This is from my first cycle tour of Tasmania in 1991 with Tony Nairn. I'm still using these front panniers, Tony still uses the bike he's riding here to get to work, but the bike I'm riding is pretty much mothballed now. I'd put a third chainring on a reasonable mid-80s road bike and gone to Tassie with it. It worked, although the brakes left a bit to be desired and I hit a huge pothole a day or two after taking this photo which put a huge dent in the rim and made me get a proper touring bike,

From the second trip in 1995 with Alice Woodruff. This was taken near the top of a hill between Launceston and Scottsdale, and Al is wearing a cheery expression that belies the long slog it took to get there. On the way down from this hill I rounded a bend a bit too quickly and lost it. I walked away with just a few grazes and an intact bicycle, but I got a lot more cautious about descents after that. And I use tyres with meatier tread now too.

This was taken after a day of cycling into the worst headwind I can remember. We rode west out of Campbelltown towards the central plateau through depressing overgrazed farmland, stopping every few kilometres to have a rest. Just as we approached the foothills of the plateau the scenery improved, the wind stopped, a brief shower passed over us and this rainbow appeared.

Taken just up the road from the rainbow photo. We camped in the schoolyard at Poatina (up this road a little way), a deserted Hydro town. It was a very strange place - a 1960s brick veneer suburb in the middle of nowhere, complete with shops, a school and mown lawns but no people.

The Freycinet Peninsula is a beautiful stretch of pink granite hills and islands on the east coast of Tasmania. If you're heading south along the east coast you simply take the turnoff and ride out along the peninsula to get to Coles Bay. If you're heading north, your best bet may be to ride to Swansea, head out along Nine Mile Beach and get some bloke with a tin boat to take you across the 100m stretch of water that separates the peninsula from the mainland at that point (you have to prearrange the boat ride though - see guide books or locals in Swansea or Coles Bay). It's either 100m of water or an extra 50km of bitumen.

Taken near the laconically named Great Lake on the central plateau. Too busy fishing to think of a good name I guess.

Heading back down from the central plateau to Deloraine.