Tasmania

Apologies for lack of updates Wireless Internet access in “Tassie” isn’t easy

Tuesday 11^th November 2008

Learys Corner, 41 33 43 S, 145 57 03 E, (205 Km).  We made it to the top of “The Nut” this morning and with Perkins Bay on one side, Sawyer Bay on the other and Stanley town nestled in between with its brightly coloured roofs, the views were superb, I had thought of using the chairlift to reach the summit, but after Jenny’s antics on the lifts in New Zealand I was not prepared to take a chance, to save embarrassment we could have gone up separately and I pretend that she didn’t belong to me.  After lunch at the same place as Sunday we continued to Hellyer Gorge State Reserve for afternoon tea and walked the short trail along the river.  We then made an itinerary change deciding to drive to Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair National Park as the weather had improved and it was a shorter driving distance than from Launceston our original access point to the park, planned for later in the trip.  We arrived at 4:00 pm at the transit hub and didn’t think late in the afternoon that it would be worth the $22 park pass for a short stay plus the shuttle bus fare to Dove Lake and were going to come back tomorrow instead, however, talking to the helpful lady at the information desk, she explained the $22 fee was for 24 hours and as long as our motorhome was no bigger than the shuttle bus (which it wasn’t) we could drive ourselves the 7.5 kilometres to Dove Lake.  Therefore, rather than wait until morning to drive up to Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain we drove up the narrow winding road to the car park, with several passing places it was no different to some of those narrow roads in Scotland.  The view from the car park was fantastic the view from the shore of the lake even better and we spent the next 3 hours walking and taking photographs and with the wind dropping the lake became (almost) calm for some photos of the reflections in the lake, we even walked to the boathouse a photo of which must be on every postcard, calendar, and guide book of Tasmania.  We drove back down from the car park in the twilight, luckily the many Wallaby’s we saw having the sense to stay off the road, we hadn’t arranged a camp site but the lady at the info’ desk at the transit hub told us that many people (as long as they are self-contained with toilets etc) stay in the information bay about 5 kilometres out of the park, so that is what we did, we were on our own, other than about 3 vehicles that passed in the evening, a nice quiet night.

Wednesday 12^th November 2008

Strahan, 42 09 15 S, 145 19 16 E, (171 Km),  Up at 6:00 am and we were the first vehicle at Dove Lake, we wanted to get there early for the sunrise and the light on Cradle Mountain and hopefully a calm lake for some photographs.  While Jenny prepared breakfast I went walkabout, first towards Glacier Rock and then a return to the boathouse, although the mountain was still in shadow I was pleased with the results.  We were joined for breakfast by two Wallaby’s, but for the first time in a least 3 months I had a bacon roll, no way was I going to share it, or my fruit salad so they both hopped off very disappointed. It was a lovely morning (despite being only 3 degrees C when we woke up) so we decided to walk around the edge of Dove Lake a 6 kilometre, 2-3 hour walk, it was one of the best walks we have done, good track, boardwalk and steps for the majority of the way and obviously the views of the surrounding mountains were great, especially as there was still snow in a few places. The sun was getting warm as we walked around and the boardwalk conducted the heat very nicely so there were plenty of small lizards to see, I was also keeping a wary eye open for snakes as they also enjoy warming themselves in the morning sun.  I did not keep my eyes open enough, just a couple of yards from me a Black Tiger snake about a metre in length suddenly moved, I now hold the world record for the hop, skip and jump without touching the ground, the snake holds the world record for slither and slide, luckily in the opposite direction to me, wish I’d got a spare pair of underpants!  We also saw a White-lipped snake and another small one we couldn’t identify, until now we have only seen 4 snakes in Australia since arriving, today we have seen 3 in a morning.  We left the National Park at lunchtime, finding a small drive off the main road were we had lunch and a shower (we didn’t have time this morning) before continuing on our way, stopping once for an Echidna crossing the road (tried unsuccessfully to get a decent photo) and a stop for an afternoon cuppa at Macintosh Lake Rest Area.  We went down to Ocean Beach after tea for the sunset and also hopefully see the Mutton Birds arrive back from their fishing trip, neither was successful, haze as the sunset and we didn’t see the Mutton Birds.

Thursday 13^th November 2008

Bronte Lagoon Rest Area, 42 10 79 S, 146 30 03 E, (170 Km).  Hogarth

Falls was our first walk this morning, just out of the town we could have

actually walked here from the holiday park, the falls themselves, although not spectacular, were quite pretty and the walk through the rain forest just after breakfast could only have done us good.  We had thought of going on one of the river tours from here, but they seemed similar to those at Arthur River and almost twice the price so we decided not to bother. After a morning coffee stop at a lookout we arrived at the town of Queenstown and to quote a magazine “who did this terrible thing”. Mining for Tin, Copper, Silver and Gold over the last 150 years as left the surrounding area like a lunar landscape; Mount Lyell disfigured, no forest, the vegetation either poisoned or burnt and yet, as we left the town (only stopping to top-up with diesel) and climbed up the steep narrow road there were rock formations that had obviously got a lot of minerals in them and the colours were quite beautiful.  We stopped at a lookout with interactive boards above the town for photographs and looking down we had the thought that man had done here what nature had done to Death Valley, California.  Why then did one look so ugly and the other so beautiful?  After a break at Lake Burbury for lunch our next stop was Nelson Falls these were spectacular and only 20 minute return walk along the rainforest track along the Nelson Creek from the car park.  We saw the distinctive shape in the distance of the mountain “Frenchmans Cap (1443m) ” as we drove along the Lyell Highway and had our afternoon stop at the start of the “Frenchmans Cap” walking trail, we did think of doing the walk, but 3-5 days seemed rather arduous so we contented ourselves with a walk on the trail of 3-5 metres (well we can say we walked it) We did actually walk as far as the Franklin River then there was a major obstacle a 1 person only swing bridge, Jenny doesn’t do swing bridges not even short, wide ones and certainly not long, narrow ones, she took a photo of me in the middle while she was still on terra firma and we then returned to the car park.  Tonight we are parked right on the edge of a lagoon and although right near the road, we have not seen any vehicles for a long time, anybody that uses this road after dark would be either brave or stupid, it as been at least 70 kilometres of switchback mountain road with long ascents and the inevitable descents. We did have an amusing episode about an hour ago, when I thought that Christmas had come early, 5 girls piled out of a car near us, alas they were only interested in photographing the sun as it went down, it was raining at the time and as they ran from the picnic shelter back to their car it made for an interesting spectacle.  The weather here tonight as been very interesting, high winds, heavy showers, a spectacular rainbow and brilliant cloud formations as the sun finally disappeared.  I have been out the motorhome several times taking photographs, getting wet in the process and  frightening a Kangaroo (and he me) when we inadvertently bumped into one another.

Friday 14^th November 2008

Cambridge (Hobart), 42 49 94 S, 147 26 74 E, (316 Km)  We were on the road just after 9:00 am for the drive to the South West National Park and Lake Pedder after having a lovely comfortable night by the side of Bronte Lagoon and although colder the wind and rain we had last night as stopped.  We only stopped twice, at a small village for milk and bread and for our morning “smoko” at a rest area in Ellendale.  The South West is a gloriously wild area that covers almost a ¼ of Tasmania with only the one road penetrating it as far as Lake Pedder and the Gordon Dam, we decided to do our normal thing i.e.,  start at the farthest point and visit all the “scenic spots” on the drive back this has normally worked very well for us (Litchfield and Flinders National Parks), when you can only return the same way rather than do a circular trip, big mistake this time!  We stopped at the first viewpoint at Lake Pedder which was just off the road and were having a nice peaceful lunch, then BANG, a vehicle coming past had thrown a stone at the side of the motorhome and shattered the  side window, it was toughened glass so it went into a mosaic pattern of a thousand (I didn’t count them)  pieces, however luckily it remained complete in the frame.  We obviously had nothing to use to cover the window so we covered the inside with a spare sheet and closed the curtain, before making our way back to civilisation and phone coverage. Once we got back on the road the bumps soon caused some of the glass to start falling out and by the time we got to the township of Westerway a sizeable piece was missing from the centre. some having fallen inside and the rest on the road.  The local grocery store sold us a roll of wide sellotape and Jenny magically produced a large bin liner (from our Cape York trip in May) and we did a makeshift repair before phoning Maui. After a transfer from the help line to the Hobart branch, David was soon on the case, and “to cut a long story short” we have to be at the Hobart branch to pick up another vehicle.  Luck again that we were only a comparatively short distance from Hobart and including the drive from Lake Pedder it was about 3 hours, (probably seems a long distance in the U.K but in Australia it is “just down the road” and we are now used to it). Must mention before we left Westerway, whilst waiting for phone calls from Maui we tried “The Possum Shed” a coffee shop recommended in the Lonely Planet  the coffee with macadamia and caramel slice were delicious and we sat in the garden overlooking the creek watching for Platypus, hopefully, if time, we may return to this part of Tasmania we need to re-visit our itinerary in the next couple of days.  As we are now in Hobart we may as well tour this area while we are here, we will tell you tomorrow how things transpire.

Saturday 15^th November2008

Mount Field National Park, 42 41 09 S, 146 42 95 E, (91 Km).  First stop this morning the Britz/Maui depot near Hobart airport, it was only 7 kilometres from the camp site we stopped at last night, so we were there in a few minutes.  David the lad we spoke to yesterday was waiting for us and all we had to do was drive our motorhome side by side with the sliding door adjacent to the new one and transfer all our important belongings i.e. food, beer wine and cider across from the one to the other, Jenny (as usual) organised the “swap” very well despite ending up with 2 power cables, 4 plates, 1 cup and no broom (joke) we soon had everything safely stored, a quick drive down to the servo (UK = filling station) to top the old one up with diesel (the new one was full) and we were on our way, the whole operation taking us about a hour.  The new van is identical to the old one other than being a VW and not a Mercedes (same company anyway) but it is a turbo 3.5 litre instead of a normal aspirated 2.8 litre (might give the Ford  Falcon 4.0 litre police car a run for its money now).  The reason for the change was that there was not a side window available and it is a special order from Germany taking 14 days, surprised really that there is no stock in Aus’, perhaps they need a Parts Operations Manager here, I might come out of retirement if the price is right!  We have decided to return to our original destination of yesterday and could not resist stopping at “The Possum Shed” in Westaway for lunch, Coffee, Turkey on Turkish bread (just realised what I just wrote) and we shared, not wanting to appear to greedy an Apple Strudel.  We arrived at Mount Field National Park to purchase a park pass, you may have seen on Tuesday we bought a park pass at Cradle Mountain National Park for $22, what we should have bought was a 2 month pass for all the Tasmanian parks for $56, we had mentioned to the ranger that we had already been to Cradle Mountain and despite no longer having the 24 hour pass, upgraded us to the 2 month one for $34 anyway, a great gesture we thought.  We then drove the 2 minutes to “The Land of the Giants” (so called because of the tall trees) camping ground, unusual in that it is a private enterprise within the National Park , unfortunately since we arrived here mid-afternoon it has poured with rain so we haven’t ventured away from the campervan, tomorrows forecast isn’t great either, (well we are in the “roaring forties”) we will have to see.

Sunday 16^th November 2008

Berriedale (Hobart), 42 48 52 S, 147 15 41 E, (65 Km).  That was a very cold and wet night, we had hoped to walk up to the “Gloworm Grotto” but the rain was so heavy we didn’t bother, nor were we able to watch for the different animals that frequent the camp site.  This morning it brightened up a little and at least it had stopped raining (well almost), the intention today is to explore the lower part of Mount Field National Park, after another browse around the information centre we walked up the trail to Russell Falls and photographed the impressive falls, dodging the “wrinklies” that had come by coach who were insisting on having their photos taken with the falls as the backdrop.  We then decided to descend to the car park have a cup of tea and biscuit before taking the longer trail to Horseshoe Falls, The Tall Trees trail and the trail to Lady Barron Falls a 2 hour circuit walk, with the weather improving the walk was very enjoyable and not too demanding.  Both Horseshoe and Lady Barron falls were as impressive as Russell Falls and the colours of the mosses, ferns and other flora were also outstanding, the tall trees (a type of eucalyptus) were mighty, one of the tallest being 79 metres high, comparable with some of the trees in New Zealand and the Sequoia in California that we have seen.  We returned to the car park and had lunch before our drive back to Hobart, we could not pass through Westaway without a 3^rd visit to “The Possum Shed” were we were once again warmly welcomed by Majella and Barry and enjoyed their speciality coffee and cake, if visiting Tasmania and near Westaway call in at this riverside café, for lunch or a snack, you will not be disappointed.  It is a pity that we had to abort our previous visit to this area, and will not have time to drive up to Lake Pedder, but we are pleased we made the effort to revisit at least a small part of it.  Tonight we are once again near Hobart and will probably visit the city itself tomorrow, we will attempt to update the website, the caravan parks we have stayed at so far have not had wireless internet, people have said that Tasmania is about 10 years behind mainland Australia, that can’t be a bad thing can it?

Monday 17^th November 2008

Snug, 43 03 87 S, 147 15 77 E, (53 Km).  First stop today was Woollies to top up our larder, especially our fruit, we had run out of Pink Lady apples and these are the only one’s I eat.  We found our way to Hobart and our first “point of call” there was  “The Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens” and after our smoko in the car park we headed for the main gate and wandered through the many featured trees, plants and flowers for about a hour.  We thought we may have a problem parking in the centre of Hobart, so I had asked a taxi driver in Woollies Car Park the best place to park she directed us to an area, right on the harbour at $4 for 2 hours and we parked without a problem.  We walked the short distance to the centre and strolled around the harbour, buying lunch at a fish barge in the marina, I tried Trevalla and Jenny Blue-Grenadier, which were both very enjoyable (we tried each others), just wish the portion of fish was bigger, we walked back to the motor home to eat as it was too cold to sit outside. We were going to drive to one of the lookouts over the city, but the weather has turned wet and misty so we would not see anything anyway, we stopped instead at a Book exchange shop and exchanged some we had read and have driven straight to the caravan park and will relax here for the day.  We would have a great view if the weather cleared, right on the main waterway into Hobart with Bruny Island to the East a short distance across the channel, tomorrow we will visit another National Park, we just hope for an improvement in the weather.

Tuesday 18^th November 2008

The Neck Campground, South Bruny Island, 43 17 46 S, 147 19 72 E (294 Km).  We didn’t go far for our first stop today, Margate (today we have also visited Dover, Kettering and Southport), the place where the last passenger train in Tasmania ran from, the train was still in the station so punctuality isn’t a priority here, the track was overgrown it had been there that long.  Each old carriage had a variety of different retail outlets, including, souvenirs, toys and clothes, the one that interested us the most though was “The Pancake Train”, we couldn’t resist it, despite having breakfast less than 2 hours ago, we sat in the old carriage drinking a mug of coffee each whilst we waited for our pancakes, Jenny had Apple and Cinnamon and I had Berry, (Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry and Redcurrants),  as is our “norm” we split them 50/50, although I did think it ended up 60/40 to Jenny. I did complain, but as I couldn’t finish all mine, I guess I didn’t have an argument!  We then drove along the Huon River to Southport, a wonderful bay with several small tree covered islands, almost looked like a South Seas landscape after a cup of tea overlooking the bay we went as far as we could on the bitumen road to the Ida Bay Railway a scenic narrow gauge railway that runs for about 6 kilometres to Southport Lagoon, we would have had to wait 2 hours for a trip so we didn’t stay.  Southport was also the farthest point South we could travel by road, so we have now travelled to the 3 farthest points we could go to in Australia, pity we missed out West.  We returned along the Huon River via the more scenic coast road which had recently been “bitumened” in fact in a couple of places they were still working on it, quite funny waiting at roadwork lights when we must have travelled about 20 kilometres without seeing another vehicle apart from those involved in the road construction.  Our next intention was to drive up towards Tahune Forest Reserve, but after travelling about 25 kilometres we realised that all we were seeing was plantation, I HATE PLANTATIONS, nothing worse than seeing regimented rows of trees with hardly anything growing underneath and they were so high we couldn’t see the mountains beyond, we decided to turn round and go to the campsite we had chosen………….Then I had a bright idea (well I do very occasionally) instead of travelling to Bruny Island tomorrow why not go tonight?  There were only  2 ferry sailings left 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm, Betty (the SatNav) said we would get there at 5:05 pm so we thought we would catch the 6:30 pm, we got to the ferry terminal at Kettering and the ferry was still there, then it got a bit confusing, the guy at the ticket office (that he’d just locked) holding is hand out to halt us, the guy on the ferry ramp waving us on!  The “ferry ramp guy” won, “ticket office guy” unlocked his ticket office, charged us $25 return for a 5 metre vehicle, ours is 7 metres and should have been $39 return and on to the ferry we rolled.  Just paused typing for a while to we see if we can see the penguins as there is a rookery close by.  Phew, been out 45 minutes walking along the beach, came back rather windswept and glowing despite the cold, good job we took our head torches with us to find the path back, Penguins?  No!  Have a look on google earth and see where we are free camping tonight.  We are on the South Island after crossing the narrow isthmus from the North Island (truly one island actually) I hope there isn’t a high tide.

Wednesday 19^th November 2008

We always seem to sleep well when we are not on an organised camp site, I guess other than the sound of the ocean and the birds there is nothing to disturb us and we feel so relaxed.  We thought today we would explore South Bruny Island and drove to Cape Bruny lighthouse car park, then walked the rest of the way up the steep track to the lighthouse proper, well not really proper, because the lighthouse is now defunct and they have put the light a horrible ordinary car headlamp complete with solar panel on the next hill along, I hope they have told the ships captains that sail this way they have re-positioned it!  We spent the rest of the morning there including having an early (ish) lunch before continuing to Cloudy Bay, no, we don’t know why except perhaps its always cloudy there, the other reason may be the water was a brownish colour as the waves broke on the beach, we think it may be tea tree which is washed out of the eucalyptus trees, but we are only guessing.  If you have been following our travels you may remember the lovely couple Brian and Pat (both originally from Hull) we met on Magnetic Island, Queensland in June, they invited us to visit them when we reached Tasmania and they are lucky enough to live on South Bruny Island.  We arrived at the small village Alonnah  and eventually found their house, (went past it the first time, of course it was MY fault), unfortunately there was nobody at home, however Rex a neighbour had been told we may be calling, Rex informed us that Brian and Pat had gone to the mainland (Tasmania) 3 days ago but should be back either this evening or tomorrow.  We decided therefore to visit the village of Adventure Bay before returning to the Neck Campground where we enjoyed a good nights rest last night, taking a chance with a second night without mains power, hoping the leisure battery would last, without (a) the fridge defrosting (b) the water pump not working  in the morning and not being able to have a shower. Pat rang in the evening, they had arrived home and we would see them tomorrow.

Thursday 20^th November 2008

Alonnah, South Bruny Island, 43 18 61 S, 147 14 75 E, (11 Km).  We need not have worried (we weren’t anyway), the chicken, steak, and mince is still frozen and Jenny doesn’t smell, she had a shower (perhaps I was a little worried), we now have to try it in the hotter temperatures for 2 consecutive nights (whenever that will be).  We arrived at Brian and Pat’s house a little after 10:00 am, it was great to see them again and we spent all day catching up with each other’s news, they showed us around their wonderful garden, Brian’s workshop and Pat’s studio.  Pat is  proud of their garden and rightly so, fantastic Roses, Geraniums and Gazanias and many other’s growing in profusion in a multitude of colours.  Brian experiments in his workshop (currently on hydrogen power for vehicles), he and  his mate Rex having the occasional incident causing explosions, fire and mayhem (although I noted the roof of the workshop was still intact and not on the “Tassie” mainland),  the workshop is also home to “Poppy’s Jalopy” their motorhome (an ex-Japanese bus) which Brian has expertly converted, Pat is also a very accomplished painter and fantastic pictures adorn the walls of their house and her studio.  They kindly allowed Jenny to use their computer to check and update our internet banking, something we have been unable to do for over a week before Brian drove us up the road to meet their neighbours Rex (who we met yesterday)and Liz and their little dog Lolly.  We had a great chat to them and they showed us their opals from a mine they part own in Andamooka, South Australia, the colour and patterns were exquisite, and they presented us with a piece of raw opal rock before we left to spend the night on Brian and Pat’s drive in our motorhome, complete with main’s power from a lead into Brian’s workshop.

Friday 21^st November 2008

Severn Mile Beach, Hobart, 42 51 22 S, 147 30 50 E, (92 Km).  What a wonderful view to wake up to, Brian and Pat’s house is in an elevated position overlooking the D’ Entrecasteaux Channel, several islands, the mainland opposite (that we visited Tuesday) and the Hartz Mountains and ranges (still with patches of snow) in the distance, made the more special by the weather being better than forecast (this morning at least), yesterday we could barely see Satellite Island the nearest one to Sunset Bay and Alonnah.  We spent the morning chatting and listening to Brian and Pat’s adventures (and escapades) on their travels around Australia since they arrived in 1967 before walking down to Alonnah to see their motor-sailer moored at the small jetty, (previously a type of bailey bridge used in Hobart before the Tasman road bridge was built).  After lunch we said our goodbyes and made our way over the causeway to the North Island with the intention of visiting the northern point, the weather then decided to take a turn for the worst and the warm, sunny morning turned to a cold, wet and windy afternoon so we changed our minds and headed for the ferry terminal, great timing (again) the ferry was loading as we got there and we rolled on board and within 30 minutes were once again on “Tassie” itself.  We drove to the other side of Hobart in very heavy rain and now 8:06 in the evening it is still raining, at least it looks as though we have a working internet connection at this campsite (Severn Mile Beach Cabin Park) and hopefully will be able to catch up on emails, web update etc.  Tomorrow we will continue our Tasmanian travels, snow is expected , we presume only on high ground (yes, I know its only 9 days until summer here) but it is anticipated that better weather will be with us on Monday, we will wait and see!