by MoyJos | Jul 12, 2005 | Tasmania
Woke up to 2ºc this morning.
We discovered how deeply Mick slept as, when he got out of bed, he found our dozen eggs!! There were none broken, not even the box was squashed. We have been putting our eggs tucked up under the doona to stop them from sliding around and getting broken. (They won’t fit in the fridge.)
I got ready to have my shower and headed up to the shower block, and encountered Electronically Timed Showers!!! www.showertimer.com You had to get ready and then press the button to get 7 minutes of water. The box beeped each minute and then gave a countdown for the last 100 seconds. When it shut the water off, it counted down 60 seconds before it would reactivate the water. Where was this product when the kids were living at home!!! 7 minutes was more than enough time to have a good shower, including washing my hair.
We hit the road and headed into Hobart on the way to Huonville and the Tahune Airwalk. We stopped at Franklin and toured the Wooden Boat School. The students here are taught the skills of how to build wooden boats and earn a fully accredited Diploma of Wooden Boat Building. Once completed, the students are employed by shipyards around Australia as specialised craftsmen. Many of them specialise in quality boats that are fitted out in high quality timbers.
Further south we reached the town of Geeveston and the Forestry Centre. You could spend a lot more time here than we had. The centre chronicles the past and future forestry industry in Tasmania, and how the forestry department uses the timber and the products produced from it.
We purchased our tickets for the Tahune Airwalk and travelled the 27kms through the southern forest to reach it. The Tahune Airwalk (www.forestrytas.com.au) is a great walk that is high up in the forest canopy. The airwalk itself is 620m long and is a high sided metal walkway. It is accessed via an easy track and 112 steps.
On the way to Tahune Airwalk, we stopped off at “The Big Tree”. This is one of the tallest trees in Australia. At 87 meters tall it was a most impressive sight.
After Tahune we headed back to the town of Geeveston and Huonville and travelled down the east side of the Huon River to Cygnet and around to Snug on the east coast. The coastline here was very pretty, with lots of little coves and streams. We came to the little town of Snug at about 4:00pm and set up for the night.
Temps: Barilla
– 2ºc at 7:30pm
Weather: Warm and sunny until about 3:00pm then
lightly overcast.
Travel: Barilla to Huonville – 51kms
Huonville to Geeveston – 22kms
Geeveston to Tahune Airwalk – 27kms
Back to Huonville
Huonville to Snug via Gordon – 42kms
by MoyJos | Jul 11, 2005 | Tasmania
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.
Temps: Seven Mile Beach – 15ºc at
8:45am
Barilla – 8ºc at 10:00pm
(thought
it was supposed to be cold!!)
Weather: Warm and sunny all day.
Travel: Seven Mile Beach to Sorell – 20kms
Sorell to Port Arthur – 68kms
Port Arthur to Barilla – 94kms
by MoyJos | Jul 10, 2005 | Tasmania
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.
Coles Bay to Swansea – 71kms
Swansea to Orford – 59kms
Orford to Sorell – 54kms
Sorell to Seven Mile Beach – 20kms
by MoyJos | Jul 9, 2005 | Tasmania
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.
Travel: Scottsdale to Derby – 41kms
Derby
to St Helens – 93kms
St Helens to Bicheno – 69kms
by MoyJos | Jul 8, 2005 | Tasmania
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
Beauty Point to George Town – 45kms
George Town to Scottsdale – 52kms
