1st September 10
A fine day so we visited the Botanical Gardens which was a pleasant surprise for the time of year. The Japanese section had several water features that unfortunately were not operating due to the water policy of the management, as there were leak problems but generally everything else was good. The succulent and cactus house was interesting and spiteful, whilst the orchid house was a brilliant splash of colour.The experience took about three hours which included tea and coffee with blueberry muffins and then we drove out to the shops in Glenorchy for a few items, and then to the only garage in the area that serves autogas. Autogas is not an easily found commodity in Tasmania and would be impossible to run a vehicle on gas alone. On the way home we called into Runnymede House and took the tour through the ten roomed early settler house which has seen several families in its time including the Bayleys and the Baylys, and still contains much of the original furniture and wall hangings.
We are ready packed to move on as the owners are due back today and we will leave tomorrow for Bruny Island for a few weeks.
5th September 10
On the 3rd, we left Hobart in bright sunshine just after midday and arrived in Kettering with plenty of time for the 1.45pm ferry trip to the island which was quite interesting as the ferry was much larger than expected (it holds at least eighty cars) and they put the vehicles with the high side wind resistance, such as caravans and trucks, on the lower deck. The trip across to the island takes about 15 minutes and the journey from the terminal took us across the north island before heading south to the south island, which took another 30 minutes. We didn’t set up the annex straight away as we usually do but simply set up the caravan and then enjoyed a walk on the beach with Foxy instead. That was nice but obviously a bad decision as it decided to rain all night, all of the next day and night and is still raining today. This is only light rain, and is probably the bottom edge of the downpours and flooding that Victoria is experiencing. We have now got the awning out so that we can let Foxy out without her having to get wet which isn’t her favourite situation, and will put the annexe up when it dries out a bit. The caravan park is about a three minute walk to the beach which means we can hear the ocean breaking on the beach because it very quiet with very little road noise.
6th September 10
It stopped raining sometime during the night but is now significantly colder, but there is a promise of some sunshine by midday so we have set up the annexe.
In the afternoon we drove through the township to the end of the road and stopped off at the Captain Cook’s Landing Point Memorial. We then drove back through the township and turned off to Cloudy Bay which meant travelling on a dirt road over a small mountain with nasty sheer drops in some places. After travelling about twenty kilometres we arrived at the 100 metre point from the Cloudy Bay beach where we were greeted with a “no dogs” sign followed by a “not even in your vehicle” sign. We ignored this as the only place we could turn round was in the car park at the beach, so we took some photos and left. There is only a toilet block and a beach at Cloudy Bay. We travelled back on the bitumen which is nearly as rough as the dirt road but travelled through two smaller townships of Lunawanna and Alonnah and on until the road joins the from the Ferry to Adventure Bay were we are camped. Adventure Bay is the only township with a shop but the quality of the fruit and veggies is diabolical so we will be taking the ferry ($15 return) back to the mainland for shopping on Friday and take a look at the top end of the Island which is almost an island in its own right as there is only a narrow strip joining the two land masses.
8th September 10
We woke to a heavy frost and couldn’t get the water to run at the hand basin at 7.00am so assume the hose outside was frozen, although it was okay by 8.30am when we did our washing. We had a message from Stu and Be to confirm they would be joining us on Saturday.
In the afternoon we drove along the narrow spit to the parking area for the penguin rookery and lookout. The lookout involves about 120 steps (we didn’t count them) and provides a great 270 degree view of how narrow the spit is. When we descended, we continued down more steps and boardwalk to the beach, but as Foxy wasn’t allowed out of the car we didn’t stay on the beach for long. We returned to town and drove out to a picnic spot where albino kangaroos are seen grazing but were too early but took a nature walk alongside the stream. On the way back to town we stopped outside a property that had some albino kangaroos but were further away than we would have liked. There is supposed to be about 200 hundred of them on the island.
10th September 10
We took the ferry back to the mainland and drove back to Kingston to visit the bank and do some grocery shopping which allowed us to stop off at a road side fruit and veggie shed. As this all took longer than we expected, including lunch, we didn’t tour the top part of the island as we caught the 3.45pm ferry. At the ferry terminal we became aware that Foxy was not feeling very well and was very listless for the rest of day without eating at all.
13th September 10
Stu and Be arrived on Saturday a bit later than we had expected , but they had taken a look at Lunawanna and Alonnah driven back over the mountain. After lunch we all walked through the township of Cookville to the end of the road, calling in at the Cook’s monument and the jetty. On our return to the caravan park we drove out to the picnic ground we found the previous day to look for the albino kangaroos. There we none at the picnic ground but we did see several on the way there but none stopped to have their photo taken, or at least not clearly. We spent the evening in Stu and Be’s cabin where we had oysters, prawns, cheese and crackers for supper.
On Sunday morning we walked in the other direction to the Penguin Cafe and enjoyed a superb breakfast and then drove over the mountain, yet again, and on to Cape Bruny lighthouse at the south west tip of the island. This provided some magnificent views of the rugged coastline on the way, and from the light house area which is at the top of a long and very steep uphill walk.
This unfortunately meant Stu didn’t get to see the view from the top as the concrete track was too narrow for his wheelchair. We drove back around the mountain and stopped at the Morella hothouse cafe for a late lunch and then back to the caravan park to collect Stu and Be’s car and then followed them back towards the Ferry with a detour into Barnes bay on the northern land mass of the island. Here we said our farewell to Stu and Be as they had to head for the ferry to return home as they had to work the next day, but as we were in the north end of the island we continued on the circuit road over the northern mountain for more splendid views on narrow dirt roads with hair raising passing manoeuvres with oncoming traffic, with us on the dodgy side. The width of the roads is more suitable for Suzuki Vitaras rather than Nissan Patrols or Toyota Landcruisers when it comes to squeezing past each other.Fortunately the weather for both days was dry although cloudy and chilly, and now that the wonderful company has left us the weather changed to rain again during the night, and few degrees colder.
17th September 10
On the 15th we had another ferry trip and returned to Kingston as Merry had developed a severe toothache and we were lucky enough to jag a same day appointment. We correctly expected it to require an extraction but we hadn’t expected it to break in the process and become a drama. We also hadn’t expected a $217 bill. It also rained most of the day in advance of the predicted gales and cold front.
On the 16th the cold front hit with a vengeance, with hail that built up to 3cm deep against the annexe at times, and the park ground was completely white as if it had snowed, along with high buffeting winds. The park is protected by wooded hills on the west side that the wind was generally blowing from so mainly went over the top of us but some seemed to bounce back and hit us from the ocean side which we didn’t appreciate, especially from the annexe point of view.
We survived the night but have another day of wind to go yet but it does seems to have eased a bit and so far no rain, or hail.
Today, Merry is still suffering pain from the extraction and is worried that they may have pulled the wrong tooth, but could also just be the result of the brutal procedure. This got worse, so in the afternoon we took the ferry and returned to the dentist in Kingston who provided Merry with more treatment to ease the pain and supplied more of his magic remedy for use over the weekend.
