Travels around Tassie—Hobart to Derby

A couple of days after Christmas, some friends of our from Canberra joined Al and I in Hobart. The weather was miserable but with Sydney-to-Hobart yachts already arriving and the Taste of Tasmania having just started, there was still plenty of buzz in the city. The next day, after a pancake breakfast with mum, we said goodbye to the kids (who stayed with grandparents for the school holidays) and started our drive towards a small town called Derby, in the north-east of Tasmania.

Pancakes with the kids and Mum before leaving Hobart

The quickest way to Derby from Hobart is via the Midlands Highway up the centre of Tassie, however as it was our friends' (Esther and Tony) first trip to Tasmania, we decided it would be more interesting to go up the coastline... first stop: Devil's Corner winery to stretch the legs, taste some wine-tasting, and grab some lunch. This winery, apart from great wines, has a great view and is well set up for a light lunch. A great place to stretch the legs!

From there we soon turned off the road north to take a detour to Freycinet with the hope of seeing Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately the weather still wasn't clearing up meaning the view was somewhat hindered by fog and mist! However we enjoyed the walk to the lookout, and Freycinet itself certainly shows off Tasmania well.

We still had a couple of hours to travel to get to our overnight destination, so after a few happy snaps we clambered back in the cars to continue on our journey. We made a quick fuel and groceries stop in St Helens before then turning to go inland a bit towards Derby. This small-town with a population of just over 200 people was once a mining town with a population of 3,000... and is now home to Blue Derby, some of the best mountain biking trails in the world. In fact, it will host an international mountain bike event later this year! Needless to say, a visit to Derby has been on our wish-list since building of the trails commenced in 2015.

Our bikes in the store room at our accommodation in Derby

Blue Derby certainly didn't disappoint! We got up nice and early the next day to start exploring. Due to the expansive network and distances between trails, we organised shuttles (we used Vertigo MTB) that would take us to the start of each trail. There were a few sections requiring a climb—which worked in our favour as it slowed us down to be able to take in the incredible wilderness around us. It wasn't long before Al and I had reached capacity on our phone cameras! With all the trails it didn't take long before we were on the descent—and between the quality of the trails and the surrounding environment, it had to be the best gravity riding I've experienced.

The trails were so well-built and absolutely amazing... enough technical sections to keep things interesting, a few particularly technical sections to keep it challenging, and enough smooth, flowing sections to keep things incredibly fun! There were sections we chose to walk through, and other challenges that I couldn't believe I was able to do.

I think I had a ridiculous grin on my face for the entire time we were at Derby... which was only a day and a half, and no where near enough time to do the place justice. I think three days would have been perfect, however our schedule was too tight on this occasion... but we'll definitely be visiting Blue Derby again!

Until next time x