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Published: February 16th 2007
Anne and Talitha go Bush
Should have been in the last Blog but its a nice picture...This is the river by Adams' school's outdoor ed campus....We loaded the car with tent, sleeping bags and duvets, blow up matresses and gas barbie (cooking device not doll...!) and headed west....
It felt great to be 'on the road' with 1o days ahead of us and a map of Tasmania, funilly enough although we are travelling and adventuring, we have done more day and weekend stuff rather than a longer trip, so this felt like the beginning of a real summer holiday.
Our first stop was at Chudleigh which sounded like it came from a childrens story, and felt even more so as we stopped at a honey visitor centre which had a swarm of plywood bees up the side of the building and on to the roof.... It was a clever place, they gave you lots of free tastings (so you felt sick fairly quickly) and then you bought loads of produce... The kids enjoyed it and it was a break from driving.
Next stop was a wildlife sanctuary which takes in injured animals (of which there are lots due to the roads - we did a road kill survey and found that on rural roads the average seemed to be about 6 dead beasts
a kilometre) The sanctuary had a bit of a run down feel, like it suffered from lack of money, but we saw Wombats, Tasmanian Devils and loads of wallabies which we could feed. That was brilliant for the kids and then we stayed for a talk and see the animals by their staff which was excellent, learnt loads like wombats have a hard backside with so they cant be hurt by predators when they escape down their holes, and they can even crush dingos etc with this hard bit, jamming the attackers head between it and the roof of the tunnel....
We also learnt about the devils, which are great creatures, given the name because of the their tendancy to snarl and bare their teeth, the girl talking to us claimed they were all bark and no bite, but then had huge difficulty picking one up which was snarling at her, but when she had picked it up it was gentle in her arms. Not so on feeding as four of them ripped a bit of dead animal to peices in a bit of a feeding frenzy...
We had to leave before learning about Quolls as we wanted
to catch the last tour down King Solomons Caves at Mole Creek, a few Km further on.....
What a fantastic cave (and I have been down hundereds over the years) probably one of the prettiest caves I have ever been in, and all with lights and a footpath. It was quite short but really spectacular. Especially beautiful were the tiny helectites which grow at odd angles due to surface tension preventing gravity making the drops of water drop. Very delicate and seldom seen in british caves. (see picture)
We asked about camping spots at the cave, and they pointed us to a free spot on the banks of the river mersey....There were a couple of others using the spot, but it was lovely close to the river and in the gum trees and our first taste of National park sites, some were free, with minimal facilites (pit latrines and occasionally BBQ's) and some were a few dollars with showers. for this and the right to enjoy the parks (of which there are loads in Tas) it cost 50 dollars (20 pounds) for the car and all of us for 8 weeks, and is probably the best value for
Helectites
only a few cm big and incredibly delicate... money park fees I've ever spent. Coming from Scotland where there is freedom of access to roam any where, seeing how controlled and paid for parks can work was interesting,and done well is exemplary. We walked on miles of superbly built board walks and enjoyed very appropriate interpretation and helpful and informative ranger activities, all for that 20 quid...!
We played pooh sticks off the bridge over the mersey and then enjoyed our first night in Adam's marquee of a family tent. During the night we heard the crashing of our pots and pans and the next day found a pan lid several yards away, cutelry scattered, and never did find the wooden spatular.....Possums.... We learnt to put our food and rubbish back into the car to prevent possums causing havoc, and created the theme for Ronan for the trip...Possum traps. Each morning before Ronan got up I would create a possum trap out of string, pan lids and a cardboard box, and over the days it caught Ronan's cuddly puffin, Ronan's cuddly kangaroo, an egg, a bottle of beer, Ronan's breakfast of weetabix in a bowl and ready to eat, and his small plastic dinasaur toys and his
Camping at Mole creek
By the river Mersey.... James Bond Lotus esprit dinky car he was given on Bruny Island....
From Mole creek/River Mersey, we headed to Cradle Mountain. I suppose Cradle Mountain is the iconic hill for Tas, like the Storr, of the view of Sgurr nan Gillean from near the Sligachan is for Skye. On the road up to the mountain we were really lucky and saw a Devil by the side of the road which was a real treat, Deveils are about cat sized, all black apart from the odd white sot, and a very marked white collar (I am tempted to say like a ministers dog collar, because that is really what it is like). We also saw an echidna (bit like a cross between a porcupine and a hedgehog)
You stop at the visitor centre (where we paid our 50 dollars park fees, and admitted to camping the previous night in a National Park without a pass...!) and they persuade you (very easily) to leave the car and hop on the free (well part of the 50 dollar fee) bus service up to Dove lake, every 10 minutes up and down the mountain, once again a fantastic service (something that has
Cradle Mountain
On 'Glacier Rock' been talked about for Glencoe to try and eas the parking in the Glen, and which has so far failed to come to fruition... and could work superbly in Glen nevis...)
We arrived at Dove lake and the view was breath takingly beautiful, the lake, and the jagged outline of Cradle mountain. We walked to an impressive rock for the photograph, and then to an old boat shed. After taking our fill of the view and me resisting temtation to nip up a small hill next to the main mountain itself, we walked a beautiful trail down the hill past another lake, through forests, along heath land (quite reminiscent of the Highlands) to an old chalet which was lived in by an Austrian Waldheim, who played a role in getting national parks started, and then down to one of the bus pick up points, where we left Anne who ran a few km down the hill where we waited for her at the second visitor centre. (Where we were served by a muslim lady who had her head scarf in park ranger colours, with her ranger insignia sewed on)
A great walk, great day finished off at a
great camp site, again surrounded by gum trees. and filled with cheeky possums and wallabies
The next day we continued west, stopping for a swim at Tullah, and a look at a narrow guage railway, which unfortunately for Ronan only operated every second sunday...
Our adventure this day was to be Montezuma falls, the highest waterfalls in Tasmania, it was quite a drive to get to the start of the 3hr return walk, up a winding dirt road. The walk was along a very old (and disused) railway track so was flat, and very wonderful, through dense forest. At the start we saw our first ' Joe Blake' (snake) a Blake Tiger Snake, poisonous (of course) and quite big. Managed to get a picture (as seen here) before it slithered off... Every snake we have seen of couse we have followed to try and get a good view and photo, rather than walking quietly away....
We were kind of running out of time for a three hour walk, and the party split, Anne and Ronan playing by an old derelict bridge and river, while Talitha and John continued, alledgedly only for another half an hour or so,
A Black Tiger Snake
venomous and poisonous to humans...Not for stepping on... but the trail drew us on, and we are so glad, the falls were amazing, as too was the scary bridge that crossed over the steep gully the falls fell into....
There was also an old mine adit you could go into for a few metres, and after a quick look in that Talitha and I practically ran back for an hour to meet up with Anne and Ronan.
We headed further west yet, bought suplies at a place called Zeehan and took a 12 km dirt track to Trial Harbour, which was right on the coast, did,'t really have a harbour (a ship called the Trial
ran aground here, and then later crashed and sank here) It is a really off the beaten track (doesn't get a mention in the Lonley Planet guide book) and is inhabited by mainly summer houses and a couple of full time fishermen residents and a tiny camping ground big enough for about 6 or 8 tents/RV's
Looking out to sea, next stop Agentina....
We saw a fantastic white bellied sea eagle, which Ronan went on to find in the wildlife guide book we have....We explored great rock pools, star
Montezuma Falls
The Highest Waterfalls in Tasmania
You can just see Talitha at the bottom.... fish and enourmous beadlet anenomes, and on display in the 'town' was a large whale skull.
The next day saw us moving on to Strahan, via the most amazingly incredible Henty sand dunes.
20 Metres high, fine white sand, most with vegetation, but a few classic bare and pure...We attempted to walk to the ocean where I had heard that there were lots of Whale skeletons from a mass stranding a few years ago, but we never made it. There was no path to follow, and we (well I) decided that there was a real possibility we could lose ourselves (no map no compass and very hot) decided we didn't want an epic, so only explored for about 1km which was well enough...
Our Camp for the night was a few Km further on past Strahan, a pretty rather touristy place with a wharf and a couple of sea planes, a bit reminiscent of Tofino in Vancouver Island (Anne said it was pretty cool that we were able to make that comparison us world travellers that we are....)
The site was at a MacQuarrie Heads, a few metres from a huge beach, and by a narrow entrance
Talitha on Montezuma Bridge
This bridge had a sign saying no more than two people on it at any one time....
It was about 20 metres above the stream and wobbled a lot...
to a huge sea loch 40-50 Km long 10Km wide with an entrance just 70metres across...
We spent quite a bit of time in Strahan, Anne catching up on work emails, and Ronan and I (pretending) to fish of the wharf, and Talitha collecting tourist brochures. There were a couple of amazing things to do but unfortuntely too expensive. Sea Plane flights up the Gordon River, A boat ride up the Gordon River.. Both looked impressive, and then the wilderness railway which was a rack and pinion railway that used to take ore to the harbour, and seemingly went theough amazing rainforest terrain. All these trips were into reall unspoiled wilderness, but hey ho all for another day.
Queenstown was an old mining town which looked a bit like something out of the wild west, we stocked up on supplies, and started heading back east, stopping at a huge hole in the ground, which had been mined out for gold, silver and tin over a period of 100 yrs....
Next stop was a beautiful waterfall walk, which was perhaps too short (20mins) becuase it was quite busy with back packer tours and German bus tours, but it
was still very beautifull, and I took some quite nice photographs of the sun shining through the foliage of the rain forest.
Our next walk was to Donaghys Hill lookout, a 40min walk, which we almost didn't stop at, the guide book just said it gave a 360 degree view, it didn't say it gave one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen....The photographs do not do it justice, it was amazing, and I rate it as one of the top sites people should see before they die...Perhaps it is because photos don't do it justice that it doesnt get raved about as it might, no iconic view, just scale, depth, gum forest, savanna like plains, craggy mountains, a huge river. I tried to take one of those 'stitch pictures' so we will see if that works when I get home, but perhaps it is nice that it is a best kept secret, as it is therefore unexpected.
Next walk (today was the day of walks) was a short one to a bridge over the Franklin river, same style bridge as the Montezuma Bridge but not scary as it was only a few metres up.
On to Lake st Clair to camp where we stayed two nights, lovely spot, noisy Kukabburos, the cheekiest Possums yet, and a real treat, even though only at a diatance, a Platypus swimming maybe 10metres off the shore in the lake.
We decided on taking a boat trip, Anne and the kids went all the ay to the end of the lake, I got dropped off at 'Echo point' and walk the last 3hrs of the 5 day overland track from Cradle Mountain to lake st clair (Talitha has expressed more than a passing interest at doing this in a few years time) The walk was through dense woodland which changed every couple of Km and ran along the lake side. It was perfect timing when I met Anne and the kids coming to meet me at a path junction, so we all got to explore platypus bay (no platypi)
That evening I opened the door to leave the campsite kitchen, and was met with another Black tiger snake pravtically on the door step...!
Before we left we had a nice chat with a young guy from Ingleton who was managing the visitors centre, who caves and
knows a lot of my pals from the Yorkshire dales.
We had the longest drive we did this day, from Lake st Claire, to Hobart, Kettering and the ferry to Bruny Island. We got mislaid in Hobart and ended up crossing the big bridge accidently, so had to return over it to find the way out of Hobart, but before catching the ferry, we spent some time in 'Roaring 4o's Ocean Kayaking Centre'
The Kayak people suggested Jetty beach on Bruny as the best place to camp, but when we stopped at a penguin rookery we spotted a sign for a ranger led walk that evening to see the penguns, so this seemed like too good an opportunity, so we camped very near by at the neck reserve.
Another minimalist, free National park campsite, just a few metres from a huge beach, once again with hardly anyone on it. 8:30 in the evening saw us chatting to the Ranger back at the penguin lookout, a guy from Edinburgh...He gave a good talk about penguins and shearwaters, and as dusk fell the spectacle began. At first one or two 'little' shearwaters appeared in the air, returning from long
flights feeding at sea. They nest in burrows next to the penguin burrows, and often get muddled up when returning which causes a slight rumpus. The shearwaters are fantastic flyers, but crap landers, they flop on the sans, and are equally poor at walking, they flop about until they find the correct burrow. One guy watching next to me was hit on the shoulder by one coming into land.... Soon the air was filled with fluttering birds basically crashing into the ground, quite an amazing sight. I have seen this before with manx shearwaters who live in burrows on a mountain on the Isle of Rum (this was a little more awquad to view as it involved ascending the mountain at dusk, watching the shearwaters then coming down in the dark...It was a very similar spectacle played out on Bruny Island, but ths time almost at sea level, and we could watch from a boardwalk on the dunes.
As the Shearwaters started to reduce in numbers penguins started to appear, some were baby penguins coming out of their burrows for an explore, but most were adults returning from the sea from feeding. They would walk up the sand in
Pub at Queenstown
Vernacular architecture.... small groups, unfortunately we didn't really see them cross the sand as the ranger asked us not to shine torches (which all had red night vision cellophane filters on them ) as the bird eyesight would be particularly sensitive after a long swim, and torch light might scare them back, but by the time they reached the dunes it was ok to light them up.
The Penguins were great, waddling, well just like a penguin... and some we saw up really close, within a metre or two. Both Ronan and Talitha loved it, especially just being out at night, Ronan particularly liking the red torches. (Ronan and I went back the next night for another viewing which was fun, Ronan being quite the expert, asking other people if they had seen anything yet, has he trotted up and down the board walk...)
The next day we had a typical Anne Martin coincidence (these things have stopped suprising me)
We had ordered a take out coffe from a cafe in Adventure bay and were sat on a beach relaxing, Talitha with nose in book as usual. An older gentleman walked by and exclaimed at this 'bookworm' so we struck
Rainforest
On the walk to nelsons falls up a conversation... He was the man who organises concerts on the Island, Anne's friend Colm Sands had played here and we had attempted to communicate with people here but emails bounced back (Colm had said it had been the best gig of his tour..) Our new friend Dave had seen Colm sing in England, contacted him and arranged the gig here, and had become good friends. Dave was also really disapointed we had never made contact as he would have arranged a gig....We met up with him and his wife later in the day for a glass of wine and had a lovely time. If we ever come back to tasmania, I am sure Anne will sing on Bruny island, which would be great because it is a really beautiful place.
We drove to the jety beach we had ended up not camping on, and what a spot, the purest white sand, only a few other folk, heath land and gum trees, a classic 'paradise' beach (who needs palm trees...)
We also explored briefly the east side, and walked up to a lighthouse on the top of big basalt cliffs with seas crashing about...just like home. It
is partly what every one aves about Bruny Island for, but heigh ho only almost as good as the bit of coastline between Staffin and Balmaqueen, so give me the paradise beaches any day....
That evening while Anne was in an internet cafe, the kids and I watched other kids squid fishing from a jetty with the result that Ronan desperately wants to go squid fishing...
We left Bruny (the ferry was quite a big double deck affair which cost 25 dollars (10 pounds) for the car return and passengers free...Puts Cal Mac to shame) and headed to Hobart via a winery where we had coffee and a chat about future gigs as it also turned out to be a venue...
We also went to a hardwear store to replace a pump of Adams which we (Anne..!) knackered, unfortunately Ronan spotted the fishing gear, and we found a telscopic rod kit which was very reasonable....on chatting to the sales guy, he threw in some squid lures for free, so Rona n is totally made up and a confirmed squid fisherman....
We didn't really plan to stop in Hobart, but ended up close to the waterfront and saw
Donaghys Lookout ....
Possibly one of the most spectacular vistas I have ever seen signs for the wooden boat festival due to start thevnext day, so enede up exploring the docks and looking at old boats for an hour or two. we also had the best fish and chips (ever...!) Ronan wanted to Squid fish off the jettys so we had to promise that we would as soon as possible, which turned out to be that evening at Triabunna where we camped in a nondescript but comfy private camp/caravan cabin site. We met a English trio with a 6 yr old boy who had been fishing that day, so I took the boy, plus my two out to the jetty that evening but didn't catch anything.
The following day Anne went for a run and found a Pelican walk so while she was in another internet cafe, we all went along the walk and saw pelicans... they are fantastic, massive birds (wingspans almost as big as albatrosses and graceful flyers) a real treat. If we had had more time we might have gone to Maria Island, as this was where the ferry left from, and it sounds superb, but again for another day. We also decided not to stay for the sinking of
an old ship the next day as a dive site (saw the pictures in the paper compete with pyrotechniques.)
Our trip was nearing its end, but the last adventure was two days at Coles Bay in the beautiful Freycinet National Park (another cheap fantastic National park camp site, 10 metres from yet another awesome beach, and about 250 metres from a very posh lodge where we drunk a few beers while the kids explored the video room and borrowed books...
Freycinet is home of the 'acclaimed' wineglass bay, an almost perfect semi circle of a beach with pure white sand, made extra special in that it is only accessible after an hours walk up quite a steep and rocky path to a bealach then down the other side through the 'hazards' mountains. Amazing rock domey clifs and big boulders (more on the scale that i thought hanging rock would be...)
Of course we saw one of the worlds most famous beaches on a clody day which even drizzled a bit, but it was agreat walk, and still a fantastic site. talitha and I extended the walk to take in hazrds beach the other side of the promitary
Lake st Clair
Anne Talitha and Ronan on the boat heading for the end of the Lake, I walk back from echo point half way... from wineglass bay, another couple of km.
I was going to get up early on our last day and nip up Mt Amos (one of the hazards) but at 7am it was cloud covered and reminiscent of a driech day in the Higlands, so something else was left for another day (do you get the picture here...!)
Frycinet almost had everything, Mountains, forests, beaches, rain...
On our last evening there, there was a wedding on the beach which talitha and I crept through to the boardwalk up to the lodge, they seemed to be waiting for the bride and I said to Talitha as we walked up the steps, 'just our luck to bump into the bride up here...'
we did... all nervous with her dad ( I told her she looked beautiful, in a beautiful place as we passed which seemed to go down well ) but trust us, only we could walk in on a wedding on a beach....
Our final days drive back to Launceston took in Bicheno, whwre there was an impressive 'blowhole' which was quite a small crack in the rock which the sea swell blew through periodically like a geyser. We
Kookaburra
sits in an old gum tree..... also went for a walk near St Marys up a pinted hill in the middle of the bush which had loads of weird radio masts and ladders and cabins on top, it was like a cross between Picnic at hanging Rock and Dr Who...!
We also saw three 'yellow tailed black cockatoos' which were amazing and put our new Australian bird book to good use identifying them...
The real treat of the day was to arrive back at launceston and meet up with Kylie who we hadn't seen for nearly 10 years and her kids who we had never met and who along with Adam has made our visit to Tasmania, not only possible, but extra special.
The big treat
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Elaine
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I'm liking the pictures. Cant believe its almost the end of february already. We will be glad to welcome you all back. It's been all too quiet without Ronan running around the deck!