Around Tasmania in 8 weeks Jan 2010

Hi guys & girls,

The year 2010 saw Ian & I travel to Tasmania for January & February. We arrived at the ferry in good time to snake our way to the hole to park our rig.

Islands of the south of Bruny Island

The ferry arriving at Devonport

Our truck & van on board the ferry a very tight fit for us, we damaged the front corner on the overhead car parking

Some of our fellow travellers from the ferry. We stayed in Devonport form a week & meet up with Charmaine & Matthew on the Saturday, we had a great lunch & Matthew helped Ian fined the power steering problem. We went to Burnie Enzed to have the power steering hose replaced. From Devonport we headed west with a free camp @ Wynyard. Wynyard has a beautifull beach called Fossil Beach, the fossil shells in the rock are fantastic.

From there we continued on to Stanley where we spent another week. We went up the Nut twice, out to Highfield House, this was built in the 1870's & home of the Van Demon Land Co. Saw a big tree 16mt round (the length of our rig for the ferry), the Dip Falls & Water Wheel, (timber mill)

We also went on the Arthur River cruise, which was just great for photos, drove to the "edge of the world" as far west as you can drive in Tasmania

Onto Cradle Mountain with a side trip back to Enzed to have the other half of the power steering hose replaced. the Devils are most interesting as are the Quoels. We did a lot of walking in 2 days.
The Dove Lake walk & the King Billy Pine walk, we stayed in the Caravan Park @ inflated prices for a non powered site that the van just fitted into, we had 2 Paddy Melon walaby's wanting to join us inside for breakfast one morning.
From Cradle Mountain we headed to Strahan but stayed in the Zeehan CP, from there we visited Queenstown, the Macquarie Harbour Cruise to Hells Grate & Sara Island, train ride from Queens Towns to Strahan, rack & pinon train along the Queen & King rivers.
The views around Queenstown of the dead mountains is amazing, altough a lots of replanting is going on. The Queen River is orange & dead whilst the King is a little better.

From Zeehan we followed the Lyell highway across the mountains to Derwent Brigde & stayed at Lake St Claire, the smoke from the fires at Mt Mackintosh on the west side of the mountains was thick. The National Park was only average to stay at. From there we visit "The Wall" a set of hand carved panels of Huon Pine.

Lake St Claire

Ian, Christine, David & Marilyn at there house @ Collinsvale. We went walking in the Myrtle Forrest near by to see the trees & water fall.
From New Norfolk we did a few day trips, one to the Gordon Dam, Lake Pedder , Salmon hatchery, the Gretna Green Pub at Gretna (not as good as the pub in Scotland). Paper Mill tour & Russell Falls.
Ian & I at Russell Falls in the Mount Field National Park, after it was reopened after the Ouse fires.
from New Norfolk we went south and stopped at Dover (no white cliffs) with day trips to Tahune Forest, Hastings Caves and as far South as you can drive to Cockle Creek & the Whale Sculpture.
Back North now to stay at Franklin, Ian visited the hand boat builder, we went to Cascade Brewery & the Antartic Div HQ.

Marilyn relaxing at Franklin

Whilst in Hobart we went on the Bruny Island Cruise, drove up Mt Wellington, ate fish@ visited Jim Oats ( son of John, husband of Syliva), very old friend of Ian's from England.

From Hobar we continue North through Richmond to look at the bridge & onto Spring Beach to visit friends.

Nick Bowden our friend in Spring Beach, "Nick inspecting the convict road with Ian
We stayed 2 night with Nick & Fran, they have a beach house looking east to Maria Island. We had a lovely time with them, getting our van in & out of their yard was interesting to say the least, we had to back out down a drive with a curve, we stopped the traffic (one car)
From Spring Beach we went onto Swansea for a few days, passing the Spikey Bridge
We visited Coles Bay & purchased Oysters fro Ian, I had Scollops from Stanley. We walked to a lookout for Wine Glass Bay, Cape Tourville Lighthouse, winerys that Robert said we should visit.

Also on Feb 20th Ian's birthday we went to Evandale to see the Penny Farthing Races. This was a great day.

From Swansea we went on to St Helens to look at the Bay of Fires, just wonderful the coloured rocks, a great cheese factory & the Pub in a Paddock. St Helens has the best Caravan Park in Tasmania, other than the slop.

When we went west again we stayed in Scottsdale free camp, this was busy with many tourists not getting place. On the way there we stopped of at Legerwood to look at the carved trees.
The road from Scottsdale to Launceston was the worst we had been on, we now know why so many people said they would go by Bridport. Bends in bends whilst going up & down at the same time.
In Launceston we visited a motor museum, Seahorse display, the Tasman bridge over the Tamar River. Cascades in the middle of Launceston. In Westbury we stopped to see a Photographic Display.
By this time we had run out of time in Tasmania & had to get back to Devonport to catch the ferry, with the elections coming up this is a new way of advertising your self.
Well we are back in Victoria now so will do another posting soon.

Marilyn & Ian