ValandDoug

We spent our last day in Tasmania driving around the outskirts of Devonport, admiring the farmland and walking along the beach at Shearwater. It was an extra low tide with a wide sandy beach – we smiled at the big distance between the life savers on the sand and those few in swimming. The shells growing in abundance on rocks looked like baby mussels. We went back into town and had a last look at Devonport - all done, tick it off. We did enjoy our time in Tassie. We had our early start yesterday, leaving the caravan park and queueing at the Devonport wharf to catch the 9am sailing for Melbourne. There were other motor homes, caravans, cars and motor bikes waiting to board. It was another smooth nine hour trip, made pleasant by the ... read more

From Swansea we drove to Coles Bay, I bought some delicious oysters, and then, rather than go down the Freycinet Peninsular, we decided we'd drive north. We passed sheep, olive and walnut groves and vineyards and then bushland for quite awhile. We've seen so much roadkill this trip - small wallabies, pademelons and possums. We haven't seen a lot of live wildlife except for a wallaby who hopped in front of the car. There are a lot of birds, however, and around this area, a lot of black swans .. so that's where they went when they left our area at home! The hills and trees remined us of the south coast of NSW. We came to Bichino where the water was a beautiful blue, the rocks smooth and sandy/orange. It was a pretty place. We ... read more

It has been a full day. This morning, in wild wind, we caught the bus to the city where we walked once more to the Boat Show and nearby Salamanca Markets. The markets are very big, we walked up and down, up and down. I did buy some leather belts and that’s about all. I also caught up with friend Jill,who is in Hobart on a tour. When we’d had our fill of the markets, we went back towards the Boat Show, going through a big shed we hadn’t been in yesterday. This was the most interesting of all. Inside they had lots of building of small boats, chandellery, books etc. I thought how much Jason and Nicholas would enjoy it. After lunch, where we talked awhile to some interesting people we met at our table, ... read more

We have been immersing ourselves in ‘old’. Yesterday morning, before leaving Stanley, we went to Highfields, the original homestead in the area. This was built by the Van Diemen Company in 1824 when they brought out a team of people and 5000 sheep to establish their company in Stanley, then known as Circular Head. The old home fell into disrepair before being taken over Parks and Wildlife and is being restored over time and its elegant Regency design, convict barracks, barns, stables, and a chapel were once surrounded by a large ornamental garden. We stayed the night at Latrobe and this morning drove to Launceston. This was through beautiful country with sheep, cattle, poppy fields (Tasmania grows 50% of the world's poppies that are used for medicine), berries and potatoes. We had a lovely time tasting ... read more

It was a cool morning but sunny as we left Daylesford and drove through the countryside towards Melbourne. We were on a different road to that we normally take – miles of flat country with new housing estates, new industry and new wide freeways – space and money! We booked into the caravan park at Coburg, had lunch and then decided we'd find our way through the city to the waterfront as we would be having an early start next morning. It's 'fun' driving a motor home through a city you're not sure of. The motor home suddenly seems huge and the roads seem narrow. It was so nice to be back in Melbourne, busy on a Saturday morning. An hour later we arrived at the Bay and drove towards the wharf. We could see the ... read more