Tasmania Continued

Well, when I said that we would encounter some very hilly and winding roads I didn’t really have any idea what we were in for.

The road up from Queenstown is unbelievable. Bonnie tells me the views were spectacular but I was a bit busy. It entails a 6 kilometer climb that requires first and second gears at around 25 kph, straight, sorry, winding up the mountains.

From then on, although still steep and very twisting it was a magnificent drive across the highlands where we ended up staying at a place called Tarraleah which was originally a town of over 2,000 people whilst building the hydro electric (see photos) and was ultimately closed down before being purchased by a private individual who resurrected it as a resort village.

Then on to Hamilton which is a quaint little village with a lot of convict history where we free camped on the town common by a bubbling stream with about 7 or 8 others. It was so peaceful we stayed for 2 nights before moving down to Hobart where we stayed with my old golfing buddy from Mt Barker, Rexie and Lyn on their property at Granton (about 20 ks north of Hobart’s CBD.

We spent 10 days at Ambleside (the name of their property) during which we day tripped to the Huon Valley, Mt Field National Park, Richmond, Ross, Oatlands and were enchanted by the beautiful old buildings that really set that part of Tasmania apart from the rest of Australia.

 

  We also went on possibly the best tour we have been on anywhere which was the Bruny Island Adventure Tour. The tour started with a cruise down the Derwent river in a beautiful big catamaran which included commentary and morning tea. When we reached the top of Bruny Island we transferred to mini busses which tookus to Adventure bay on South Bruny Island where we boarded a high speed rigid inflatable powered by 4 350hp Yamaha outboards for very fast trip straight out into the Southern Ocean. This took us out to circumnavigate the rocky islands scattered off the south coast of Tasmania to witness some spectacular scenery, including seal colonies, whilst experiencing a ride somewhat like high speed roller coaster over water with nothing south of us except Antarctica. Coincidentally, when we returned to Hobart harbor the 2 Sea Shepherd ships had just arrived from a successful Japanese whaling disruptive trip.

We reluctantly said goodbye to Rex and Lyn and moved down to a place called Dunalley where we camped on the common behind the magnificent old hotel for 3 days during which we went down to explore the ruins at Port Arthur which are every bit as good as expected. It was quite surreal standing in the shell of what was once the café where Australia’s most horrific massacre took place in 1996. In fact, all of Port Arthur is a little on the spooky side.

Next it was up the East coast to Swansea which was a nice little place and I guess that our opinion is probably coloured a little by the fact that the weather took a turn for the better and blue sky emerged, which was nice as we camped at the footy oval on the beachfront , next to the golf course and needed the solar rays to keep us powered up.

We are now at Lake Leake which is around 600 metres above sea level and is the water supply for Campbell Town. It is a long weekend and there are a few trout fishermen here trying their luck and our campsite is looking straight over the lake. Very relaxing. Just what we need after all of the” stress” that we have been under for the last 11 months.

Back to you soon.

TASMANIA

Well we are off to Tassie. this is the Spirit ready to load.



Matt, Amy, Maya & Jack seeing us off from Port Melbourne.'

Well we have made it to Tassie, arriving at 6.30pm on Sunday the 6^th of Feb. after a pretty rough crossing. Lots of banging from below.

After arriving we drove about 8 ks to Latrobe where we stayed at the Mersey River Holiday Park which is quite nice , no permanents, lots of green grass and nice management. Whilst at Latrobe we did day trips to Stanley, Wynyard, Penguin and Ulverstone one day just to see where we might go next and also Cradle Mountain via Sheffield, Barrington (obviously named after Mike) and Railton. We will see more of this area just before we leave Tasmania.



Next we moved to Wynyard, staying at the Beach Retreat Tourist Park which put our van backing onto the beachfront with a nice boardwalk running into the town. We spent several very nice days there visited Stanley, where we explored the Nut, which was covered in mutton bird burrows and is inhabited by numerous tiger snakes of which one large example crossed the walking path in front of Bonnie, much to her distress. The next day we went to Burnie and visited the cheese factory (yum) and the distillery where we had a lovely lunch. The scenery in Tasmania is amazing and almost directly contrasting to what we had experienced in the north of WA.

After leaving Wynyard we camped out on the Macintosh Dam on the way down to Strahan. Magnificent views but some large March flies and Charli and I came across another tiger snake whilst taking a walk but it didn’t take much notice of us.

When we arrived at Strahan we found that we could camp at the golf club which was great so Bon and I played nine holes which was a bit of fun. We went on a coach to Queenstown and returned to Strahan on the steam train which was fantastic. The endeavour of the pioneers who built this railway in very mountainous, wet terrain was amazing, especially the third geared rail to pull up the steepest climbs. The hospitality in the premium class carriage was pretty good too.

Yesterday we went on the Franklin River Cruise into the World Heritage area and although the day was pretty average the cruise and the boat were beautiful.



We have been in Tassie for 2 weeks and so far the weather has been almost 50/50 nice days to wet days although the last 3 have been ordinary (that’s how I found time to blog).

We are leaving Strahan tomorrow and heading south east with some trepidation as everyone tells us that the roads are very, very hilly and winding but there is no choice as there is only one way out of here. Will let you know what it was like in the next edition.



Lead up to Tassie.

Well we had a very eventful time leading up to getting on the Spirit of Tasmania.

We left the caravan at the Warrandyte caravan park while we stayed with Mike and barb’s place whilst in Melbourne. When we dropped off the van we noted that the park was quite tight for caravan space, being mainly cabins. There was also a creek running just behind our van but it was about 4-5 metres below where the van was parked so it didn’t appear to be a problem. However, what we didn’t count on was that Melbourne was going to get a year’s  rainfall on Friday night. We were at the races at Mooney Valley on Friday night and when they cancelled the races with 2 races to go the alarm bells began to ring. Didn’t get much sleep that night, listening to the rain continue to fall and was very keen to get to the park to get the van.

Mike and I went at around 9.30am on Saturday morning and I was dismayed to see that at the entrance to the park the creek had gone over it’s bank and had flooded the entrance to the park, where someone had obviously driven through the boom gate which was snapped off. After driving through about 2 feet of water through the park we found that the van was still on dry ground although there was water rushing through the park from the other side towards the creek which was almost to the top of the bank behind the van. After the fastest ever hook up, didn’t have time to connect the power or Hayman Reese we started to wind between the cabins towards the exit only to be confronted with wall to wall water of indeterminable depth. The manager of the park tried to convince us to leave the van but that was never going to happen so we got him to walk in front of us through the water as a guide to the depth, which was now over knee deep. Eventually we were able to get out just in the nick of time. I reckon that 30 minutes later we may have lost the van and wouldn’t that have put a dampener (no pun intended) on our trip.

After parking on the verge in front of Mike & Barb’s place on Saturday night we got to Port Melbourne to board the Spirit of Tasmania without ant drama and the whole loading procedure was very professionally handled although Bon was a bit anxious about leaving the girls in the van for 10 hours. As it happened the crossing was pretty rough but the girls showed no effects that it distressed them as there wasn’t even a wee in the van when we arrived in Devonport.

Next. The apple isle.

Catch Up Blog

Blog restart

Well I have been very slack since my last Blog so here is a catch up.

Since I last blogged we spent a very chilly Xmas at Albany WA and then fought 30 kph head winds across the Nullarbor back to Adelaide.

We flew up to the Gold Coast to surprise Linc on his 40^th birthday which was great to be able to do and then spent 3 weeks catching up with family and friends eating and drinking way to much and now Bonnie is making me pay for the indulgence.

Then off to Melbourne with a stopover in Ballarat with Sandy & Max who we met in Karumba last year. It was great to catch up with them again.

Next blog will be from Tasmania. See you all then

Catch Up Blog

I have been very busy (slack) and am way behind with the blog so I will attempt to come up to date.

Since leaving Monkey Mia we travelled to Kalbarri for a few days where I played golf with the locals and was made very welcome. It is a lovely beachside village but unfortunately was very windy while we were there. King brown or Mulga snake this time.

Then on to Geraldton where I got the Landcruiser serviced (timing belt $1500) and Bonnie did the Parlor things (wax,hair etc.) Very expensive stay but a nice place with some very big, modern houses. So time to put some money in the bank by doing some free camping.

Off to Ellendale Pool which is only 50ks from Geraldton but what a great spot. Free gas bbq, flushing toilets and a lovely lake for swimming which was just as well as it was nearly 40 every day. Very peaceful, lots of birdlife,didn't see a snake but plenty of sleepy or stumpy lizards. We stayed there a week.

Next down to New Norcia via Wannamal and Moora.

The buildings of the monastery are fantastic and no one should come over here and not go to New Norcia which is a town totally owned by the monks of the monastery.

We were running short of time as we had arranged to get to Manjimup for the Cherry Festival so due to the un-dog friendly nature of the Perth caravan parks and our aversion to large cities we decided to bypass and keep going south to Mandurah and Bussleton which are both lovely if a bit colder than we are used to. We are hoping that it will warm up when we go inland before spending Xmas at Albany.

Will try to be more proactive and not be so long between blogs.

TTFN

Monkey Mia

Well what a great place and an even greater experience.

Bon and I have been lucky enough to be able to be volunteers at the dolphin experience here at Monkey Mia which involves preparing the feeds, which happen 3 times each morning and then picking out the tourists to feed the dolphins. Bonnie is in 7th heaven,

A truly memorable experience that we will both remember for a long time.

One of the benefits from being a volunteer was that we were able to take the cruises at half price so we took a package which included a wildlife cruise on Shotover, a 60 ft ocean racing catamaran where we saw heaps of Dugongs, dolphins, sea snakes, turtles and tiger sharks which was absolutely brilliant. the package also included a sunset cruise on the same boat and the evening was perfect.

We have stayed here about twice as long as we planned but it has been worth it especially now that the wind has gone and it lovely beach weather and we are at a lovely beach to enjoy it.

 

Unfortunately we are leaving on Thursday and heading down towards Kalbarri, hoping it will be nearly as nice as here and will report in then.

 




Carnarvon WA

Well I have quite a bit to report since my last blog.

After leaving Cleaverville Beach we filled up with water at Karratha then drove for about 3 hours before deciding to stop at a little caravan park at Nanutarra roadhouse. It is a crappy little park and the roadhouse sold Autogas for $1.35 / litre, the highest price we have seen (so far) but it was bloody hot and windy and they had power so we hooked up, set up the satelite dish and watched the Commonwealth games with the air conditioning on. The fridge in the van was playing up pretty badly.

The next day we travelled 200 ks to Exmouth, still bloody windy so we probably didn't see it at it's best but we were a little disappointed. We got a fridge mechanic to look at the van fridge which he proceeded to pull out of the van by removing the door and upending the fridge 5 times to stir up the gases. $120 down.

Next on to Coral Bay which everyone raved about. Well, guess what. Bloody windy, expensive, crap water.
Not our favouite place but we perservered and went on a glass bottom boat tour which was ok albeit a bit rough and snorkelled in the bay.

On down to Carnarvon for one night to stock up with food and water before heading back 75 ks to Point Quobba at the blowholes intending to free camp along the beach for a week or so. Initially it was pretty windy so we set up camp behind the sand dunes in a nice little clearing, found plenty of firewood and settled in. We snorkelled there right off the beach and it was amazing. So many fish and different colours and very few people. On our 5th day we were sitting in the shade of the van awning reading when Bonnie jumped up and hustled the dogs inside because she had seen a snake slither between two little mound about 5 metres away. We discussed it and decided that it was probably not surprising and that at least we had seen and would be a bit more cautious so we bought the girls back out and had all just settled down again when Bon was coming out of the van she saw the bloody thing slither straight at us to within a foot of Charli. When Bon yelled I jumped up and the snake did a 90 degree turn and took off under the van into a bush behind it.
Well, needless to say, that was the last straw. We have never packed up so fast  and left a camp.

This is what it was, a Gwardar or Western Brown Snake, the deadliest snake in WA, perhaps Australia.
It still creeps me out to think how close it got to us. So back to Carnarvon wher we finally look like we have found someone to solve the fridge problem (blocked gas jet). Fingers crossed.

Carnarvon is not a bad place realy , quite like an oasis with all the fruit and vegetable farms after thousands of ks of desert so we are taking a deep breath here before we head down to Monkey Mia from where I will next report.

See you all.