Tasmania (2015) Diary

2-2-2015 Monday
We left mid morning and drove 496kms west and then south to the town of Moree(NSW) and the Moree Showgrounds for 1 night. We stopped at Aratula for fuel and made one comfort stop but otherwise kept driving as we wanted to make Moree today. Our drive was fortunately uneventful with a short burst of heavy rain at one time, and it was a pleasure seeing the green countryside all along the drive. At the showgrounds it was pleasantly cool, quite a change from recent days at home.

3-2-2015 Tuesday
Today we drove 302kms south to the town of Tooraweenah(NSW) and the Tooraweenah Caravan Park for 1 night. The owners are very friendly people, the lady, Sarah, bringing us welcoming homemade scones with cream and homemade jam - very nice. We'd planned to go to Dubbo today but as we drove into Coonabarabran we saw the signs for the Siding Spring Observatory and Exploratory Centre so we dropped into the information centre to find out about it. It was only a 28km drive west so we decided to see it. The last 4 kms was up a steepish, winding but good bitumen road and they say not suitable for towing (like caravans or boats), but Casa handled it with no trouble.

This site houses 17 separate observatories including the 3.9 metre Australian Astronomical Observatory. This observatory is the only one open to the public during the daytime, has the largest 3.9 metre optical astronomy research telescope in Australia and is at the cutting edge of astronomical research. The research people work here at night studying the stars, galaxies and other formations. Coonabarabin was chosen for this work because the skies are dark compared with other areas that have too much artificial light. The hands on exhibition in the Exploratory Centre is a great way to learn amazing facts about the universe. The centre is situated in the Warrumbungle National Park and on the drive we could see that there'd been a fire through here (January 2013). Most of the tree trunks were blackened but 2 years recovery time had promoted much green grass and foliage growth.

4-2-2015 Wednesday
This morning we left Casa in the caravan park where we stayed last night, at the suggestion and permission of the caravan park owners, whilst we did the historical walk around the little country town of Tooraweenah. We only had to walk a few blocks to get around all the historical landmarks. Some of these were sites only (no building remains) with an information plaque to chronicle the history, and other sites still had the buildings but were mostly disused now. During the depression in the 1920s and 1930s the village boasted 3 football teams (why doesn't that surprise me!). Residents and property owners earned cash from the rabbit plague. Before school kids would take rabbits they'd trapped overnight and get about 5 shillings (about 50 cents but a good bit of money in those days) making them kings! By 1938 Butler Air Transport was established, bringing with it new possibilities.

After driving 110kms south we arrived in Dubbo (NSW) and the Big 4 Dubbo Parklands Caravan Park for 2 nights.

5-2-2015 Thursday
Rode Harley 1km down the road to the Western Plains Zoo and really enjoyed our day. We walked around for 6 hours without even stopping for lunch, only because there was nothing open except back at the beginning of the 5km route! - lucky we had brought a couple apples. We've been there before years ago when Andrew was a kid, so it was time to see it again. Other than walking you can actually drive your own vehicle right around, stopping at various parking spots, ride bicycles (available for hire) or drive little zebra-striped electric golf buggy type vehicles (also available for hire). We were pleased it wasn't too hot and there was a breeze. It also wasn't very busy which was nice.

There were many animals and we especially enjoyed the very, very, cute meerkats, the large, lumbering Galapagos tortoises and the entertaining hippopotamuses. We arrived just in time for the hippo feeding and information talk from one of the zoo keepers. After his lunch we were treated to the male hippo carrying out his territory marking, which entailed him splashing urine onto his poo as he did it, whilst flicking his tail quickly from side to side, creating a 'shower' (they call it) and spreading around his scent! We saw the lady zoo keeper move back out of the way very quickly as she knew he was about to start. The male weighed about 3 tonne, about 3 small cars! The 2 females each only weighed 2 tonne (2 cars).

Whilest we're on the subject of 'poo' we saw a rhino standing not far from his big pile of it - a nearby information board saying each one can do up to 25 kilos of it per day! I'm surprised we're not drowning in it! For the first time we saw some baby Galapagos tortoises, which were the size of normal small turtles and you wouldn't know the difference if you weren't told. And of course there were the expected Aussie enclosures, the koalas, emus, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas and dingoes but we were surprised there weren't any Tasmanian devils.

6-2-2015 Friday
This morning we drove 115kms south to the town of Parkes (NSW) and the Currajong Caravan Park for 1 night. On the way we stopped at the Parkes Telescope just for a quick look as it is impressive - we'd been here before so didn't need to do the whole thing again. A movie called "The Dish" was made about it some years back with Sam Neill. Before booking in to the caravan park we stopped at the Parkes Information centre which was really good. On the same premises were 4 interesting things to see. Firstly was the Elvis Presley museum displaying a big array of Elvis memorabilia, some of which I was surprised that'd left the U.S. In the second week of January there is a big Elvis convention here in Parkes, where a lot of people dress up as Elvis (not sure how serious they get with activities).

The next was the Old Cars Museum filled with lots of well preserved classic cars and motorbikes - Dave was salivating over a couple of them. From there we moved into the Henry Parkes Museum which houses a permanent display of many items relating to Sir Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation, after whom the town of Parkes was named. In this museum, run by the Historical society, there were many other separate displays of early Australian memorabilia, crafts, clocks, some phones, military, clothes, etc. There was a section on the history of the famous guitarist Tommy Emmanuelle and family so he must've been raised here. Lastly there was the Antique Machinery Collection including 35 tractors, restored and in working order, harvesters and agricultural equipment, stationary engines, trucks, blacksmith shop, Wongalea schoolhouse and a Silver City Comet Railway Carriage in very good order. We spent some hours walking around all these displays, and that was fairly quick.

7-2-2015 Saturday
This morning we drove a few minutes down the road to the town centre of Parkes to fuel up, do a little shopping and go for a stroll around the town. After that we drove 285kms south to the town of Wagga Wagga (NSW) and the Wagga Showgrounds for 1 night. There are stables here with trotting horses and there's also greyhound racing track/facilities. When we arrived there was a horse in a round metal fenced area rolling about in the dirt and having a wonderful time.

8-2-1015 Sunday
After packingup this morning we drove 305kms south and then west, crossing the border into Victoria and to the town of Shepparton (VIC) and the Victoria Lakes Holiday Park for 2 nights. It was a lovely sunny day. We stopped in at the tourism office to see if there were any particular sightseeing things we wanted to do but nothing really grabbed us. We're due to have a rest day tomorrow and do some washing anyway. The park we're in has a nice lake nearby with some walking tracks around so we may go for a stroll.

9-2-2015 Monday
Rest Day - so did the washing, some odd jobs and then rode Harley into the centre of town to check out the fibreglass, life-size Painted Cows in Monash Park. There were some lovely colourful ones, one riding a skateboard and one with a football helmet on. Outside the police station, there was one painted in a policeman's uniform wearing a police cap. We came across these when we were in Belfast Ireland - painted with various themes. We walked around to check out the town before our next stop. We were ready to get back on the scooter to go elsewhere, and as I was putting my glasses on through the visor space in my helmet, the right lense popped out and onto the road! (Déja Vu - this happened once before when we were travelling in Western Australia in 2013.) Luckily it was a work day and we'd just walked past an optometrist in another street, so we went there and the young man put it back in with a new screw without charge - very nice of him. Unfortunately he couldn't do anything about the chip made when it hit the road but at least it's at the top of the lense and not really in the main viewing part.

We then rode back down the highway for a few kms to the Emerald Bank Leisure Land, a collection of interesting businesses. Marking the centre is a big white windmill, similar to the ones we've seen in the Netherlands. It sits atop the chocolate shop and cafe which was not open today. By the time we arrived we only had an hour and a half which was enough time for what we wanted to see. This was the Shepparton Motor Museum which also features the newly opened Historical Furphy Museum - the main reason for our attraction. 2014 was 150 years since John Furphy started his engineering business, manufacturing the well known Furphy Water Cart. We have one of these in our back yard.

In the first World War water carts were used in a number of different ways and locations as part of the war effort, but most notable was the use of Furphy Water Carts in the staging camp at Broadmeadows in Victoria. Many thousands of troops were camped here in 1914 before heading off to war. With their large FURPHY lettering on the side and the cast name and inscriptions on the ends they were instantly recognisable. The gathering of men by a water cart was a perfect place for rumours and gossip to be raised and the term "furphy" came to be used to describe information that could not be relied upon or that was fanciful.

The company still runs today, by 5th generation Furphys, and we see many of their products in everyday situations, like the tall square rubbish bins, water fountains, park seats and playground equipment. The Motor museum houses approximately 100 exhibits including motor cars, motor cycles, pedal cars, bicycles and other memorabilia, all beautifully restored.

10-2-2015 Tuesday Crossing over to Tasmania on the Spirit of Tasmania

We drove 195kms south to the port at Victoria's capital, Melbourne (VIC) for a 7.30pm departure on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry, for an overnight trip to Tasmania. We stopped again at the same place as the Furphy Museum, to check out the second hand shop that we didn't have time to see yesterday, Barclay's Antiques and Collectibles. We're glad we did as it was a great shop - had heaps of interesting stuff, and for a second hand place it didn't have that musty, dusty smell that often goes with those places. We got talking to the owners, June and Frank, very nice people who said they'd refer people to Dave and his website when they got enquiries for phones.

Further on we stopped at the town of Nagambi (VIC) for a walk around and lunch at the Rowing club. Black Caviar, the famous racehourse, came from here and a statue of him in a racing pose with a jockey astride, stands in a lovely grassed area near the lake. Lanes are marked out with buoys on the lake for the rowing races but there were none on today. We noticed the nice rest stops along the highways since we crossed the border into Victoria - large, nicely bitumed areas with decent toilets. I suppose that's possible because there's less of an area to cover than other states. It was interesting driving through the busy Melbourne outskirts to the ferry terminal - so complex and we would've found it difficult without the GPS (Tom).

Once at the terminal a bit after 5pm, we got through the quarantine - no fresh fruit, vegetables or certain fresh fish to go into Tassie. Over the last 4 days I made sure we used up all these products, or at least cooked them and had them in the fridge. So we had fish for 4 nights with plenty of potato, carrot and whatever else had to be used up. The gas couldn't be turned on during the trip either and unfortunately for some reason we couldn't get the fridge to work on leisure battery, so it was off for about 12 hours. Without being opened during that time though things were ok. We waited in line for some time, presumably waiting for internal ramps on different levels to be raised after vehicles had boarded. Finally we moved and drove up a ramp with other cars, motorhomes and caravans to be squeezed in like sardines in Casa's final resting place for the journey. After putting our overnight bags in our cabin we went down a level to get a drink, relax and waited with others on the outside deck for departure. Afterwards we went into the on-board tourist office to collect brochures and got a lot of information from a very helpful lady - that cost us a bit of money with her salesmanship, but that was ok. After a light dinner we retreated to our cabin about 9pm.

11-2-2015 Wednesday
After arriving at the terminal at Devonport (TAS) we got our wake up call in our cabin at 5.45am, to be ready for drive off at 6.30am, and they were on time. All went smoothly which is good as although we had our own cabin I didn't seem to sleep well - I think the rolling and pitching of the ferry across Bass Strait kept my body on alert. I thought Dave slept ok but he said he was tired this morning as well. After leaving the terminal we drove about 7kms, staying in the town of Devonport (TAS) to the Mersey Bluff Caravan Park for 5 nights. We booked in when we arrived there at about 7am as they were open for business! At first we were surprised but then realised it was logical, being so close to the ferry terminal, and catching business like us. We decided to have a rest day to recover so after we quickly stocked up again on fresh produce at the local shop, we set up camp, had breakfast and relaxed.

This caravan park overlooks Devonport and Bass Strait and we have nice views. In the mid afternoon we went for a walk along the esplanade where we'd seen people going for a swim, not long after we arrived in the park this morning. There is a surf life saving club close by, in the same building as a restaurant and cafe - it's obviously a very popular place over the summer. Also close by is a circus - will have to see if we can make it. We enjoyed the cooler weather here today.

12-2-2015 Thursday
It was quite cool overnight, needing the doona up as well as the sheet - haven't been able to do that since last autumn. This morning we donned warm clothes before we rode Harley sightseeing today. We rode about 100 metres just up the road to the Mersey Bluff Lighthouse, established in 1889 and still operating. It stands above lots volcanic rock being constantly pounded by the waves. About 300 metres away is the mouth of the Mersey River up which the Spirit of Tasmania ferry motors to port to drop its cargo (vehicles and people) from the mainland.

Then we rode along the well manicured waterfront. Near the surf club and cafes is a large playground which caters for the really small toddlers as well as the older ones. Further along was an impressive war memorial commemorating 5 wars/conflicts, and across the road, some lovely 19th century old homes. After that we had some nice pizzas for lunch at a restaurant called Valentino's.

At night here in the park, the resident rabbits come out foraging for food. It's interesting to see because we don't see them in Qld, being illegal. There's also a dark wallaby looking type animal that comes out too. Any vegetable scraps we throw out after dark are gone by morning. In the afternoon we are entertained by a flock of galahs swinging on the electric wires and screeching, just like a bunch of unruly teenagers. Lots of seagulls hang around too, waiting for any food that someone might throw out to them.

13-2-2015 Friday
Today we rode Harley about 66kms all up, firstly to the town of Sheffield (TAS) which is known as the Town of Murals, because there are about 50 murals painted on the sides of buildings all over town. They are wonderful to see and draw a lot of tourists. The idea started many years ago when someone saw murals painted on buildings in Canada and brought the idea home. The town was faltering before then. There are many interesting shops to wander through and tempt you to spend your money. On the way here and whilst walking around the town, we saw Mt Roland, an impressive mountain standing 1233 metres high and having a shape more like Uluru than the typical A shape mountain.

After lunch we rode to the town of Railton (TAS) which is known as the Town of Topiary. For those who may not know, topiary is the art of clipping shrubs into fantastic shapes, the same way as squared hedges shapes. There are many topiary sculptures of mostly people and animals but there was one of a train, which looked great, incorporating the real metal train wheels. Some are in the street and some are in people's gardens. There was an elephant, a Thylazine (Tasmania Tiger), a shark complete with white teeth, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, a kangaroo and many more. There were around 50 of them but we didn't see them all.

A lot of skill and time goes into the shaping and tending these figures, however some cheating goes on. We saw some wire frames for sale (costing hundreds of $), fashioned in the shape of the particular figures, elephants, horses, dogs, people, etc. The shrub is grown up through the wire frame making it easier for an unskilled person to maintain the shape during subsequent trimmings.

14-2-2015 Saturday Valentine's Day
It started to rain overnight and was fairly bleak, cold and rainy this morning. We were going to go to the afternoon session of the circus today but decided against it and will aim for tomorrow, as the forecast is better. So we've decided to stay an extra night and stay inside today - a good day for movies or reading.

15-2-2015 Sunday
We went to the Euro Circus today and we really enjoyed it. It was a cut above the normal little circus and was quite worth the money. We only had to walk a couple hundred metres along the esplanade. Not far away on another open park area was some other event where people were flying colourful kites, near a big inflatable yellow bear. When we were walking back after the circus there was a chopper hovering up in the air, trailing something in a long net and as we, and a lot of other people, were watching, it released the net dropping a lot colourful things into a fenced area. When they hit the ground we saw they were small stuffed teddy bears so we concluded the event must've had something to do with kids.

16-2-2015 Monday
This morning it rained and was overcast but when we left it'd fined up which was nice. We left the park and drove 52 kms west, along the coastline, to the town of Burnie (TAS) and the free camping spot Cooee Point Reserve for 1 night. This spot is about 3 kms west of Burnie, a large area beside the water and rocky beachfront which is nice, but on the other side of us is an area where trucks seem to leave their trailers whilst they go off elsewhere. There's also a building with Cooee Point Abattoirs on the side of it but we haven't smelt anything bad as yet. It's quite windy so that could be helpful.

We'd stopped at Burnie to obtain a camping permit at the council offices and walked around to view the place. When we left we made another stop before our camp spot, at the Makers Workshop. Here there was an information centre along with a collection of a few things including displays of art, home-made jewellery, history on the paper industry, a cafe and cheese tasting area. Burnie used to have a paper mill but apparently not so anymore. There were life size white statues around inside, made with layers of wet paper in some white stuff (which could've been plaster of paris) and built up to form some wonderful detailed figures. We tasted some of the different cheeses and after lunch, bought some to take back.

On the way here there is a town called Penguin and where we are staying tonight, is a penguin viewing area later in the evening. We didn't go to it though.

17-2-2015 Tuesday
Drove 76 kms west and then north to the town of Stanley (TAS) and an RV free camping area ($8/night no toilet/shower) for 1 night. The nearby caravan park was fully booked and luckily this was available as there aren't any other parks nearby. Where we are camped we have a great view out of our side window of The Nut - a large flat top rocky area that tourists like to climb and walk around the summit to view the scenery.

On the way here we took a detour to the nice town of Wynyard and continued further to the Table Cape Lighthouse. We did a tour up inside and was pleasantly surprised at the decent spiral metal staircase, wide steps and not steep. The lighthouse is 25 metres tall and is still operational. There are tulip farms nearby but we didn't see too many in flower. An aerial photo at the lighthouse shows the cape looking like a colourful patchwork quilt.

Tasmania grows poppies for the legal manufacture of morphine and other substances. We saw quite a few poppy fields along the way here, and they are an uninviting brown colour, especially next door to a green field. (I don't know if they go through any other colour change during their life cycle - I am used to a poppy being a red colour.) All the fences have signs clearly marked with "Keep Out - Prohibited Area".

18-2-2015 Wednesday
This morning we walked up the road to the chairlift that took us up to the top of The Nut, 152 metres (500 feet) high. Over 13 million years ago, lava shot through the earth's surface, cooled and formed basalt, resulting in the volcanic plug, The Nut. Once at the top we walked the 2 km track around the summit, stopping at the lookouts that gave breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape and ocean. It was a lovely sunny day with very little wind, so the gorgeous blue water was quite flat. You can walk up or down The Nut but it's quite steep and we figured our walk around the top was enough exercise, so we got the chairlift down as well.

After returning to Casa back at the free camping spot, we had some lunch and then drove 82 kms west and then south to the town of Arthur River (TAS) and the Arthur River Cabin Park for 2 nights. We drove through lots of dairy cow country, alternating with dense bush and large trees. We did a minor detour through the town of Smithton but didn't stop.

19-2-2015 Thursday
We rode Harley to the nearby Arthur River (the actual river) where we boarded a nice timber boat called the M.V. George Robinson, for a traditional river cruise 14kms upstream, through magnificent scenery into the heart of temperate rainforest. They told us the population of this town is 48, yes 48, I didn't leave one or two zeros off there, and 3 of them were working on this boat! This river and surrounding rainforest is pristine with no construction, logging or even camping allowed on its banks within 2 kms. There were many tree ferns that we remember seeing when we were here last time (about 12 years ago).

Early in our trip they pointed out the large nest up in the trees of the White Chested Sea Eagles, 2 parents and 2 babies, which were nearly as big as the parents. They threw some fish onto the bank and the eagles came. The parent swooped in, picked up the fish and one of the 'babies' pestered the parent for it. Further on we stopped 14 kms in the boat was tied up at a bank and we got off and were taken for a nature walk through the forest by one of the workers who had a couple of degrees in plants and animals. We were able to take with us a glass (plastic cup actually) of wine, very civilised. This guide told us that in this Tarkine region, because of it being such a pristine wilderness, untouched by man, it is quite possible that the Tasmanian Tiger (recorded as extinct) still lives.

Apparently this western side of northern Tassie gets battered by the Roaring 40s winds, and the winter brings the rains causing this river to rise quite substantially. We saw evidence of this with the driftwood and other plant rubbish sitting high up on the bank or in the trees, which didn't look natural. After our walk and nature talk we had a BBQ luncheon and some more wine - nice day. On the way back the boat captain treated us to a couple of comical stories and poems. After leaving the boat we rode a short way to a lookout called The Edge of The World which was a ruggedly beautiful part of the coastline and interesting rocky formations.

20-2-2015 Friday
This morning we left the park and drove 82kms north and then east to the town of Burnie (TAS) and the free camping spot at the Cooee Point Reserve beside the sea, for 1 night - the same place we stayed last Monday night. We had to go back along the exact same highway on which we came here a few days ago, because it's the only road in and out of Arthur River and the other towns along the north coastline. After short distance into our trip we took a little detour to the Green Point Beach, a lovely sandy beach at Marrawah. There was also a free camping spot here too but although it was right close to the beach, it didn't actually have a view of the water from the camping spot - so we didn't feel like we missed out.

Detoured into the town of Wynyard to fuel up, and stock up with groceries and drinks. There were long bay parks especially for caravans near the visitor centre and not far from the shops. I love country towns - they nearly always have big streets and easy places to park, and they cater for tourists with caravans and motorhomes. In the visitor centre where we parked, there was a Veteran Car Display - "Wonders of Wynyard" so we went in for a look. It was small but very good. There were quite a few very old and beautifully restored cars. There were several Model Fords but not just the Model 'T' as I, and most other people, are familiar with. I didn't realise there were about 8 other Models (eg A, B, C, F, N, K, R, S) produced before the Model T going back to about 1903. This model was so much more familiar because it was the one that was produced en masse so it was more affordable by the general public. There were also an Oldsmobile and Cadillac but they were very old ones, more with the look of the Model T than the more modern ones I know. There were also several varying sized Penny Farthing bicycles and some motorcycles, including an Indian, like in the movie with Anthony Hopkins - all well restored.

We've been watching with interest the news on tv of the 2 cyclones in Qld - 'Lam' over Darwin and 'Marcia' over Yeppoon. We feel like we had some inkling and ran away down to Tassie! Hope everyone is ok at home.

21-2-2015 Saturday
We left our free park this morning and drove 113kms south and then east to Cradle Mountain (TAS) and the Discovery Holiday Park for 2 nights. Once we were close to our destination after driving over some steep hills, we stopped and walked up to a lookout which gave a terrific 360 degree view, including Cradle Mountain. The visitor centre is right opposite our caravan park so we dropped in there first to check out the tours we'd like to do tomorrow. Here's a little bit about the place:-

Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park

Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, with its ancient rainforests and alpine heaths is home to the world-famous Overland Track and iconic Cradle Mountain. Part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the park is one of the state's most special places, where ancient pines fringe glacial lakes and icy streams cascade down rugged mountains.
The vegetation is rich and diverse, including grassland, rainforest and many ancient plants such as the long-lived and endemic King Billy pine and the unusual native deciduous beech. The park also provides a rich habitat for wildlife, including Tasmanian devils, quolls, platypus, echidna, brush tailed possum and several bird species.
Dramatic Cradle Mountain is the rugged jewel of the park and can be seen from Dove Lake on a day visit. Take the two-hour walk around the lake, or spend the day tackling Cradle Mountain's summit.
There are also a variety of shorter walks that pass through beautiful old-growth rainforest.
Weindorfer's Chalet is the rustic former home of Gustav and Kate Weindorfer and is the starting point for the world-famous Overland Track. This magnificent six-day walk passes through the heart of some of the world's finest mountain terrain to majestic Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Australia.
Cradle Valley and the surrounding areas contain many Aboriginal historic sites, identified by remnant stone tools, caves, rock shelters and stone sources. These can be explored on the Aboriginal Cultural Walk that departs from Lake St Clair at the southern end of the Park.
Little evidence survives of the early European activities of hunting, surveying, mining and logging, though several of the present-day walking trails were blazed for these purposes.
The Lake St Clair section of the National Park is a walkers' paradise, with leisurely lakeside strolls and longer forest walks. Visitors in late spring and summer can witness a brilliant display of wildflowers including waratahs, orchids, banksias, hakeas and leatherwoods.

22-2-2015 Sunday
This morning we boarded the bus for the first part of our booked 2 hour tour, firstly to Dove Lake overlooked by Cradle Mountain - a beautiful picture. Our guide was able to give us much information on the plants and trees along the drive. There are many available walks all over Cradle Valley and from what we saw, many people from this park and the surrounding accommodation establishments, are taking advantage of them. We visited Waldheim Chalet which is the timber house that Austrian-born Gustav Weindorfer built back in 1912. It was his and his wife's vision that ultimately led to this place being declared a national park. Cradle Mountain is so called because the two lots of towering spires with a low area in the middle, gives it the appearance of a baby's cradle. With imagination, you can even see the outline of a baby lying down in it.

Our guide pointed out the 'square' poo of their resident wombats, and yes, it was square - makes the mind boggle! While driving in the bus Dave and I saw an echidna taking a walk out in the open - exciting as we hadn't seen one outside captivity. We were told they are a day time feeder. There are two wallaby species about - Bennetts wallabies and pademelons. Last night I was watching satellite tv and all of a sudden the signal was lost. When I looked out the door at our dish I saw what I initially thought was a pademelon a short distance away, but have since realised it walked differently, so it was probably a brush tailed possum. Anyway whatever it was, probably bumped it - oh well good job we had some dvds. They also have a few species of black currawongs here and they're excellent scavengers. They can even open zips on backpacks to search for food! Our guide pointed out a special type of tree called the Billy King tree, which grows very straight and tall and is very good timber for building and makes beautiful furniture. Our last stop was the Pencil Pine Falls.

At 8.30pm we were picked up at reception for the second part of our tour - which was the Tassie Devil Sanctuary and Night Animal Spotting. At the sanctuary a young wildlife lady told us all about the devils as she fed them raw meat in an enclosure, and we watched as they shrieked and snarled at each other, fighting over the meat. Sometimes they just fought each other without the meat, and they sound terrible - there's certainly truth to the cartoon that was done many years ago of this animal - made out to be a crazy maniac. They certainly take chunks out of each other too. A breeding program is being conducted to increase their numbers, which have been dessimated by the facial tumour disease against which they have no defence. I saw a documentary a little while ago on the breeding program being done on Maria Island off the south eastern coast. The devils only exist in Tasmania being wiped out on the mainland by dingoes and foxes - surprising considering how fierce the devils are and their powerful jaws. At the sanctuary there was also spotted quolls that they fed in cages with ceilings as they are good climbers. When we left there we continued our animal spotting, driving slowly along the road whilst shining spotlights on either side of the road. We saw quite a few wallabies, joeys, pademelons, wombats, smaller number of brush-tailed possums and even a couple spotted quolls. We arrived back about 10.45pm.

23-2-2015 Monday
It rained quite a bit this morning. We left the park and drove 140kms south west to the town of Strahan (TAS) and the Discovery Caravan Park for 3 nights. On the drive the landscape was full of rainforest type trees and plants, and the road in front at times, was quite misted over. We saw a lot of pine trees, mature ones as well as young ones so obviously this part of the state is used for logging. On the way we stopped at a town called Zeehan (known as Silver City) where we had lunch and then spent over 2 hours in the West Coast Heritage Centre. Zeehan many years ago was a very busy mining town which made it Tasmania's 3rd largest town, so there was a lot of mining memorabilia at the centre. The main street was was 2 miles long and had hundreds of pub! Outside there were several old restored train engines, a blacksmith shop, mining equipment and power station equipment. You could also walk down into a simulated underground mine and once there, sit and watch some old footage of underground mining.

Inside were many different and comprehensive displays, but the one that stood out for me was the minerals. There were some beautiful formations and the stand out one was called Crocoite (pronounced Crokite). It has bright orange rectangular shaped crystals and it is Tamania's mineral emblem. The best example I saw was in a mineral shop down the street, and its price tag was $12,000! It was beautiful, so striking. Apparently it's not found in any other part of Australia, only here in Tasmania. It is found in some other countries but is not widespread. Through this centre we were also able to view 2 adjacent buildings, the old police station/court house and the old majestic Gaiety Theatre. The stage was surrounded by the decorative structure of its day, and all the theatre chairs were waiting for their guests. We sat and watched a film of the town's history.

24-2-2015 Tuesday
We rode Harley to the business centre just down the road and took our time just walking around and taking in the seaside town. The big crayfish boats were moored here and this is also from where the small tourist planes and cruise boats (that go up the Gordon river) leave. We did the boat cruise last time we were here so we were just going to explore whatever else there was to offer. The Tassal salmon company has their farms here and there's a couple other companies as well. We continued further on around the bay to the Regatta Point station from where the Wilderness Railway ride (rack and pinion) starts. We couldn't get on the full day trip that went today but we have got tickets for the half day one on Friday from Queenstown. After looking around here we had a very nice lunch at the Regatta Point Tavern across the road.

25-2-2015 Wednesday
Rode Harley into the business centre to do a 2 hour Historical Guided Walk which was very informative and we really enjoyed it. Part of the tour included visiting the sawmill and the shop next door that sells a lot of beautiful Huon pine products with a beautiful price tag as well. There was a small boat (about the size of a small tinnie) in there, made out of this timber and polished and it was gorgeous! The price tag was $14,500! They found Huon pine was best to make boats out of because the naturally occurring oil, methyl eugenol, is a great pest repellent and so marine borers didn't attack these boats. It also doesn't rot in water like other wood. Huon pine is not allowed to be logged anymore so they get their stocks out of what's already lying out there (probably also why the products are so expensive). There were big interesting gnarled bits of old looking pieces around the sawmill, like driftwood, but it will be used as it lasts forever - we saw a few glass top tables in the shop made with a beautiful polished gnarled piece underneath.

A big poster on a building wall shows a world record was made by the local red and white river cruise boat, towing 145 skiers out in the bay here. It was an impressive photo. At the end of our walk we ended up at the Hamers Hotel for a complimentary drink where we (just the 2 of us) later had lunch. After lunch we went back and had a closer look at the products made out of the Huon pine before riding back to the park. At 5.30pm we went back to the town to see an hour play called The Ship That Never Was - it's been playing here in Strahan to the tourists for over 20 years. We quite enjoyed it. There were only 2 people (a man and a lady) doing it and they involved the audience all along the way, including getting several people out of the audience to play particular characters in their story, which was about convicts escaping in a boat from Sarah Island. They had us laughing most of the time, and there wasn't a pause or a quiet moment during the whole performance. As the play progressed the 2 of them gradually assembled a boat (complete with sails) which then became their stage.

Some information about the amazing Huon Pine:-

Huon Pine

The colony of Van Diemen's Land was only a few years old when explorers first found ancient tree trunks buried in the mud of a river south west of Hobart. They were intrigued by the fact that the logs had evidently been lying there for many years, but were intact, untouched by the rot and insects that normally decompose fallen timber. They speculated that this timber might be the solution to the previously intractable problems experienced by wooden boat builders - how to stop the voracious marine borer or screw worm. They were right; it turned out to be the best boat building timber in the world.
Because they were first found in the Huon River the trees were called Huon pines, but further explorations showed that this river is only the eastern extent of their range, and the wet temperate rainforests of the Gordon River and its tributaries are the centre of their distribution.
It was to exploit the rich stands of Huon pine growing nearby that Governor Sorell sent two ships and 200 convicts and guards to establish the penal settlement on Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour in 1822. This was before the days of Port Arthur. In a process that, today, would be called 'value -adding', the settlement quickly developed into a boat building yard - the biggest in the British colonies at the time. They built 131 vessels in 12 years on Sarah Island, and the largest was even bigger than the cruise boats which now visit the island daily. It was 'green gold' - Huon pine - which drove this amazing enterprise. The town of Strahan was established in 1887 principally to provide services to the mines in the hinterland, and it also became a base for the timber getters - called 'piners'. Families such as the Abels, Doherty, Cranes and Morrisons had several generations of men working on the banks of the Gordon River and its tributaries harvesting the trees with axe and crosscut saw, and moving them into the rivers using just block and tackle, and lots of muscle.
Very few piners went back into the forests after World War ll, and the felling of green trees stopped completely by the 1970's. But because the timber does not rot and the logs float green, they can be utilised by sawmillers decades after they were first cut. These days the industry is carefully controlled, with stockpiles of logs collected prior to the flooding of their habitat by hydro electric schemes being the mainstay. There are just three sawmills in the world with a licence to cut Huon pine sawlog, and we expect the supplies of salvaged, dead timber, carefully husbanded and managed with skill and respect, to last at least two more human generations.
Meanwhile in the rainforests of the Gordon River, deep within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, 8,000 hectares of Huon pine habitat - containing trees from tiny seedlings through to ancient giants - ensure that this remarkable Tasmanian will grace our planet for hundreds of generations to come.

26-2-2015 Thursday
This morning a man called Winston and his wife called in to us at the park, to drop off an old wooden crayfish pot. Dave has wanted one for a long time to add to our old memorabilia in our pergola. Fortunately when he was asking the barmaid at the pub yesterday if she knew where he could buy one, this man sitting at the bar overheard and said he had one he'd sell - it is quite old and has sat in his back yard for a long time. So they agreed on a price and he agreed to drop it in on their way back to Burnie where they lived, and we were leaving today so that fitted in quite well. They have a holiday caravan and a boat about 12 kms away, where they stay periodically and go out crayfishing. He said if we'd met earlier he would've been happy to take us out to catch some - bugger! (I'm sure we'd have to pay him something but we'd be happy with that). We would've loved that - somewhere earlier up on the coast road from Burnie to the west, there was a seafood shop selling raw crayfish for $100/kilo and cooked ones for $115/kilo! Can't justify paying that considering most of that weight is shell, and considering we've been used to catching our own crabs for a long time. Of course, they can fetch that price overseas (in Japan, China) so why wouldn't they try to get the same here!

After that we left the park and drove 40kms eastward on a quite winding but good road to the mining town of Queenstown (TAS) (known as Copper City) and the Queenstown Cabin and Tourist Park for 3 nights. We'd been here over 12 years ago too and didn't think much of the barren, grey landscape due to the mining, but it's a different perspective traveling in a motorhome/caravan and not using other accommodation, and not being so restricted with time. We'd been to Strahan too but we did more things this time and so enjoyed our time more. Driving into the town there still seemed to be some barren landscape but not as bad as I remember it last time. Possibly over the last 12 years maybe some recovery has occurred although this is still a mining town. Crossing over a bridge not far from the caravan park we saw this fast flowing water over rocks, but it was an astonishing browny-orange colour caused by the mining of the ore for many years, when the rivers were used to wash the minerals and the tailings sediment (rubbish) were left behind. It will take many more years before there is any improvement. Now dams have been built for the tailings to flow into and not anywhere else. After we set up Dave spent this arvo rearranging the garage to fit the crayfish pot in, and so the big vacuum cleaner we have in the garage has had to come and live inside, up on the spare bed.  If he keeps this up one of us will have to walk home!

27-2-2015 Friday
This morning it was a bit rainy but it cleared up nicely which was fortunate. We rode Harley a couple kms to the West Coast Wilderness Railway for a ride in one of the beautiful polished timber carriages pulled by a majestic steam train. Our trip was a half day one from Queenstown to Dubbil Barril and back - yes the spelling is correct and no-one seems to know why it's spelt like this although there are lot of possible explanations. A full day trip can be done on certain days from Strahan to Queenstown and return although we felt a half day was really enough. The lady/guide giving the commentary as we rode along was very good and entertaining. We rode through rainforest the whole way with countless fern trees and tall skinny trees reaching up for the sun. The train chugged along perfectly and we crossed, high up on a bridge, over the King River Gorge - gorgeous views! Below we saw a couple people preparing to raft it down the fast flowing river.
We made 2 stops before we reached our turn around point - one stop was to have a little pan for gold with the panning materials given to us although no-one got anything. The next stop was for a break for morning tea and you could walk up on a bridge over the track to look down on the train. When we reached Dubbil Barril we got off to have to have a 10 minute forest walk and then we were able to watch the train driver and his offsider, drive the engine onto a turntable and then just manually push it around so the engine was facing the opposite way ready to hook on to the carriages for the return trip. The carriages were absolutely beautiful inside, polished wood and the 3 carriages were made out of blackwood, myrtle and sassafrass timer.
This tourist train has only been running since 2002, so it wasn't running when we were here last time. It originally started running in 1896 (and ceased in 1963) after being built in a time when the rugged terrain was foe to be conquered, not grand nature to be admired. Surveyors of the day said it couldn't be done. The country was too steep and weather too extreme, but they didn't count on the determination and ingenuity of hard working 'west coasters', especially where money is concerned. The train was needed to transport the mined copper from Queenstown to Strahan so where there's a will there's a way. The Wilderness Railway traverses some of the steepest grades in the world, which were overcome by an ingenious rack and pinion system that is still in use. This system assists the train to climb steep hills by engaging the pinion on the rack underneath the train and prevents it from sliding backwards. This system also provides a substantial braking assistance on the way down.

At the end of our trip we wandered across the road to the Empire Hotel, as most of the passengers did, for a really nice and inexpensive lunch. Afterwards we rode Harley about 5 kms up the winding highway to the Iron Blow lookout, then back down to the town for a quick walk around, a little bit of grocery shopping and then back home.

28-2-2015 Saturday
This morning it was rainy so we were glad we did our train trip yesterday and a different activity today. We rode Harley back into the town again, to go on the Mt Lyell Underground Mind Tour which all up, took about 3 hours. We quite enjoyed it. We had to don a hard hat complete with light, visibility vest, boots, and strap around our waists, a silver metal case that we would use only in an emergency where lack of air was a problem, like in a fire. We were told not to open them as they cost around $1000 and can't be reused. Before being approved to go down into the mine another man at the mine, had to make sure we knew what the silver case was for and we also had a breathalyser put on us as you have to be zero, even as visitors. Our guide also had to be zero. A seasoned miner took us down to a depth of 1.5kms in one of their 4WD mining vehicles and unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos or even a mobile phone, so might have to get them off the internet. The mine is owned by an Indian company and is not in operation at the moment, although that may change. There is a skeleton crew in the place to make sure the equipment is kept in working condition in case operations do start up again. Part of the mine was open cut to start with and which we had a look at, but when that was exhausted they went underground. It seemed a bit eerie not coming across any other vehicle or equipment in operation but it did make it easier for our tour. We were lucky to only have a light rain on our way home.

Our guide took us into the 'crib' room which is where the miners have their breaks, eat and relax. They can remove their hard hats as the ceiling and walls have been sprayed to stabilise the surface so no rocks or dirt can fall on them. He told us sometimes they get bored in there and a little tradition has evolved where the miners swing their teabags around and around, and throw them up to the ceiling - and they stick there! When we looked up there were hundreds of teabags stuck to the ceiling, with just the string dangling down - it was a most unusual sight! On the way home he took us to the local Aussie Rules football ground, the Gravel Oval which is just that - all made of gravel, not grass because of the difficulty of growing grass here.

1-3-2015 Sunday
It was raining and miserable again this morning with promising patches of blue sky every so often, which only disappeared again behind grey sky. We fuelled up and went on our way, driving 120 kms east to Lake St Clair (TAS) and the Lake St Clair Lodge for 1 light. Lake St Clair lies at the southern end of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park and is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Carved by ice during several glaciations over the last two million years, this is the deepest lake in Australia and the headwaters of the Derwent River. There are different walks that can be undertaken, ranging from 45 minutes to overnight ones and a private passenger ferry provides a leisurely way to view the lake and surrounding mountains.

The drive on the way here was very winding and slow, and we were surprised at the 100kph speed limit - we felt 80kph would've been enough. Not far out of Queenstown we drove up the winding steep road that followed the contour of the mountain, and stopped at the lookout over the Iron Blow. Our next stop was at the town of Derwent Bridge where we paid a visit to The Wall - which is a work in progress, funded by the sculptor called Greg Duncan. Again we weren't allowed to take any photos by camera or any other means so of course, that meant we bought his beautifully presented book. Inside a building is this gallery called The Wall which when finished, will consist of 100 laminated pieces of boat-grade Huon pine, each one metre, wide, three metres high and 100 mm thick. The completed Wall will span 100 metres and depict the history of this region. Each panel weights 250 kg and is lifted into place using a chain block. The initial stage of 35 metres is now complete, depicting workmen, horses, and animals. Light and shadow are very important in achieving a three-dimensional effect. It is a tribute to the talent of the sculptor that this effect is achieved with a maximum depth of only 40 mm in the carving, which requires immense care and attention to detail. The gallery was opened 1st March 2005, exactly 10 years ago to this day!

The Wall examines subjects that, although part of our history, also feature in contemporary debate in Tasmania - mining and logging the environment are just two examples. Some panels are left partly unfinished to enable the viewer to understand the process. His work is truly remarkable and a real pleasure to see. The detail and the way he brings his sculptures to life are amazing. I was particularly enthralled with his still lifes - The Workman's Tools (a carved cap draped over a real pitch fork, and a work glove draped over a real shovel); The Water Bag; The Plumber's Coveralls; The Overcoat and Scarf; and The Logger's Tools (incorporating a real cross-cut saw with its handle being part of the timber sculpture). I found it really hard to stop myself from reaching out and touching some of them as they were everyday items like the cap or the glove - they weren't in display cases, just leaning up against the wall or sitting on top of a table, and I just wanted to feel them. Among other things he'd also done a wombat, a curled up baby joey and a canine skull. They were all so incredibly real. In a display cupboard was a carved block and tackle which had been done by Greg Duncan's adult son, also very gifted.

2-3-2015 Monday
It was lovely and sunny this morning which was lovely as it was 3 degrees outside at 12.30am last night, and 14 degrees inside, and it's only the second day of autumn! We were warm enough in bed though under the doona we bought in England 4 years ago - good doona! We were fairly high up at Lake St Clair though, and it certainly improved when we arrived back down to lower ground by the early afternoon. We only left the park about 11am as that's their checkout time, probably to allow people to get a walk in before they have to leave. We drove 110kms south-east to the town of Hamilton (TAS) and the Hamilton Camping Ground for 1 night. The camping book said it was beside a river but there's not much of a river, more like a small creek. It's a nice enough place to stay though for 1 night. There's no power but there is access to a decent toilet and shower which is good (for $5/night).

The road was a lot less winding today so it wasn't such a tiring drive (for Dave). On the way we stopped at two of the Hydro Electric Power Stations with the nearby series of big pipes spilling down the hill, delivering lots of water at speed to the power station where the water turns the turbines to generate electricity. Near the bridge over the Nive river, the two power stations spilled their water on opposite sides of the river. The first one we saw was Tungatina (c1950) and the second was Tarralea (commissioned in 1938). Today Hydro Tasmania operates 30 hydro-electric and two gas power stations as well as three wind farms.

Once we got set up at our destination we walked up the road to check out the local pub and dropped in for a drink. The main town must be a bit further because there wasn't much here. Inside the pub was interesting, with bits of old memorabilia - including cross cut saws up on the wall, old photos, interesting large old bottles, a big drill (predating 1900) attached to a post, and there were even a couple of old metal doors with bars that looked like possible jail doors.

3-3-2015 Tuesday
Last night was much warmer and more pleasant than the previous night. After leaving our camping spot this morning we stopped a short way down the road to see the shops, buildings and cottages dating back to convict times - built using big sized sandstone blocks which would've been difficult to work with. Hamilton was once a bustling frontier town that contained 11 inns, several working breweries and a roaring illegal spirits trade. The township also had 2 flour mills and was once destined to be the capital of Tasmania despite its vast distance from any port. In the 2006 Census the town and surrounding area had a population fo 300. St Peters Anglican Church also built of the sandstone, only has one door because during the day convicts made up 50% of the congregation (and they didn't want to give any of them an alternative escape route).

Driving on about another 30 kms we stopped at the town of New Norfolk. We really only visited one main area because it took us a long time to go through it, and that was Willow Court. This area and buildings are now used to house antique items of all sorts, as well as every other conceivable second hand thing for sale that you could think of - it was truly amazing! I was blown away by the vast numbers of books - enough to build a library. There are many sellers involved here although that is not evident to the viewing public.

Construction of Willow Court began in 1827, ordered by Governor Arthur, as part of the convict Invalid Depot and is built in a military barrack style. Over the years the site had developed into the state's only hospital for intellectually handicapped and those suffering psychiatric disorders, and was the oldest mental hospital in Australia on its original site, when it closed in 2000. It has housed medical staff, dental and X-Ray clinics, hairdresser, tailor, artisans, storerooms, messrooms and lecture rooms. The court is classified "A" by the National Trust, historically and architecturally valuable enough to be preserved at all costs.

We then drove 64 kms south-east to Berriedale, suburb of the capital Hobart (TAS) and the Treasure Island Caravan Park for 4 nights. The park is situated right on the Derwent River and there's plenty of ducks that hang around our vans waiting for some food.

4-3-2015 Wednesday
It was really, really windy during the night, so much so that Dave had to get up about 3am and close up the awning to stop it from flapping and possibly being wrecked. This morning we rode Harley 15 kms into Hobart's CBD and the Wrest Point Casino where we hopped on the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus for a 90 minute tour around the city. There are many beautiful old sandstone buildings dotted around the city and we didn't cross it, but the bus driver told us there was one intersection that has an original old sandstone building on each of the four corners. We will pick some places to visit over the next couple of days.

At the end of the 90 minutes we arrived back at the casino and had a nice buffet lunch. We then set off back home and dropped in at the Cadbury Visitor Centre at Claremont which is about 4 kms away from our park. You do pay a small entry fee of $4 each which we were surprised about, considering most people who would be going there, would be buying products and probably a fair bit more than they would if they went to the supermarket. The factory here has been operating since 1921. Many years ago when we were here in Tassie the only day we had to visit, the place was closed. They don't have the tours in the factory anymore but they do a talk several times a day accompanied by a video of the factory machines in action, and a tasting afterwards (probably what the $4 covers). Of course there's a cafe where, among other things, you can get a hot chocolate (and I'm presuming it's real chocolate), and a retail shop where you can buy all the different chocolate products at very good prices (eg a normal 220g family block cost $2.20 where they're about $5 in the shops). They also make a 10 kilo block of chocolate made up of 5x2kilo blocks - it costs over $200.

On the drive home it was really windy and at times we felt like we could be blown off Harley! Later after getting home, there were intermittent very strong wind gusts that rocked Casa as if we were jumping around inside.

5-3-2015 Thursday
It rained last night and rain is expected today so we're crossing our fingers. Rode Harley 16 kms through the Hobart CBD to the Cascades Female Factory. The name 'Cascades' was the name of the region at the time. From 1828 to 1856, the Factory operated as an institution intended to reform female convicts, some as young as 11. More than 5000 female convicts are known to have spent time here and life was very hard for everyone. Conditions were very crowded and around three quarters of the infants who were brought here, or born here, died due to poor nutrition and unhygienic conditions. Inmates provided laundry and needlework services, offsetting some of the Colony's penal costs.

After the factory we rode to nearby Cascades Brewery, an impressive sandstone building. The brewery was established before the Female Factory so before 1828. We did not do a brewery tour this time, just looked around at the small museum and outside, the lovely heritage gardens (3 acres worth) which are watered by the recycled water from the brewery. After that we rode back to the waterfront at the CBD and found a place for a seafood lunch. There are plenty of sailing and other boats moored here, and a big CSIRO boat moored further away at another wharf.

After lunch we walked around the waterfront and enjoyed the warm sunshine. The rain had held off except for a few sprinkles now and again. Then we visited the nearby Mawsons Huts Replica Museum. After a month-long voyage from Hobart via Macquarie Island, the SY Aurora landed the Australasian Antarctic Expedition at Cape Denison on Commonwealth Bay (2,500 kms south of Hobart) in January 1912. Led by geologist and Antarctic pioneer Douglas Mawson, the 18 men of the expedition (scientists and scholars, mechanics and medicos, but not a carpenter among them) set to work to build the huts that would shelter them and their Greenland sledge dogs from the freezing blizzards and hurricane-force winds. For 2 years, through 2 dark winters, the huts were home - a haven of warmth, light and companionship.

When the expedition departed Antarctica in 1914, they left behind many domestic items and personal effects inside the huts. Snow and ice encased the fragile timber buildings, preserving discarded books, clothing, tools, pots and pans, furniture, photographs and food in a shroud of white. The huts and their homely contents lay undisturbed for six decades - not bad construction efforts for people who had no carpentry/building skills. In the 1970s serious efforts began to preserve and conserve the huts and contents. Conservation projects have included over-cladding the ice-scoured timber of the roofs, removing ice and snow from the interiors, and treating the remaining artifacts in a conservation laboratory near the site, before replacing them in their original positions.

Many more people have climbed Mt Everest than have been inside Mawson's Huts. The replica project gives visitors the opportunity to experience and imagine something of what life might have been like for the men who lived there more than a century ago.

6-3-2015 Friday
It was cold last night, just like our winter at around 7 degrees, and it was very windy again and rainy. It was overcast and rainy this morning and about mid morning we rugged up, hopped on Harley and made the 34 kms ride up to Mount Wellington. We had to go through Hobart CBD as you have to do any time you go north or south of Hobart - there's no skirting around the city. Mt Wellington is 1.2km high and it's usually around 10 degrees cooler up there than down in the town below. When we got to the top it was awful! It was very, very windy and rainy and cold! There were a few lookouts but we just went to the main very strongly built big shelter, which was a big room with glass viewing walls and heavy doors to close out the cold. Through the glass walls it was all white with wind, rain and cloud. Every so often it would clear, there'd be blue sky and you could see the spectacular view down below of Hobart, the waterfront and the surrounds. Then it would be gone and the wind made you feel like you were in cyclonic weather, with the wind battering the shelter we were in.

On the way down the weather quickly changed because the road runs around the sheltered side of the mountain - it wasn't as windy or rainy. An information board in the shelter confirmed our experience saying that Mt Wellington shelters Hobart from the severe westerly winds and storms. On the way back we drove close to the Tasman Bridge for a photo. In 1975 the ore carrying ship the Lake Illawarra, ran into one of the piers causing part of the bridge to collapse on to the ship, sinking it. 7 crew and 5 car occupants were killed.

By the time we arrived back home the weather had cleared up considerably and it even looked like it had cleared up on top of the mountain, but we weren't going to go up there again!

7-3-2015 Saturday
We left the park this morning and drove 85 kms (all up), through Hobart CBD, catching the ferry at the town of Kettering, over to Bruny Island and then to the town of Adventure Bay (TAS) (south Bruny Isle) and the Captain James Cook Memorial Caravan Park (the only caravan park on the island) for 3 nights. The park is located across the road from the beach with the silhouette of mountains in the distance - a beautiful sight, and in Casa we can hear the lovely crashing of waves. People were having a great time swimming - a bit too cold for us. Later in the day we went for a walk along the beach but the rain quickly came over and chased us back to Casa.

Bruny Island is about 100 kms long, 2 land masses joined by a narrow isthmus of about 2 kms long of unsealed well-graded road, called The Neck. On The Neck we stopped to have a look at the Penguin Rookery, the burrows built by the fairy penguins into the sand dunes. We didn't see any penguins but saw a lot of their little webbed footprints in the sand. They only appear early morning when they leave to go out to find food (fishing), and after dark when they return home to feed their young. It's a few kms away so we probably won't be going to see them. At the same place we climbed the many steps up the Big Hummock, which is just a big high sand dune that gave wonderful views out across the Neck.

8-3-2015 Sunday
This morning we walked up the beach about a kilometre to join a Bruny Island Cruise, on a speedboat for 3 hours, and we really enjoyed it. We put on orange overalls (without legs) to protect us from the sea spray but it was a beautiful sunny day and not much wind about so it was quite pleasant. The boat was quite fast and Dave was able to get his boat/ocean fix which will last him for a little while. There were about 4 boats taking passengers out - about 43 passengers on each. They took us close to the unusual rock formations, most of it being called dolerite - a very hard rock, 8 on a scale of 1-10 where diamond is 10. There were a few chasms in some of the big rock formations, where the sea's eroding action has broken some of the rock away and you could see right through to other side. The driver actually drove us through one of these at speed - it was exciting!

We were also shown some Bruny Sandstone which is a softer rock and had an unusual pattern and whitish appearance. The Melbourne General Post Office built out of it. There was a natural blowhole at the water level, where hollowness inside the rock caused a spraying out of water and air together under pressure, each time the waves rolled back out away from the rock. The driver pointed out some seabirds but there weren't too many of them today because the winds (Northerlies) weren't the right ones for them to gather here in numbers. There were some gannets, albatrosses, a couple different types of cormorants and the usual common seagulls.

Then we continued out into the Southern Ocean - exciting as I hadn't been there before, close to it on land but not on it. Out here was where we were able to view colonies of fur seals lounging and sleeping up on the rocks, obviously after a morning of fishing. A lot of them were in the water, seemingly waving to us and being shy by holding their flippers up over their faces, but the man told us they were actually cleaning their face and whiskers, an important job after feeding. It's a pity their being in the water so much doesn't do anything for they way they smell - they really stank! and we were in a boat still a little way away from them. On the way back we had dolphins join us for a little bit, seeming to enjoy the bow wave action on their bodies as they kept swimming in and out of it.

9-3-2015 Monday
Lovely sunny day so did the washing and then hopped on Harley to do some sightseeing. We turned onto a well graded gravel road which we knew was 8 kms long, but didn't know that after a few kms it ceased to be a government maintained road and turned into a 4WD one! It was also steep in places because we were climbing up Mt Mangana where there is a scenic lookout at the summit. We had a short chat to a young French couple who were riding a tandem bicycle up the difficult steep road and they seemed to be doing it with relative ease.

The road was mostly shaded due to the very tall trees of the rainforest. Occasionally a car came past. We finally came out at the other end and stopped at the town of Alonnah and had a very nice lunch at Hotel Bruny, which serves food all day - great for us tourists who arrive at any time of the day. We arrived back at the park at Adventure Bay around mid afternoon. Many early European explorers visited Adventure Bay, often as their first Australian landfall. These included Furneaux, Cook, Bligh, D'Entrecasteaux and Flinders. Adventure Bay was named by Captain Tobias Furneaux after his vessel 'Adventure' which anchored in the bay in March 1773. Adventure Bay was also Captain Cook's landing place in 1777. 'Cook, 26 jan 1777' was carved on a tree which has since been moved into the local Bligh Museum in 1987 to ensure its preservation. The museum was built in 1954 of convict made bricks from Variety Bay.

10-3-2015 Tuesday
We left the park this morning and drove 100 kms in total, north back up Bruny Island, caught the vehicle ferry back over to Kettering, then through Hobart CBD and then eastward via the Tasman Bridge over the Derwent River, to the town of Richmond (TAS) and the Richmond Caravan Park for 1 night. When we arrived at Kettering we stopped at the local hotel, the Oyster Cove Inn, to check out the carvings on the trees in the carpark. We remembered them from when we were here years ago. However there didn't seem as many as we remembered.
We then saw some around the back of the hotel in the beer garden, where we didn't remember them. We decided to go in for a drink and the bartender told us they had to cut some of the trees down so they had to relocate the carvings. As well, some of the carvings were starting to deteriorate so they also had to be relocated and treated to preserve them. They're all pretty interesting and some tell a story. The carvings still intact in the trees, are of the Alice in Wonderland story, with Alice, the Mad Hatter, and some of the playing cards figures, eg the King of Hearts. The hotel is set up on top of the hill with a beer garden that overlooks the marina full of boats - a magic view while having lunch and a drink.

11-3-2015 Wednesday
We left the park this morning and drove to the nearby main town of Richmond to check out the town. Richmond is a delightful Georgian village, with many buildings constructed out of sandstone. In early years it was an important police district and the first part of the Gaol was built in 1825, 5 years before Port Arthur. The nearly 200 year old Richmond Bridge, built in 1823, enabled easier movement of military, police and convicts between Hobart and Port Arthur, as well as the transport of goods. When Sorell Causeway opened in 1872, this traffic no longer passed through Richmond and that is why the town remains just as it was 100 years ago. We walked to Richmond Gaol built in 1825 and Australia's oldest jail (we didn't go inside as we'd visited it last time we were here).

We walked to St Lukes Church. The big clock in the tower was originally in old St Davids Church in Hobart, and was placed in its present position in 1922. I visited the Old Hobart Town Model Village, built in the convicts days era. You could walk around and view the delicately built model buildings and figures (convicts, police, farmers, animals, etc), depicting the town as it was over 150 years ago and a map showed which of the buildings still remain today. It was a lovely sunny day and very pleasant wandering around the streets. One shop had an upper floor of their business dedicated to Christmas decorations which we thought was very unusual, at this time of year. It was a beautiful display but we couldn't take photos. The display reminded me of the Christmas shop we saw in Germany. We stopped at a bakery to see if they had any curried Tassie scallop pies. They did but not with Tassie scallops, but they were still nice. We tasted these for the first time in Queenstown recently and so have been on the lookout for them. Neither of us has seen these at home - we'll have to plant the seed......

We then drove 47 kms south-east to the town of Dunalley (TAS) and a free camp at the back of the Dunalley Hotel for 1 night where we have a lovely view of the water. We are expected to just give a donation to help maintain the on site portable toilet provided. We also went to the hotel for dinner as the menu looked pretty good.

12-3-2015 Thursday
We left our free camp spot this morning and drove 45 kms south to the town of Port Arthur (TAS) and the Big 4 Holiday Park for 2 nights. On the way we stopped at several natural attractions. The first was the Tessellated Pavement (meaning tile shaped) which is rock layers altered over time by the drying and crystalising cycle of seawater, to form 2 distinct shapes - 1st is a 'loaf' shape like a hi-top baked bread, and the 2nd is a 'pan' shape, worn away/depressed rock in the centre but leaving the raised borders. Driving further along the highway the next 3 were fairly close together - the Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and the Tasman Blowhole. All these were caused by the wind and sea action/erosion, gradually wearing away rock over time and causing collapses. The escarpment views were breathtaking. The blowhole was fairly quiet as the wind was on the wrong side to cause more forceful waves through the opening. We also came here about 14 years ago but not much has changed.

We crossed Eaglehawk Neck, a narrow stretch of land joining two land masses, a bit like the one on Bruny Island but this neck wasn't as long. On the way to these attractions we went through the little village of Doo Town and of course residents take advantage of that with signs at the letterboxes saying things like, Gunnadoo, Dr Doolittle, Make Doo, Tucan Doo, Wattle-I-Doo, Doodle Doo, etc.

13-3-2015 Friday
This morning we rode Harley down the road to the Port Arthur Historic Site. We've been here before too but felt it worth another look. Arriving at 9.30am and leaving at around 4.30pm, we spent the beautiful sunny day walking around the spacious, peaceful, green grounds - eerily the total opposite extreme of the original function of the place. The Site contains more than 30 historic buildings, extensive ruins and beautiful grounds and gardens. The Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, using convict labour to produce sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. The English prison reformer Jeremy Bentham, designed a radical new Penitentiary at Pentonville in England, which he described as 'a machine for grinding rogues into honest men'. This became the model for Port Arthur. Many men were broken, but some left Port Arthur rehabilitated and skilled, some as blacksmiths, shoemakers or shipbuilders.

Port Arthur was remote, harsh, with no chance of escape, the perfect destination for hardened, repeat offenders. It is located on a peninsular, water all around with only one narrow landmass, Eaglehawk Neck, for escape on land and this neck was easily guarded. The only other escape was via the sea and some did try but not too many succeeded. Our entry ticket included a 40 min Introductory Tour to Port Arthur as well as a Harbour Cruise which passed the Dockyard, Point Puer Boys' Prison, and the Isle of the Dead cemetery. During its 15 years of operation, the Dockyard produced 16 large decked vessels and around 150 small open boats. At its peak, more than 70 men worked here. The precinct included a blacksmith's workshop, two sawpits, two steamers for bending timber, a rigging shed and several other workshops. Point Puer Boys' Prison operated from 1834 to 1849 and was the first purpose-built juvenile reformatory in the British Empire. Juvenile offenders were separated from the older convicts to protect them from criminal influence. 3,000 boys, some as young as 9 years old, were sentenced to this prison. Point Puer was renowned for its regime of stern discipline and harsh punishment, but all the boys received an education while some were given the opportunity of trade training.

With the end of convict transportation to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1853, Port Arthur also became an institution for aging and physically and mentally ill convicts - there was a building known as The Asylum. The penal settlement finally closed in 1877 and many of its buildings were dismantled or destroyed in bushfires. Others were sold and the area gradually became the centre of a small town, renamed Carnarvon in an attempt to erase the hated convict stain. Several buildings and areas remain from this post convict period - Trentham House, St David's Church, Police Station, and the Soldiers' Memorial Avenue, huge beautiful trees planted to honour the 15 men from the Carnarvon and Oakwood districts who lost their lives serving in the First World War.

However, first-hand stories of convict life proved to be a major drawcard, and tourists began visiting almost immediately after the closure of the penal settlement. By the 1920s some convict-period buildings had become museums, hotels and shops and the settlement was once again named Port Arthur. Just to confuse things a bit further, a few kms away from the Historic Site, there is the small town of Carnarvon so the people obviously didn't want to get rid of the name altogether. (Also to be clear, there is no separate town called Port Arthur - this name purely refers to the convict settlement.)

On Sunday 28 April 1996, a tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur's history when a gunman took the lives of 35 people and physically wounded 19 others in and around the Port Arthur Historic Site. Among them were members of staff from the Historic Site. The Memorial Garden incorporates the shell of the Broad Arrow Cafe, where 20 people were killed during the massacre, and has been created as a place of remembrance and reflection. We clearly remember this memorial from our last visit - a sad and sombre place.

14-3-2015 Saturday
We left the park this morning and drove north 58 kms back to the town of Dunalley (TAS) and the free camp (donation) at the back of the Dunalley Hotel for 1 night where we have a lovely view of the water. It's a bit more overcast, windy and cool today so glad we weren't planning to do anything particular, especially after our big day yesterday. On the way we made a detour and drove through the small town of Nubeena but there wasn't much to see so we kept going. We saw a bit of road kill as we always do on our drives, but unfortunately we saw 2 wombats at different times which we found particularly sad. When we got to Dunalley we drove to the nearby fish market and bought some fresh perch for dinner tomorrow. Tonight we'll go to the hotel again.

15-3-2015 Sunday
It was quite cold and rainy last night. It was also very windy and we were right in the path of it where we were camped, getting rocked about a bit. After packing up this morning we drove 91kms north to the coastal town of Triabunna (TAS) and the Triabunna Caravan Park for 2 nights. We stopped at Sorell on the way to stock up with provisions as we noticed it had a good shopping centre when we passed through here a couple days ago. We didn't do much else after that.

16-3-2015 Monday
Today we spent the day over on Maria Island (pronounced as in 'fire') and we were really happy that it was a beautiful sunny day. We were dropped over on the island at 9.45 (after a 45 min ferry ride) and picked up at 4.30.  There's no vehicles on the island except for the ranger's ones, and you can hire bicycles. Some time ago I saw a documentary on the Tassie Devils and the problem with the facial tumour disease that's killing them. They bred some devils so they knew they didn't have any chance of having the infection and then released about 28 of them on Maria Island so they could regenerate their population, disease free. Of course we didn't see any of them as they are nocturnal.

We did a couple of the easier walks - each approx 4 km taking about a couple hours each and we'll sleep well tonight. There are harder walks and ones where you need to stay overnight camping in tents - not for us though. Firstly we walked to the Fossil cliffs - apparently the Bro (David Attenborough) has done a segment on this in one of his shows.  This circuit takes you past spectacular sea cliffs which plunge sheer to the sea to a world-class fossil site. The big pieces of fallen parts of the cliffs were imbedded with multitudes of fossilised sea shells. In the 1920s the limestone fossils were mined and transported by tramway to the cement works near the jetty, where they were manufactured into cement.

On our return from the cliffs we stopped for a rest and ate our lunch that we'd brought. There are no shops at all on the island and the only toilets are back here at the Darlington historic township. Maria Island was once a destination for convicts but that was soon changed because it was an easy place for them to escape, plus there wasn't the easy wind protected port access for the transport boats. This township is the only place on the island where there are still complete buildings - there are only brick remains of others around. The white lime-washed buuildings were built in the 1820s. There is the Coffee Palace/museum from the Bernacchi era (1888) when the Bernacchi family bought the place and did farming and vineyards.

After lunch we did our second walk to the Painted Cliffs - a sandstone outcrop at the southern end of the beautiful Hopground beach, white sand and lovely coloured water like you see in the trip brochures and postcards. We viewed the cliffs by walking around their base on the water's edge. It's best to do this within 2 hours of low tide. The exquisite patterns (of mostly white, caramel and beige colouring) are caused by groundwater percolating through the sandstone and leaving traces of iron oxides.

There were some big white whale bones near the jetty, just out in the open and unprotected from anybody or anything. When we came back from our second walk in the afternoon we saw a wombat, just feeding on the grass and were able to get within about 4-5 feet of it to take photos.  It was great! He's obviously used to people.  He didn't give a rats about us, just kept on munching on the grass and you could actually hear him continuously biting it off. There were beautiful Cape Barron Geese everywhere, which weren't too afraid of people. Apparently there weren't any baby chicks this year because the Tassie Devils ate them all, obviously haven't had access to their usual carrion.

History of Maria Island
Source: Maria Island National Park
Tasmania is one of the most beautiful places on Earth: compact, diverse, wild yet accessible. The island State’s famous national parks and reserves protect a wide range of its unspoiled landscapes, intact ecosystems and striking cultural heritage. In particular Maria Island has unique history that encompasses fossilized sea life, aboriginal heritage, and penal settlements.  Thousands of years ago Aboriginal tribes crossed to the island in reed-canoes.  In 1642, explorer Abel Tasman sighted it from the sea and named it in honour of Maria Van Diemen, the wife of the governor of Batavia. In 1802 a French expedition led by Captain Baudin explored and charted the island extensively. Many features of the island still bear French names. Whalers came some years later in the 1820s and 1830s.  
By 1825 Maria had become a penal settlement for convicts who committed offences against the colony. The island was soon infamous for the number of escapes and was known among convicts as a place of ease. At its peak, the convict population reached 492 in 1846; however Darlington was closed in 1850, following the cessation of the probation system in Van Diemen’s Land and the island was opened up for public leasehold.
Maria Island's potential for wine and silk production, fruit-growing and tourist development captured the imagination of Italian entrepreneur, Diego Bernacchi. The 'Maria Island Company' was formed three years later and soon had over 250 residents from a variety of different nationalities. Cement works were set up in the late 1880s utilising the island's limestone deposits. Also constructed in Bernacchi's time were the Coffee Palace, a row of workers' cottages known as the 'Twelve Apostles' and six terraced cottages (built using bricks from the demolished convict separate apartment cells). Following the First World War Diego Bernacchi returned to Maria Island determined to exploit the limestone deposits for cement. The National Portland Cement Company Ltd was formed in 1920.
Several decades later, the first moves were made towards forming a Fauna Reserve on Maria Island. Since the late 1960s Maria has become a kind of Noah's Ark, as a number of threatened species have been introduced here in a bid to protect their kind. The very things that made the island a convict settlement, now make it an ideal refuge for plant and animal species that are elsewhere under threat. Maria Island was officially declared a National Park in 1971. Today the refuge includes native pademelons along with Forester kangaroos, Bennetts wallabies, and Cape Barren geese which have been introduced to the island.
The geology of Maria Island is of great interest as it contains features from many geological ages. The Triassic sandstones of the Painted Cliffs is one such feature. Although this sort of rock formation is not uncommon, it is rare in a natural situation for it to be so extensively and beautifully exposed. The wonderful patterns are caused by ground water percolating down through the already formed sandstone and leaving traces of iron oxides, which have stained the rock formation. This probably occurred millions of years ago in a monsoonal climate. More recently, sea spray hitting the rock face has dried, forming crystals of salt. These crystals cause the rock to weather in the honeycomb patterns that you see. Wave action has also created some interesting features.
Another significant geographic feature found on Maria Island includes the fossil cliffs. The cliff exposure in the Fossil Bay area is recognised as the best example of lower Permian strata in the world. On the lower rock shelf you can see a variety of fossils including sea fans, coral-like creatures, scallop shells and sea lilies. It is thought that such an extensive accumulation of fossils may be related to the cold conditions associated with the polar sea of the time. Amongst the fossils are some large rocks, called dropstones that have been transported by floating ice.
Each of these historical, ecological, and geologic features of Maria Island contributes to its unique beauty. 

17-3-2015 Tuesday
We left the park this morning and drove 108 kms north and then back back south for a short distance to the Freycinet Peninsula, the town of Coles Bay (TAS) and the Big 4 Iluka on Freycinet Holiday Park for 3 nights. Before leaving the town of Triabunna we parked and walked around the town to view the old historic buildings from around the 1800s. We didn't know but the home of the caravan park owner was built in the late 19th century as the local policeman's residence, office and gaol. The old Post Office building was lovely but is now a different business. The actual Post Office down the road, is an ugly, grey, besser brick building with no charm at all - makes one wonder why?

About 10kms before Swansea we stopped at the Spiky Bridge which doesn't have anything of note around it, just an old bridge that was built long ago to span a gully. Its unusual feature was that pieces of rock about 6 inches (3 cms) long were imbedded vertically in the capping of both sides of the bridge's sides as if a prevention from anyone sitting on it. The info board stated the reason was unknown. Further on we stopped at the seaside town of Swansea to have a look around as they had some nice old historic buildings. We were going to stay but the caravan park only had an unpowered sight left so we decided to drive to Coles Bay. We were happy we did because after we arrived the clouds came over and it started to rain, and it looks set in. It's due to rain tomorrow as well so probably won't be doing too much.

As we were driving towards Coles Bay we could see the beautiful pink granite mountains in front of us - named Mt Parsons, Mt Baudin, Mt Dove, Mt Amos and Mt Mayson. There are more further down the peninsula but we couldn't see them.

18-3-2015 Wednesday
We'd planned not to do too much today because it was supposed to rain so we enjoyed a slow rest day. It was quite overcast and in the early afternoon we went for a walk as it looked like it was threatening to rain, but it never did. It warmed up enough where I put on shorts before our walk and Dave wished he had too. By the mid arvo it cleared and we really enjoyed our walk along the esplanade. It the distance we could see the impressive mountains with a craggy appearance and seems to be made of granite with only a small amount of greenery/trees. I suggest granite because the shoreline is littered with it, and there's two different colours - the pinky with black flecks kind (I like this one best) and the white with black flecks kind. In the caravan park dividing and retaining walls are made with this same varied-sized granite rocks. I was seriously looking at some small pieces to bring home and maybe get polished....

It was really pleasant walking in the sunshine, with such a beautiful mountain view and the clear bluey-green water below. We dropped in for a drink (Boags) on the way back, at the tavern right next to the caravan park.

A story about Boags. In September to November 1979 there was a big 'beer strike' at the XXXX brewery in Brisbane just at the time that Dave and some workmates from PABX installation were organising a one week fishing trip to Fraser Island. Dave's job was to get the beer; from memory about 25 or so cartons. During the strike, beer supplies for Brisbane were coming in from all over the place, including Asia so the trailer load had some pretty exotic sounding stuff, including Boags (which is made here in Tassie). Anyway, most of the beer was fine except for the Boags - it was cr-p, no-one liked it and and it was the 'last resort' and we couldn't wait to get back to a decent beer. It ended up a pretty enjoyable trip except for a couple of serious snorers (and other noises) who will remain nameless.
The sad part was that a few days before we were about to leave, the brewery strike was over and we could have bought XXXX.
Happily we've found Boags to be a nice tasting beer nowadays.

19-3-2015 Thursday
We walked the 10 minute walk down to the jetty to go on a boat cruise today, with Wineglass Bay Cruises. It was overcast and rainy but didn't rain too much at least. We could've gone on this trip yesterday but rain was forecast so we booked for today instead, as it wasn't supposed to rain! It would've been better yesterday which had fined up, was sunny and nicer! Anyway it could've been worse - when we booked in the lady said there was a possibility that we might not go to Wineglass Bay because that's the open ocean side of the Freycinet Peninsula and could be too windy and therefore dangerous. We wouldn't know for about an hour and a half into the trip. Luckily it was ok, just a little rough which the boat handled well - wish the same could be said for some of the poor people who had a bout of sea sickness.

We drove south in the big catamaran, the Schouten Passage II, (can hold 150 passengers) from Coles Bay down the sheltered side of the peninsula, around the tip and back up the ocean side to Wineglass Bay. I thought the bay got its name from its shape, the rounded wine containing part of the glass. We found out that the real reason is far less romantic. Years ago when whaling was common practice, they would tow the harpooned Southern Right whales into this bay for processing, and the water ended up red from all the blood - so it was like a wine glass full of red wine. The water is normally a beautiful turquoise colour although with the overcast day today, it wasn't quite as nice. A crescent of beautiful white sand fringed the water's edge. We anchored here in the calm, and had a nice ploughman's lunch onboard. There were people walking along the beach. There are different walks that people can do and overnight camping if desired in the national park, but it's all only accessible by walking, no vehicles, from the Coles Bay end.

A couple of crayfish boats were also anchored in the bay, having a rest and waiting until it was time to check their pots. We saw their crayfish pot floats close to the large kelp, that anchors to the rock. At one time we had several Common Dolphins swimming along and behind us. There were many albatrosses gliding around on the air currents, along with seagulls, cormorants and gannets. The driver took us to see some fur seals lounging on the rocks - luckily it was windy so we were spared the smell! It was too late in the year to see any migrating whales. We saw a unique perspective of the Freycinet Peninsula's amazing sheer granite cliffs, sea caves and hidden coves.

On the way back we stopped again at the tavern next to the caravan park, for a drink.

20-3-2015 Friday
We left the park this morning and drove to Visitor Centre to check re the walks and parking for Casa. We are in the Freycinet National Park and as with all Tassie's national parks, you need a park's pass (which we'd bought on the boat coming over to Tassie). We drove further on to the carpark and set out on our walk to the Wineglass Bay Lookout. It was a 1.5 hour 3km return walk and was challenging with a gravel track that climbed steadily, and with many steps the closer you got to the lookout. But the effort was worth it, with fantastic views of Wineglass Bay and the surrounding coastline, especially as it was a clear sunny day. We passed beautiful large granite rocks and boulders, some in quite precarious positions. On the way up we passed a couple of Asian ladies coming back down, one quite elderly, and as she passed us she put up her thumb without speaking, as if to say it was very good at the end (either that or she might've been saying that she was very happy with herself for having made the challenging trip - not sure).

We return to Casa and drove up a 4 km steep narrow bitumen road (challenging for Casa) to Cape Tourville to see the working short white working lighthouse. We did the easy 20 minute circuit on a built walkway, up to the lighthouse and back, again with breathtaking views of the bay and surrounds. By the time we got to the top it was lunchtime and we saw the cruise boat we took yesterday, leaving the sheltered bay for its return trip. As with Maria Island there were other more challenging, longer walks including overnight camping spots on the peninsula, for the more serious minded walkers, (but not us).

After that we drove north 44 kms to the seaside town of Bicheno (TAS) and the Bicheno Caravan Park and Takeaway (not for us though) for 1 night. When we drove back through Coles Bay it was lunch time so we stopped at the bakery for a curry scallop pie - yum! We're really going to have to look for them when we get back home!

21-3-2015 Saturday
Left the park this morning and drove down the road to the esplanade to see the local blowhole, which we thought wouldn't be working too well as it was a calm day. However it put on enough of a show to satisfy us tourists. The blowhole was easy enough to get to, over big granite rocks. We then drove a bit further to the start of the Whalers Lookout. The path was well defined but had some steep steps but at least not as many as our climb yesterday. At the top we had a gorgeous view out over the Tasman Sea and the nearby Governor Island Marine Reserve. About 3000kms away without anything in the way, is New Zealand.

We bought a couple of home-made (yummy) curry scallop pies for lunch and sat on the waterfront, enjoying a million dollar view. We then drove 73 kms north, all the way along the coastline, enjoying great views, to the town of St Helens (TAS) (suburb Stieglitz) and the Hillcrest Caravan Park for 1 night.

22-3-2015 Sunday
It was raining this morning, quite heavy at times, which wasn't forecast, so a bit of a surprise. We left the park and drove 35 kms north to the Bay of Fires Conservation Area close to a town, Binalong Bay (TAS) and the free camping spot Cosy Corner North Camp Ground for 1 night. We have no power, no shower but do have a pit toilet. There are about 7 different camp grounds like this about 1 km apart along this coastline. Maximum stay is 1 month - just a bit too long without showers. It's a short walk to the shoreline and a view of the rocks with the orange lichen on them that spawned the name. We drove further than Binalong Bay, as far as we could drive, to the town called The Gardens and this was probably one of the best viewings of the large orange covered boulders.

Bay of Fires extends from Binalong Bay in the south to Eddystone Point in the north. The southern section of The Bay of Fires is in the Conservation Area, situated along a 13 km stretch of coast between the towns Binalong Bay and The Gardens - about one third of full stretch. The coastline consists of beaches of fine white sand, periodically interrupted by groups of very large, granite boulders, that are extensively covered with bright orange lichen. We thought this was the reason for the name Bay of Fires, but an information board we read says it was named by Tobias Furneaux in 1773, from seeing the many fires lit by the north-east coastal plains Aboriginal people.

Before leaving St Helens we stopped at the visitor centre where we enjoyed roaming through their very good and extensive Historical Museum where there are over 1000 artifacts on display, representing the various stages of the settlement of St Helens. There were some scrimshaw items in a glass cabinet - not a common thing these days. (Scrimshaw is etching and then inking of pictures, usually on whale bone or teeth, done by sailors and boat crews as a past time in the whaling days - the sea equivalent to 'trench art'.) Across the front of the centre was a giant (concrete) dragon breathing a ball of fire, representing the 'Trail of the Tin Dragon' which extends through the towns from St Helens to Scottsdale, honouring the (mainly) Chinese workers who contributed to the tin mining industry in the area.

23-3-2015 Monday
It was raining again this morning as we left the free camping spot and drove south back down the coast, the same way we'd come yesterday, to St Helens to continue our journey. We couldn't go further north as this part of the far north east of the state, isn't suitable for our vehicle - unsealed roads and possibly 4WD roads. We drove 86 kms to the town of Branxholm (TAS) and the Branxholm Camping Ground for 1 night. A lot of the drive was tiring (for Dave) as the roads were very winding, and didn't have any extra room (bitumen) on the sides for when passing vehicles as big, or bigger than us. Through the particularly winding sections it was mostly rainforest with the big beautiful tree ferns.

We took a short 3km detour off the main highway to see the Pub in the Paddock near the town of Pyengana. The tourist brochure said this pub is a famed stop-over nestled below the ranges, with the writer having seen more than 20 helicopters in the paddock at times, as visitors come in from all over. It was a nice cosy place with but we're not sure what the wide attraction would be(?) The theme of the pub was very much 'pig' oriented, with much pig memorabilia inside. Apparently on the premises, there was the famous beer-swilling pig, (the late) Priscilla - died at about 13 years old (good age for a pig), so it wasn't cirrhosis of the liver like we thought. She has been replaced by another very big pink pig called Pinky, who was sleeping it off in her pen nearby.

24-3-2015 Tuesday
This morning we left the park and drove back 7kms to the small town of Derby, because we thought it looked interesting as we drove through it yesterday but it was too late to stop at that time. It was overcast but didn't rain as we walked up and down the main street, viewing the lovely old buildings and quaint cottages, all with a backdrop of rolling farmland and native bush. We dropped in to the Tin Dragon Interpretation Centre where we firstly watched a very good presentation on a 15 metre screen, which stretched right across one whole wall. It told of the epic story of the Tin Rush, the miners who sought their fortune from this remarkable metal and the mining disaster. Derby was the scene of the massive Briseis Tin Mine employing hundreds of men and producing millions of pounds of tin by the 1900s.

A lot of water was needed for extracting and processing the tin and so a dam was built on the Ringarooma River. In 1929 however, a tragic disaster brought about the destruction of the Briseis Mine in a fury of flooding so huge it caused the river to reverse its flow five miles upstream, wreaking devastation upon the town and its people. Twelve months worth of rain fell in a 48 hour period, the spillway was unable to cope so the dam burst resulting in the power and the fury of a billion litres of water with nowhere to go. Fourteen people lost their lives and most of them wouldn't have known what hit them - it was lucky there weren't many more deaths. After being closed for several years the flooded mine was drained and resumed production in 1937, producing much valued tin for the war effort (WWII). It operated for about 30 years before closing in the 1960s.

We then walked next door to the Derby Schoolhouse Museum (no longer a schoolhouse) where we viewed an historical account of the school and the town. After that we drove to the town of Legerwood, the town famous for its tree carvings. In 1918, 9 trees were planted in Legerwood's main street to honour the 7 soldiers killed in WWI, and a tree each for Gallipoli and the Anzacs. When these trees were declared dangerous in 2001, the town's people were distraught to think that the Memorial Avenue would be destroyed. Fundraising, grants and donations paid the fee for a man called Eddie Freeman to chainsaw carve each stump with a likeness of the men for whom each tree was planted. By ANZAC Day 2006 the carvings were complete, the plaques unveiled, and even though each plaque honours a specific soldier from this region, this memorial stands as a remembrance for all soldiers who fought and died for our freedom.

We then drove 47 kms west and then north to the seaside town of Bridport (TAS) and the Bridport Caravan Park for 2 nights. Bridport is right on the northern coastline and our caravan park is right on the beach.

25-3-2015 Wednesday
It was overcast this morning and was supposed to rain but fortunately it didn't because the washing was due. We thought we'd have an easy day so after the laundry was hung out, we took a leisurely walk on the very good and well-used pathway that runs all the way along the beach, and in front of the caravan park. After about 2 kms we ended up at a big park and across the road was the main part of the town of Bridport, and the Bridport Hotel - so we went there for a nice lunch. On the walk back Dave spotted some mushrooms growing wild in the park so he picked them and we kept a look out for more. We got enough to have for tomorrow's breakfast - so if you don't hear any more from us after today, you'll know why.....

When we arrived back at Casa we sat out the front with a drink and enjoyed the beach view and the rest of the afternoon.

26-3-2015 Thursday
It rained really heavily accompanied by thunder, this morning about 4am. When Dave checked outside he saw my crocs floating in the puddle that'd accumulated outside our door. Luckily the water drained away quite well and didn't make the ground boggy, as we were leaving this morning and had to drive up a slant to get off our site. Leaving the park this morning we drove 60 kms westward and then north to the town of Low Head (TAS) and the Low Head Tourist Park for 1 night. When we arrived we firstly drove to the Low Head Lighthouse which was built in 1888 and still operates but is not open to the public. There is a building close by which houses the historic fog horn which was commissioned in 1929 to warn ships on those foggy (pre radar and navigational aids) days when the ships couldn't see the lighthouse light. It was decommissioned in 1973 but in recent times, has been resurrected and can be heard at 12 noon every Sunday.

The nearby lighthouse keeper's cottage (about 30 metres away) is now accommodation for rent but I wouldn't like to be there on a Sunday when the fog horn goes off - apparently it sounds like a herd of elephants trumpeting. I also wouldn't want to rent this cottage as the public who come up to look at the lighthouse, can walk right up to the windows - it's a lovely spot with a lovely view but not much privacy. There is a penguin rookery here as well with guided tours each night. Low Head is one side of the very rocky mouth of the Tamar River which runs all the way to Launceston and it is a very narrow and winding river. The Low Head Pilot Station is a working complex which represents the earliest collection of surviving pilot buildings in Australia. It is the second oldest pilot service and the oldest pilot station to operate continuously from its original site. Its staff and services were, and still are today, necessary to guide vessels safely into the river. Moored in a sheltered area was an orange pilot boat, which takes the pilot out to the vessel wanting to enter the river.

A short drive down the road we visited the earliest building in the complex, Pilots Row, which dates from 1835 and now houses the very good Maritime Museum. The museum consisted of 12 rooms - which consisted of 3 buildings all connected and each building had 4 rooms. Lots of interesting memorabilia including a very old diving suit, the kind that had the big heavy boots, heavy weights and an airline attached to it from a pumping machine on the boat above. By the time we finished in the museum there was a break in the rain but we could see the threatening extensive dark blue/grey sky in the distance, so we hot-footed it to the caravan park to book in and settle in before it hit.

27-3-2015 Friday
We left the park this morning and drove 43 kms south, parallel to the Tamar River, west across the Tasman Bridge, and then north, parallel to the river again on the west side, to the town of Beauty Point (TAS) and the Beauty Point Tourist Park for 1 night. It was still overcast and raining slightly when we left and we stopped at the nearby George Town and did the Heritage Walk around the town, using our big Aussie umbrellas and hoping the rain didn't get heavier. We visited the Bass and Flinders Centre which houses the replica sloop of the Norfolk. The Centre used to be the old George Town Picture Theatre.

In 1798 the explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders were dispatched to Van Dieman's Land (the old name for Tasmania), to ascertain if it was an island or not. They sailed with a crew of 8 in HM Colonial Sloop Norfolk right into the Tamar River and anchored off what is now George Town. The replica's hull has been constructed out of Huon Pine and the mast and deck are made out of Celery Top Pine. It is a beautiful piece and surprisingly, people are allowed to walk on its deck and climb down below on the steep narrow steps, into the 3 different rooms. A volunteer told us they had to take the roof off for a crane to lift it into the building. There were many other boats and items in the centre including a replica of the small boat, the Tom Thumb. Matthew Flinders completed a voyage from Port Hacking to Sydney in the original one. A collection of 15 small quilts made by guild members to depict 'What Bass and Flinders Saw' on their 1798 voyage circumnavigation in the Norfolk, were also on display.

We had a very nice lunch at a Chinese restaurant before leaving for our overnight stop. It fined up nicely in the afternoon. After checking in to the caravan park we went for a walk as it looked like it might rain again. The park is situated on a peninsula which affords access to the water on both sides of the park. There were some permanent sites bordering right on the water with a lovely view - they reminded us of the place we used to have on Straddie. Behind the park, there are recreation and BBQ facilities for the public.

28-3-2015 Saturday
It was a beautiful sunny day - yeah! This morning we left the park and drove 6 kms back to the town of Beaconsfield, to visit the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre where we spent 3.5 hours - it was very good. This was an actual mine site, and the one where the rock fall, caused by a minor earthquake, killed 1 miner, and trapped 2 other miners 925 metres underground for 14 days in an area of about 1.5 square metres, Todd Russell and Brant Webb on Anzac Day 2006. The actual Headframe and the lift-cage are still here - where the 2 miners came up after being freed. The centre naturally has a display of this historic event on information boards, as well as the actual footage of the rescue progress, the final moment when the miners step out above ground and hang up their tags on the board, to show they were no longer underground - very moving!

One display cupboard held many colourful knitted scarves, folded in various ways to form different wonderful patterns. They'd been knitted by people from all over Australia, some from New Zealand and even the United Kingdom! Stretched out in a straight line they measured over 2 kms - the original target was 925 metres, the same depth the miners were trapped underground. The scarves symbolised a tight knit community, that pulled together when the collapse occurred. The display was taken on tour around Tasmania before coming to its resting place in the centre.

The mine originally opened in 1877 and closed in 1914. It reopened in 1994 and closed again in 2012. Apparently there's still a lot of gold down there but at the moment, the mining of it is cost prohibitive - so one day we may see it open again. There were many displays to see, inside and outside, with most, but not all, being mine related. The magnitude of some of the equipment that is needed to run the mine is amazing. The many massive timber posts joined end to end, only one part of the machine used just to pump the water out of the mine, were impressive. There were many 'hands-on' displays too, especially good for kids. One of the louder ones was a big water wheel used to drive the 6 metal stampers, which are used to crush the ore down to smaller pieces. Each time one of these stampers comes down it makes a loud bang. Apparently in normal operation there'd be about 105 of these stampers going at once - deafening!

After leaving the centre we had lunch and drove 40 kms south to the town of Legana (TAS), 10 kms north of Launceston, and the Launceston Holiday Park for 1 night. On the way we stopped at Brady's Lookout which afforded a wonderful view over the Tamar River and the Tamar River Valley, which is a picturesque patchwork landscape of forested hills, orchards, pastures and vineyards.

29-3-2015 Sunday
After leaving the park this morning we fuelled up and then drove 90 kms south to the town of Ross (TAS) and the Ross Caravan Park for 1 night. On our drive we saw farming land, plenty of sheep, and a lot of open beautiful scenery with mountains as a backdrop. We stopped at the nice little town of Perth (just like the Western Australia capital) and had a walk around in the sunshine although it was slightly windy. Further along the highway we passed Symmons Plains Raceway and saw lots and lots of vehicles parked, spectators for the V8 Supercar racing weekend event. Continuing on we stopped at Campbell Town as we saw 3 lots of tree carvings near the bridge, and they looked very much like the chain-saw carvings we saw at Legerwood, done by Eddie Freeman, and they were his work. The trees were obviously in the same bad condition as the ones at Legerwood and it was decided to do the same thing with them, butt them off, do the carvings and then put some lacquer or preserving substance over them. Carved on the tree was Eddie's moniker with the date 22-3-2010, so nearly exactly 5 years ago. The carvings on the 3 trees represented various themes to do with this town. In the water under the interesting bridge, were many very large multicoloured ducks - good size for the cooking pot!

30-3-2015 Monday
Ross; We left the park this morning and parked just outside on the bank of the Ross River, while we went for a heritage walk around the lovely historic town. Firstly we visited the Wool Centre & Visitor Centre which detailed the town's history as well as their wool industry. I didn't realise just how many different types of wool (and sheep) existed! Different thicknesses of wool defined what it was going to be used for ranging from fine clothes to coats and car seat covers. It was a lovely sunny day and nice to walk around. A bit further up the road was the Uniting Church built in 1885, small but with a nice polished curved timber structure in the area where the altar normally would be, but there was no altar. There were 2 large beautiful lead-light windows.

Further up the road was the old Post Office, or we thought it was 'old' and not operating, but it was. It had so much other goods for sale, like craft, that the postal side of the place was very small. Outside there was a very old red post box as well and we wondered if it was a real one - a printed sign on it said it was, so we weren't the first people to think that way. The next shop was a second hand shop which had a lot of very interesting things, and we thought his prices were rather reasonable.

At one intersection there was a lovely old sandstone building on each corner with the town having a humorous reference to The Four Corners of Ross:-
Temptation - Man O' Ross Hotel (c1835)
Damnation - Once the Town Gaol now a private residence
Salvation - Roman Catholic Church (c1920)
Recreation - Town Hall

After our walk we went back to Casa, had some lunch and drove 106 kms in a U shape firstly north, then west and finally south to the Arthur Lake Recreation Area, about 34 kms south of the town of Poatina (TAS) and the Pumphouse Bay Campground for 1 night. We haven't got power but there are toilet and shower, and there is a lovely lake beside us. The place is so expensive too - $4 per person per night and if you're Seniors/Pensioners it's a 50% discount - $2 per person! Part of the drive here was steep and quite winding with hairpin turns but Casa dealt with it no problem. In the distance all the time we were driving we could see majestic mountains in the distance but not really sure which ones they were. It was in the direction of the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and also the Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair NP, so there were many possibilities. We were quite high up with a lovely view and the pipeline of the Poatina Hydro Power Station running down the side of the mountain was in plain view.

31-3-2015 Tuesday 31-3-2015 Tuesday
We left our stop this morning and drove 22 kms west to the small town of Miena where there's a hotel with camping facilities. We decided there wasn't any attraction here for us, not even a pleasant place to stop, so we turned back the way we came. We could've continued on the road ahead, around the Great Lake but it was gravel for quite a way, and we don't like taking Casa on those roads. We drove 100 kms north to the town of Longford (TAS) and the Longford Riverside Caravan Park for 2 nights. It looked like a nice park, on the banks of the Macquarie River (which seems to be a smaller offshoot of the South Esk River), so we decided to stay the 2 nights and take our time looking around tomorrow.

After leaving the town of Miena we stopped to have a look at the Great Lake, a lake about 3 times the size of Arthur Lake which was the one we stayed near last night. We could see it would be a popular fishing spot and there were plenty of boat ramps (gravel ones) to support the activity. Before driving back down the mountain we stopped at a lookout and enjoyed the wonderful views (but through the haze), like a patchwork quilt down below of pastures and farming lands.

1-4-2015 Wednesday
We went for a late morning walk around the town of Longford. A heritage sign just outside the caravan park detailed information about the park, and also the Noakes's Brewery, a 3 storey building built on the banks of the Macquarie River (as Breweries need access to a lot of water), established 1857. The brewery burnt down long ago and there's nothing to see. One paragraph on the sign read "Beer was a dietary staple (Dave agrees with this) in early Van Dieman's Land. It was said that in Longford, in the 1820s, drunkenness was all but universal, and that half the deaths were caused by alcohol, one way or another." - doesn't sound like too much has changed since then!

The first building we saw was the sandstone Christ Church (Anglican) built 1839. Three walls had beautiful tall lead light windows, nearly the whole height of the walls. The outside of the windows had perspex placed over the windows to protect from vandalism and also stones thrown up by the mower (we were told). Inside the front door, in a glass display case, was the big winding mechanism and the winding handle for the clock, high up in the tower - the mechanism no longer needed due to automation.

We stopped for a nice lunch at the Country Club Hotel built c1850, formerly the Prince of Wales Inn (don't know why the name change, maybe an anti-royal owner?). The bistro part of the hotel was opened by the famous racing car driver Dick Johnson in March 1988. The whole hotel is full of racing memorabilia, even has a real racing car in the window. It seems racing here was an annual event from 1953 to the 1960's and there are many framed photos up on the wall.

As with so many of the towns we've been in, there were many lovely old buildings of the 1800s built out of sandstone, and luckily preserved. Most buildings have several chimneys and there is often smoke coming out of them. We can often smell smoke as we stop in towns, something that isn't a frequent smell at home. It's a regular thing to see piles of chopped wood in houses' yards, getting ready for the winter. We have remarked several times, that driving in Tassie, especially in the country areas, is like driving in England, green pastures, many sheep, rock walls, cold weather, and of course that's no wonder as so many houses were built over 150 years ago, by the English migrants. The main difference we've noticed though, is that the minor roads aren't as narrow, fortunately.

2-4-2015 Thursday
It was quite rainy, windy and overcast early this morning around 7am. We had the awning out and the wind caught it and slammed it down, breaking a part of one of the main awning supports. We managed to wind it back in but Dave will have to mend it before it can be used again. We left the park and drove 14 kms to an historic village called Evandale. We had a very quick look around as it was still cold and windy, and ducked into the local information centre and viewed their small museum. Apparently they have a Penny Farthing race every year and it just happened recently.

We then drove north 24 kms to the town of Glen Dhu (TAS) a suburb about 2 kms out of Launceston, and the Big 4 Holiday Park for 4 nights, over Easter.

3-4-2014 Friday Good Friday
This morning we rode Harley about 3 kms to Cataract Gorge where we caught a chairlift up and walked back. There are several walks that can be done and we noticed there were quite a few people who were in their exercise gear, and probably visit this area regularly for that purpose. There is no cost to get in, only to go on the chairlift. The gorge was beautiful and we walked over the Alexandra Suspension Bridge, connecting the 2 sides of the gorge. It was a beautiful sunny day which was great after yesterday being so rainy and windy. This site was quite busy today being a holiday. There was a lovely gardens area, many beautiful tree ferns, which was developed back in the late 1800s for people to enjoy some recreation activities. An information board stated that clearing and making these gardens was frowned upon by some people, the greenies of the day, but we felt it was most tastefully done and allowed for so many of the general public to be able to enjoy this beautiful place without having to be die hard fit bush walkers or climbers.

There were lovely peacocks wandering around, not afraid of people. We had lunch at one of the cafes and then rode Harley about 3 kms into the Launceston CBD, to do one of the heritage walks. There are many beautiful
old buildings here and being a holiday, the place was fairly quiet so we had a nice time wandering about. There was a high levy built on one side of the North Esk river, to guard from flooding and people can walk or cycles on top of it - very pleasant. The other side had a wall built with a big heavy metal gate to hold back the water if needed. We visited the lovely City Park with beautiful flowers and were surprised to see an enclosure of Japanese Macaque Monkeys, also called Snow Macaques that are at home in the water and can also tolerate the cold. In Japan they enjoy keeping warm in the thermal waters whilst surrounded by snow and ice. Some of the old buildings included Custom House completed 1888 scale and grandeur gives an idea of the riches coming into Launceston during the mineral boom of the 1870s and 1880s; Post Office c1886-9 in the Queen Anne architectural style; Diana, Venus and Fortuna c1882 Italianate style building; Batman Fawkner Inn c1824; Brewery Oast House Esk Brewery established 1881 and purchased in 1883 by James Boag and his son; Tasmanian Flour Mills c1880s; and Johnstone and Wilmot Store unusual is considered architecturally unique in Australia.

4-4-2015 Saturday
Had a visit to the hairdresser this morning - couldn't stand it any longer. Dave happily passed the time in the nearby Bunnings. We then rode Harley the few kms back into the CBD and did another heritage walk. The skies clouded over and it sprinkled a little bit but wasn't too bad. Our first stop was the pleasant King's Bridge dating from 1864, and links to the accessible paths of the magnificent Cataract Gorge Reserve. Ritchie's Mill built around 1836, operated continuously as a flour mill for 137 years and now is a restaurant and boutique foods shop.

Civic Square included a row of beautiful buildings that appeared to be mostly government and other businesses. Across the road was the impressive cream coloured Supreme Court building. We ducked into a hotel for lunch and then finished our walk. Part of the walk took us along the esplanade and a nicely built riverside walk. A couple river cruise businesses leave from here.

5-4-2015 Sunday Easter Sunday
We rode Harley into the CBD again this morning and did a tour of the James Boags Brewery. James Boag bought the brewery in 1883 and it's been going ever since. This brewery also makes Fourex Gold and another well known beer but boags beer is only made at this brewery. The brewery runs 24 hours a day (3x8 hour shifts) from Monday-Friday only, so being Sunday, there was no bottling/packaging activity in the factory. There was a museum to look at after the tour, and after the beer and Tassie cheeses tasting. The tour lady did say that there were a lot of pubs here in Launceston, and we had noticed that ourselves on our walks. We wonder how they all can survive - maybe a lot of drinkers down here. We had no trouble finding one to have lunch afterwards.

After lunch we did the third heritage walk around the CBD. It's been really good doing these heritage walks over Easter, because the city hasn't been busy. The skies were overcast but we were lucky that the rain mostly stayed away except for a bit of sprinkling - lucky because we were on Harley too. Some of the buildings we saw today were Old Brisbane Hotel c1840s was commonly known as "the Government House of the north" because of its popularity with royalty, governors, famous and important people; Synagogue c1844 unusual Egyptian Revival Style; Old Bank built 1884; and St John's Church c1824.

6-4-2015 Monday Easter Monday
We left the caravan park and Launceston this morning, dropped into Bunnings for a bit of retail therapy, and then drove about 100 kms west to the town of Mole Creek (TAS) and the Mole Creek Caravan Park for 2 nights. It's a lovely little park with lots of trees all around, a running creek beside us (Sassafras Creek) and mountains in the distance - a beautiful picture. Before booking in to the park we drove 8 kms further on to take a tour in the Marakoopa Cave - limestone caves with lovely formations of stalactites, stalagmites and there were also glow worms in one part.

Some parts of the walkway in the cave were low or narrow, and we had to duck and weave accordingly. The temperature in there was 9 degrees C and I could feel it in my lungs - wouldn't want to be stuck in there overnight. The 500 metre winding walk from the car park took us through lush rainforest, with thousands of tree ferns, moss covered trees and lots of fallen and broken trees, signs that some of them were a result of flooding.

Tow rag - I meant to put a paragraph in about this in the Georgetown diary when we visited the Bass and Flinders Centre (on 27/3), but forgot so thought I'd do it now. I had thought the phrase was 'toe' rag, when I'd heard someone call someone a 'dirty little toe rag'. I thought it was making a derogatory reference to some bad condition with the toe, wrapped in a rag (bandage) of some sort, but this was not the case, as we learned on the Norfolk boat replica. The term is a nautical one, coined back in the sailing boat (pre-motor) days. A rope with a frayed end was hung from the boat in the water. When a crewman did his business (number 2, and not sure where, but it might've been over the railing???), he then lifted up the 'tow rag', wiped his bottom with it (not great in cold weather) and then dropped it back in the water so as the boat powered along, the tow rag was washed (the mind boggles but probably a very practical, antibacterial method). So there, now we're all informed!

7-4-2015 Tuesday
Rest Day which is good as we've been on the go the last 4 days. It is also a lovely sunny day so a good washing day.

8-4-2015 Wednesday Ferry back to the Big Island
We left the park this morning and drove 80 kms north to Devonport (TAS) as we leave Tassie tonight on the 7.30pm on the Spirit of Tasmania to Melbourne, arriving at 6am tomorrow morning. On the way we stopped at the lovely town of Latrobe (TAS) to have a look around. It was another nice sunny day so was pleasant. We'd been told about this shop called Reliquaire so went there - and Wow what a place it is! They had everything in their 26 or so rooms. It used to be a hotel at one time. It was very interesting with something for everyone, although Dave wasn't all that interested. Every room was chock full and there were many, many dolls. There were displays of Xmas things, crafts, jewellery, toys, clothes, books, lots of decorative door and drawer knobs, dress up costumes, foodstuffs like coffee, fudge, chocolate, olives, the blue English police telephone box that is Dr Who's Tardis with the music playing as you walked past, a narrow isle of scary stuff like witches and ghosts and one made a noise as I walked past and scared the hell out of me. If you were after a gift for someone I'd be surprised if you couldn't find something in there.

After that we had a nice lunch at the Lucas Hotel and then drove a couple kms down the highway to the House of Anvers, the famous Belgian chocolate factory. A Belgian man started it and there is a museum that shows a lot of old chocolate moulds and memorabilia and there is a viewing window to watch the people working (although today there wasn't much to see). They also have a coffee shop to have a meal accompanied by hot chocolate of course, and chocolate desserts. After buying some chocolate we parked at Devonport and strolled along the esplanade. We were able to walk very close to where the ferry is docked.