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Published: March 11th 2009
Camp Kitchen
St Helens Big 4 Camp KitchenDAY 123
Please note: the contents of todays blog contains graphical details which have nothing to do with me, thanks. Caroline We both slept really well last night, but again we woke up to another bright warm and sunny morning, I got up first, taking our tea mugs etc to the camp kitchen, so that I could finish the blog off for An Elephant Ate My Pancakes, which we managed to upload and added the pictures to. A short while later Caroline joined me and we set about having tea and doing toast. Dam it the Marmite is nearly out, its 20 times better than Vegemite so we may need the red cross to fly us some in.
When we went to pack up camp, I got talking to the guy next door who has a whopper of a caravan, with an air conditioning unit and satellite dish on the roof and its only about 96 feet long! Ok I exaggerate slightly it is quite long.
They are from Mackay quite far North Queensland, well not too far North as there is still roughly 2200 kilometres from Mackay to Bamaga on the tip of Cape York.
Hurricane Hamish has just blown through, fortunately without any damage to his property. He pulls his caravan with a 4.8 Litre BMW X5 (Petrol), I joked that only British footballers can afford to run such large Petrol Engines in the UK, and he said he had been over to the UK and didn’t know how we afforded it.
We packed up and left the excellent site at St Helens bang on 10.00am heading towards Launceston and as far as we can get after that as tomorrow we are booked into the Discovery Campsite at Cradle Mountain. We of course will be free camping using our Camps 5 book. There are a number of sites around so we just need to narrow it down depending on time.
Just before we headed out of St Helens we stopped to fill up with Diesel, we were not empty but one thing that is worth doing is making sure you have a full tank to start the days journey as you never know when the next filling station will be. On Tasmania the filling stations also tend to close fairly early.
Pulling into the BP Station we saw a Police 4x4
filling up, failing to notice first that there was a huge police boat on a trailer behind which is what the policemen were actually filling up, not the 4x4!
Caroline went in to pay and came out chuckling to herself. It seems that they have an alarm in there that goes off when a certain amount of time has lapsed on the use of a fuel pump (we think to raise the alarm if someone has not paid), the pump that the police were using the alarm kept sounding. Caroline commented that she would not like to foot the bill for that one. They chap behind the counter said that the bill was already up to $400.
Now heading along the A3 West towards Launceston, it was a beautiful drive, we drove up to the Halls Falls road, missing out on the falls but went on the Anchor Stampers Walk, on the edge of the Blue Tier Forest Reserve. The Anchor Stamper refers to a machine built in 1882, for the Anchor Mines PTY and ground down the Ore for the tin, this area is famous for Tin Mining.
I'm sure we have all had times when
The Anchor Stamper
Desciption of The Anchor Stamper the call of nature is just to loud to ignore, In the forestry visitor centres they sell small titanium foldable trowels so you can put one in your back p!ack so when your out trecking and the call of nature taps you on the shoulder you are suitably equiped. Well that day happened for me, I'm usually as regular as clockwork, but I am still taking these tablets for my back and I reckon they have upset my insides good and proper. These Titanium trowels they sell, come with some instructions, don't have a turn out on top of a police car, dig a little hole 200mm deep, have a dump then bury it for other people to find as a suprise. My Stomach started gurgleing, we were in the forest and Caroline was driving, she halts the truck and reverses it so the trailer is near the curb, and the front of the truck is near the curb, I get the shovel out of the trailer and dig a hole about 2ft deep, excellent now just the paper work to fill out. Hands washed hole filled in and we are off again - quite a liberating feeling!
Caroline was
Our Trailer
At the botton of the lane slightly apalled and my graphic entry in to the blog, or exit really, but if the Queen does it then its good enough for me.
Following the road on we drive through Weldborough a lovely village surrounded by beautiful and enchanting rainforest. The views are stunning today as we wind our way across the A3. Driving through Derby we find an historic village with traditional houses and shops, it also looked very popular with tourists. Any other day we may have stopped but today we wanted to push on with some kilometres, as we want to get as close to Cradle Mountain as possible
As we were winding our way across some mountain roads, I said to Andy that I had seen an Echidna on the verge. We stopped to go and have a look at it, sensing we were there it rolled its protective spines over the top of its head and every now and again it poked its head out to see if we were still there. Leaving the Echidna in peace we jumped back in the truck and drove on, no more than the next corner away I saw another Echidna on the side of
Echidna
This sweet little Echidna would tuck its snout in and pull is spiney coat over his back every time we moved the road, we did not stop this time, just let it be.
A while later a car coming in the opposite direction flashed and waved his arm out of the window as if to say slow down. We could immediately see why on this unusually straight stretch of road. There was an Echidna, slowly making its way across the road. We pulled up, Andy watched for traffic coming to slow them down while this slow marsupial made its way to the other side.
Now when I say about slowing traffic down, there is not a lot of traffic, about 3 cars came past, one driver stuck his thumb up to us and smiled as if to say “thanks for looking out for the wildlife”. I am sure for every one of those that thank us, there is another that could not care less and just drive over it. I do fully appreciate that sometimes these things cannot be avoided. Today however the roads just seem to be full of roadkill, it is a sad sight. Even a German tourist said to us the other day that it really upset her to see so much of the wildlife dead
Wood Carving
For Alan Robert Andrews on the road.
Anyway, today we saved an Echidna and we hope that makes a difference. We also heard on the news on the radio today that a certain part of Australia has granted permission to farmers who shoot Kangaroos on their land that they can now farm them for their meat and leather. Andy and I decided that the Kangaroo’s should wear bulletproof vests for protection. Previously farmers were allowed to shoot the kangaroos, but they actually had to leave them to rot where they fell.
Another place to visit that had been recommended to us was Legerwood. This small village a little bit off the A3 had some amazing woodcarvings that you really should not miss. The woodcarvings are made out of the trees that were originally planted to commemorate the soldiers from that district that went off to war and sadly never returned. Each carving represents a memorial to a soldier that never returned.
Somewhere in between the sightseeing and stopping at lookouts to admire the view we managed to stock up on Groceries (no big shops on Cradle Mountain!) and have lunch. We actually stocked up in Scottsdale, while we were putting
Memorial
Alan Robert Andrews the groceries in the car a lady walked past and said, “you are a long way from home”, I turned around and said “yes we are a long way from home”, at which point she exclaimed “Oh my word, yes you are, I had not realised, I was thinking you were from Queensland, I looked at the registration plate!”
We chatted to her for a while, she used to live in Mackay but has always hated it, she said she only ever wore a jumper once, when her husband died she moved to Tasmania and she loves it here.
There are a lot of cars on Tasmania with Queensland plates; I would think they all come on holiday here to get away from the hot summers.
Whilst driving rhrough the mountains we stopped at Sideling Lokk out, you can see Mount Horror and Mount Stronach, its quite some scenery from up here.
There is a little rest stop with Long drop toilets and a small circular seating area and BBQ and owen.
I took over the driving for a while from Andy to give him a rest, he tried to sleep but could not, as he
Memorial Carving
For William Henry Hyde could not resist looking at the amazing scenery that he would have missed. WI listened to my playlist on my Ipod while Andy had a few minutes sleep, it did not last long. Finally we were off the A3 and onto the B12, and getting back into the forests and the mountains.
The thing about Tasmania, apart from being beautiful that is, the countryside changes dramatically from one area to the next, just like the temperature really. This morning we were on a very warm and sunny coast that is a mass of white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, then we are in dense rainforest, then you are back out in the open and you have amazing views of the mountains. What more could you ask really?
I think that 3 weeks does not do Tasmania justice. When people said to us that you need a couple of months, I was not sure that I would believe it, but its true.
Getting closer to Cradle Mountain and to a time of afternoon that we really should be stopping we finally pulled into Gowrie and found the O’Neills Creek Picnic Reserve (book ref 220 page 241, Camps 5).
There are already quite a few campers but nicely spaced out, always a comforting factor for me that other people are around. There are also toilet facilities here (flushing loo’s not the long drop variety!), no showers, but that is ok as we will have full facilities from tomorrow night for a few nights.
Camp is set up quickly, the kettle is on and we settle down for our evening rest. We get chatting to our neighbours, Merv and Wendy, they are from Townsville, we are admiring their camping set up, looks ideal and easy set up. They give us their telephone number and say to give them a ring when we are in the area, however they are not likely to be at home as they are always travelling somewhere. Merv and Wendy are people who are really experienced at this game and have recommended some great places for us to visit. I will save those for another day to share with you when we have been able to see them for ourselves.
Well folks, I think that is all for today, it has been a full day despite all of the driving we have done, that
Memorial Carving
For George Peddle just leaves me to say that while Andy had a relatively early night, I have finished typing the blog, I am sitting here, listening to the birds squawking, wildlife rustling the undergrowth beside our camp and looking at the full moon which is lighting up the campsite well, but the shadows of the mountain backdrop are incredible. If only I could put it all in a bottle and send to you to experience.
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