The most southern location in Tasmania (where you can drive) is Cockle Creek. It's a very pretty location that was visited by the French explorer Bruni D'Entrecasteaux in the 1790's. Since then, whaling and timber have been industries that have developed and declined. Nowadays, Cockle Creek is best known as the end point of the South Coast Track, a long coastal walk of approx 80 km that commences at Melaleuca. We planned to walk to South Cape Bay (which is approx 16 km round trip) to test our abilities to walk longer distances when we travelled up north. We chose to walk on Saturday which was forecast to be 35 degrees C to see how we would cope. It's an interesting walk, taking you along Cockle Creek and then up into lightly forested bush before coming ... read more

What a busy week! Christmas, over to Bruny again, engaged, New Years Eve, married on New Years Day in a secret ceremony and then Georgi's birthday. A special thank you to Ted and his children, Ben and Taylor and to Catherine who "allowed" us to take over "their" holiday and to all those who came to Bruny (some unwittingly) to help us celebrate and to those who posted congrats on facebook or wished us a long and wonderful life together. And also special thanks to those who helped make the day run so smoothly including Veronica and Gerry and Bernice and all the staff at Bruny Island Premium Wines and to Trevor our excellent bus driver. 2014 was a great year for us and our plans for 2015 were taking shape now that my unpaid leave ... read more

Things progressed and we were confident that the Coaster would go around the corner (and into the carport) so we agreed a price with Lawrence and Deb and proceeded to make arrangements to get our Light Rigid Licences. A Light Rigid Licence is required to be held when you want to drive a vehicle that has a Gross Vehicle Mass that is greater than 4500 kg but less than 8000 kg. Small trucks and buses (with around 15 -25 seats) usually fit in to this category. The logistics were a bit tricky as we had to (firstly) get Lawrence to drive the Coaster into Hobart for a service and check-over and then when that was completed get the Coaster delivered out to Glenorchy where we would sit a written examination and then perform a practical test ... read more