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Mt William Nat Park
Fabulous beaches that go and on....I am writing the Tassie part from the very comfortable Queensland home of our dear friends Ron & Jenny, we have been here nearly three weeks staying with them which has enabled me to get Tassie pics up at long last :-)
Tassie was lots of things! The scenery reminded us very much of many places: home (inc. the weather :-( which was a bit of a shock to the sys.!), New Zealand and bits of South Australia, most varied scenery, as you can see from the pics.
Food was very good, especially the dairy they produce, we tasted the best Brie ever 'King Island' Triple Brie, plus there was double and single camemberts too which all went well with the wines, which was mainly single estate .
Smoked fish: Trevally, Bream, Salmon, Flake (shark) all hot smoked and very moreish, crayfish for sale everywhere but costly plus of course all the lovely fruit and veg they grow, which they turn into preserves, pickles and jams - it's a very foody place.
We spent three weeks in all starting in Devonport up on the north coast of the Bass Strait and headed in a clockwise route around the
Spirit of Tasmania
the ferry across the Bass Strait, Melbourne to Devonport coastal roads and through some mountain passes as far as Hobart where we headed back up the west coast in a northerly direction.
We had a very smooth overnight crossing from Melbourne which the luxury of a cabin which was given as compensation for the fact we had to ditch 40 litres of diesel from our spare tanks in the truck! It was not a happy moment! Unfortunately, as we did the booking over the phone from somewhere in Oz, the girl ommitted to tell us carrying spare fuel was forbidden and dump it was the order! Mike was not a happy man :-( as we had gone out of our way to get cheaper fuel to take with us, so hence the luxury cabin!
Arriving in Devonport was like coming into good old Lerwick on a November day, chucking it down with rain, sheet lightning, thunderstorms and bloody freezing! We parked up in town and headed off to the Australian Red Cross Charity (op) shop for a couple of thick fleeces - we hadn't needed 'that' sort of clothing since leaving UK in November, so it was a bit of a shock.
Tassie is quite small
North Tasmania Bass Strait
Low Head, lighthouse keepers cottages relative to the rest of Australia but there are heaps of places to visit and you need at least 3 weeks to appreciate it, the only part we missed was up the middle road througn Midlands. Some many English, Cornish, Scottish place names too - it got quite confusing travelling up through the Tamar Valley and passing through Exeter I can say!
The wildlife spotting was very satisfying and we managed to see Wombats, Pademelons (small wallabies), Bennetts Wallabies and big bonus a couple of sightings of Duckbill Platypusses which was exciting also some birds only found in Tasmania.
We had never been in a seaplane before so when we got to Strahan we couldn't resist the temptation to fly over the wilderness area of The Franklin-Gordon River National Park. With the added excited of landing in the Gordon River (not very wide) at Heritage Landing which was where our dear David Bellamy was arrested 20 years ago. This landing is only accessible by seaplane or rafting down the river for 7 days so was pretty remote.
The weather was very changeable, some days being quite summery but overnight temperatures could plummet to freezing, so it was
pretty nippy in the truck at nights especuially when we were wild camping with no power to plug in for heating. Wild camping was very good and plentiful around the island in very picturesque spots ranging from long wild beaches to national parks full of gum trees and possums. Despite the cold nights we always tried to camp wild as much as we could, so as to get the real feeling of Tasmania and experience furry animal visitations at night. Peanut butter sarnies were a possums delight!
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