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Published: March 30th 2006
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It's been a while since the last bulletin and as usual we have covered quite a bit of ground, as you can see we are now in Tasmania and have been for the past 2 weeks - one week to go before we head back to the mainland.
Before the 11hr crossing to Tassie we crossed the bottom half of South Australia and Victoria, highlights being:
Yorke Peninsula, SA... MOONTA, Australia's 'Little Cornwall'! because of the early copper miners who emigrated to the district who were of Cornish descent. Moonta mines produced 170,000 tonnes of copper, closure 1923. Very fascinating place to roam around especially for Mike, engine houses, school of mines, miners cottage, pioneers cemetry with Cornish folk etc.. a lot of the engineering of the mines, was constructed in Hayle and shipped out, but it was slightly warmer being in the 40's whilst we were there.
Moonta also hosts in May the worlds largest annual Cornish festival 'Kernewek Lowender' pasty making comps., celtic music, ale etc... we tasted a few Cornish Pasties from the Cornish Kitchen whilst in town which were rather nice and gave Mike his 'fix'.
Went onto Adelaide for a day to seek
out Mikes namesake we spotted a few years ago when we were here. Michael J Treloar runs an antiquarian bookshop and this time we managed to meet him in person and the weirdist thing was that this man came to the UK for the first time last July and actually stayed in Helston a few doors from where we live and neither of them knew it! Not sure if they are related yet ....?
Spent a real nice time cruising down through The Coorong National Park which was really lovely, a series of shallow lagoons that provide a very rich habitat for thousands of waterbirds and is protected from the rolling surf of the Southern Ocean by spectaular sand dunes. It was here that I spotted my very first WOMBAT, he was so cool and cuddly trundling across the sandy road in front of us - it was a miracle we didnt run him over!
(Since then have seen another one here in Tassie munching away in a cabbage field and unfortunately, a lot of squashed ones too beside the road, quite bad here in tassie for that. Apparantly they say its 'cause there is so much wildlife here,
I think its cause they drive too damn fast!)
Been cycling a lot and real pleased we bought two bikes as soon as we got to Oz - it gets us around a lot faster around towns etc. and have done some nice runs up to some gorgeous waterfalls, I have also managed to get bogged done in Mangrove Swamps too, much to the amusement of Mike and was a very messy opereation getting bike clean, very gooey!
Yoga has been performed in some strange places when I have gotten down to it... Atop of picnic tables in the forests to in the middle of sandbars! But I have not been doing it as regular as I should have been, so many things to do all the time.
We had an exciting evening whilst in Ballarat, an ex gold mining town up in the hills of Victoria, we arrived that evening to searing temps of 40+ and was just getting down to eat supper when we noticed a curious red glow in the sky, burning smoke and then fine ash dust raining on us! Soon found out there was a massive bush fire going on that had
200km Parmango Road
the end, strange habits these Ozzies! started that afternoon at an area we had just driven through. It was just 20kms away from our campground and being fought by 70 fire engines and over 600 firefighters, very worrying listening to the radio people calling in from the surrounding homes relating their fears as it was happening. Fortunately rain came that night, which helped the fire fighting, but 6 people lost their homes.
Managed to drive through Melbourne without getting lost and on the day of the opening Commonwealth Games, which was an achievement. We caught the 'Spirit of Tasmania' ferry which took us back to the days of the Clair only a lot calmer crossing and a lot bigger too. It was extremely comfortable and great to watch the opening of the games whilst sailing over Tassie, similar timings to Shetland too, set sail at 8pm and arrived at 7am.
We arrived in Devonport to a massive thunderstorm, pouring rain and 10 degrees colder, Brrrrr! First stop was a brolly shop and then managed to kit ourselves out with fleeces and extra warm gear from the Australian Red Cross Shop. Thank heavens for charity shops! Just goes to show you done need to kit
Venus Bay
gutting the catch with helpers yourself out with expensive outdoor travelling gear all the time and then you can just leave it behind with no conscience.
I will relate the Tassie experience next time as I need to get some pics up with this, hope you are all now through the worst of the winter and spring is springing in, here it is Autumn and the clocks go back this weekend, very strange being upside down.
Very chilly here in Taz and must admit we are looking forward to getting back to warmer Oz on Wed.
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Liz Holmes
non-member comment
Warmth
Hi folks Wish we were enjoying the sun with you. We've had a 3 lots of snow up here and a lot of it has been deep. Great fun trying to get to work in blizzard conditions. You've managed to get to a few places that Terry and I never made. Will have to go back and do Taz. Keep up the travelblogs and enjoy yourselves. Regards Liz