Friday 14th May 10

Another day of nothing worth reporting

Saturday 15th May 10

Our time in Longford is nearly up so we decided to have a look at the small villages of Perth and Evandale which were only a short drive away.

Perth had nothing to offer from the tourist point of view other than a couple of wooden statues mounted on old tree trunks that give the impression of having been carved in-situ. It didn’t fool us, but were still impressive carvings.

Evandale prides itself on being the host village of an annual Penny farthing cycle race which we could have watched soon after our arrival in Tassie if we had not been otherwise occupied in Latrobe. There is a statue to celebrate the beginnings of this event on a corner in the centre of the really quaint, inviting village. It is one of those places that have a very definite old world feel about it in the midst of a naturally beautiful setting. On our way home we called into the Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Company and sampled some of their wares which were god enough to encourage us to buy some plum and Pepperberry sauce, Cumberland sauce, hot chilli sauce and some blackberry and plum jam.

Sunday 16th May 10

The last four mornings have all been foggy until about 11.00am and this morning was no exception so we packed up the chairs, tables, etc, into the back seat of the car so that we could disassemble the annex and awning after lunch when the sun had managed to dry them. The chairs, etc would stay I the car until the van has had its service, as that will allow easy access to the internals of the van.

Monday 17th May 10

We left Longford at about 10.10am in another morning fog and headed through Perth and onto the main highway to Hobart and gradually drove out of the fog as we made our way southward.

As we drove through Campbell Town we noticed some more wooden statues on tree trunks, in a park alongside the river so we stopped for lunch and photos.

The bridge over the river was built by convicts in the good old days of Van Diemen Land and this was depicted on one of the tree trunks, another tree trunk’s statues depicted progress through the ages and the third depicted creature life. We proceeded on our way with a detour about ten km down the highway to the small village of Ross for a quick look as we will be staying here on our way back north. Ross also has a famous convict built bridge over the river and has a tree lined main road.

We continued into the Hobart suburb of Moonah and set up camp in the Showgrounds as we were unable to find a convenient caravan park to the caravan agents that take dogs and is cheaper. It is a bit noisy as it is alongside a well used and abused road, but you get that with caravan parks as well. They use the cheaper land which is invariably alongside a road, railway, airfield or anything else that no one else wants to know about.

Tuesday 18th May 10

We took the caravan into the agents for its first service which left us with the rest of the day without a home to go to, so we had to find something to occupy ourselves which initially meant a shopping centre for a restock of the pantry. We found the local Moonah shopping centre for the groceries and then went to the Northgate shopping centre on Glenorchy as it happens to have a branch of the Banjo’s bakery that produced magical pies in Strahan, so we also had an early satisfying lunch in Banjo’s. We then set up the Navman to take us to the Mount Wellington lookout and set off in what seemed to be a strange direction but with some great views. As we climbed higher it became clear that we were in fact climbing Mount Hull and eventually tried to get to take a dirt track that the car would only just fit into with nine kilometres to go. Barry rejected this idea on the basis that this was not were we wanted to go so we backtracked to the main highway and set up our original Navman for the same destination.

This took us in the opposite direction for about 35 kilometres, as expected by Barry, through the city and out the other side where we saw the sign to the Botanical Gardens so turned of to give them a look over first. On arrival there was the usual ‘No Dogs’ sign so we continued to the Lookout. Dogs are allowed in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens but there is no accounting for others thought patterns.

We eventually arrived at the lookout which offers spectacular views over Hobart and the Derwent River. It was a sunny day but at this altitude was rather draughty and very cold, and unfortunately not especially clear so photos will be slightly hazy.
At the lookout, dogs must be left in vehicles, but at the car park part way down they are allowed on a leash so we had another cuppa and then took Foxy for a 25 minute each way walk to Sphinx Rock for a lower level view of the city. When we were in Hobart 10 years ago we only saw the top of Mt Wellington as we flew out, as the rest of the time it was in thick cloud cover, so getting the chance to drive to the top for reasonably clear views on our first day here in Hobart was a bonus. We drove back and collected our van at 4.30pm and returned to the Showgrounds

Wednesday 18th May 10

The morning was spent putting up the annex and unloading the table and chairs from the car. In the afternoon Merry did some of her accounting work whilst Barry amused himself fitting an additional shelf in the en-suite. We noticed that the top of Mt Wellington was in cloud again so we had picked the right day for our trip.

Thursday 19th May 10

Merry did some more of her accounting work whilst Barry did a few more small jobs to the van and also took his 25 year old watch to the Tasmanian clock & watch company to get it repaired (hopefully). The weather is gradually getting colder on a daily basis and building up for some rain with a forecast of possible snow on the mountain.

Friday 20th May 10

We didn’t get the snow and actually only a few short showers of rain in the night and awoke to clear skies again. We lazed around for morning and then had the extreme pleasure of meeting Stuart and Belinda in North Hobart for lunch. Amazingly, they had spotted us as we drove up Mt Wellington on Tuesday, as they were driving down Had we not detoured to the Botanical Gardens we would probably met them at the top before they left. We had the usual fun of catching up on all that has happened since our last meeting in Launceston but unfortunately Stu had to return to work so it didn’t last as long as we would have liked, but we will get another chance.

Saturday 21st May 10

Still no snow on the mountain but we did wake up to our first thick ground coating of frost which we haven’t experience since around 1993, prior to moving to Geraldton.

We took a look at a Dog Show that happens on these showgrounds every so often and watched some of the judging but didn’t put Foxy on show as that would have been unfair for the other dogs, especially with her not having a pedigree.

Sunday 22nd May 10

The weather turned particularly cold at night a few days ago so we installed a small 12 volt electric heater pad under the sheep skin in Foxy’s little cubby, and were she used to come into bed with Barry when she got cold we now don’t see her until about ten in the morning, unless we dig her out.

We walked across to the other side of the showgrounds where the Sunday market is held but came away disappointed as it was more a trash and treasure arrangement to off load a vast collection of junk and a few stalls selling plants. There were no vegetable stalls at all.

In the afternoon we went to Stuart and Belinda’s for dinner and a long chat to catch up on what we ran out of time for on Friday. It was a lovely meal and evening, and even Foxy enjoyed a special meal and company.

Monday 23rd May 10

We drove south to Huonville which proved to be a much larger town than we remember from 10 years ago.

The approach to the town presented a great view as the town is in the Huon valley by the river and as the road came down from the hills we looked out over the tree tops completely engulfed in a cloud of mist from the river with so sign of the town. As we descended into the town we drove through and then under the fog and into clear town with the fog suspended over it. It was now midday on an otherwise warm sunny day but it hadn’t managed to clear the fog.

We drove on to Geeveston and called in to the very impressive visitor centre in this very small village, which is also randomly dotted with wood carved figures and warrants a return visit when we come this way in the spring/summer. From there we drove the remaining 26kms out to the Tahune air walk. This is a fairly narrow twisty bitumen road through the forest and unfortunately we caught up with a small car whose mid twenty year old driver represented a very poor learner with out visible L plates who crept the whole way at no more than 45kph and wouldn’t pull over as the opportunity allowed so we could pass. Being mainly down hill his brake lights were on most of the way so he probably goes through brake pads at a rapid rate. We’ll leave you to guess the nationality.
The air walk is similar to the WA treetop walk in Walpole but possibly a little longer. I recall hearing at Walpole on our first visit that it was the first and that a lot of interest had been shown, both nationally and internationally, and looking at the structural design it would appear that this is a copy or very similar design with the addition of length and the cantilever portion that hangs out almost over the Huon River. The Otway Fly in Victoria is also similar with a cantilever portion but has an additional tower to gain extra height. New Zealand also has one somewhere, which will no doubt be higher and longer as they all try to out do each other. The Kiwis probably expect you to bungy jump at the exit. The walk takes about 50 minutes from the ticket office as there is a 10 minute walk to get to the start of the tree top walk where the trees are quite noticeably different to the Walpole trees.

The cantilever section has the expected extra bounce which doesn’t help the photography but does raise the adrenalin levels. We extended the walk by deviating onto the 20 minute Huon trail walk before returning to the café for a coffee.

We then took the 60 minute walk that takes you along one side of the river to the point slightly past where the Picton River joins the Huon River.

We then crossed each river individually on two swing bridges and walked back along the other side of the Huon River across the regular bridge and up to the car park. Foxy was allowed to attend this venue and enjoyed the walk, but was carried on the actual air walk and swing bridges as the open grating was not good for her feet.

3rd May to 13th May 10

Monday 3rd May 10

Nothing of interest to report.

Tuesday 4th May 10

We phoned Sue in an attempt to wish her a happy birthday but once again unsuccessful, so we assume and hope that Garon and Sue are curled up in a pleasant retreat and have shut the world out for a while. Why not, if you can?

We, on the other hand had to endure a rainy day

Wednesday 5th May 10

We successfully tracked down the elusive sculpture that which was not at the roadside but at the entrance to the local rubbish tip to highlight the joys of recycling, and also found some more near the community centre and then toured other areas of the town, especially the higher points to enjoy the views over the town and valley. With blocks of land at only $85000 with the views it provides it is becoming tempting.

We then called into the visitor centre and checked out the ‘Yarn’ and museum.

The ‘Yarn’ has its own auditorium with four silk based tapestries on display with a 12 minute commentary explaining that 200 women in their respective small groups were given specific areas of each tapestry to complete, however like.

The final product of 3 years work that depicts the town and surrounding areas of Deloraine show farming, rainforest, wildlife, waterfalls and is absolutely amazing, with a three dimensional finish. Each individual point of interest mentioned during the commentary was simultaneously highlighted with a spotlight and the specific stitch type, knots or material were explained plus what that area represented.

In the evening we tried some night photography of the local Catholic Church which is lit up at night, both from across the river from the caravan park, and alongside it.

Thursday 6th May 10 and Friday 7th May 10

Nothing of interest to report

Saturday 8th May 10

The Agfest farming festival was on at Carrick about 30km from Deloraine to it became necessary for us to check it out in case we needed a tractor or a Shetland pony. Whilst it was obviously a success for the organisers and farming community it had little to offer those of us that aren’t into farming. The way the organisers and police get the traffic in and out of the vast parking areas was really good and for us non-farmers, probably the highlight of the day, although the sheep dog trials were really good. It was the first time it didn’t rain during the show for a long time apparently, and it is usual to wear gum boots, but this year you could get away with anything, although high heels wouldn’t be too good, and wouldn’t look the best with the necessary heavy duty coat needed to keep out the cold breeze.

Sunday 9th May 10

We drove to Westbury to see what it had to offer and found a really delightful, tree lined village green complete with war memorial, kids playground and a seat with matching wooden stocks.

Real handy for the kids that misbehave.

Two of the trees just happened to be chestnut trees so we spent some time collecting chestnuts just like in our childhood days, and also like those times, quickly learnt to squeeze them out off their outer shell with our shoes to save our fingers from the spikes. The afternoon turned slightly rainy day so we packed up the chairs, tables, etc in readiness for moving on but left the annex up until tomorrow morning.

Monday 10th May 10

As hoped for, the rain had cleared so we were able to finish packing up in dry weather but went shopping for a few necessities before hitching up and leaving Deloraine. This mean leaving later than the usual required departure time of most parks but Deloraine is pleasantly casual, and we weren’t moving far so we didn’t need to hurry.
We left at about 10.45 and headed for Longford which put us in reasonable reach of Launceston without being in the city and also there were no pet friendly parks there. Longford had been recommended by many of our fellow travellers that we have met in other parks. Once again we are by a river, although not right on the river bank on this occasion, and still have the railway running around us, but not quite so close. Unfortunately there is no path along the river for walks with Foxy, so these have to be into town with a lap around the village green (another English style village but without the chestnut trees).
We had an evening of very strong wind until about 2.00am which kept us awake with the noise of the annex staining and stressing but fortunately survived unscathed again, but left us tired the next day.

Tuesday 11th May 10

This turned out to be a very pleasant with only a gentle, but cold breeze. We drove into Launceston, which like Burnie has every square inch covered by a parking meter. We did the usual trip to the visitor centre and a bit of retail therapy which included lunch before heading home. Whilst approaching Longford it became clear that this area is very flat which would allow for the strong winds with not hills to shelter the town. There is only a light breeze this evening but very cold as it is predicted to be a 2 degree temperature tonight.

Wednesday 12th May 10

We survived the cold night and took advantage of the remote controlled electric heater at 6.00am to warm the van up prior to getting out of bed. It appeared to be a perfect cloudless day so we decided to go on a long trek to Derwent Bridge to see ‘The Wall in the Wilderness’ that we missed when we went to Lake St Claire from Strahan. The plan was to travel up onto the central plateau via Poatina to Miena and then take the dirt road through to the A10 to Derwent Bridge. On the way back via Miena we intended to turn left instead of repeating the whole journey and follow the Great Lake back to Golden valley and on to Deloraine, then home. By the time we had started out there was a build up of cloud over the hills that form the plateau but we carried on regardless. The journey up to the resort village of Poatina was a steep twisty haul up to the turn of into the village where you are greeted with an impressive water feature made mainly from rocks, wood and rubbish.

There is a purpose built lookout to both take in the view across the valley and provide an aerial view of the water feature, which is a better piece of artistic work than most. It was now drizzling and very cold in the wind at this altitude. We pressed on upward and onward as the road became steeper and more twisty onto the plateau where the road levelled out a bit, and with increasing rain.

We were still travelling upwards but very gradually, and came to patches of snow that had settled in the night and then noticed the rain was now light snow falling.

At Miena we hit the dirt road that was now slightly muddy, and despite the maps saying it is 35km long, turned out to be 25km long when it joined the A10 bitumen again.

On the dirt road we gradually dropped altitude so the snow was now drizzle again, however, the trees along the roadside had a good coating of snow on them creating Christmas card appearance, and on arrival at the ‘Wall in the Wilderness’, the impressive building had a snow covered roof.

The wood sculptures are formed on 10cm thick laminated sheets of Huon Pine (laminated edgewise, not flat sheets like plywod), 3 metres high and 1 metre wide and the figures are then sculptured so that they are 4cm thickness. The surplus material is chiselled away to leave a 3 dimensional picture, similar to the surface of a coin, with absolutely amazing detail such as hair, muscle tone, creases in clothing and unfolded maps, leather straps on horse harnesses, etc. Every individual piece is finished appropriately to represent cloth, leather, etc and even veins in straining arms. There are two back-to-back rows of ten of the wooden sheets, but apparently the building will be extended to double this, in the future. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside so we bought their book but it doesn’t compare to the real thing.

On the outside is an example of his detailed work with an eagle that appears to made of metal but we didn't touch it to find out. Either wood or metal the detail speaks for itself. It is the best display of genuine art that we have seen are pleased to have travelled 150km each way to see it.





The drizzle was melting the snow but not so much so that we saw a small snowman built on the white line in the middle of the road that was still surviving. We turned left when we came off the dirt road at Miena and followed the Great Lake, which is a man made lake with several dams, and due to its altitude is a good source of supply for hydro-electric power supply. The road along the lake side is also dirt with stretches of bitumen where there are small fishing communities or holiday homes.

We eventually started the steep downhill twisting road with some great views, although grey and wet, over the Meander Valley. We descended into Golden Valley and then used the Navman to take us more directly to Longford rather than via Deloraine, which took us via Liffey and several other small nondescript villages using dirt roads, which at this lower altitude had not seen rain all day.



Thursday 13th May 10

This was another perfect cool day so drove in to Launceston in the afternoon to visit the Gorge with its cable car rides and suspension bridge which also gives access to walking along the side of the cliff face to the road bridge (20 minutes each way) or into the gorge the other way (25 minutes each way).

The Gorge Reserve has well laid out gardens, swimming pool, picnic area with a walkway to the other side of the gorge which has lovely parkland and a walk to the road bridge in on direction or to the suspension bridge in the other.

The walk over the suspension bridge joins up with the walk into the gorge or back to the gardens. Both sides have a café, but the one in the parkland area has peacocks and a multitude of sparrows competing for your food.

Dogs are banned of course, so Fox spent the afternoon in the car park as it was not a hot day, whilst we took the cable car ride with the world’s longest span length of 300 metres across the gorge to parkland side and then walked along the cliff face walk to the road bridge.

At one point we sat and watched a school group abseiling down the cliff face on the other side of the gorge, which at this point was part of the river were the day cruises ca reach. The part we had already walked was to shallow and rocky for boats and consisted of a series of small rapids.

The river area is lit up at night with coloured lighting so we will be returning for a night time look. We had a cup of coffee and cakes when we got back to the parkland and fought off the wildlife and then took the cable car ride back across the gorge. We then took a walk out onto the suspension bridge and part way along the walk into the gorge.

23rd April to 2nd May 2010

Friday 23rd April 10

This was just a lazy day with only grocery shopping to do prior to a possible move to Arthur River subject to weather conditions.

Saturday 24th April 10

We had a thunder storm last night with plenty of rain which is still producing heavy showers this morning. There is no point in moving today as we would be heading into worse weather if we go to Arthur River. So when we do move it will probably be eastward rather than further west.

Sunday 25th April 10

We had an easy morning and after lunch dismantled the annex and packed the tables and chairs away under the van ready to be loaded into the van in the morning.

We had to go into town for last minute shopping so whilst we were there we continued out to the lighthouse on Table Cape which we couldn’t see on our previous trip due to the low cloud.

From there we drove round to the lookout, and then on to Fossil Bluff which means driving though the expensive real estate area with both ocean and river views.

We elected to torture our legs and lungs and walked to the top of the bluff despite the cold wind and took in the views out to sea and also across the golf course and river to the town.

After dinner we took down the awning as strong winds where predicted for this area. As it turned out, the winds didn’t happen but we gained extra time in the morning with less to pack away.

Monday 26th April 10

We moved out of Wynyard, and as previously mentioned headed away from the west and wandered south easterly to Deloraine. We came through here 10 years ago in the spring but didn’t stop other than to look at some of the annual fair venues and didn’t really notice the town. We set up the camp on the bank of the river with a ten minute walk into town.

It is a beautiful town, especially now with the deciduous trees turning to their autumn colours prior to dropping their leaves.

We called into the visitor centre which has a recently installed statue of Malua, a Tasmanian race horse of note that was bred and trained in Deloraine, for some local literature and discovered that the town has numerous small sculptures throughout the main street mounted on posts that look like redundant oxygen/acetylene bottles, plus large sculptures along the river bank and surrounding area. We have already seen a few of the later and wondered what they were as our minds don’t work like so-called artists’ minds.

Tuesday 27th April 10

We walked along the river, passing some of the abstract objects, to the nearest end of town and proceeded up one side of the main street to check out the sculptures, which took us to the visitors centre again, and then crossed the road to work our way down the other side for the other sculptures.

There are actually a lot more than the literature indicates as many have been added.

We returned to the caravan by walking slightly out of the bottom end of town to the swing bridge across the river that highlights the town weir, and as luck would have it we got to watch a train cross the river whilst filming the weir.

The trains cross the river and immediately turn left at the bottom of the town, unfortunately passing immediately behind the caravan park and run at night. We continued through the park and more objects on the other side of the river to a footbridge that brought us back into the caravan park.

Wednesday 28th April 10

This was a wet day so the morning only consisted of a trip to the doctors for a prescription. In the afternoon we drove to Launceston to a Harvey Norman store to have our fan heater replaced, as it was not working too well. We added some money to the original value and went for a bigger and better one, especially as it is going to get a lot of use from here on. On the way back to Deloraine we saw several of the competitors from the Targa Tasmania 2010 rally, presumably moving to Launceston for the next stage. They would have had a wet morning, and according to the news some spills, but the afternoon weather has cleared.

Thursday 29th April 10

Today is dry again but with a cold wind that refuses to go round you. However, as we have discovered that mornings are best for photographs, especially waterfalls, we drove out to Liffey Falls. We visited these falls in 2000 and enjoyed them, but they had a lot more water present than in the photo used in the tourist literature, so hoped to see them in this pretty fashion. This was not to be, as there had obviously been sufficient rain to overcome that possibility.

The tourist picture is also taken from the right hand side of the river to provide a head on view of the stepped rocks to present the fairy tale effect, which you can only get to when there is little water. The tourist picture only shows the top fall out of four significant falls plus several cascades which make up the overall experience. Our memory of these falls from the previous visit where more clouded than we expected, and included bits of other falls visited on that Tassie trip.

There were a lot of differences, such as the road to the car park, and the path down to the falls that had several lookouts over the individual falls, which we didn’t remember.

We could only remember one fall not several, but maybe only the one was accessible in 2000. We think this was a different car park as there is an upper and a lower car park, and we think we may have used the lower one last time as we were able to leave without having to return up the same road that we came in on. This time we had to turn round and go out the way we came in which involved passing two oncoming vehicles on the way down and one on the way back up. To do this means coaxing your vehicle to suck its stomach in as the road is barely wide enough to pass a shadow. We wouldn’t have got past another Nissan Patrol or Toyota Landcruiser. Going back up is not too bad as you are on the inside of the track but on the way down you are on the outside and left with an ugly mess to deal with if you get it wrong. It helps if both vehicles are the same colour so the rubbed areas don’t show so much. We were lucky that two of the other cars were Toyota Getz size but the other was a larger Ford Falcon that was a real squeeze, with us on the ugly side. When we returned to Deloraine we had a late lunch in one of the cafes in town but were not impressed. We promised ourselves that we would look up the old photos from our Tassie trip in 2000 to do a comparison against the new photos.

We also don't remember the sculpture near thestart of the path, so going back a second time was well worth it despite worrying us about the reliability of our individual memories.

Friday 30th April 10

We fired up the old photos of the Liffey Falls and apart from obvious differences such as the camera resolution (8 kilobytes as against 10 megabytes and was the top of the range video camera at the time, that also took still photos and cost $3500. It now sits unused under the bed), we only had photos of two falls, not four, which must have been dictated by the accessibility at the time.

Saturday 1 May 10

Household chores and good books kept us at home.

Sunday 2nd May 10

We phoned Garon and Sue without success to wish Garon a happy birthday, in the belief that this was the first of May. We got that wrong, although it was suggested yesterday but deemed to be the wrong day without actually checking. It is still very doubtful that contact would have been made. When did they do away with 31st April?
There was a cold wind but it was dry so we headed out to have a look at Devil’s Gullet which meant covering a lot of territory that we explored from Latrobe.

We had to drive through Mole Creek and past King Solomon’s cave and then turn off onto a dirt road for 14km, which should then leave us with a 15 minute walk each way to the lookout with a sheer drop of 300 metres. It had started to rain and then when we got to the beginning of the dirt road it rained harder put things in doubt, and we also came across a sign warning us of logging truck in the area. Later at about seven kilometres along the dirt road we came across the ‘Road Closed’ sign at the beginning of the logging area. Disappointed, we headed back down the dirt road and had a speeding police car pass in the opposite direction. We assumed this was either for on accident, or protesters.

Part of the reason for going to Devil’s Gullet was to find and photograph one of the sculptures that are spread out around Deloraine, however, we had to call in to both Solomon’s cave and Marakoopa cave to photograph the sculptures that are near each of them, which we missed or ignored on our previous visit. At the Marakoopa cave, the ranger informed us that the locals had been disappointed with the sculpture, which looked like a stone tyre, and had thrown it over the edge at Devil’s Gullet, so we wouldn’t have found it anyway.

We drove back towards Deloraine and spotted a sing to Lobster Falls, so we parked at the road side and started walking about ten minutes ten realised that we had not brought water with us so gave it away and drove to about 8km from Deloraine and cut through to the Bass highway and out to the cheese factory at Elizabeth Town which is home for another sculpture, and sampled and bought some cheese. On our return to Deloraine we drove out in another direction to find yet another sculpture without success, so returned to the visitors centre for some help and now have better direction for next time. We also found out that the walk to Lobster Falls is about an hour each way.