Nothing to report
Sunday 21st February 10
We visited the local market to buy some veggies and spent the rest of the day in leisurely fashion including watching the one day cricket.
Monday 22nd February 10
Merry did some more of her bookkeeping for S.A.F.E
Tuesday 23rd February 10
We visited Port Sorrell as we had been told it was an interesting place. We took a left turn just before Port Sorrell to look at the relatively new Shearwater shopping centre and residential estate which was fresh and quite presentable. It is built alongside a very tidal inlet which was virtually empty whilst we were there which offer a sandy beach along its length. We drove along the complete length until the road ended which offered an ‘off leash dog exercise beach’ so long as it was after 7.00pm and before 6.00am, so if you enjoy exercising your dog in the dark it is all yours.
We visited Port Sorrell as we had been told it was an interesting place. We took a left turn just before Port Sorrell to look at the relatively new Shearwater shopping centre and residential estate which was fresh and quite presentable. It is built alongside a very tidal inlet which was virtually empty whilst we were there which offer a sandy beach along its length. We drove along the complete length until the road ended which offered an ‘off leash dog exercise beach’ so long as it was after 7.00pm and before 6.00am, so if you enjoy exercising your dog in the dark it is all yours.
The rest off the beach was ‘no dogs at any time’ which is a shame as the beach has many rocky outcrops which would make for interesting walks.We then proceeded to Port Sorrell but there isn’t a Port of any
description and is situated on a Rivulet which was also empty at the time with numerous small boats sitting on the sand within wooden frames to hold them upright, which them move up or down with the arrival or retreat of the water. 
There is a footbridge across the rivulet to a track along the bank on the other side which allowed us to give Foxy a walk but it wasn’t a real interesting walk as it didn’t offer any views.Finally we drove around the inlet to the National Park on the other side despite knowing that there would be a dog exclusion sign at the entrance, but the journey was interesting with a few good views and then returned home via a totally different route.
A day of household chores, how interesting is that.
Thursday 25th January 10, Friday 26th February 10 and Saturday 27th February 10
Nothing of significance to report as the weather didn’t really allow for much activity.
Sunday 28th February 10
We spent the day at the Devonport Regatta on the harbour foreshore, which involved a fair and sideshow ally for the kids, log chopping competitions, food stalls of course, street entertainment including the same skinny idiot threading himself through a tennis racket and swallowing swords that performed in Launceston a couple of weeks ago.
The Regatta started with a Dragon boat race but we didn’t understand the race concept in the same way as the officials as one boat start well ahead of the second boat and the third boat didn’t start until the other two had finished. This didn’t fit our idea of handicapping either. 
This was followed by some junior powerboat races and water skiing both as individual and as groups with acrobatics and then came the big boys with their toys. Foxy was allowed in with us so she also enjoyed the day out except late in the afternoon when the wind got up (she doesn’t like wind) and the larger more powerful boats, which also means noisier, didn’t impress her, but everybody else seemed to like it. They go for the noise and speed, which was pretty fast on the choppy water, with some badly designed units looking close to take off, or flipping over.
Interestingly, in the middle of he day, the show was held up whilst a freight train cautiously left Devonport through the middle of the foreshore, and therefore the fairground, on its way to Burnie.Monday 1st March 10
Home day but met another couple with a small dog ‘Kasey’ and discussed the ‘No Dogs’ problem with National Parks and suggested we look after their dog whilst they have a day of freedom and they look after Foxy whilst we go out for the day. This was agreed to and arranged for them to go out the next day.
Tuesday 2nd March 10
Jenny and Des have their dog free day and head out to Cradle Mountain. Foxy and Kasey get on very well together and have a walk with us to the heritage house near the visitor centre so that we can have look inside. Merry had a look first whilst Barry minded the dogs and then as it wasn’t that brilliant Barry didn’t bother and we retreated home. We took another walk with the dogs about 2.15am and let Kasey have a swim in the shallow part of the river. Foxy doesn’t want to know about water. On the way back across the park Kasey pulled frantically to get away as a vehicle stopped on the other side of the park, which turned out to be her owner’s vehicle that she recognised despite hundreds like it. We let her go and she broke all records over that distance. They were home much earlier than we expected but they don’t do a lot of walking due to Des having hip and knee problems.
Wednesday 3rd March 10
We delivered Foxy to Jenny and Des and headed for Cradle Mountain via a more scenic route past Mt Roland and taking in the small town of Wilmot which we had read boasted ‘Forth Falls’. However you can only see them from a boat on Lake Barrington and you need to have your own boat. We then pressed on to Cradle Mountain where the entry arrangements were somewhat different to when we visited there in 2001.
Home day but met another couple with a small dog ‘Kasey’ and discussed the ‘No Dogs’ problem with National Parks and suggested we look after their dog whilst they have a day of freedom and they look after Foxy whilst we go out for the day. This was agreed to and arranged for them to go out the next day.
Tuesday 2nd March 10
Jenny and Des have their dog free day and head out to Cradle Mountain. Foxy and Kasey get on very well together and have a walk with us to the heritage house near the visitor centre so that we can have look inside. Merry had a look first whilst Barry minded the dogs and then as it wasn’t that brilliant Barry didn’t bother and we retreated home. We took another walk with the dogs about 2.15am and let Kasey have a swim in the shallow part of the river. Foxy doesn’t want to know about water. On the way back across the park Kasey pulled frantically to get away as a vehicle stopped on the other side of the park, which turned out to be her owner’s vehicle that she recognised despite hundreds like it. We let her go and she broke all records over that distance. They were home much earlier than we expected but they don’t do a lot of walking due to Des having hip and knee problems.
Wednesday 3rd March 10
We delivered Foxy to Jenny and Des and headed for Cradle Mountain via a more scenic route past Mt Roland and taking in the small town of Wilmot which we had read boasted ‘Forth Falls’. However you can only see them from a boat on Lake Barrington and you need to have your own boat. We then pressed on to Cradle Mountain where the entry arrangements were somewhat different to when we visited there in 2001. On our previous visit we drove to what is now a Park Ranger Visitor Centre to get our park pass and then drove on to the edge of Dove Lake. Now there is a Transit station/Visitor centre as you enter the Park with a huge car park were you abandon your vehicle and the entry pass you buy entitles you to a bus shuttle service to various points on the way to Dove Lake, bearing in mind they have added boardwalks to many of these additional points.
From the drop off point at Dove Lake you can walk around either side of the lake, but not the complete circuit around the lake as we did in 2001 as they are doing upgrades to the track and boardwalk were these are required. It is also at this point that one track, taken by the bold, is the overland track to Lake St Claire on the other side of the mountain. This is a five day trek with huts for overnight stops but you carry all you need on your back, or for $5000 you have the luxury walk with someone else carrying your backpack and also doing all the cooking.
Back in the land of reality, we took the short walk to the right of the lake as far as the old boat shed then backtracked slightly and took a left turn to Lake Lilla and then followed the track to Ronny Creek. All up about 1.5 hours. We caught the bus back to the original visitor centre were we did the 20 minute Pencil Pine walk that takes you past Pencil Pine Falls and through the rainforest were the ancient Pencil Pines are.
From there we took the Enchanted Walk, another 20 minutes in theory, but as this was a guided tour with all the information on the plant life etc, so it took closer to 45 minutes.
As we walkd back to Ranger station we stopped on the bridg by 'The Cascades, and then took the bus back to the transit station and car and had a long awaited coffee/tea break before starting the trip home via Sheffield and Railton, arriving home just before 6.00pm. A great day out but we felt that the previous trip had the edge over this one as the mountain tops had snow on them, which presents a more postcard type view, which it didn’t quite have this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment