Slept in this morning. (Probably due to a big day yesterday??) We had breakfast and headed into Sorell to look for a Woolworths, did the shopping and headed off for the 68km drive to Port Arthur.
We drove through more SHEEP!!! Arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:00am and paid our $24 admission fee. This included entry to the site as well as a very good information display, a guided walking tour, and a harbour cruise.
We both enjoyed the Port Arthur tour. There are so many interesting stories from convicts and free settlers alike, and the Port Arthur Conservation Fund has done a fabulous job of preserving this part of our history. (The 1996 massacre has been handled with due respect, without making a show of it.)
After Port Arthur, we headed back in the direction of Hobart. We stopped at Dunalley Hotel (for provisions!!) Dunalley is the site of Dunalley Canal built in 1905 and it is a beautiful example of a large hotel establishment of its time.
We had chosen to stay at Barilla caravan park for the night. We headed toward Hobart and had to cross Pitt Water. This is crossed by two very long bridges joined in the middle by a speck of land appropriately named “Midway”
We arrived at our caravan park at about 4:30pm and set up for the night.
Waking up at Bicheno we had a good hearty omelette before heading down to Coles Bay and the Freycinet Peninsula to climb to the Wineglass Bay lookout. This is a fairly steep walk up the side of the mountain! It was reasonably easy as Parks and Wildlife have cut many steps into the path. We took it easy and got to the top in about 50 minutes. We both ended up taking our coats off because it got quite warm. The view over Wingless Bay was definitely worth the climb.
Trekking back down the mountain (easier than going up) we got back to the carpark and headed to the Visitor Information Centre at the entrance to the park. There was a lot of interesting local information about the Freycinet National Park and its surrounds. Just inside the park is a very nice camping ground that Parks and Wildlife run. The cost is $6.60 per person for a powered site.
Along the road to Coles Bay, we stopped at a marine farm that farms oysters, mussels and scallops. At the moment they only had oysters for sale. There was a sign on the unlocked shop door that said if the shop was unattended, help yourself to oysters and put your money in the honesty box!!
We went into Coles Bay town centre in the hope of finding a bakery for lunch. (We didn’t) Coles Bay came to fame a little while ago as the first town to ban plastic bags. Not a big deal as, apart from a café, there is only one shop in town that serves as a restaurant, newsagency, post office, general store and service station.
From Freycinet National Park we journeyed south along the coast and reached the historic town of Swansea. We stopped for lunch at a historic bakery and had another scallop pie! YAY! Swansea is a lovely town and we decided we could stay there for a while looking around. But, unfortunately not on this trip. 🙁
Past Swansea we kept going south with the intention of stopping for the night at Orford. The scenery between Swansea and Orford was predominately countryside with sheep…millions of sheep!! We had some good views over the ocean but a lot of it we could not photograph because there was nowhere to pull over and stop. We went through the town of Triabunna just before Orford. Although there was a caravan park there it looked pretty yucky so we kept going to Orford. We got to Orford at about 3:30pm and asked at the local service station where the caravan park was. Unfortunately, it had closed! We decided that we didn’t want to go back to Triabunna so we would push on to Sorell.
Sorell is a large town just northeast of Hobart. Again! No caravan park 🙁 we just wanted to stop now so we headed into Hobart looking for caravan park signs. Finally, we found one at Seven Mile Beach and booked in for the night. Had another early tea and tucked in for the night.
Temps: Bicheno 10ºc at 8:00am
Swansea 15ºc at 1:30pm
Weather: Warm and
sunny most of the day.
Travel: Bicheno to
Coles Bay – 38kms
Coles Bay to Freycinet Car Park – 4kms
Walk to Wineglass Bay lookout – 2.6kms round
trip.
Lesson 1: Bush camping in Tasmania, while cheap, is STUPID!!! Not having a powered site meant that we could not use our fan heater. Consequently, the van was cold when we went to bed and we could not warm up the van in the morning.
We headed out of Scottsdale early with the heater in the cab turned up high to thaw out our numb feet!!!
Heading east we passed through some lovely farmland with just a light frost. As the sun came up and melted the frost we started to notice frost in tree shade or on only one side of a sheltered road.
We stopped at the old tin mining town of Derby. There was a really nice picnic/camping ground on the banks of the Cascade River. The only downside to camping here was that the town water is not drinkable, there was a sign alerting people to the fact that ALL water must be boiled for 3 minutes before drinking.
Further east we came to the town of Pyengana where we turned off and went for the short 11km drive to St Columba Falls. These falls are the tallest in Tasmania falling 90 meters into the George River. These falls are always falling so they were well worth the 10 minute walk into the forest. Many of the other falls we had wanted to see, we had been told by locals not to bother about because there has not been much rain and the falls have not been at their best. At the start of the walk is an information hut with stories of the local area and its settlers.
Back on to the main road and heading east again we reached the seaside town of St Helens. St Helens is a large town with reputedly Tasmania’s best fish and chippery. So of course we had to try it!! We got their “fish and chips”- $8.95 each for Flake and chips!!!! To their credit it was very nice, not oily batter and the fish was very fresh, but we decided that Tassie’s need to come to Qld to learn how to have fish and chips!!
Following the coast via the A3 highway, Auto Rent Hertz told us not to take this vehicle down the A4 which is the way south via St Mary’s and Elephant Pass. The A3 highway brought us to Scamander and on to Bicheno. 7km’s before Bicheno we stopped at East Coast Nature Park to see our first Tassie Devil. They are smaller than we imagined, being not much bigger than a large cat. These ones, being in captivity, were reasonably friendly. We arrived just before feeding time, so all the animals thought we were there to feed them!! The park was reasonably priced to enter ($12.90 each) and was well worth it. There were the usual animals, as well as many exotic species of birds and reptiles. At the rear of the park was a tin mine display.
We kept going to Bicheno to book into the caravan park and arrange our penguin viewing tour at dusk. Bicheno Penguin Tours leave at various times depending on sunset for a 1 hour tour of the local rookery and the fairy penguins which come ashore each night. They are cute little birds and totally unafraid of people. The rookery here at Bicheno is one of the closest rookeries to a populated area and because of this, the penguins have learnt to fish by streetlight. They use the streetlights like the full moon by which to fish. We were amazed at the ruckus that they make. They really do carry on for such a little bird. The ones here at Bicheno even commandeer rabbit burrows, banishing the rabbit to find somewhere else to live. After the tour, we came back to the van and put the heater on before settling in for another early night.
Temps: Scottsdale – 0ºc at 7:00am
St Columba Falls – 4ºc at 10:30am
St
Helens – 10ºc at 11:30am
Weather: Light frost in Scottsdale under a lightly
overcast sky. Mist rain entering Bicheno.
WOW!!!! Finally our first cold morning. We woke to frost on the ground and ice on the windscreen. –2ºc at 7:30am.
We proved our heater was working well, the temp inside the van at 7:30am was 10ºc. We let the motor warm up well and let the demister defrost the windscreen before heading off to Launceston via Westbury.
This is called the “Great Western Tiers touring route” The towns it passes through are historic towns and the whole route is very pretty. We reached Launceston and found our way to the information centre in the middle of town. We got information on exactly how to get to the Tamar Valley wine route and off we went. We decided that a Motorhome is NOT the best vehicle to be in to explore Launceston. The lanes in town were minimum width and there was, as in most cities, not a great abundance of parking for a longer vehicle. (The Motorhome is 6.2m long)
We set off for the Tamar Valley and stopped at Grindelwald. This a resort village built in the style of a Swiss village. Further along and we stopped at Seahorse World. Neither Mick or I had ever seen a seahorse, so to see thousands of seahorses in this aquaculture farm was very interesting. They are interesting little creatures.
After Seahorse World, we crossed the Batman Bridge and pulled up under the bridge at a good picnic/campground for lunch. Continuing along the Tamar Valley route we went to George Town which is an old historic town. Heading east from here we stopped at a couple of wineries and bought some local wines for happy hour.
We kept heading east and stopped at Scottsdale at the free caravan park that Bob Blakely had suggested. This was a very pretty park that the local Lions, Apex and Rotary Club are doing up to encourage travellers to stop in town. They are in the process of building a new amenities block that should be completed in Aug 2005.
Temps: Deloraine: -2ºc @7:30am
Scottsdale: 11ºc @ 4:30pm
Weather: Frosty in Deloraine in the morning but fine and clear. Travelling east we had foggy roads with a light cloud cover. The foggy air made the sunlight very glary.
Otherwise a fine day with just a slight nip in the air, not enough to make it cold enough to complain about.
Travel: Deloraine to Westbury – 16kms
Westbury to Launceston – 35kms
Launceston to Seahorse World (Beauty Point) –
47kms
Awoke early and it was cold!! 6ºc at 6:00am, 7ºc at 7:00am. No wind or rain though. We had our showers and headed off for Forth at about 7:30am.
We followed the Letterbox Trail to Wilmot. Many of the residents here have been very creative in their letterboxes. Unfortunately, many of them are not in easy to stop places to be able to photograph them all. 🙁 The road to Wilmot was a good road but we drove through quite heavy fog.
Reaching Wilmot, we followed the Mersey River to Moina where we got THE best pies. The lady at the shop makes these beef pies. (Mick ate two!)
Off to Sheffield to see the many murals on the walls of the town. (This was a Bob Blakely suggestion). The next stop was Railton where the community is in the process of growing a topiary trail. It is good to know that due to the foresight of these communities (Wilmot, Sheffield and Railton), they have put themselves on the map and are not going to fade away.
Continuing north we came to La Trobe. La Trobe was a surprisingly large town. It has the Axemen’s Hall of Fame which is dedicated to the Legends of Wood chopping and in particular David Foster who is a local resident. It was well worth the $9.00 each to see some of the stories of the characters that have been legends in this sport.
Just out of La Trobe we visited the Ashgrove Cheese Factory and (more importantly) Tasting rooms. YUM. I often buy Ashgrove cheese at Woolworths for my crackers. I was expecting a much larger operation than we saw. The Ashgrove dairy started to make cheese in the early 90’s to supplement the income for their farm. They have obviously done very well!!
Next stop was the Anvers Chocolate factory and tasting room!! YUM again!! Mick and I are not great chocolate eaters , but we made a good go of their tasting!! (Butterscotch fudge is pretty good!!) The only downside of Anvers is the lack of parking for larger vehicles. The main carpark is tucked away very prettily under low trees.
From La Trobe we took the main highway from Devonport to Launceston. Turning off at Deloraine, we had intended to visit Liffey Falls. We needed to shop so pulled into Woolies and then the pub shop. We asked the Pub Shop man how far to Liffey Falls and he said not to bother, as there has not been much rain and they would be disappointing. We bowed to local knowledge and decided to look for the caravan park Bob Blakely had recommended.
Bob was correct!! This park is very pretty sitting on the banks of the Meander River. As soon as we parked the van, a group of 11 mallard ducks came to greet us. (They obviously know that vans mean FOOD!!) We settled in for an early night. We had requested a sight near the laundry, as I still had to dry the washing from our rained-out night last night. The caretaker lady for the park said we could setup wherever we liked! We chose a site directly opposite the amenities block and away from the other 4 or 5 vans parked for the night. We fed the ducks and settled in for a fairly lazy night.
Temps: Turners Beach 6ºc – 6:00am
7ºc – 7:00am
Deloraine
– 13ºc – 4:30pm
Weather: Overcast in Turners Beach with a light
breeze. Foggy as we headed into the
mountains following the letterbox trail. We dipped in and out of fog depending
on how high out of valleys we were. No rain and blue skies overhead, until La
Trobe where it was slightly overcast.
Deloraine was fine until about 5:30 when we had a little rain for about
30mins.
Left Wynyard at 8:00am and drove to Lacrum Dairy at Mella via Smithton. The Lacrum dairy advertised Cheese tasting and dairy, unfortunately, they are not open from May until November :(.
Back the 5kms to Smithton and we looked around. Smithton is a big town with a large industry base. We saw 3 or 4 large timber mills and a McCain’s food processing plant. We think they may be processing Tasmanian potatoes into chips. Further east to Stanley and we went up “The Nut” This is the main feature of this cute little town. It has a very steep pathway to the top of the Nut or there is a chairlift. (We took the chairlift- $9.00 each) The chairlift ride was a bit scary for both of us “scared of heights” people but we got through it ok!! We got a great panoramic view from the 35minute easy walk around the summit of the Nut.
Back to ground level and we hunted
for the bakery for the first of our scallop pies.
We asked at a shop and were directed to the shop that sold the pies and off we went. Bought our curried scallop pie and took it down to the harbour to eat!!! YUM YUM!! There WILL be more scallop pies consumed!!
After lunch, we headed further east along the Bass Highway, back through Wynyard and on to Burnie. Burnie is a major city with lots of shops and industry. It also has the Lactos cheese factory and tasting shop. YUM again!!! I tasted almost every variety of their cheese, except blue.
Further east we came to the quaint little town of Penguin, so named because of the fairy penguins that come ashore here. There is a large Penguin statue in the main street, and even the rubbish bins are decorated with penguins.
East again and the next town was Ulverstone and then the seaside town of Turners Beach. We booked into the Beachside Caravan Park at about 4:00pm. We took our clothes to the laundry and, of course, got our first real rain of the trip!! Did a couple of trips to the laundry in the rain to reload the dryer with coins before running out of patience and coins (in that order!!)
We brought our nearly dry clothes back to the van and hung a clothesline across the dinette and turned on the heater. Had dinner and had an early night.
Temps: Wynyard – 12ºC 7:30am
Turners Beach – 16ºc 4:30pm
Weather: Fine all day. Light breeze
in Stanley, but not cold
Rain in Turners Beach for the 1 hour we
wanted to wash the clothes.
