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.