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Published: March 23rd 2011
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Hi all
Back again with Blog No.14.
Since our last blog we have been having a wonderful time here in Tasmania.
On Wednesday 16th March we went into Hobart - Battery Point and spent some time wandering around Narrina an old house built in the 1800's. Some really interesting items on display in the house and well worth the visit. A wander around Salamanca when it was quieter was great looking in some of the expensive art shops/galleries. Some beautiful pieces but very expensive. No room in our luggage anyway to take home!! A barbie at home finished the day off nicely.
Thursday and off early to the National Park and seeing some interesting places on the way. Before the park we stopped at the Salmon Ponds which were well worth the stop. The grounds are beautiful with all sorts of carefully planted trees all around. The ponds themselves have some amazingly big fish in them each dedicated to one type of fish only. They certainly enjoy their feed as they were jumping out of the water to get the food being thrown to them. An interesting museum of angling was also on the site full of all sorts of fishing
A lovely building
Wrought Iron Lacework rods and reels and flies and hooks. They do lovely pancakes in the coffee shop!!
Into the National Park and a lovely walk to the Russell Falls a lovely waterfall in the rainforest. After we stopped for a photoshoot we were walking back and came across several padamelons wandering in the bush. We were looking for the duck billed platypus but unfortunately it as the wrong time of day. Still a great experience being in the rain forest. We then passed through Maydena a pine forest used for paper production. We passed through cherry orchards,hop fields and apple orchards on our way to Norfolk where we were able to walk along the river bank along a line of oak trees. We crunched the acorns under our feet.
Friday 19th was Nicky's birthday and after opening cards and presents we went off on our own back to MONA to enjoy another day looking at the museum and seeing some of the things we missed on our first visit. There was so much to see. We travelled by boat and had an excellent commentary as we travelled. A great day ending with the four of us going for dinner ar Pier One
The Rain Forest
Quite an experience restaurant in Hobart.
Saturday and we were off to Evandale for two days. Evandale is in the north of the island and on the way we had a chance to see and visit several towns and enjoy the different landscapes. Our first stop was in Oakdale where there is the only working flour producing windmill in the southern hemisphere. We then drove to Ross which is a lovely town lined with very beautiful mature English trees. The Eccles cakes were lovely in a little bakery we stopped at!
Our accommodation in Evandale was in an old bungalow. It was very comfortable and an ideal base for the next two days. After checking in we went off to Woolmers Estate which has an old house and also the National Rose Garden. Great visit with lots of interesting things to see in the house and in the outbuildings. The roses were past their best as we are now entering winter in Tasmania but they were still lovely to see. We can only imagine how spectacular they are in the summer. We went into Launceston for a short visit. This was not quite as expected and not as well laid out or attractive
A Padamelon
Sighted in the National Rain Forest as Hobart. The main park however is very large and quite beautiful. We had a stroll along the boardwalk by the river which was pleasant but being Saturday afternoon not a lot was happening apart from a wedding recepton at one of the hotels.
Back in Evandale and we went for dinner at the Clarendon Hotel - phew did we get stuffed!! Huge platefuls.
Sunday and we drove up to Latrobe to meet up with Bill and Leonie. Bill was our best man at our wedding 43 years ago. We met up and spent some time with them going around Latrobe. One store we went into was probably the most amazing store we have ever been in. It was called Reliquare and consisted of 19 different sections dedicated to just one form of item such as dolls (there were thousands of them all different) Betty Boop (anything you could imagine about her character was there) books, toys, hardware, Dr Who, Roman & Greek sculpture - you name it they seemed to have it and the store so small. Hard to walk around as it is so crammed with stock. We went to a local craft fare where all sorts of
crafts were on sale as well as home made produce and on display in a really interesting building that displays all the types of timber available in Tasmania. We also did a drive to the River Mersey! (not quite like the English Mersey we know!). It was great meeting up after so long but as always happens you have to say goodbye again.
A drive back to Evandale through lovely interesting areas.
Monday and we are off early for our drive to Bicheno where we are staying for the night. On our way we passed through Scotdale and Derby via the Sidlings which was a very steep and windy road passing through some lush green farming areas. We stopped in Derby and visited the old schoolhouse which was a museum dedicated mainly to a dam accident some years ago when a number of people lost their lives. Very interesting to look around. We stopped in St Helens for lunch before following the coast road to Bicheno. Wonderful accommodation with great views of the bay from the terrace at the top of the house. Superb dinner at Cyrano's a great French restaurant before getting back to apartment.
Tuesday was dull and
Nicki
This is amazing. Drops of water falling. MONA museum. the sea very rough so we were able to experience some wonderful sights down on the beach and through the Gulch and the Blow Hole. We set off for Hobart late morning and on the way stopped off at Spiky Bridge (a bridge built by convicts that has a layer of sharp stones on the parapet. We then droven on to Swansea for a short break and to look at the lovely beach. We also stopped off at Buckland Church to look at some beautiful stained glass windows imported from England and reputed to be 15th century. We drove back to Hobart passing through some really different vistas althoug not all could be seen at their best because of cloud and mist.
Home safely and the washing was on straight away!!
Wednesday is stay at home day as it is pouring with rain. This is the first bad day we can say we have had in Tasmania but it has allowed us to catch up with so much including our blog and photos.
Enjoy and will be back on line as soon as we can. We are having a quiet couple of days in Hobart before we fly off early
Saturday morning for Sydney.
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Janet Hornbuckle
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Great to hear about all of your travels! Looking forward to catching up again on Sunday. Love Janet