Black Friday

Well, here we are back on the Aussie mainland after just on five weeks in Tasmania.  We had driven just over 3300 km and still didn’t get to see everything we had planned on. Looking back, we had really enjoyed every minute of our Tassie trip, and it was hard to put any one experience above the rest.

Now it was time to pick up our caravan and generator, and hopefully a generator box that we could mount on the rear draw bar of the caravan to hold the generator.  You may remember,  when we dropped off the caravan we went to a nearby caravan centre where we were extremely lucky to spot a Kipor Generator, which we quickly put a deposit on so it would be there for us when we got back from Tassie.  We also spoke to one of the employees about a generator box, and he assured us he could get one made to our exact requirements.  As long as we gave him about a week’s notice, it would be ready for us when we came to pick up the generator.  We had duly emailed him from Tassie with what we wanted, but never heard back.  We hoped he had got the email, and had gone ahead as arranged to have it ready for us.

Eager to be reunited with our caravan, we headed off to Creative Caravans.   We were keen to be on the road again and hoped to be in BALLARAT by that night. There it was sitting in their driveway all ready to go.  One of their workers met us and quickly went over everything they had done.  Stove well and securely screwed in, scratches in the floor where the stove had landed, all repaired.  New table pedestal to replace the one scratched by the stove when it fell out.  Extractor fan now sucking instead of blowing. Sealing around the toilet all finished.

“Anything else” he says.  “What about the awning slide that was catching”.  “Oh yeah, we got the guys from Aussie Traveller, they make the awnings, to have a look at that.  They said there was nothing wrong with it”.  Christel and I looked at each other.  Had we imagined it?  “OK” we said, “let’s have a look at it”.  By this time we had been joined by another of Creative Caravans workers.  Sure enough as soon as we tried to erect the awning the same old problem occurred, the slide caught.  This time it was their turn to look at each other.

Surprisingly enough they continued to argue that the Aussie Traveller guys had assured them there was nothing wrong.  After repeated demonstrations of how the slide caught every time it was moved, one of the workers got a screw driver and tightened some fittings on the slide, and low and behold, no more problems.  Needless to say nothing would have been gained by commenting on the ability of the Aussie Traveller workers to detect and remedy very simple problems.

“Right then that’s everything”, says the Creative Caravans guy.  “What about the wiring from the van to the car, has that been lengthened”.  “Don’t know anything about that” he says.  “Well Emma wrote that on her list of things to be done” we say.  “I’ll see if the electrician can have a look at it for you” he says. “Good idea.” we reply.  Out comes the electrician who also claims no knowledge of the wiring problem, but offers to fix it straight away.  “If you can give us about an hour I’ll have it done for you” he gallantly offers.  “That’s great.  We’ll go and have some lunch and pick up our generator and generator box, then call back”.

A little disappointed that we still didn’t have our caravan in tow, and beginning to realise we may not get to BALLARAT today, we went and had lunch and then headed off to the caravan centre to pick up our generator, and hopefully a generator box.  Now, this is where the fun really starts.

Arriving at the Caravan Super Centre we quickly recognise the lady who had done the paper work for us when we put the deposit down on the generator.  We explained why we were there and she said she remembered us and got out the paper work with our details, and the fact that we had put down a $600 deposit on our generator.   She then went to the office at the side to get our generator.  We could see her hunting around, among a pile of packages, and then having a conversation with another employee.  They were frequently referring to the paper work with our deposit recorded on it, and made repeated searches among the packages.   It was obvious they were becoming a bit agitated. You know where this is going don’t you.  Finally they both came back to us.

“We don’t have it” they rather embarrassingly inform us. “What do you mean you don’t have it?  You must have it. We have paid a deposit on it”.  “Yes we know but it’s been sold”. “What do you mean it’s been sold?  You can’t sell it twice.  You had already sold it to us.  You have the receipt in front of you.”  “Yes we know, but there’s been a huge demand for generators because of the floods up north”.  “Look, we know all about the floods up north, that’s why we put a deposit on the one we saw here in the shop, so it would be here for us now.  Now if you don’t mind we would like our generator please.”  “We are very sorry, but we don’t have it”.

“I see.  Where is Michael Smith, the man who sold us the generator”.  “We’re sorry but he’s away at the caravan expo and won’t be back until Tuesday”.  “OK, who’s in charge while he’s not here”. “Well only us really, everyone else is at the expo.” “So, you don’t have our generator here, and there’s no one who can tell us why”.  “Yes we’re sorry, but look we do have another shipment of Kipor generators coming in, in early April, you can have one of those.” “Listen lady, we came into this shop a month ago to buy a generator.  We were told they were in very short supply due to the flooding up north, but you did have one in the shop.  Because they were in such short supply we put a deposit on it so it would be here for us now.  By early April we will be several hundred miles from here.  We have come right across Melbourne to pick it up so we can continue our trip.  We want a generator now.”  “Well we do have these new Hyundai generators in stock, you can have one of those.  They are more powerful and a bit dearer than the Kipor, but you can have it at the same price”.

I won’t bore you with too many more details, but by now you will have got the general gist of what was happening.  It would be a slight understatement to say I was pretty p$%^d off.  To my mind they had stolen our generator and there was nothing we could do about it. At the same time it was obvious the two staff members we were dealing with, had been left holding the candle, and it was no good having a go at them. If only this Michael Smith guy was available, but he wasn’t so we had to make the best of what there was.

The Hyundai Generator had a 2.6 kw output as against only 2.0 for the Kipor, and of course the bigger the output, the higher the cost.  Unfortunately it was also quite a bit heavier and quite a bit noisier, but beggars can’t be choosers. So to cut a long story short we bought a Hyundai 2.6 generator for the price of a 2.0kw Kipor.  Quite a good buy by any means but that wasn’t really the point.

Now comes the next part of our visit to the Caravan Super Centre.  Remember the generator box. The story goes like this.

“Ok now that we have got the generator all sorted, what about the box Michael Smith was going to get made for us”.  This statement was met with blank stares.  They knew nothing about it.  Great, now we had a generator and no where to put it.  Don’t you just love doing business in Aussie.  First a caravan that falls to bits, and now this.  I was beginning to wonder how many of New Zealand’s unemployables come over to Aussie and get jobs in the caravan industry.

Again to cut a long story short we decided to buy a box off the shelf from in their showroom.  “Now, can you recommend someone to fit it to our caravan for us”.  “Yes we can. The engineers we use are just around the corner, but unfortunately they have closed today at midday for the long weekend.”  “What long weekend?”  “Oh didn’t you know. It’s Victoria’s Labour Weekend this weekend.  Everybody closes up early on Friday and doesn’t open again until Tuesday.”

Now, remember how the day started.  A quick trip to Creative Caravans to pick up our van, pop down the road to the Caravan Super Centre to pick up our generator and box, and be half way to BALLARAT by lunchtime.  By now it was about 1.30pm, and at this stage our caravan was still at Creative Caravans, hopefully having it’s wiring fixed, we had bought a generator we didn’t really want, and a generator box that would have to do, but no means of fitting it before Tuesday.

We decided that maybe, just maybe, Creative Caravans could come to the rescue and be able to fit our box for us.  Problem was, the back of the Pajero was still full with our camping gear and we couldn’t get it from the Caravan Super Centre to Creative, and bearing in mind our experience with the generator, we were reluctant to leave it in the custody of the Super Centre.  However we had little choice.  Makes getting lost in Melbourne on the way to the ferry sound like a nice quiet day at the beach doesn’t it.

Obviously we weren’t going anywhere before next Tuesday.  Oh well, better ring a camp ground and get a site for the weekend, then come back on Tuesday, and see if we can get the box fitted by someone.  No problem, right? Wrong.  First camping ground - sorry booked out due to long weekend.  Second camping ground, this time a bit further out of town.  Sorry booked out, long weekend.  Getting the picture?  Finally after about six tries we finally got a site about 90 km out of town.

That dealt with, and with our new generator in the back, it was back up to Creative Caravans with fingers crossed that all would be well, and we could get the hell out of this place. At least we would have a chance to play with the new generator over the weekend and make sure all was well.

At last, the tide had turned.  The wiring was fixed and all was go. We spoke to one of the staff about our box dilemma. “No problem mate. You grab some bolts over the weekend, bring her back here lunchtime Tuesday and I’ll fit her on for you”.  So, with caravan in tow we headed out of town to our campsite.  By now of course, millions of Melbournians were on the road heading out of town for the long weekend.  Guess what, 4 hours later we finally got to our motorcamp.

Well.  I think that’s enough drama for one episode.  But don’t worry, there’s more to come.  Watch this space.

From Tasmania back to Melbourne

Tuesday morning we drove from CRADLE MOUNTAIN north to BURNIE on the north coast, intending to find a campsite and then explore the area.  When we got to BURNIE it was showery weather so we decided it would have to be a cabin again. Unfortunately everywhere we tried was booked out.   With the weather looking pretty shitty we finally decided to cut our losses and head straight back to DEVONPORT. 

We drove through the pretty little coastal towns of PENGUIN and ULVERSTONE, arriving in DEVONPORT at about 3.00pm.  Luckily the first motor camp we tried had one cabin available for the two nights we wanted it, so we moved in.  Then we went sightseeing around DEVONPORT, before buying groceries for our first really healthy meal in a long time.  Lots of veggies and meat.

Wednesday morning was spent doing school work, and drying out and airing our camping gear.  In the afternoon we took a drive through farmland very much like New Zealand, to the town of SHEFFIELD,  about 30 km south of DEVONPORT.  SHEFFIELD is known for its murals.  Then it was back to DEVONPORT by another route.

We had decided to spoil ourselves with a meal out on our last night in Tasmania, and ended up at the Devonport RSL Club. (Aussie equivalent to New Zealand’s RSA).  While there we ran into two lots of campers we had met during our travels around Tassie , all returning to Aussie on the ferry the next day.

Our car trip to the ferry on Thursday morning was extremely boring compared to our saga in MELBOURNE 5 weeks earlier.   Every major road intersection in Tasmania, no matter what part of the state you are in, has a sign post indicating which way to the ferry terminal. In DEVONPORT there are sign posts on almost every street corner pointing to the ferry.  Even I couldn’t get lost this time !!!

We were the fifth car in line to go on, and ended up below sea level on Deck One.  Unfortunately as were to find out at the end of the trip, first on – last off.  The ferry trip back to MELBOURNE was uneventful until we tried to ring ahead to book accommodation.  Unbeknown to us it was Labour Weekend for Victoria and everything was booked out.  However we finally managed to get a last available cabin in a motor camp out near the airport.

With Christel acting as navigator, we were soon zipping  through rush hour traffic to our motor camp.  For some strange reason Cameron wasn’t all that keen for me to get my hands on our map, and gave very firm instructions that I was to drive, and mum would be our navigator.  That bloody trip to the ferry is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Safely installed in our cabin, we were all looking forward to being reunited with our caravan the next day.  Little did we know what was in store for us.  But that will have to wait for the next episode.

Cradle Mountain

Anxious to make the most of the beautiful weather, we quickly set up camp, climbed into our tramping boots, and headed off to the Visitors Centre.  After viewing all the various tramps, we decided to do the Round Lake Dove Track.  A 6km track that circumnavigates the beautiful LAKE DOVE at the end of the CRADLE MOUNTAIN road.

Because there is very limited parking at the end of the road, the Visitors Centre provides a shuttle bus service to take trampers and tourists the last 6km up to Lake Dove.  This is an excellent service with buses running either up or down every 10 minutes. Just to give you an idea of how popular this place is, the car park at the visitors centre has spaces for about 200 to 300 cars, plus a huge bus parking area, and it was virtually full with not only cars, but also heaps of campervans and caravans.

LAKE DOVE lies at the very foot of CRADLE MOUNTAIN and when you get to the head of the Lake you are looking straight up at the mountain.  We spent a very enjoyable 2hr walk around the lake with beautiful views over the lake itself, and of course of Cradle Mountain. Due to the amount of trampers using the walk, a lot of it is a board walk, which makes walking very easy.

Back at our tent, the temperature was starting to drop and it looked like we were going to be in for a cold night.  We decided to cook tea in the camp kitchen where it was nice and warm, and after tea, spent an enjoyable evening in front of one of the roaring fires, playing cards.

We had several Pademelons hopping around in the scrub beside our tent, and a couple were even brave enough to come right up to us looking for handouts.  Pademelons are a species of wallaby very similar to the ones who had visited us at Freycinet National Park. 

At about midnight we were woken up by a possum inside our tent vestibule, trying his best to get into our bread bin.  Even a clout over the ear didn’t deter him, and finally I had to whack him with our chopping board before he decided to bugger off.  We had just about drifted off to sleep when we heard him back trying again.  There was only one thing to do, get up and put all our stuff in the car.

Monday morning was a bit overcast, and after a morning’s school work in the camp kitchen, we caught the shuttle bus back up the road.  This time we got off about three quarters of the way up, and did another walk following a river back towards the visitor centre.  This walk was another one of about 6 km, and this one was a boardwalk all the way.  We had been told to expect to see Wombats on the way, and if we were lucky, maybe Echidnas and possibly even a Tasmanian Devil.  Unfortunately we didn’t see a thing, but enjoyed our walk anyway.

After tea we took the torches and went spotlighting for wildlife around the camp ground and visitors centre.  This time we were luckier.  At the end of the visitor centre carpark we came across several Pademelons, and a Wombat quietly feeding on the grass.  We were able to get up to about 3 meters from the Wombat before he became a bit concerned and shambled off into the scrub.  Back in the camp ground we came across a possum sitting on a stump.  Again we were able to get right up close before he quietly moved off.  So different from New Zealand Wildlife which takes off as soon as it sees you.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a very heavy overcast sky and packed up straight away to beat the rain which looked like it would start any minute.  We were heading off to BURNIE and then hopefully a look around the North West Coastal area.

The road to Cradle Mountain

It had always been our intention to visit ARTHUR RIVER on the extreme North West coast, before travelling across to SMITHTON and STANLEY on the north western corner of Tasmania, then travel along the coast to BURNIE, before dropping down to CRADLE MOUNTAIN, and then returning to DEVONPORT, thus completing our tour of Tassie. 

In the course of this trip we had hoped to call in and see Tasha and Shane, friends of Kerri and Bruce, who live on a remote farm at a place called TOGARI, on the road between ARTHUR RIVER and SMITHTON.  Unfortunately, due to losing a couple of days snow bound at LAKE ST CLAIR,  we had to cancel this part of our trip, and instead head directly from STRAHAN across to BURNIE on the northern coast midway between DEVONPORT  and STANLEY, calling in at CRADLE MOUNTAIN on the way.

Sunday morning we headed north, intending to go as far as CRADLE MOUNTAIN, at the northern end of the huge Cradle Mountain/ Lake St Clair National Park. The park is world renowned for its famous cross country track from CRADLE MOUNTAIN to LAKE ST CLAIR.  A bit like the Milford Track.

About 30 km north of STRAHAN is the small mining town of ZEEHAN.  We had been told to make sure we checked out the mining museum there.  Unfortunately the mines have all long closed down, and today ZEEHAN looks a bit like Ohura on a good day.  However the museum was well worth the visit, and we spent an interesting 1½ hours there. 

They had a huge collection of hundreds of mineral bearing rocks of all shapes and sizes, including opals, crystals, gems, amethyst, gold, silver, copper, zinc, and hundreds of other types of minerals we had never even heard of like crocroite, and  andalusite. Some of them dated at over 500 million years old.  Mind boggling stuff. Cameron was especially fascinated with the peculiar spiky, colourful formations of the crocroite, and took heaps of photos.  Maybe he will become a lapidarist.  They also had displays of mining paraphernalia, and a simulated mine shaft which you could walk through.  

From ZEEHAN we headed north again to ROSEBERY, another mining town, and another glorified Ohura.  Unlike ZEEHAN, ROSEBERY does have an active working mine which overlooks the town. We had lunch in the one cafeteria, and enjoyed the entertainment put on by the locals.  Australian mainlanders have a saying that Tasmanian’s have two heads, and after watching the performances of some of the locals at ROSEBERY, including the running waitress, we understood why.  Must be a lot of interbreeding I think, look what happened to Cameron.

Glad to escape, we headed north again and then east to CRADLE MOUNTAIN.  The weather was beautiful and we were anxious to make the most of it, as CRADLE MOUNTAIN is notorious for its bad weather. We arrived there at about 2:00pm, and were lucky enough to find an unoccupied tent site.  After setting up camp we were ready to explore the park.  More in the next episode.

Strahan

Shit LAKE ST CLAIR is a cold hole.  Snowing and 2 degrees when we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and still snowing and 2 degrees when we left on Friday morning.  Luckily we were snug and dry in our accommodation.  We hung around hoping the weather would improve so we could enjoy the sights, but it was not to be.  Needless to say poor old Cameron got to do plenty of school work.

Friday morning we decided we couldn’t hang around any longer and headed off towards QUEENSTOWN and STRAHAN out on the West Coast. We hoped to spend one or two nights at STRAHAN and if possible catch one of their harbour cruises.  We were a bit late getting away from ST CLAIR because just as we started to pack the car it started snowing again, so we had to wait it out.

The road from ST CLAIR to QUEENSTOWN took us through some of the best wilderness areas Tasmania has to offer.  Other travellers had told us to make sure we stopped off at a couple of lookouts, and also not to miss a waterfall known as NELSON FALLS.  Unfortunately, due to the shitty weather, visiting lookouts was out of the question, but by the time we got to NELSON FALLS it had cleared up enough for us to take the walk in to view them.

It was well worth it.  For once the wet weather had worked on our favour and the falls were absolutely roaring.  An awesome sight, but the wet draught caused by the falls meant it was freezing cold standing at the viewing platform, so we didn’t stay long.  It was a beautiful drive through the wilderness parks, though very slow and windy. (That’s windy, not windy as in wind, forget it).  I meant a road with lots of bends, not a road with lots of wind.

We eventually came out on a hill overlooking QUEENSTOWN, an old mining town.  The hills for miles around have been stripped in the search for copper, tin and gold.  It looked like a moon landscape.  There is only one mine still operating, and the town was looking very rundown and derelict.  After a quick lunch including the best sausage rolls in Tasmania, we drove on to STRAHAN.

STRAHAN is a small seaside town near the mouth of the huge MACQUARIE HARBOUR, which clearly shows up on most maps of Tasmania about half way up the west coast. In Australia it is second only in size to PORT PHILLIP BAY which is the harbour MELBOURNE is located on. 

We arrived in STRAHAN at about 2.00 and immediately had trouble finding accommodation.  We eventually ended up with a cabin at the Youth Hostel.  STRAHAN is an extremely popular tourist destination due to its reputation for its Harbour Cruises.  After setting up our stuff in our cabin, (still too cold for the tent), we headed into town to book a harbour cruise for Saturday.  We were lucky.  No seats left in cattle class, so we had to bite the bullet and pay extra for upper class seats, and there were only about a dozen of them left.

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day without a breath of wind, and when we got to harbour it was as flat as glass.  Everyone was commenting on the beautiful day.  We found out later it was the first fine day in a fortnight, and the boat crew couldn’t believe how lucky we were to strike such a brilliant day.  The captain made Cameron’s day by inviting him to sit in the co-pilots seat, and wear the Captain’s Hat.  His first words were, “Jack and Alex are going to be so jealous of me”.

The cruise was absolutely brilliant.  First we went out to the harbour mouth, and through the very narrow entrance, called Hell's Gate for obvious reasons.  It is only about 75m wide, and bearing in mind the size of the harbour, this is a very narrow gap for the tide to rip through.  You can imagine the fun the old sailing ships would have had trying to get through it.  This was the first time in over a month that the Cruise Operators had actually been able to take the cruise boat through the gap.  Making the most of the ideal conditions, they took us out to the eastern tip of the harbour, to the light house at CAPE SORELL.  Not normally part of the cruise.

Then it was back up the harbour with a stopover at SARAH ISLAND, which back in the 1800’s was another penal colony.  After a tour of the island, we continued on up the harbour to its upper most point where the GORDON RIVER enters.

On the way we called in to see some Salmon farms, where hundreds of thousands of Sea Salmon are farmed in huge floating net enclosures along the sheltered side of the harbour.  The salmon are first introduced to the farm, basically as soon as they are hatched, and then as they grow are moved from net to net until they reach the age of about 18 months.  At this stage they are about 40cm long, and are harvested for the consumer market. They are sold locally and internationally, and we had the pleasure of sampling some with our on-board lunch.

On reaching the head of the harbour we entered the GORDON RIVER and travelled up it for about 2km.  The GORDON RIVER drains a large part of the wilderness area we had driven through the previous day.  Beautiful native bush coming right down to the water’s edge.  This area was heavily milled for its Huon Pine back in the 1800s, and STRAHAN township actually developed as a port for the export of the timber, all of which had to be shipped out through that nasty little gap at the harbours entrance.  Luckily milling was halted some time ago and the area has regenerated well. After a walk through the bush we returned back to STRAHAN, the entire cruise taking about 5 ½ hours. 

On our return to STRAHAN we were dropped off at the only sawmill still operating in the area.   An unusual feature of the mill was its main breakdown saw, which was a vertically mounted blade, instead of a circular saw which is the common one used in N.Z.  Oddly enough the only timber milled these days is windfall and other dead trees washed down the river, or found as a result of slips or other natural phenomena. 

Some of the stuff they are milling has been lying around in the bush, or in the river, for well over a hundred years, and it is as good as the day it fell.  This explains the extraordinary prices they are presently getting for the Huon Pine timber, which is prized by boat builders, cabinet makers and the furniture trade in general.  They had scrap bins of what we would call pieces of firewood, selling for $10 apiece.

After a cuppa, we headed north along the coast to HENTY Sand Dunes, which is self explanatory.  Huge sand dunes gradually encroaching on the land.  We spent a couple of hours climbing, jumping and exploring the dunes.  Sand dunes can bring out the child in you!!!  Then it was back to our cabin after one of the best days yet of our Tassie Tour.

Freezing our ... off

Where were we?  Oh yes, heading south from DELORAINE towards the Great Lake with the intention of spending leisurely days fishing. 

After we left MOLE CREEK the weather gradually improved, and although windy it was quite sunny.  As soon as we started south from DELORAINE the road started to climb up to the CENTRAL PLATEAU, and the temperature started to drop.  As the altimeter ticked off the meters above sea level, the thermometer counted down.  We watched in alarm as it fell to single figures and kept falling.  Up on top of the escarpment at an altitude of 1250m it was down to eight degrees.  As we travelled south along the central highlands we could see dark clouds ahead. 

Then we hit the clouds and down went the thermometer, 8-7-6-5-4-3-2^oC, and then hello, sleet, and what the hell is this? SNOW!!!.  We got to a lookout at the north end of the GREAT LAKE but couldn’t see more than 50m out onto the water. Snow showers were rushing across the lake whipping its surface into a wild sea of whitecaps. So much for our leisurely days fishing by the lake.

We drove the 30km down the side of the lake with the snow getting heavier all the way, to the point where the wipers were just coping.  Like driving through the Desert Road in the middle of winter, only this was a metal road that hadn’t seen a grader for many years. 

We finally got to the bottom of the lake at a small town called MIENA.  We called in to the pub and joined a few locals by the roaring fire for some hot chips and a cuppa – it literally was too cold for a beer - and watched snow showers beating across a very angry and cold looking lake.   The snow showers eased a bit, and we headed off again southwest on the MARLBOROUGH Highway which runs down to the HOBART to QUEENSTOWN Road.

Don’t let the word highway fool you.  It was more of the same sort of road, very much like a rough version of the road from AHITITI to OHURA. We spent the whole time swerving from one side of the road to the other dodging the larger potholes.

 We gradually came down off the Central Highlands and eventually came out on the main HOBART to QUEENSTOWN road where we hit tar seal again for the first time in over 60km.  We then turned west and after about 30km arrived at DERWENT BRIDGE.  All the time driving through periodic snow showers with the temperature at a constant 2 degrees, even though we were now down to an altitude of about 800m.

DERWENT BRIDGE is a settlement about the size of EGMONT VILLAGE and gives access to the southern end of the CRADLE MOUNTAIN – LAKE ST CLAIR NATIONAL PARK.  We wanted to spend some time exploring this area and of course to try our hand at fishing.  By now we had decided that due to the weather, tenting was out of the question, so enquired about the price of a chalet.  The $265 a night quoted had us believing she had misunderstood us.  We only wanted to stay the night, not buy the bloody place.

We drove 5km up to LAKE ST CLAIR village in the National Park at the end of the lake, and got a dormitory room for $88.  All the time there were squally snow showers falling.  However we were soon snugly settled in to our room with the heater going and tea cooking in a cosy kitchen, along with several other campers and trampers.  Very much like WHAKAPAPA HOLIDAY PARK at Mt Ruapehu. 

The forecast for the next 3 or 4 days is for similar weather so our plans are a bit up in the air at the moment.  We want to check out QUEENSTOWN and STRAHAN on the west coast before heading north again, but obviously the weather is now the deciding factor in our plans.  With 2 degrees and snow showers at this time of the year, we are wondering what winter is like down here.  And to think in a week’s time we will be sweltering in about 40 degree heat again.

Animals and Lookout

Hi again.  Sunday morning we left LONGFORD and headed west towards DELORAINE, and then on to a small town called MOLE CREEK.  Sounds elegant, doesn’t it?  Our reason for heading to Mole Creek was to visit the nearby TROWUNNA WILDLIFE PARK which had been highly recommended to us, as had the nearby DEVILS GULLET LOOKOUT.  We had also been told Mole Creek Caravan Park was a lovely place to stay while visiting these attractions.

On the way to Mole Creek we passed through some quaint little towns with names like WESTBURY, DELORAINE, and CHUDLEIGH.  Mole Creek Camp Ground was on the banks of a small stream which we were told was good for trout fishing, so guess what Cameron did while we set up camp.  Then it was off to visit Trowunna Wild Life Park.   It is a privately run park which specialises in rehabilitating injured and orphaned  wildlife, and also specialises in breeding the Tasmanian Devil which is rapidly becoming a threatened species.

They encourage hands on experiences, and for the first time we were able to not only see a live Wombat, but also get to nurse it.  Up until now, the only Wombats we had seen were lying on the side of the road with their feet in the air, being picked over by crows.  Cameron was in absolute raptures to be able to hold a real live Wombat after seeing so many dead ones on the side of the road.

We also got to stroke a young Tasmanian Devil, and watch as our guide fed several juveniles.  It was easy to understand how they got their European name of Tasmanian Devil, when you saw the way they snapped and snarled while they were feeding.

We also saw several different species of Quolls, and another highlight to see up close, the regal Wedge Tailed Eagles.  Wandering further around in the bush which forms part of the park, we came across several Gray Kangaroos, lying in the cool shade of the Gum Trees. 

We sneaked up trying to get as close as possible for photographs, trying hard not to alarm them before they ran away, only to discover that as we got close, they came bounding over to investigate us, shoving their noses into our cameras, and then just carrying on their everyday business as though we weren’t there.  We spent a good hour socialising with them, including getting photos of Cameron lying down beside the biggest buck we could see, who was quite happy to enjoy Cameron’s company while he had his afternoon siesta.  Once again Cameron started to run out of big words trying to explain his emotions after experiencing these encounters.

Back at camp, Cameron immediately had his line in the water of the creek running in front of our tent.  The fact that other campers told him they had caught trout from the very spot he was fishing, and he could see trout rising near his line, kept him entertained until after dark.  After tea, we lit a camp fire and sat around for the evening recounting our day’s experiences.

Monday morning after school work was finished, we went off to visit Devils Gullet, a lookout high up in the ranges they call the Great Western Tiers.  They form part of the Central Highlands of Tasmania which includes Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair National Park.  The whole Central Highlands of Tasmania is made up of Dolomite which has existed for over 200 million years and is gradually being worn away by the repeated action of the weather.  They are of a similar geographical structure as Ben Lomond with its terrifying Jacobs Ladder access road.

The road in was a 14 km climb up a fairly rough corrugated metal road,  but the effort of getting there was worth the view from the top.  From the car park we walked about 500mtrs further up the escarpment, when the track suddenly ended at a platform lookout built RIGHT on the edge of the escarpment.  Step out onto the platform and you are looking STRAIGHTDOWN FOR 220 MTRS to the rocks below. Absolutely spine tingling.  Even thinking about it now while typing this, my feet are starting to tingle.  Brilliant views to the southwest out over the central plateau, with Cradle mountain on the skyline about 35 km away, but looking straight down really gives you the sh#$%^&ts.

From there we travelled on another 7 or 8km to Lake Mackenzie, and man-made lake high on the plateau.  Seems so out of place to have a lake away up on a plateau.  However as we were to find out, not so unusual for Tasmania.

Tuesday morning it was a scrambled pack up in a howling gale, to beat the rain that was getting very close, and then off back to DELORAINE, were we turned south towards GREAT LAKE in the Central Highlands.  We had no firm destination in mind, but hoped to be able to free camp somewhere in the area, and maybe get in some serious fishing for Cameron.  There are several lakes in the  Central Highlands and it is the Mecca of trout fishing for Tasmania.  Not only both rainbow and brown trout, but also salmon.  Unfortunately it was not to be.....