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Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Cradle Mountain
March 14th 2009
Published: March 15th 2009
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DAY 127

Scratch, Scratch, Scratch, we both sit up in bed hearing this sound and both exclaim “oh No, not those bl**dy Possums again”. I flicked the torch on as Andy jumped out of bed only to find a little pink snout lifting the tent flap and pressing up against the mosquito screen. Andy flicked it on the nose and it seemed to go away, however we could still hear the patter of feet and scratching in and around our house!

Andy said its “3.00am, I am sick of this, why could they have not put a piece of Velcro all the way along the bottom of the flap? It would have saved us a few sleepless nights”.

Andy got the two camping chairs and both were folded and laid across the back of the tent where they were trying to get in. It seemed to fool them the patter of tiny feet went away, however not before we identified the culprits as “Dumb and Dumber”, the same two that broke in last time. We know these two because Dumb, the big possum has only one eye and walks with a limp, his sidekick is the smaller Possum we call Dumber.

Getting back to sleep was not that easy and for Andy I think more broken than mine, I awoke at 6.30 to see Andy climbing out of bed. “I’m going for a cup of tea”, grabbing the laptop, the teabags, milk and a cup he went to the cosy camp kitchen. I had a little longer to sleep and woke again at 7.45.

When I caught up with Andy, he told me about the Kookaburras, it seems that 6.30 spot on they start the with the call of what is described as laughter, this fascinates Andy as they do not wear wristwatches, well not that we can see anyway. They do seem to have an inbuilt alarm clock, from my point of view I heard nothing this morning, I slept right through their call as I do most mornings.

Back to basics this morning, we had cereal, nothing grand, we had run out of butter and marmite and were on the dregs of the peanut butter.

The weather outside was already wet and very grey, there was rain forecast for the day. Mark had said, when they forecast rain, they do mean “Rain”. Well we finished the blog and breakfast a little before 9.00 and we went to pack up.

We had to make provisions for the bedding this time, we were not going to get caught out again by the condensation on the inside of the tent making the bedding damp, so we decamped the bedding to the back seat of the truck. Noticing that the mattress was damp we were not sure how, unless it had not dried from being damp the previous time. Andy came up with the ingenious idea of using the two small tarps for the swag to lay across the mattress and stop it from being exposed directly to wet canvas.

Pleased with his idea, we mopped the floor of the tent down, everything was now either in the truck or stacked awaiting storage in the trailer. It was now raining heavily, we could do nothing except get wet, as the weather was not going to get any better today.

While packing the trailer, it would appear that Andy had acquired a leech on the back of his hand, we think because he had walked into the bushes to coil up the electrical lead. The wet weather must encourage them to come out. Anyway, the leech was extracted using a pocket knife, no damage occurred as the leech had not yet done his thing.

Andy still wearing shorts, offered no surrender to the weather, we were packed away by 09.50 then we both went to shower and clean up ready for the day ahead and our journey back to the Australian Mainland.

We both feel quite sad at leaving, despite the rain, Tasmania has been fabulous and well worth a visit, but our mere 3 weeks have served no justice to this beautiful part of Australia. We spent a little longer on Cradle Mountain than anywhere else as we enjoyed it so much. Especially the Discovery Holiday Park where we have twice camped in the National Park.

No frills and spills with this campsite, however it has an excellent camp kitchen with an open fire. The sites are quite private surrounded by trees and bushes, and loads of wildlife, a great shop with the reception area and 15 minutes free internet access per guest, which is far more than most campsites allow or even have.

Mark and Claire are great park hosts, we do feel sad to leave them, and again it is like leaving old friends behind. We have exchanged contact details.

We checked out and asked if we could go back in so that we could have a cup of tea with Lee and Marilyn, who were also checking out today. Mark and Claire said it was fine, so we went back in and got the kettle on, deciding that we could have some toast with lee and Marilyn as they had some butter and jam.

We chatted for a couple of hours, while the rain got heavier and the lightning started and the thunder roared. We were pleased that we were all packed and ready to go. Sadly no walking today, we would have been soaked; the cloud was also very low so visibility was going to be very poor.

At midday we said our goodbyes and assured each other that we would stay in touch, going our separate ways, they were off to Strahan and would not be camping tonight, it was a motel or cabin for them. Through the cable gate and back out to reception we could see Mark and Claire waving, we waved back, but were not sure if they could see us through the dark tinted windows of the truck.

Both of us fell silent apart from a brief discussion on which way to go back to Devonport, Andy favoured the less mountainous route as the road conditions were going to be poor. As usual having to dodge the roadkill on the way out. The rain was heavy and we were both feeling sad.

Heading back down to Wilmot and on to Forth and then on to Devonport, the weather had brightened a little and the rain had eased, but it was still a grey day.

Finding MacDonalds, we decided to pop in for a salad and coffee and while away a couple of hours, it was disappointing that the weather was not better otherwise we could have whiled some time away on the beach or going to one of the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary’s.

Arriving at the ferry terminal we parked in a car park and listened to the ipod for an hour and went into the transit terminal, the Spirit of Tasmania is due in at 6.00 but when we asked them they said it would not be in until 7.00, however the security gates open at 6.30 so we will need to get back to our truck and join the traffic to board.

We find our way into the queue but we are not too far back from the front, we are soon checked in and follow the road around to security where we are questioned about what we have on board, i.e LPG cylinder, firearms etc. We explain that we have LPG locked in the trailer, the security guy says that’s ok, leave it where it is and drive round to that man over there he will point you to the appropriate queue.

Shortly after arriving in the queue, more security people arrive and ask the same questions as before. We explain about the LPG as before, however this time the security Lady says, “that has to come out of the trailer and be put into a cage, you can collect it when you arrive in Melbourne”. Now the irony here is that last time we were allowed to leave it in the trailer and then we find out that if we had locked it in the usual place on the outside of the trailer then it would have been ok.

The security lady then notices our petrol canister and says “you need to give that to me so that it can be poured away”, literally this fuel is going to be wasted as we are not allowed to travel with it. A whole gallon of petrol wasted!! Then Andy has to fill the canister with water so that there are no fumes.

Finally the requirements of security all satisfied, we get chatting to a couple behind us who have a camper trailer, while discussing it with them we find out that they only picked it up today so have not even used it yet. They came over to Tasmania on the Friday night crossing picked it up from a guy who had driven up from Hobart and then caught the Saturday night sailing in order to drive from Melbourne and back to Sydney which is roughly a 12 hour drive.

The queue as per last time is full of caravans, fifth wheelers, camper trailers, motor homes, camper vans of all descriptions, shapes and sizes. It is mind blowing about what is in the market place for camping. One queue was full of motorcyclists that had been grouped together.

We wait and wait, the Spirit of Tasmania II pulls alongside her berth at around 6.40, and we finally board her about 8.45pm, we are at the very back of the ship, but on level G5 again, which means that we are likely to be first off when we dock in Melbourne.

We grab our gear and go upstairs, we have what they call an “Ocean View Recliner” as it’s a night sailing, but before anything else we go and grab an evening meal, as it has been several hours since our MacDonald’s Salad (with fries!).

A while earlier Caroline said to me “ I wonder if we will see someone we know on the boat who we have met on our travels”, blow me while we were having dinner someone came up to me and said, “How are you doing?” it was Keith the guy we camped opposite at the River and Rocks free camp site, as mentioned in blog day 119, 6th March 2009.

We sit and talk and have a beer with Keith (well Gin and Tonic anyway), at about midnight we go and find our reserved chairs. However upon finding the room we could not find our chairs, the numbers were not immediately obvious we did not want to wake anyone up who was already sleeping, but had to hunt around for our chairs, even when we knew where the numbers were located we could not read them well as the room was so dark. Finally locating them, the next battle was working out how to recline them, but getting the seat back down was no problem, but trying to get the foot rest to come up was a problem, I pulled it up manually in the end, there was no way we were going to sleep on a reclining chair all night with our feet dangling.

Caroline put here ear plugs in, we wrapped up in the blankets and hoped for a good nights sleep, as we sailed away from Tasmania, for now anyway.

So until tomorrow shipmates

PS: apologies no photos today, we did some on Andy's camera, however the card seems to be corrupted and we are unable to gain access to photos, we are trying to find a way.






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15th March 2009

Leeches
Hi Andy & Caroline, I'm a country girl - up until I got married anyway (and still one at heart) and, NEVER, EVER, got used to leeches. Still dislike them intensely but, one thing that will dispatch them quicker than anything else is to sprinkle them with ordinary table salt. Works instantly. Happy hiking! Love, Jan
23rd March 2009

Salt
Next time we go hiking shall take salt in my back pack. I hate leeches they make such a mess!! Caroline

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