- Firstly, apologies for the photos being
out of order on the last blog! Something to do with my camera photos and
Marks I phone photos! Must have been confusing as I had labelled some “the
next are from …” but as Mark often says to me“ I like to keep you
guessing”!! Now on to the next adventures.
· Left St Clair (the deepest lake in
Australia) and the mist over the lake and headed north to Cradle Mountain at
the other end of the park- it is 1262sq km!
· Stopped at Derwent Bridge to see “The
Wall” a remarkable 100 metres long wall of sculptures carved out of Huon pine by
one man and depicting the history of the Tasmanian highlands. So lifelike and
detailed down to fingers and nails, veins, creases in pants and beards. Could
have tasted the Sullivans Cove single malt whisky which won the world whisky
medal beating Scotland etc but at 10 in the morning too early for me!!
· Rest of drive winding narrow roads
up and down through forests over mountains- I think this was the day that as we
went around a corner the chicken for dinner flew out of the fridge followed no
long afterwards by the Nespresso machine falling off the counter when Mark went
over a kerb!! Both survived to live another day – well not the chicken!
· Cradle Mountain is a “new moon curve
of rock” with water below so can get reflections. The summit is a 6 to 8 hr
return climb- we opted for the Marion Lookout a more reasonable 4 to 5 hr
return climb! Still lots of stairs and one steep part with just rocks and
chains so pretty tough for some of us- Mark is quite a wimp!!!!Rewarded with
fabulous views all along the way and interesting topography and flora but not a
lot of fauna and no SNAKES!
· Shuttle buses ferry people back and
forth from the visitor centre to the stop off points for walks which keeps and
discourages the majority of vehicles out of the park – a good thing.
· Thanks to a lot of drugs our knees
survived to walk another day and amazingly despite one very close call due to
tripping on a pebble and Mark saving me at the last minute, I managed to stay
upright! Well if you don’t count coming down the aforementioned steep part with
the chain on my bottom!!
· Will remember Cradle Mountain for
the roaring open fire in the quite glamorous camp kitchen at the caravan park –
great for a glass of red after the strenuous day!
· From Cradle Mountain we travelled to
“Headspin” – well that’s is what Mark said but turned out to be Hadspen!! This
was close to Launceston so we could meet David and Ginna early the next
morning. On the way stopped at Sheffield
a city known for the murals that have been painted on many of the building
facades. I think it should be known for unusual sights- a tractor being driven
by a pony tailed lady at high speed down the main street, followed by a toilet on
wheels (that’s what if looked like from the back anyway) and then 3 Harley
Davidson motor bikes!
· Connected with D&G at Josef
Chromy wines – more sparkling first thing in the morning, it’s becoming a
habit! Tasted their range from white to red and learnt lot about smells, colour
and taste from G who is a wine consultant. Also developed my spitting technique
into the spittoon provided – only about 100mls ended up on my face or in my
eyes!
· Then onto Stony Rise which has a
connection with Robe where my Dad was the GP and D&G had the fish and chip
/pizza shop. More wine tasting – they
all do whites and then pinot noir, sometimes a merlot. Fish and chips at a café
recommended to us overlooking beach and pretty good! Finished at Wines for
Joannie- this time a Queensland connection as the young couple with 3 young
children who are trying their hand at making wine came from there.
· Finally arrived at Bridport where we
were staying for the night- little seaside place with a huge caravan park. Pre-dinner
drink on the deck as the full moon came up and then chicken tagine for dinner.
Couldn’t be a better end to the day!
· Next morning, we visited Barnbougle
where M&D were meant to be playing golf on the world class course by the ocean
except D tore his muscle calf a couple of weeks prior to the game. M said he
just couldn’t face the thought of losing!! Instead we had a very nice lunch in
the restaurant overlooking the ocean and the ninth hole!! And some drank more
wine!
· Made our way to St Helens with a
stop at a small place called Legerwood where the diseased WW1 commemorative
large pines trees were lopped then the stumps
turned into figures of local soldiers who had died in the war by a
chainsaw sculptor!! Talk about chain saw massacre (but sort of cool)!! One more stop at the famous Pyengana Dairy
Company where the cows wear bells and can give their back a scratch on a
rotating bristle wheel as they leave the dairy having been fed and milked. Very
happy cows which makes for a delicious cheddar cheese and tasty ice cream as
well as milk of course.
· With a bit of luck and good
searching from the advance party of D&G we found a good RV park at Cosy
Corner one of the beaches around the bay from St Helens. Free camping for 2
days a test for the water, gas etc!! And also a challenge to see if we could
remember how to put up the annexe and do it in under an hour! Only issue was
the pump for the blow up mattress – not charged (rookie error) so it took until
bed time after a few red wines to be able to provide adequate accommodation for
D&G!!
· Next day walked along the Bay of
Fires beach – so named for the aboriginal fires which the early explorers saw
from their ships. Not the orange lichen which adorns the rocks. Very pretty
whatever!
· In the afternoon drove into St
Helens to get freshly shucked oysters, cheese etc to have with a friend of
D&G’s who lives overlooking the river estuary. Very nice!
· D showed us how to roast on the
weber with a leg of lamb! Delicious with a camp fire and a nice pinot noir.
· Drove along the coast the next day
for a few km’s and had a farewell lunch of fresh crayfish on white bread!
Yummy!! Back D&G went to Melbourne and we motored on to Bicheno, a fishing
port with a cliff top walk to a blow hole which due to the rough seas out on
quite the spectacle!
· Next day was Coles Bay which sits at
the foot of pink granite cliffs. It is just out of the Freycinet park which is
the reason for its popularity- think bays of white sand and clear blue water-
but not on a grey windy slightly rainy day! We stopped at the Freycinet Marine Park for
more yummy oysters, scallops and salmon! And a glass of wine naturally!
· We rode our electric bikes to the
start of the walk to Wineglass Bay (usually in the top 10 beaches of the world)
and clambered up the 3 km walk to the lookout, quite steep in some parts. Then
walked along the beach and another 8km through forest and along cliffs abutting
the beach back to the start! Was very grateful to have the electric bike to
help me home on the hilly roads! Poor Mark not so lucky as his bike ran out of
battery!! It was every woman for herself and so I motored past him several
times while he pushed the bike up a big hill!! All up we walked and biked 22kms
which must be a record for us!
· Next stop Bruny Island!
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