Blogs from Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

It’s our last day in Tassie! Already! The first fortnight of our trip has just flown. We’ve discovered things that we want to change/add to the van, and we’ve decided that we don’t actually need everything that we’ve taken with us. Thank goodness we’re calling in at our storage facility – not just to drop things off, but because there are a number of things that I wish I HAD taken with me! We started the day with the 2km walk around the Tamar Island Wetlands Reserve. We saw native plants and a number of birds, including swans and egrets, and really enjoyed the peacefulness of the place. Afterwards, we headed into town and went to the lovely Launceston Festivale. It is held in City Park which, bizarrely, also houses an enclosure with monkeys. The Festivale ... read more

On Sunday 15th January it was time to leave our comfortable little cabin in St Helens – it had been one of our most relaxing stays on any Big 4 park we have visited anywhere in Australia. In order to travel along a different route, we took a chance and headed for Launceston via Scottsdale. It wasn’t the most obvious route (the main road was quite direct) but we weren’t in any hurry and we didn’t want to backtrack at all. The Scottsdale route, although much longer and hillier, offered some tourist attractions including The St Columba Falls and The Holy Cow Café and Cheese Factory. It proved to be an excellent choice as the scenery was fantastic, the falls were very “full” and we enjoyed the walk through the rain forest. The main lookout had ... read more

The time for working at The Country Club Tasmania had finally arrived. During my time doing work experience at The Country Club, I stayed with Lara in Riverside :) Located minutes from Launceston's city centre, Country Club Tasmania is perfectly positioned to soak up the beauty of Northern Tasmania. They offer the best in dining, luxury accommodation, relaxation and recreational facilities. About Country Club Tasmania, it's a first-class accommodation, with an exceptional range of choice from 4 to 5-star quality, including the beautifully appointed manor suites, deluxe rooms, villa suites and self-contained 1, 2 and 3 bedroom villas. All guests have access to the full selection of Country Club’s many recreational facilities and activities, including championship 18-hole golf course, health club with pool, spa and sauna; squash and tennis; horse riding and trout fishi... read more

Sunday 23rd January - Launceston to Bicheno via Evandale Markets and Scottsdale Up early and into the fantastic spacious, sparkling clean, well equipped kitchen at the hostel to cook a Pasta Carbonara breakfast! Leftover cooked spaghetti carefully kept from the Crayfish creek spag meal, bacon, eggs and cheese all prepared last night (I like things to be simple in the morning, especially when I am in a communal kitchen!) Then we get everything packed and head eagerly for the Evandale markets, via a strange, circuitous route in ever decreasing circles through Launceston following the street direction signs. Eventually we break free! The markets in Evandale are a wonderful, very large country market which we were pleased to see have changed little since we enjoyed them on our last trip. The real difference was that there were ... read more