The people of Tasmania face an interesting and somewhat difficult situation, and it affects politics in parliament and talk over a beer at the local. Much of Tasmania is locked up against future development, particularly forestry. The result is that once busy timber milling and or wood chipping plants and their support towns have died. One small, remote coastal town, Strahan, seems to have survived rather than succumbed. The population there is only half what it was in its heyday, but is a living museum supporting 21st century enterprise. It seems odd that we talked to locals who have never ventured outside the Strahan, Zeehan and Queenstown region. One man said he avoids going to the bigger centres (Hobart or Launceston) because he finds the four lane roads too difficult to navigate. It is like they ... read more

The city of Hobart is Capitol of Tasmania, and an interesting and busy hub on the east coast. The city is built around a very beautiful harbour and Derwent River valley. However, the dominant physical feature is Mount Wellington right behind the city. The rise from sea level is 1271 mtrs, or around 4150 feet. How do you get to the top? The choice is to climb, go by scheduled tour bus, drive yourself, or in our case, go up with Anne and Jim in their Troupie. We had talked to a number of people about the road and depending on their attitude to driving up mountain roads that include many twists and turns, we received both positive and negative advice about driving a motorhome up to the summit. So at 6.30 pm we set off ... read more

We decided to leave Tahune Forest early and head down to Geeveston for breakfast and take a look at the historic town. Behind the shops there is a really good car park and adjacent to that is the Forestry Info Centre which includes a museum. Most of us will have seen the old Singer treadle sewing machines. In the museum they have the equivalent jig saws, routers and moulders. I rather think one would have very tired legs after pumping one of these machines for 8 or 10 hours per day. The centre also has a variety of craft products to buy. I was tempted to buy a sassafras slab to make a coffee table when we get home. No room in the bus. Oh well, the dream will have to wait for another day. This ... read more

After our very busy day at Port Arthur yesterday, we had a quiet Sunday morning before going to find out what is remarkable about Remarkable Cave. A name like that entices the imagination to create images of stalactites, glow worms and a zillion other things. There are two things remarkable about this cave. Firstly, we were able to navigate there without Tommy's help. Now that came about because he did not know where Remarkable Cave is. So we had to rely on good old fashioned map and signpost navigation. The drive to Remarkable Cave takes you through a couple of sheltered bays that make up the small community of Carnarvon. When Port Arthur was closed (1877) and the Queen ordered that the site be wiped off the map, in typical Aussie fashion the township was renamed ... read more

The day started with a partly clouded sky, but we have come to realise that by late morning, this cloud seems to open up to beautiful blue skies. And that is how it happened again today. We drove from Richmond to Sorell to top up both pantry and fuel before heading down the peninsular. Naturally we chose the longer route to White Beach going to the Tasman Lookout. We were expecting a climb to some great vantage point. No, our morning walk was about 20 meters return from the car park to the cliff edge and back. Still the view is great as the rugged formation of the Tasman Peninsular really shows. This coastline has incredibly high cliff faces down to the ocean. There was still some haze at this point, but we got the taste ... read more