13th April to 21st April 2010

Wednesday 13th April 10

It is still wet and miserable

Wednesday 14th April 10

The weather is still very uncertain but we phoned the Retreat in Corinna as they are at sea level and it was claimed to be fair weather there. On this basis we drove out to Corinna to see the Pieman River, especially as they are currently trying to rescue a beached pod of dolphins in that area. The journey was wet as we travelled over the mountain with our heads in the cloud, but dried out a bit as we reached Savage River mining area, and from there on we were on a narrow dirt road for 20 odd kilometres. The last few kilometres drop down through the rain forest to the Pieman river where it was still damp and overcast. Maybe for them it was a fair weather day. The only way across the Pieman river to progress to Zeehan is via the 'Fatman ' Barge.

We had to leave Foxy in the car whilst we did the hour and forty minute rainforest walk, during which time it rained for a while. The walk was good but one rainforest is much like another but with variations on the fungi and mosses.

We treated ourselves to lunch in the Tarkine Hotel and then headed homeward and fortunately only met oncoming traffic at the wider places in the road. The weather gradually got worse as we climbed back into the cloud cover and helped us decide to move on tomorrow to get out of the wet with the possibility of a trip to Philosopher’s falls first if the rain has cleared which is what the weather reports keep implying. They haven’t been right yet.

Thursday 15th April 10

We are still in the clouds with no improvement in the weather so we moved on to Wynyard on the north coast, and are now forgetting all about Philosopher’s Falls. Other people that we had met had told us that they had left good weather when they left Wynyard and it proved to be correct. We finally gained some sunshine, took our jumpers off and set up the camp again in a site with a bit of room. We are backed up looking out to sea with coastal views and have already enjoyed an evening stroll on the beach with Foxy in her element chasing seagulls. There are a lot of rabbits for her to chase as well. The journey here on a ‘B’ road was very easy compared to the ‘A’ road that we used to go out to Waratah/Strahan as it didn’t take us through mountains and the Hellyer Gorge torturous stretch of road.

Friday 16th April 10

We did a bit of shopping and called into Centrelink in Burnie, then went to an ugly looking block called a visitor centre. We have already decided that we are not over impressed with Burnie as it has every square inch covered with a parking meter, even outside government offices that don’t provide parking for clients. The visitor centre does tours around a small plant within the centre that makes hand made paper because the real paper mill stopped their tours about six months ago and are about to stop production altogether. The timing was wrong for us to do the tour there and then but will return.

By the time we reached home, it appeared that we had dragged the Waratah clouds northward with us as it was overcast and threatening. To ensure it rained we put some washing out and then walked into town and by the time we reach our furthest destination, the Wynyard visitor centre, it had started to rain. This visitor centre has a vintage car exhibition which we will take a look at in the near future. Very shortly after arriving home it stopped raining but remained overcast.

Saturday 17th April 10

The weather was improving so we drove to the small town of Penguin and had a picnic lunch by the beach whilst we watched the Lifesaving Championships in action. This was not the Baywatch type lifesavers but the rubber duckie rescue boats powering out to pick up so called patients.

This is not an event that we would normally bother with but Naomi, the granddaughter of our friends Ann and Ashley, was competing for North Cottesloe/Scarborough so let her know her team had some supporters. We watched for about two hours during which time a train passed closely behind the spectators as the track closely follows the coastline, and then went off to explore Penguin, and Ulverstone the next town along the coast, before heading home.

Sunday 18th April 10

We had a small amount of shopping to do and then drove inland out to a small township called Ridgley via a minor road that provided some superb views, and visited Guide Falls.
We had seen the signs to the Falls as we passed through here on our way from Waratah to Wynyard and decided to back track for a look. We initially arrived at a picnic area and car park but only by the stream, not the Falls, so we continued up the hill to another car park.

From here we had a very short walk to two observation platforms and then walked down the fenced path and steps to the stream where you can then walk back along the stream until you are looking straight into the bottom of the Falls. The Falls have a small upper fall and then a much deeper fall slightly side on into the stream. There are then a succession of smaller falls along the stream. We experienced the same problem that we had at Hogarth Falls with the sunlight in the wrong position, so we will return again when it is overcast or a morning situation.

On the return journey we did a detour into the Emu Valley Rhododendron Park which covers several acres and includes several small lakes, each with its own pergola styled to suit the country that the rhododendrons are from.

There is also a North American section which, being deciduous, is currently changing colour prior to dropping its leaves. We really need to be here in October when everything is in flower to get the best out of it but even now it is impressive. It is also better to visit during a week day rather than weekend as there are often weddings happening which requires you to avoid certain areas. Naturally we caught on of these in progress, and also needed to start earlier as more time would have been an advantage.

Monday 19th April 10

In the afternoon we drove to Table Cape which is the local headland, but didn’t stay as low cloud was rolling in off the ocean blotting out the view, so we drove through to Stanley to check out the situation on the wharf where we have been told you can free camp so long as you have your own toilet, etc, and are prepared to get water from town. This is not a problem for us, so our next stop will probably here, or by the beach on the other side of town. The wharf campsite has the Nut (the towns very prominent headland) towering above it, which had quite a few people using the cable car to the top which would prove useless for the view, and soak them for their troubles, as the same low cloud covered the top of the Nut. Out of necessity we picked up some diesel in Stanley but like so many Tasmanian towns, could not get any autogas. Gas is mainly only available in the larger towns, although we were surprised by its availability in Strahan, but we couldn’t get it in Queenstown which is a much bigger town.

Tuesday 20th April 10

Rained off

Thursday 21 April 10

The weather at 7.30am was perfect but by 9.00am was becoming overcast which was ideal for another trip to Guide Falls as the sun would not pose a problem.

The previous 24 hours of rain also proved to be a bonus as the amount of water had increased quite dramatically.

On the way back we stopped off at Fernglade and took the 20 minute walk each way alongside the river am
ongst the fern trees. This was a very pleasant area for the Burnie residents and visitors to enjoy which has to be a bonus for Burnie which has nothing else to offer. It is a typical sprawling port town that happened rather than being planned. We called into the visitors centre and booked a tour of the hand made papermaking plant and had a coffee whilst we waited for the start. Darren showed us the ingredients used for the different types of paper which ranges from plant life through cotton and denim to wombat poo, and then showed the equipment that breaks it all down to a pulp. He then demonstrated scooping the pulp up on a wire mesh tray fitted with a removable template on top of it that divides the pulp into four A4 size sheets. It was then tipped onto a felt base that absorbed the remaining water prior to being peeled off the felt and rolled out against a glass wall to dry flat. When it is dry and removed from the glass, the side that was actually against the glass is very smooth for writing/painting on. We all then had a successful attempt at making a sheet of paper with a watermark in it, which is done with a thin wire shape of the watermark on the wire mesh so that the paper thickness is reduced by the watermark wire. When held up to the light the watermark shows up due to the transparency of the thinner paper. We then headed home with our watermarked little squares of hand made paper.

1st April to 12th April 2010

Thursday 1st April 10

It started out wet so this was treated as a rest day.

Friday 2nd April 10

The weather has turned cold but dry so we attempted a game of golf. After four holes the club competition started so we gave it away rather than get in their way and went back at 3.30pm to start again. In all honesty we shouldn’t have started at all, as we played like beginners. We had a fish and chip dinner in the golf club.3rd April

Saturday 3rd April 10

The weather has once again turned wet preventing outdoor activity.

Sunday 4th April 10

The weather is now almost perfect so we finally made our assault on the old heritage town of East Pillinger.

On the way from Queenstown to the turn off to East Pillinger we had a great view of Lake Burbury. The journey to the point where vehicles are no longer allowed was easy and the 4WD bit was also suitable for 2WD cars, some of which had practically filled the small parking area prior to our arrival. We had expected to be the only people there but it turned out that the Launceston Wanderers Club were having a day out, plus a few others.

We had an early lunch in the car park and set out on the trek at 11.40am along the old train track over the Bird River Bridge and followed the river for about half of the trek.

This was all rain forest country with the usual moss and fungi growth and then left the river for a while before rejoining it towards the end of the track where the river runs into Kelly Basin, which is an inlet from Macquarie Bay.

The remains of the town are sparse with remnants of the old jetty, two brick kilns, a chimney of a bakery and two boilers.

We spent about three quarters of an hour looking around and resting before the trek back out, which offered better views of the river in the reverse direction.

We took longer on the return journey for one obvious reason and because we took more photos on the way out because of the better views and light conditions. We arrived back at the car at 5.00pm and found the information post that told us it was a 7.5 km walk each way. We arrived back at the caravan at 6.40pm for a thorough telling off from Foxy for leaving her at home, but Pillinger is in a National Park that excludes her because of the threat that she poses to wild life. We didn’t see any wild life and any self respecting lizard could see her off.

Monday 5th April 10

Rest day

Tuesday 6th April 10

Preparation for moving out on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday 7th April 10

The day started out like a fine weather day so we finished packing up and then went into town to Banjo’s for some pepper/steak pies and steak/mushroom pies for an early lunch before heading out. Whilst hitching up the caravan the weather changed to a sudden downpour so that our move to Waratah was in the rain. The caravan park is a bit cramped, like all Tassie parks and is council run on waste land behind the council offices. Waratah’s claims to fame are a tin mine, a waterfall in the middle of town and the longest par 5 fairway on an Aussie golf course.

Thursday 8th April 10

Rained off.

Friday 9th April 10

We drove out to Hellyer Gorge, which we drove past on our way to Strahan but didn’t stop, about a month ago.

This gave us a 15 minute walk beside, and in, the river bed until we emerged back onto the road and then took the 30 minute bush walk on the other side of the road.

This was a typical rainforest walk which again had an array of ferns, mosses and fungi and re-emerged onto the road further up the hill.

We had the mandatory picnic lunch and then drove back to Waratah and checked out the waterwheel and waterfall whilst the weather was reasonable.

The waterfall is quite impressive and is fed from the local lake and a side stream tapped off by the original tin mining company to run the waterwheel. The mine had seven of these waterwheels at various locations to operate machinery in their respective location.

We then drove out to Whyte Hill to the look out across the Tarkine and then took the track across the road which took us past the old quarry and down into the valley to the remains of the old township of Magnet. This is one of those tracks where you hope not to meet another vehicle coming the other way as there is no way of passing. On arrive we discovered another vehicle and trailer with two guys and trail bikes who were able to tell us about the area as they were born and bred locally.

The township itself has been removed but there are the burnt out remains of an old mill and concrete foundations.

We then returned home to the van resisting the urge to turn off again to Philosopher Falls as the weather was starting to threaten and also getting late in the day for an hour and half walk, so they are on the list of jobs to do.

Saturday 10th April 10

Once again, activity has been put on hold. As we are at a high altitude we are effectively in the clouds which currently do not want to go away, so it is permanently drizzling.

Sunday 11th April 10

It is still very wet and miserable but we did manage to visit the nearby museum although it was really a load of junk and then visited the Stamper Mill which is the original built by a guy named Kenworthy, to crush ore, convert it to slurry and then pass it across a vibrating, rippled table. The water washes off the light material leaving the heavier, tin, behind for collection. A clever, early form of automation which had a freewheeling pulling so that he could push the drive belt onto the freewheel pulley thus stopping the process to collect the tin left on the table without stopping the whole plant. The only manual labour was to shovel the ore into the feed hopper , a 44 gallon drum, and collecting the tin from the table.

It was wet for the whole day and achieved nothing other than almost completing the Sunday paper crossword. We then had a virtually sleepless night due the wind getting up at around midnight to almost gale proportions, with lashing rain which we had not expected, or been warned of, as the TV reception here is useless. We are using the satellite dish which only gives us ABC for every state except Tassie, and Imparja which is all based in Queensland and NT. Consequently, we had not taken our awning down to protect it but fortunately we had attached guy ropes which did an excellent job, but the noise produced by its movement in the wind leaves you waiting for the worst. We also moved the car across the front of it at about 3.30am to act as a wind break which helped a little.

Monday 12th April 10

Once day light reared its head we braved the elements and managed to put the awning away without it getting out of control which is just as well as the wind seemed to be getting worse. Without the awning, it was a lot quieter in the van but still rocking in the sudden gusts.

The wind eased in the afternoon but the rain didn't, apparently giving Waratah 36mm in the last 24 hours. In the evening the wind dropped off completely allowing a quiet night for sleeping.

24th March to 31st March 10

Wednesday 24th March 10

The weather was still wet in the morning and cleared towards lunch time so we drove to Zeehan after lunch to visit the Pioneer museum. This proved that the recommendations that we had received about the high quality of the museum to be true. It is very extensive, well presented and contains a vast amount of equipment and historic photos.

The outside display includes a simulated underground experience which was very effective although the very amateurish film that is used could do with improving, but as that mine in the film is no longer operational that is not going to happen.

Having worked underground for six months in the copper mines in Zambia the film was less impressive for Barry but the overall effect was excellent. We where politely thrown out due to their closure time with the assurance that we could return for a free entry the next day.

Thursday 25th March 10

The weather has finally cleared and produced a warm sunny day so we took our long awaited walk to Hogarth Falls.

As predicted the rain has made a tremendous difference to the volume of water and the natural light did not blot out a lot of the left hand water against the rock background.

On our return to the van we decided to take up yesterdays offer and returned to the museum in Zeehan to finish off what we started.

The Museum also includes the Gaity Theatre and the Freemasons Hall.

We then drove to the ‘Spray tunnel’ which is the short cut through a hill to the Spray mine workings. The workings are no longer there but the 100 metre tunnel is. It is high enough to clear our Nissan Patrol with ease but the width of 2.2 metres left little to spare on the sides with the side mirrors turned in. The vehicle is 1.95m wide with the mirrors turned in. At one point the side ladder to the roof rack scraped the wall briefly, probably an error of judgement by Barry.

After the one way 4WD track back out from the tunnel we drove out to Trial Harbour where we were surprised to find was well inhabited with fishing types and some of the houses looked quite flashy. Every house had solar panels for their lighting and gas bottles for cooking, etc. They appeared to have some form of running water supply as we didn’t see many water tanks and what there was were quite small, but we noticed taps and hoses in front gardens. The roads were rough graded, as was half the road into the harbour, with the first half had been bituminised up to a mine site. On returning to the main road we drove on to Granville Harbour which also had human life and more uprising with electrical power, possibly because the hamlet was closer to the main road with only 8 kilometres of graded road.

Friday 26th March 10

Surprise, surprise, the weather is wet and miserable again so nothing special happened unless having dinner in the Golf club attains that status. The actual meal itself didn’t, it was just a meal no washing up.

Saturday 27th March 10

This was a dry day but threatening to rain so we drove to Queenstown for an attempt to explore the old town of Pillinger which we have recently seen on TV.

This requires a drive out of Queenstown for 29 km then the second stage of the trip being a further 11km on a 4WD track with the final stage on foot. We discovered in town that this stage is a 1.5 hour walk each way, with a good chance of rain, so we reverted to plan B.

After lunch we drove to Tullah which is a tiny town on the edge of Rosebery Lake, and then drove around the top of the lake and headed to Zeehan via Reece Dam. The wasn’t a lot to see on this trip, which was recommended by someone we met when we stayed in Rosebery, but turned of for a look at the bottom of Bastyan Dam but was a little disappointed so continued on our way. We also stopped at a lookout which claimed a ‘feature’ that didn’t do a lot for us as it was a stone plinth with a direction plaque mounted on it indicating which mountain was which, and where the town were.

The journey was brightened up when we came across a possum in the middle of the road that wasn’t too scared of us and kept us entertained for a while.

Soon after that we came to the Dam which had a huge overflow weir with a bridge over it for our use, which took us to the dam itself.

This was quite impressive with its hydro-electric power station built within the wall. We had a short tea break whilst we took in the view and then headed for home via Zeehan.

Whilst we were doing our trip, there was an attempt in Strahan to beat the British world record for the number of water skiers towed behind one boat, which we had forgotten about, but unfortunately a few fell over so once again they missed out by not beating 100 skiers over the required distance. They were to have another attempt in the evening but this was called off due to the surface chop being too bad.

Sunday 28th March 10

As this is being typed we could hear the loudspeaker and helicopters covering another attempt at the skier record. The boat that is used is the same boat that does the cruises up the Gordon River and I believe this is the seventh Aussie attempt at this record. Later in the day and were informed that the attempt was successful with 114 skiers being towed by one boat for 1 nautical mile. The skiers will have been n the water for ay least 30 minutes with a temperature below 10 degrees. In the evening we quietly celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary in a cliff top restaurant with views across the town and bay.

Monday 29th March 10

We took a short cliff top walk to the front of last night’s restaurant for the view of the bay and a coffee on the alfresco balcony, and allowed us to watch a seaplane take off.

Tuesday 30th March 10

This was a day of household chores so we won’t bore you with the details.

Wednesday 31st March 10

The weather was fair so we drove through to Queenstown and on to Trent Bridge, about 135 km, which meant driving up the zigzag road again past ‘Mad Meg’ who wasn’t looking so good now that the rain has eased off for a few days.

We stopped off on the way at ‘Nelson’s Falls’ which was an easy 10 minute walk each way to the absolutely beautiful visual delight.

Not huge at only 35 metres high, not so much water that you can only see water and not so wide that you need to swivel your head from side to side to take it all in.

Spending the day here would have been easy but we pressed on to visit the much advertised Lake St Claire with a quick stop at a layby to watch a helicopter deliver some goodies.

We had our usual picnic lunch in the pleasant surrounds of the car park and then took a 1.5 hour walk which only provided glimpses of the lake but took in a platypus ‘Hide’, but we didn’t linger long at this point as they don’t usually emerge until dusk. We took the alternate route back along the lake beach to the jetty were we caught the boat for a 2 hour cruise on the lake. The cruise was on a small twin hulled, twin engine tinny and unlike other cruises didn’t supply cake, tea, coffee, etc, much to the dismay of one passenger who ha just finished a 5 hour walk and was looking forward to something to eat.

This cruise took us for a close up view of an elaborate, but old disused pumping station, that once (just the once) supplied water to Hobart, and then on to Echo point for a look at a small area of rain forest.

This area was quite fascinating with an original overland hut and interesting ecosystem.

We then proceeded to a small jetty at the extreme end of the lake to pick up some hikers from Dove Lake, a 5-6 day walk. It is actually 17 km from the official end of the track but some chose to take the easy way out and save another days walk.

We can now claim to have seen both ends of the track but can manage without the bit in the middle, although it would be a great experience. We returned with a closer look at the far bank which looked pretty much like the original bank whilst unsuccessfully trying to locate the so called deepest point at 176 metres (deepest lake in Australia), and with the knowledge that the plateau that acted as the backdrop to this lake has another 14 lakes on it. After another cuppa in the car park we headed home to the van and Foxy who had to spend the day at home as the lake is in a National Park. Had we not had such a long journey back we could have been tempted to stop off at Nelson’s Falls again but elected to watch our pictures and videos.

We can’t actually recommend visiting Lake St Claire based on what we saw unless you want to do the overland track from that end first which is not the recommended way, but we can recommend the Nelson’s Falls.