Advertisement
Published: February 22nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
Day 293 - Mole Creek
We have a birthday shout out to our dear friend Tez all the way over in Norway! We hope you're having fun in the snow Tez and we'll speak to you soon. Lots of love for a happy day from both of us x x x If we needed saving from an over ambitious idea to walk the Walls of Jerusalem then the constant down pour of torrential rain did just that this morning! The clatter of water onto the caravan roof was a dead give a way that our plans would probably be changing but we got up to double check with Tony & Jane. They were of the same opinion as us - missing the walk (13 hrs up a mountain and back) wouldn’t kill us, going out and getting drenched just might!
We’d put some washing out on the line yesterday and left it there overnight, it was now wetter than when it came out of the washing machine! We suspect the rest of its day would be spent going through several bouts of ‘final rinse’, here’s hoping the ‘spin’ or ‘dry’ options are hiding behind the overcast skies!
You know what it’s like, once you’re awake it’s hard to go back to sleep so while Dar busies himself making breakfast I get on with the blog before regrouping at a more sensible time!
Our alternative plan for today was a day trip further afield in the hope that the weather elsewhere might not be so bad. With Tony at the wheel of their cruiser the four of us set out with a vague idea of direction but no firm plans of what to actually spend it doing, we were just happy to make it up as we went along. We headed north in the direction of Launceston (pronounced Lawn-ces-ton) with the possibility of going out as far as Lilydale if time allowed. I remember a lady telling us about Lilydale, that it was a nice area and something about strawberries!! I couldn’t be more specific than that and it was a long way to drive for strawberries so we settled on elements closer by.
I suggested a trip to Narawntapu National Park which looked to have a short walk within it and the map seemed to indicate a driveable route across to Beauty Point thus
avoiding the ‘one road in, one road out’ main roads. Half way there Jane found the brochure on a trip she’s mentioned a few times, an adventure place where you get strapped into a harness and glide across the treetops. Ironically it’s near Lilydale. We were going to do something similar in Finch Hatton (Qld) but never got around to it, there were too many other things to do like swim in freezing cold waterfalls!
Tony carried on driving to the national park and we completed the walk up Archers Knob. It was a great view at the top but we were all so keyed up for ‘Walls of Jerusalem’ that it came a fairly weak second! Still, it was a walk with a view and one shouldn’t complain. Unfortunately on the way up there Jane fell and landed on her wrist, damn tree roots that spread across pathways. Back at the visitor’s centre she and Tony got some ice to bring out the inevitable swelling and bruising. She was very brave and sucked it up like a trooper so we tucked into a bit of lunch then hit the road towards Beaconsfield and Beauty Point.
The lady
in the visitors centre had advised us not to take the track through the national park, she said it was pretty rough and we were better off on the main roads so it took a bit longer than first anticipated but we made it eventually.
Beaconsfield became front page news in 2006 when the world’s media descended while reporting the two week long rescue of three miners trapped at the bottom of a shaft. Sadly only two made it out alive, Larry Knight was killed instantly. The mining & heritage museum displays the memorial plague for the accident whilst also displaying the award plague presented to the people of Beaconsfield for their courage and community spirit over that dramatic period. On the Echos, Silence, Patience and Grace album from the Foo Fighters, you’ll find the ballad devoted to the Beaconsfield Miners, inspired because the two men listened to the band’s music to drown out the sound of the drilling machines while they were buried 1 km below the surface.
From the quaint town of Beaconsfield we drove to Beauty Point. There are a couple of major tourist attractions here, Seahorse World and Platypus House. The boys grab a
coffee in Seahorse World and the ladies grab an ice-cream at Platypus House. Our decision not to join the bus load of tourists on tours through either of them shouldn’t really surprise you, we would much rather find them in the wild if we can!
We crossed the Tamar River via Batman Bridge and continued the pleasant drive into Launceston. It’s a very attractive city with the river running through it and old stately buildings dotted around. We parked up near to the beautiful bridge at the entrance to Cataract Gorge and then wandered along its footpath.
The views got better with each step we took until eventually we’re greeted by the chairlift cars gently swinging overhead and another beautiful suspension bridge spanning the width of the river. It’s really scenic. One of the best decisions we made today was which way round to approach this last walk. There were two tracks at the start and we choose the flat track hoping for the least amount of hill climbing! We were spot on and very much enjoyed the easy climb DOWN the Zig Zag track to get back to the car! We’re learning!
And so ended our
little adventure for the day, a few ups and downs but nothing near to the effort we would have had to put in for the Walls of Jerusalem epic! We'd done the right thing to get out further afield for better weather, back at camp it was obvious the rain hadn’t relented in Mole Creek! The washing was indeed soaked to its very core and the lovely lady camped next to us in a tent had driven home to Launceston!
Our evening was taken up with cooking dinner and trying to sort out the camp ground washing machine. We’d upset it by flicking through to the ‘spin’ section of the cycle but it had thrown a fit and filled up with water and now we just couldn’t get it to empty! I had to bring in the big guns, Henriko the lovely caretaker, who after some fiddling found the error to be the reset button. He stood there with a screwdriver in the appropriate place and finally the water drained away so the spin cycle could kick in. Like a true sport he switched the driers on free mode for us and our clothes were happy tumbling around in
the warm for the next couple of hours. They were certainly drier and warmer than we were!
We’re on the move tomorrow towards St Helens and the Bay of Fires but first up there’s a quick visit to Devils Gullet, another walk and another early start!
Dar and Sar
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 12; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0537s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Terri
non-member comment
Hi Dar and Sar. Your weather looks about as good as ours! Have had loads more snow this past couple of days but still not as much as in Asker! Have just got back from a week in the mountains with Tara doing a bit of skiing. Had a great time but it's all back to work now. Berns off to Oslo tomorrow and then Holland on Tues for a couple of days so it will be quiet here.Lol! Thanks for the card. It arrived this morning. Glad you are still having such a great time. I feel like we are there with you sometimes thanks to the great blogs. Thanks for sharing all your experiences. Take good care and carry on laughing! Love Terri xXx