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.