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Published: March 6th 2014
I cannot ever remember watching a colourful sunrise while being in the middle of a thunder storm. But that was our experience at Mayfield Bay. The sun rise was over the Freycinet Peninsular directly across Great Oyster Bay from Mayfield Bay. Must say we experienced unusual difficulties with auto focus because of the driving rain between us and the sunrise. However, by fixing the focus on infinity the problem was solved. Mind you, the camera still sounded like a concrete mixer and was tricky to operate.
It was not long before we arrived at the little port of Triabunna. Many tourists travel from here by ferry to Maria Island, but for us, we have insufficient time/funds to do everything we see that we like. We were staggered at the number of motorhomes free camping here. Some will be out on Maria Island, but most were just passing through.
The port is also a fishing port as well as a safe and attractive haven for pleasure boats.
After a break here, we continued south to Cambridge Park, an outer suburb of Hobart, not far from their airport. We dropped into Harvey Norman to discuss the repair/replacement of my Canon
camera. The usual time frame is 4 to 6 weeks, and agreed that the zoom mechanism was not happy. The advice after talking to HN plus Canon directly, is to lodge the claim through H N when we get home to save difficulties in the mean time.
So, what do we use in the interim. Last trip we had a spare camera, but not this time. So Marg and I looked at a couple of options, initially at the cheap end of zoom cameras. However, in their camera promotion they had a Sony HX300 on special. In many ways it is a comparable camera to the Canon, but had one feature that is much better than the Canon - a proper manual focus ring. So we parted with some of our savings and have taken the new camera and keen to put it through its paces.
We had originally intended to stay at a caravan park close to Cambridge Park, but when we saw the site, said No Thanks. We then drove up to Richmond, and booked into a local CP where at least we had a large reasonably level site.
We are so glad that we
took time to come to this historic town. We have seen all sorts of old settlements, but this one is unspoiled, tidy, busy and a totally enjoyable spot to spend a couple of days. Richmond had its origins as a garrison town. These days there is no military here, and only a few hundred locals. However, the surrounding district is very diverse being well known for its fine cheese and wine, as well as other agri-businesses and a zoo (Zoodoo) of note.
For us the fun was the beautiful town itself. The bakery sells such large vanilla slice that I doubt I could wrap my lips around it. So Marg and I shared an even larger chunk of black forest cake.
There is a model of Old Hobart Town reproduced from sketches when Hobart was in its infancy, and is comprised of scale buildings, interesting people and typical activities like getting drunk, escaping from prison - just every day things of the 1800s. What made the model interesting is that each section of the display is accompanied by a photo as it is today. Four of the original buildings still remain, and at least one is incorporated in
part in a new building. We felt the entry cost was a little high, but we are still glad we took the time to view and take some pictures.
St Johns Catholic Church is the oldest surviving Catholic Church in Australia, and is in pretty good shape. On the other side of the river is an Anglican Church of similar age, and also in good shape. The stained glass windows in the Anglican Church are said to have been sourced in the UK. The structure was commenced in 1833 and completed in 1836. Both of these historic buildings are worthy of a visit. The sandstone blocks of the exterior were the handy work of the many convicts detained here in Tasmania.
A couple of interesting shops to visit (can you believe I said that) are the Woodwork Shop and The Lace Shop. Both of these shops have fantastic and quality craft. At the lace shop, go and see what a couple of 80++ year old ladies produce. A beautiful bear is included in the photos, but the ultra fine doilies made to an old German method (not crochet) will amaze.
The Wood Work Shop has a wide
variety of quality wood products made of Tasmanian Timbers. Look for amazing sailing ships - the best I have ever seen.
Richmond is also home to Australia's oldest stone bridge, again built with the blood sweat and tears of convicts. Conditions were so harsh that at least one convict committed suicide on the job. The bridge is still in use today and is the subject of many photos and paintings of the area over many years.
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Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Another great read.
Thanks for the latest effort. Good pix and comment. Sad about the camera but it sounds as if the new one is a better camera.