*yawn* Hi all. Last day of our trip today!
Due to our prime position on the ferry (the bus was literally second to leave) we got an early start to drive. And drive. Etc., etc. We drove for a little over 12 hours with small stops for lunch and ice coffee. Eventually, we made it back home to an ecstatic Nelson and our house and garden in good condition (Thanks house sitters!).
This trip was amazing. Tasmania is a wonderful place and we would recommend it to anyone (insert smiley face here).
Fauna: Birds, Nelson, pigs, turtles.
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Wicked Vans: 0
Favourite Walk:
Gabby: Rock-hopping at Apsley Gorge
Maddy: Rock-hopping at Apsley Gorge
Jo: Rock-hopping at Apsley Gorge
Ed: Montezuma Falls
Favourite Food:
Gabby: Fresh Raspberries
Maddy: Fresh Silvan Berries
Jo: Fresh Hand Picked Blueberries
Ed: Smoked Salmon
Favourite Accommodation:
Gabby: Binalong Bay
Maddy: Snug
Jo: Binalong Bay
Ed: Binalong Bay
Favourite Town:
Gabby: Sheffield
Maddy: Sheffield
Jo: Stanley
Ed: Stanley
Favourite Animal:
Gabby: Echidna
Maddy: Echidna
Jo: Platypus
Ed: Wombat
Favourite Boat Ride:
Gabby: Maria Island
Maddy: Gordon River
Jo: Arthur River
Ed: Gordon River
Favourite Beach:
Gabby: Greens Beach
Maddy: Greens Beach
Jo: Greens Beach
Ed: Wineglass Bay
According to Triple J, Adelaide was the hottest city in the world today. Glad we’re escaping it, but bad luck to you all.
Today was pretty laid back. We started the day with a few hours of doing nothing apart from eating breakfast and picking grass seeds out of our shoes (last night- epic walk but horrible grass seeds). Maddy and I played hand and foot again which was fun (insert smiley face). We then drove to a small beach which was wavy but rocky, where I read a really good Jodi Picoult book and the others played cards. Next was a short shop and then to our current destination, the caravan park from the night before last. We basically just played more cards and walked to a cool little island only accessible during low tide. Highest temperature? About 21 degrees.
Bye (smiley face)
-Gabby
Fauna: various birds, pademelons, crabs (XD), dogs and a probably dead stingray (poor thing).
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Wicked Vans: 0
Hello everybody!! Today was a lovely, peaceful, calm, relaxing day. In the morning we walked down to the caravan park office, where we hoped to book in for another day. Alas there was no more room, someone had already booked the site we were on, and we had to find somewhere else to stay the day and night. Fortunately Mum had already planned for us to stay at Narawntapu National Park another evening, so we packed up the bus and headed there a day early. After finding ourselves a beautiful campsite, Gabby and I went for a walk on the beach and promptly got lost. The beach was pretty, but hard to walk on; we kept sinking to our knees in sand! After we had walked for ages, Mum and Dad called: they had also gone down to the beach and were looking for us. Reluctantly we turned back and found Mum and Dad.
Instead of walking back along the beach, we took the nearest exit out and walked around trying to find our campsite. We got lost again. After walking around in circles (literally! We walked around in a circle!!), Mum and Dad figured the way back to the bus. As we neared the bus, we stumbled upon a fire track. Mum and I followed it and Dad and Gabby followed the road. Mum and I got to the bus first (ha ha; take that Gabby and Dad). We relaxed for the next couple of hours. After lunch we walked (4km return) to Bakers Beach (they spelt our name wrong, but we forgive them). Dad and I swam out in the shallow, clear water, while Mum and Gabby laughed at us and took pictures. We returned to the bus and relaxed until tea. After tea we went on the Springlawn nature walk. The walk was fantastic! We were met with wide eyed pademelons along the track, beautiful birds at the Bird Hide pavilion and wombats, Bennett’s wallabies and Kangaroos along the grassy plains. The first part of the walk was well maintained, but the grassy plains part of the walk was signposted with yellow poles a fair distance apart. So, there we were; at almost nightfall trying to navigate our way through badly signposted plains, with wallabies and kangaroos watching our every move. Good fun!! Luckily, we finished the walk with plenty of time to spare.
Hope you’re not all melting in the hot weather, Maddy.
Fauna: Wrens, pademelons (that came up to us at mealtimes wanting food. Gabby managed to get the little cutie to sniff her finger!), Bennett’s Wallabies, Kangaroos, Wombat and loads of different birds.
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Wicked Vans: 0
Hi all, Gabby here.
Even though it can’t compare to the temperatures you guys are getting (40+!), today was really warm at about 32. We
started the day with a short drive to 41 Degrees South, a salmon and ginseng farm, where we could taste some products, feed the fish and walk around the farm. We tasted some smoked salmon and salmon rillettes (yummy) and some leatherwood honey and spice mix (eh…). The fish were massive and happy to eat the food, and the walk was shady and nice (especially through willow ‘maze’).
And the temperature slowly creeps up…
Next was the Alum Cliffs walk. The final view of the walk was awesome, looking out on ochre cliffs, forest and a river, but the walk was steep and the temperature high.
Leaving Alum Cliffs we stopped at Deloraine and bought some mutton bird for lunch. We ate the smoked salmon on bread, which was delicious, and the mutton bird, which was yummy for the first few bites then too strong for the rest of the meal. I like mutton bird, but not enough to eat it regularly. I can still taste it!
To get the taste out of our mouths (and to stick to the schedule I guess) we drove to Ashgrove Cheese for cheese tasting and yummy ice cream made from fresh produce and berries. I had a delicious combo of mango and raspberry.
Finally (or so we thought) was Railton, where we were planning to stay the night, because Dad wanted to drink some beer at a brewery. Unfortunately, the weather was really warm, and he just bought a few take-away bottles instead. We left the town after driving around to see some of the incredible topiaries. My favourite was an elephant and it’s calf; one of the
best of the countless number. There were Tassie devils, Tassie tigers, guitars, trains, numbers, people, horses, birds, fish, and so much more.
After a thorough circuit of Railton, we drove to Sheffield, where we walked around looking at the many, many amazing murals painted on (what seemed like) every flat wall. They were incredible, depicting themes varying from history to dreams to abstract art.
Finally (for real this time), the weather was so warm that we decided to go to the coast to Port Sorrell (which was much cooler) and spend the evening and night there. Port Sorrell has a lovely beach and jetty with hundreds of people swimming, sunbathing and running around screaming “I caught a fish in my hat!” (don’t ask). The Caravan Park where we are staying is massive, with over 150 spots almost full.
Bye (insert smiley face here)
Fauna: fish, cows, horses, various birds, platypus (seen by only Maddy - Maddy's note: They all think I was hallucinating or something. Grrr.)
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Wicked Vans: 0…
Hello everybody! Today was a lot cooler than yesterday and the day before, making for a much nicer day. We started off the morning with a little (ha) 6km walk to an old power station at Cataract Gorge. Surprisingly there were still some people swimming in the gorge pool; at 8:45 in the morning! The walk was nice, cool and quiet. After making our way across a suspension bridge we were at the power station. The site had fallen into a state of disrepair; there was loads of graffiti on the walls. The information signs were still really interesting and we spent a while exploring. Turns out the power station was the first hydroelectricity station in Tasmania. We then climbed what felt like a billion stairs and finished our circuit walk. Next stop was Launceston where an auto electrician fixed our broken indicator and supplied us with a spare part. We also walked through Launceston to a Telstra shop to recharge a dongle that connected us to the internet; the reason our blog posts are late. After a quick look through a bookshop we drove to Bracknell for lunch and a mad rush at the playground on Gabby and I’s behalf. I amused myself by running on playground equipment (probably meant for other purposes) as fast as I could (6 seconds), whilst Gabby (the mature one) swinged and timed me. Next was a hair raising drive to Liffey Falls (we made several false starts going up light vehicle only roads) where we had planned to camp the night. The resulting 45 minute walk to Liffey Falls was very pretty; leading us through a rainforest. Unfortunately a lot of horizontal trees and a fallen tree made progress very difficult. Finally arriving at the falls; Gabby and I rock hopped our way down the river. Getting back to our campsite, we decide to keep moving instead of staying the night because of the abundance of bugs and isolated location. We have ended up back at Bracknell next to a river. Gabby and I spent the rest of the afternoon wading and skimming stones; good fun.
Maddy
Fauna: fairy wrens, peacocks, cows, skinks, gigantic insects (including cicadas) and various other birds.
Wicked Van: 1 Wicked Camper
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Hi all. Today was really, really warm (for Tassie) with the temperature almost reaching 30 degrees! We weren’t used to it, and were very hot. Hope you guys are coping with the even hotter weather.
We left the caravan park in the morning and drove to a small-ish market. It housed two warehouses filled with stalls and some outdoor ones, all selling either bric a brac, books or CD's, clothing or food. Maddy and Mum bought a book each while I bought two CDs for $6 (good quality and cheap). We also bought some fresh fruit and lunch; a bacon and cheese loaf thingy. Next was another market, which was more like the Salamanca Markets than bric a brac, but still had some used goods stalls. Maddy bought a shirt and Mum bought some spoons, along with some cauliflower and cherries.
Pleased with our purchases, we headed off to Woolmers, which is a historic homestead with a rose garden. We walked around the property, investigating the garden and random buildings, then took a tour of the house which was very interesting (six generations of Thomas Archer lived in the same house without removing anything massive, resulting in items from the early 1800’s to the 1990’s. The rose garden was beautiful but we avoided it as some people were practicing for a wedding. After lunch and a short drive we were at Brickendon, which was really cool with hens and their chicks, turkeys and ducks wandering around and donkeys and sheep in close paddocks. The buildings weren’t as interesting, but the adjacent gardens were beautiful.
Finally, we did a little bit of shopping then headed back to the same caravan park as last night.
Sayonara! -Gabby
P.S. Tea was delicious and mostly made up of local produce- pasta with tomatoes, broccolini and chorizo.
Fauna: Ducks, chickens, turkeys, sheep, a donkey, dogs and random birds.
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
Wicked Vans: 1 (YEH)
Whew! It’s pretty hot over here. Well, to us. It’s probably only 29 degrees or so, but after weeks of cool weather it feels boiling. This morning we drove to Launceston, stopping on the way to do a quick walk to a lookout; Brady’s Lookout. The lookout overlooked a beautiful river with charming little houses on the banks. At Launceston, our first stop was the Harvest Market where we purchased various fruit and vegetables, including some delicious apricots, as well as some bacon and chorizo. Gabby and I also ate a yummy popsicle each; one flavoured rhubarb and cream, the other flavoured raspberry sorbet. After dumping the produce at the bus, and eating an apricot each; accompanied by a glass of goats milk or ice coffee (the morning tea of champions), we started our walk around Launceston. Some memorable spots were the monkey park, a solo trombonist and various heritage buildings. The city park, also known as monkey park by Gabby and me, housed beautiful exotic animals including Japanese Snow Monkeys and a solo trombonist (hee hee). The Japanese Snow Monkeys were adorable; there were several little babies playing and one little wussy monkey clutching to his Mum. The trombonist was awesome; he played along to a karaoke machine playing various songs including: Live While We’re Young by One Direction (eww), Some Nights by Fun, Skyfall by Adele and Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift. He was very good. The heritage buildings were also fabulous. One of my favourites was an Indian restaurant that had taken advantage of the brickwork and placed black silhouettes of Indian buildings on the brickwork. After lunch we headed to Cataract Gorge. Cataract Gorge was awesome! It housed a free swimming pool, a chairlift, peacocks, various walks, a suspension bridge (which I was unfortunately unable to swing, safety regulations and all that) and several dozen idiots who decided to jump off tall rocks into the murky water. Gabby and I swam in the blue waters of the pool, not the murky waters of the river inside the gorge. The water was FREEZING, but it was warm outside and we managed a couple laps before drying ourselves in the sunshine. On the way to the swimming pool we passed through the gorge - ous (ha ha ha) gardens and peacocks. We left the gorge via a steep track and a lookout. We shall return to the gorge on Monday to do some of the other walks. After a short detour to a gallery and gift shop, the gallery housed lovely photographs of different Tasmanian Tarcine forests, we walked back to the bus and drove to the caravan park in which we are now situated.
Hope you are all surviving the hot weather, Maddy.
Fauna: Peacocks, monkeys (duh), a bug in my lettuce (eurgh), possum (up in a tree with dogs underneath it at the Harvest Markets) and a pademelon (or other such animal; Gabby and I can’t decide).
Vehicles Overtaken: 1(Yes!!!)
Wicked Vans: 0
