Climbs on my mind: my mental map of hilly Tasmania...

I had expected Tasmania to be hilly and it was. Here's a list of those "climbs" that registered as possibly difficult, and my rating of them afterwards.

These ratings are based on my perceptions of the difficulty, and are influenced by my level of fitness, the point enroute where the climb was encountered, and most all, the weather conditions.

The Giro Tasmania understates the hillyness of the terrain, and although I wouldn't want to overstate it, and by no means wish to discourage anyone, tourists should prepare an itinerary that allows for perhaps a little slower progress.

Fortunately my cycle computer has an inclinometer, so I was able to monitor the gradients as I climbed. This was particularly useful on the numerous false flats and downs, which could have lead me to despair if I didn't know they were false.

The Gog Range was the steepest at 18%, and there were others, including an unnamed hill near Paradise, and the climb out of Vale River which touched 16%. These were quite short however, and presented no major difficulty.

The long 10 percenters at Cethana Gorge and Black Mountain really had me on the limit.
Apart from day one when I suffered from cramping on Bust-Me-Gall Hill, and on the impossible Gog Range, I did not walk on any of the climbs - all were conquered (with plenty of rest stops) on the bike.

The number of false flats and false downs surprised me. Obviously the terrain can really play tricks on your perception. See my picture of water flowing uphill at Tarraleah. I don't recall any false ups.

These are the "climbs" I had anticipated enroute:
Grasstree Hill **
Black Charlie's Opening **
Bust-Me-Gall Hill ***
Weldborough Pass ****
Gog Range ****
Forth River (Cethana) Gorge *****
West Coast Range ***
Queenstown (Mt Lyell) ***
King William Pass ***
Nive River Gorge (Tarraleah) ***
And these are the climbs that I had overlooked:
Vale River ***
Black Mountain ****
Victoria Pass ***
Nive River Gorge (Wayatinah) **

I have rated the climbs on a scale of 1 to 5 according to my perception of their difficulty.

A climb that my route avoided was Elephant Pass at St Marys, but you may tempted by the promise of pancakes at the top from the well-known pancake restaurant.