Freycinet Peninsular

We spent Sunday clambering over rocks , bushwalking and climbing mountains, mostly in glorious sunshine. All this rounded off with Atlantic salmon for tea back at the Coles Bay caravan park.

Highligts of the day included the view from the Wineglass Bay lookout and baby wallabies on the way up there - 45 minutes of hard climbing.

Cathy enjoyed exploring caves along the way and Dave found a convenient resting spot.

Geeveston and all points South

We visited Cathy's neice Amanda and her partner Jonathan and his folks who run a trucking business at Geeveston on the Huon River south of Hobart. Geeveston has some very lifelike huon pine carvings so Cathy befriended one of them. We were overwhelmed by the hospitalty of Pam and Blue (David) Price and came away with enough Atlantic Salmon to keep us going for a month.

Cathy's brother Mal was also visiting and he took us to the local forestry timber yard to see a massive huon pine log that had been recovered from a nearby river. This part of the log is going to Derent River to be carved into a large scuplture.

We did a day trip to Cockle Creek on Recherce Bay which is as far south as you can drive in Australia - had our photo taken with the whale sculpture at the end of the road. For once it was dry and sunny - a rare treat in this part of the world.

From Geeveston we went to Port Arthur in the pouring rain which is what we have come to expect at least every other day. We bush camped in the Tasman National Park at Fortescue Bay - a passing rock kindly offered to take our photo.




We spent a whole day touring the prison - could have spent a lot more time there but it would have meant stealing a loaf of bread.

Hobart is cold and windy

Saturday/Sunday 22/23rd Nov - We are camped at Treasure Island where the wet weather seems to appeal to some of the locals. The weekend has been spent exploring Hobart and enjoying the local food, especially the seafood. Saturday we visited the Salamanca market down on the quayside and made a failed attempt to go for a swim at the local aquatic centre in Glenorchy only to find that the heated pool was infact outdoors. It was raining and 14 degrees so that scored a thumbs down!

Sunday was at least sunny for most of the day so we went up Mt Wellington, following on the heels of the marathon runners doing the Point to Pinnacle. Boy was it cold! Hard to stand up right in the howling gale unless you could lean on a passing rock as Cathy demonstated.

Lunch was at Mure's fish restaurant on Constitution Dock and then we went round the Tasmanian Museum, which has some great displays of Australia's involvement with the Antarctic.

A Possum stole my biscuit

Friday 21st Nov - We camped at Lake St Clair overnight and were woken up about 2 am by a possum landing rather loudly on our roof and marching around in hobnail boots. As we both had to answer the other type of nature call and had to get up anyway we thought we would shoo him off. This required a small projectile well lobbed by Cathy. Once we were back warmly tucked uo again in bed the possum decided to have another go and we could hear him doing lots of scrabbling at the flywire and then nibbling at something. We then heard an electronic sort of noise so I got up to investigate. I turned on the light to find the possum sitting on my open laptop, which he had managed to turn on and hoing into a plastic bag with a couple Butternut Snaps in it.

The cheeky critter had pulled the flywire off the top window under the awning and come into the van. We managed to get him out although he scored the biscuits. Ten minutes later he was back again outside the plastic pop-top skirt and this time received a right hook to the ribs for his trouble, protected species or not! That was the last we saw of him.

The call of the wild was strong but the call of suburbia is even stronger. We have now landed in Hobart and are camped by the side of the Derwent at Glenorchy. We have already done over the local shopping centre and had fish and chips for tea.

Trains, boats and lumps of wood in Strahan

(Monday 17th - Wednesday 19th Nov) Strahan had marvellous weather for our day trips on the Gordon River Cruise and the Abt rack railway and we ended up staying four days. The cruise ship was very comfortable and managed to travel at up to 55km/hr, which is just as well as Macquarie Harbour is six times the size of Sydney Harbour and we went from end to end and back, including a short venture out through the narrow entrance at Hells Gate and onto the Southern Ocean. We stopped off at Sarah Island, which was the most feared penal settlement in the early 1800s.

The West Coast Wilderness Railway was less comfortable and considerably slower, but quite an experience to be taken up through the King River Gorge behind a steam loco which uses the Abt rack and pinion system to get up and down the really steep bits (1:12). The railway follows the King and Queen Rivers into Queenstown, a total of 40 km. Sadly the rivers are both dead as they are heaviliy poluted with copper tailings from the days when the mine was working.

Have come away with a car full of tassie timber including Blackwood, Sassafras and of course some chunks of Huon Pine which is now quite rare and expensive because felling has been banned - the sawmills can only use dead wood that is found on the forest floor.

We are now camped beside Lake St Clair in the swirling mist (Thursday 20th)

It snowed at Cradle Mountain!

Saturday/Sunday 15/16th Nov - stayed in the caravan park at Cradle Mountain where it droped about 2 inches of snow on us overnight. We still managed to drive up to Dove Lake and walked around to a lookout rock which would have given us a magnificent view of the moutain if the blizzard had let up. Even so it was a memorable experience.

We were glad to pack up and escape to more temperate weather down on the coast at Strahan where we have booked to go on the Gordon River cruise on Tuesday and the West Coast railway to Queenstown on Wednesday. Don't ask me how much unless I am sitting down. Anyone expecting an inheritance is going to be sadly disapointed. We travelled down here via Zeehan where we visited the West Coast Pioneer Memorial Museum which is in the old School of Mines - the town was deserted on Sunday and I think we were the only visitors. The place looked like a film set.

Today we are taking it easy as Cathy was unwell overnight (she will eat oysters!) and we need a day of R&R - one of those is Rehydration.

Don River Railway

We had an enjoyable morning on the Don River Railway near Devonport. This only goes for a few km and the service is by railcar after they broke their only working steam engine last year. The workshops are fabulous with several engines and carriages being restored. Like every other tourist railay they have Thomas the Tank Engine - he sure gets around for a little guy.

Spirit of Tasmania II

This blog site has been set up to document our travels. Right now we are in Devonport, Tasmania, having brought our trusty caravan and "new" Land Rover Discovery over on Spirit of Tasmania II. We have been for a ride on the Don River Railway and visited Shefield, Railton, and Port Sorell.