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Published: January 23rd 2012
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On Sunday 15
th January it was time to leave our comfortable little cabin in St Helens – it had been one of our most relaxing stays on any Big 4 park we have visited anywhere in Australia. In order to travel along a different route, we took a chance and headed for Launceston via Scottsdale. It wasn’t the most obvious route (the main road was quite direct) but we weren’t in any hurry and we didn’t want to backtrack at all. The Scottsdale route, although much longer and hillier, offered some tourist attractions including The St Columba Falls and The Holy Cow Café and Cheese Factory. It proved to be an excellent choice as the scenery was fantastic, the falls were very “full” and we enjoyed the walk through the rain forest. The main lookout had been damaged by floods but the one we stood on to admire the falls gave us an excellent view. Back along the road, the café was a great stopping place for a cup of coffee - Graham had a large biscuit advertised as a “cowpat”. We spent quite a bit of time there, tasting and eventually buying some cheese. The journey continued through lovely rolling
countryside and, later on, whilst travelling through Scottsdale, we spotted a small café advertising roast dinners so we stopped and bought a couple which were excellent value for money. The scenery continued to be stunning as we wound our way towards Launceston where we had booked a motel for two nights over the internet. The Family Village Motel was on a hill with a pleasant view looking down onto Launceston. The room was spacious and well equipped - it was the cheapest of all the motels we had chosen and we weren’t sure what to expect but it was excellent value for money. Unusually for motels, it provided a complementary continental breakfast each morning and had good additional facilities like an indoor heated swimming pool. Because of our roast dinners, we still had our sandwiches to eat so, once we’d settled into our room, we found our way to Cataract Gorge, Launceston’s major tourist attraction, and identified a spot to have a picnic – albeit at 8:00pm in the evening! The sun was still shining, the large, free swimming pool was still busy and many people were enjoying barbecues. The famous chair lift (the longest single span anywhere in the
world) had closed for the day but it was still an exciting, beautiful area for a picnic and Launceston was a lovely city to be in.
On Monday 16
th January we had arranged a lunchtime meeting with Kay and Cliff Elliott, the parents of a friend of Sarah and Darryl. Their son Nigel, with his wife Belinda and two children (they now have three!!), were long time travelling companions of S & D in Western Australia and, coincidentally, they had all befriended The Reeves family with whom we have spent much time in Mansfield. Another coincidence is that Nigel, Belinda and family, who originally lived near Coffs Harbour in NSW, had chosen to settle in Mansfield for a while and during a recent visit to Mansfield we had met them, together with Nigel’s parents who were just visiting from Tasmania. When they discovered we were about to undertake a trip to Tassie, they invited us to visit them at their home in a small town called Longford which is just a 20 minute drive from Launceston. So, after our continental breakfast, we prepared for our trip to Longford and set off in good time so that we could visit
a few places in the area before our meeting at midday. After negotiating Launceston, one of the busiest cities in Tassie, our first port of call was Perth, a very small town where we thought to have a mid-morning cuppa. In truth, there’s not a lot to Tassie Perth so we drifted on to Longford where there’s a lovely new shopping precinct. We found a delightful café (Charlie Brown’s Café!) and had a drink before exploring more of the town. It’s a reasonably sized town by Tassie standards and has quite a lot of modern housing. We found our way to the Elliot’s house spot on midday and Cliff was at the gate to greet us. He had built much of the house himself and it was a real picture – from the front it looked a very English cottage style home with roses everywhere and we loved it. Cliff and Kay only bought the block a few years ago. It’s opposite the Longford Race Track but, since there’s only one race meeting a year, it is in a very quiet and rural location. They used to walk past the area often from their old house in Longford and realised
it would be an ideal spot for a home. Like many Aussie houses, it just seemed to go on and on with lovely, large rooms leading to a verandah at the back overlooking the rear garden. If we were able to design a house for our retirement it would be just like this one.
Kay had been very busy in the kitchen and we were soon tucking in to a brilliant spread and conversation came with ease. Cliff showed us a couple of models of sailing ships which he had made which looked magnificent. We were joined by their eldest grandson, Sam, who was staying with them for a while. They have a bit of a dilemma as they originally moved to Tassie (they used to holiday there regularly) because two of their sons had settled there. However, the sons are now moving back to the mainland so Cliff and Kay are contemplating giving up their beautiful cottage home to move back towards Coffs Harbour where they originally lived. In our view they will struggle to find another such delightful property as the one they live in but we understand that Tasmania is a bit isolated when trying to
maintain contact with people on mainland Australia. During our conversations, Cliff and Kay recommended a particular local village as worthy of a visit so after we left Longford at about 4:00pm we made our way to Evandale and enjoyed a delightful stroll around the quaint village. They have an annual penny-farthing race each February and one of the many statues featured the old-fashioned bicycle. It was a lovely end to a great day and we returned to our motel with the thought of having a swim in the pool. Alas, it was a bit busy so we just relaxed, enjoying the view from our balcony and watching a bit of the Australian Open Tennis from Melbourne – an event we hope to visit later in the week. We also did a bit of preparation for our last day in Tassie before we catch the ferry back to Melbourne late tomorrow evening.
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