the adventure cyclist, and Emma wants it to be ownerless and is quick to shrug off any credit. To use her words; “I’d love to see events like this adopt a life of their own and I believe their profile (or lack thereof) should be influenced by the what, not the who”. She might have drawn up the final route and slapped a date on, she doesn’t want it to be considered hers. The only personal gain for the designers will be riding it themselves and enjoying the knowledge that others will ride it too.

Hold your thanks, praise, and money because the ticket to entry is a desire for adventure and solemn promise to love and respect Tasmania.

As Emma puts it;

“The Gift is not a gravel ride. It is not a touring route. It does not profess to be a mountain bikers’ haven, nor a FKT friendly time trial experiment. It is a tough, gritty, at times ugly jigsaw puzzle pieced together through a labour of love that started from scratch: targeting the very best secrets this little island has locked away; speaking with people who knew the land; and finding the roads, trails, goat tracks and not-tracks that would allow these to be wrangled into a loop format. It’s undergone countless iterations and expansions that have at times necessitated some pretty mercenary pruning. The route showcases the enormous diversity Tassie has to offer yet barely scratches the surface. A dating profile, if you like.”

Aggregator in chief Emma Flukes is badass

Tassie Gift belongs on the same philosophical spectrum as Race to the Rock (RTTR). Subtract the brand clout of Curve, and the social capital of the legendary Sarah Hammond/Jesse Carlsson duo, and you’ve arrived. Like RTTR, the course was created out of the desire to both ride it, and share it. These events tend to emerge because the introverted and adventurous breed that are attracted to ultra bikepacking want to spread their enjoyment to others.

With that in mind, there’s not much formal organisation to the Tassie gift. It’s not a race, there’s no prizes, and it’s likely riders will spend their time alone. The pre-race instructions are basic:

“Tassie Gift is a GPS route only. Anyone can ride it at any time, although some times are safer than others. The date associated with this ride is simply an arbitrary time that someone has chosen to embark on the route. Should you choose to also ride the same route at the same time, you might bump into each other. You might not! The route is entirely unsupported and unsanctioned. There is no guarantee it is passable at any given time. No insurance or assistance is provided. You are entirely responsible for your own safety. Planning and due diligence is imperative. Should you choose to ride this route, you do so entirely at your own risk.”

Yes, you might get snowed on and then go swimming on the same ride

WHAT RIDERS WILL FACE

The course begins in Hobart and immediately goes up Mt Wellington - the hard way - before traversing through the Derwent Valley. It makes a figure 8, heading far to the North West via the Cradle Mountain region. It heads down the state along the West Coast and through the Derwent Valley again then up to St Helens and North East. It tracks back down the East Coast and through the Midlands before finishing back down in Hobart.

“The state has an astonishing depth of adventure playground available, partly due to the extremely “three-dimensional” nature of the terrain, but also due to the elaborate network of trails laid down by the forestry, Hydro, and mining industry. The historical activity of industry has left some ugly scars across the landscape, but it’s important to remember that it’s the very existence of these industries that enables access to some of the more remote locations locked up in old growth forest and alpine terrain. And let’s talk about that terrain. This little afterthought of an island so often excluded from maps of Australia is home to the world’s largest areas of dolerite. It also boasts the tallest sea cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere, and the cleanest air in the world at Cape Grim on the northwest coast. The vast majority of Australia’s glaciated landscape is found in the Tassie southwest and Central Plateau”

Riders can expect every type of terrain and some substantial walks. Follow Emma on Instagram for long enough and you’ll see that there’s no such thing as impassable. The metres ascending is simply massive, on-par with the Silk Road Mountain Race albeit at lower altitude. Supplies will certainly be a challenge with the race spending long kms in isolated areas that will be dispatched at a sedate pace thanks to all the climbing. Mobile phone coverage will be lost for long stretches too, so social isolation will kick in at several points.

“Every kilometer of the Gift exists for a very specific reason. Despite what you may think when faced with seemingly impenetrable rainforest or vast expanse of alpine scrub with no hint of a track, there are no accidents in the Gift. It’s cooler to pretend I just scrawled out a route on a napkin at the pub one night, but in reality it’s had the intense scrutiny that comes about when a Type A personality is set loose with maps and an intense desire to roam. Almost 20% of the state is World Heritage Area, and this shows by just how isolated some stretches are. The furthest distance between resupply on route is a relatively modest 220km (it was 330 and *proper slow* before I decided that was a bit too feral). Of course, that’s assuming you hit the opening hours of the single quirky country store slash servo slash town hall slash someone’s house. I know a lot of people will find it difficult to fathom how those sort of distances are possible for an island that’s just 365km in length, but then the route doesn’t exactly fire you down the main highway.”

Tasmania in November can throw every type of weather at riders from snow, to flooding, and savage bushfires. The upcoming fire season is expected to be the worst in recorded history for some added tension. Tasmania always delivers incredible, dramatic environs. A route compiled by local experts to include all of their favourite areas will be something truly mindblowing.

“Without giving too much away, here are a couple of my personal favourite route quirks (Easter Eggs, as I affectionately call them):

On one occasion, riders will leave the Central Plateau following an old stock route built by convicts more than two centuries ago. Historically this was the major transport route over the Central Plateau to Hobart. There are still signs of convict stonework lower down, but up near the plateau the track has been completely reclaimed by alpine vegetation. Let’s just say getting across this is an interesting exercise in patience.

Climies Track, which riders will travel from north to south on the West Coast, is a popular 4WD track over summer. It’s known as a vehicle destroyer, and the cavernous swimming pools and cliffs gouged out of the loamy sand by struggling vehicles speak volumes. Muscling a laden bicycle through a destroyed 4WD track might not sound like everyone’s idea of fun, but like most things in Tassie, it’s something you have to see to understand. To the west you’re fronted with an endless expanse of ocean home to the famous Roaring Forties and 18+m swells, the next closest land almost 10,000km away in South Africa. To the east, the primeval Heemskirk range looms out of buttongrass plains like some kind of enormous sleeping dinosaur. To ride, it’s slow and physically taxing. But if you get it, you’ll really, really get it.”

FOLLOW IT, OR RIDE AT YOUR LEISURE

You can dot watch Tassie Gift with the Maprogress clock already counting down.

You can follow along the Tassie Gift’s social medias.

An event with a handful of entrants, with intentionally quiet promotion might not draw much interest but I wanted to get more eyeballs on it to promote the route. That’s the main goal of the event and it’d be great to see it become a bikepacking destination. An extraordinary amount of dedication is needed to piece this all together.

Kudos to the designers and the riders. We’ll be watching along and hoping a few more people join up in 2020.