As it turned out, we turned left. After an uneventful crossing, we came off the boat at 7.30pm in Devonport and headed quickly to a nearby free camp, where we settled for the night. It was on the edge of a recreation ground, and we slipped in beside the other 8 or so other vans/motorhomes which had set up.
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| Waiting in the mustering yard |
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| Driving on |
The next day, Tuesday, saw us turn left and make towards Launceston. Part of the decision was due to the fact that we needed some work done on the car (courtesy of Opposite Lock in FTG not fixing things right the first time). But we were happy to be here and didn’t really mind which direction we took.
We drove the hour of so to Launceston (pronounced Lonceston, not Lawnceston) and found our campsite at Old Mac’s Farm. This place had been recommended to us, so we checked it out and it was great. Low-cost camping so close to the city in a lovely setting and a cafe right next door - what’s not to like?
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| Old Mac's Farm at sunrise |
We had contacted Opposite Lock in Launceston and they were super efficient and had us in that very afternoon to have a look at what needed doing. We spent the couple of hours while they had to car walking into town (which as a bit further than we anticipated - and a bit hotter!!). We got a feel for the city centre and visited the Information Centre to get the low down and what to do and what to see. Parts were ordered for the car and it would have to go back in later in the week.
Wednesday was another beautiful day - sunny and warm - 27degrees. But did you know…..there's is a hole in the ozone layer above Tasmania and so the heat is more intense? So a 27 degree day, which in Melbourne would be quite pleasant, is really hot in Tassie. And you can burn badly on a cloudy day of 17 degrees. Lots of warnings to wear sunscreen and hats!!!
We had learned at the Information Centre the day before that the Queen’s Baton Relay for the upcoming Commonwealth Games was passing through Lonnie on Wednesday, so we made our way into town in the hope of catching a glimpse as it passed by. Almost all parking in the city is ticket/permit parking and it varies in price, but we parked over the river at the museum and got all-day parking for $3. We didn’t think that was too bad.
As we walked back towards the city centre, we came right slap-bang into the procession for the baton, and were perfectly placed to see it changing hands from one runner to the next. Lucky eh? We followed it to the Civic Square for a few hurrahs and speeches.
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| Queen's Baton Relay |
We continued walking around the city. It’s such a great place, such wonderful architecture. In fact most of Lonnie has wonderful buildings. There’s so many beautiful old houses - thousands of them - and they’re mostly in really good condition. I just love them. I could live here if it wasn’t for the hills. San Francisco has got nothing on Lonnie!!
We walked down to the Tamar River and along the waterfront, right round past Customs House and back to the museum again, stopping for an iced coffee on the way (it was hot, I told you that!!).
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| Customs House |
We then headed for a shady tree in City Park to have lunch on the grass. This beautiful old park is right in the city and gives you a piece of quiet and stillness on a hot day. They also have a section dedicated to dahlias. I was taken right back to my childhood - my grandfather used to show dahlias and his back garden was full of them.
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| Giant Sequoia - City Park |
After lunch we had booked ourselves on the tour of the Boag’s Brewery, a Tasmanian institution, and something Doug was particularly looking forward to. It was a well-run and professional tour, with PPE handed out and a really informative guide. We got to see the whole process of brewing from go to whoa and then happily had half and hour or so in the tasting room, where we got to try three of their most famous beers (two of which you can only buy in Tasmania) and had three different cheeses paired with them. So afternoon tea was taken care of! A big day!
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| Ethel in the tasting room |
We had plans to visit the Tamar Valley on Thursday, but weren’t in a particular hurry to get on the road. We spent a nice morning just chatting to fellow-campers and having a coffee in the sun. We left mid-morning and headed up the west side of the river. We stopped to investigate the Tamar Wetlands and walk out to Tamar Island. It’s a popular spot for bird enthusiasts and we enjoyed the walk across the boardwalk. We stopped further on to look at the little “Swiss” town of Grindewald (very weird - like Disneyland but without the entertainment factor), and took a long look over the whole valley from Brady’s Lookout. We got to the little town of Exeter and were stopping to have some lunch when we got the call that the parts for the car were in, and we’d need to get it in that afternoon to get done, as it was a long weekend coming up and Friday they were booked solid.
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| View from Brady's Lookout |
We were to have the car in to them by 3pm, so we decided to cut short the trip further north, and cross the Batman Bridge and drive back down the east side of the Tamar River. We took a few side roads, and stopped to fill any available containers with the beautiful blackberries growing wild at the side of the roads (brambles for my UK friends). We also stopped at an orchard to buy some new-season apples and at a berry farm to pick our own strawberries and raspberries. Oh wow!! This was superb - one for the bucket, three for me. We were well fruited up so we headed back to Lonnie to drop the car off. It was another hot afternoon and we didn’t fancy the long walk back to the city, so we found a nearby pub and settled in for a couple of hours. That was ok, right?
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| Some of our haul |
Friday saw us heading for Cataract Gorge. This geological wonder is right in the centre of town and Launceston has made a great job of integrating it for use by the locals and by tourists alike. We parked the car and walked down towards the gorge. The gorge boasts one of the longest single-span chairlifts in the world and spans the huge natural basin of the South Esk River and it gives you great views up the gorge. We decided to take the chairlift across, walk up the gorge and back and then gently glide back across to the picnic ground on the chairlift again in time for lunch. We picnicked with the peacocks (and the wasps) and finished the last of the strawberries before heading back to the car.
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| View of Cataract Gorge from the chairlift |
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| Alexandra Suspension Bridge |
In the afternoon we took a drive out to Liffey Falls. Tasmania has a lot of waterfalls, and this one makes the list of the top 10. It was a great drive, up through winding mountain roads, with the GPS taking us the scenic route through the state forest. After an hour or so, we arrived at the carpark at the top and prepared to take the 2km track down to the bottom of the falls.
The carpark was busy, with a lot of backpackers (we call them Berts) spilling out of a couple of old Magnas and our hearts sank at the thought of sharing the falls with them. There was also a mobile coffee van parked up offering its wares - this place is popular and must get seriously busy.
But we set off on our walk and were surprised that we didn’t hear anyone following us. We followed the river down, stopping at the various cascades on the way, until we reached the bottom. The water levels were low (Tasmania is in the grip of a drought - everything is very dry) but the river was still running the falls were still falling. It was beautiful to sit and enjoy the cool and the quiet and listen to the clear water running over the rocks around us. And we were all alone.
We enjoyed the serenity for half and hour or so, before peace was shattered. The Berts had finished their lunch and had arrived at the bottom, complete with a boombox playing music and shrieking girls. Ah well, at least we enjoyed it for a while on our own.
Back up the track and as we walked we couldn’t get over the size of the wonderful tree ferns and the sassafras trees covered in moss and lichen - it was another world. Long cool tunnels of ferns made for an almost magic feel as we made the climb back up. A real fairy dell. Home via a stop in Deloraine for an ice cream (hot day again!!).
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| Tree ferns on the walk into Liffey Falls |
Saturday was cooler, and we had been recommended the Launceston Farmers Market in town. We headed off there to grab breakfast and indulge in some of the local produce. We came away with fresh veggies, bread and cheese and full stomachs after a delicious breakfast.
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| Farmers Market crowds |
We then we decided to finish what we’d started on Thursday and see the upper reaches of the Tamar River. We re-traced our steps of the other day, up the west side of the Tamar River, until we reached the little mining town of Beaconsfield.
They had been mining gold in Beaconsfield for over a hundred years, but the town hit the world stage in April 2006, when an earthquake caused part of the mine to collapse on a team of 14 miners working down the shaft that day. Most escaped but three were trapped. One miner, Larry Knight, was killed instantly but the other two, Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped in a small, wire basket 925 metres below the surface. The story of how these two were rescued is living history and was such a huge and difficult operation. It took them two weeks to eventually get them free and the world watched and held its collective breath while the rescue took place.
I remember this all taking place, but when you visit this little town (and it is a very little town - at that time the population was around 4000 - less today) you get an understanding of how this must have affected every single person who lived here in one way or another. Just the media circus that arrived and set up camp in town while the rescue took place would be enough to impact on things, let alone that it was three of their own that were involved.
The mine closed in 2012 with the loss of 150 local jobs, but since then a really good Mining and Heritage Museum has been set up on the site. It’s really worth the entry fee ($27). We spent a few great hours in there - lots of “hands-on” exhibits, not just about mining, and a fascinating section devoted to the 2006 rescue. About 40,000 people a year visit the Centre, so “Well done” Beaconsfield.
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| Famous minehead at Beaconsfield |
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| Water wheel - interactive display shows it working |
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| To lend support to the rescue effort and show solidarity with the miners, the people of the town set out to knit a scarf 925m long. With contributions from knitters all over Australia, the scarf ended up 2.5km long. |
We left Beaconsfield after having lunch, and drove back across the Batman Bridge, but this time turned left and headed north up to Georgetown. It’s a quaint little fishing village on a very exposed coast and we were glad we’d brought jackets.
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| Seafarers Memorial in Georgetown |
We carried on a bit further up the coast to Low Head, to visit the lighthouse at the head of the river where it meets Bass Strait. All along this coastline, the Little Penguins come in to their burrows on the beach in the evening and as we walked up to the light house, we were checking in all the scrubby bush. We were lucky to find this little guy, sheltering from the wind and waiting for mum and dad to come back from the sea. He didn’t seem too fussed by us - I think he was sleeping.
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| Lighthouse at Low Head |
As I mentioned earlier, it was a long weekend in Tasmania. Our next planned stop was to be the Bay of Fires on the east coast, but we thought it might be hectically busy. We left Launceston on Sunday morning and decided to fill in a day just moseying across the east of the state in the general direction of where we wanted to end up. There’s that “coddiwompling” again.
We climbed the long climb out of Lonnie and headed towards Scottsdale. We took the back road so we could call in on Bridestowe Lavender Farm. This is a huge operation and very slick, with an eye on attracting the new breed of Chinese traveller. I knew that they had already harvested the lavender (missed it by a month), but can you imagine how beautiful these hills would look when they were all purple? And it also gave me the opportunity to try lavender ice cream. I had been curious for a while and tasting confirmed that yes, it does taste vaguely of lavender.
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| A sea of lavender |
We drove on through lovely little towns, and stopped to explore Scottsdale. We grabbed a few supplies from the Woolies there, and low and behold, there was a micro-brewery that needed a visit. Little Rivers Brewery operates out of a corrugated iron shed (although I think they like the “industrial” look) and Doug enjoyed his tasting paddle and take-away six pack.
The road from Scottsdale to St Helens was steep and winding, and the going was slow with the big van on, but we weren’t in a hurry and Doug wasn’t fazed by the sometimes tight corners. The tourists in rental cars coming the other way in the middle of the road was another thing!
We stopped in a tiny place called Legerwood where we’d heard about some trees that had been carved into memorials. It was sad to read about the local men who’d been killed in WW1. The trees had been planted in 1915 by each local family who’d lost a loved one, but in the early 2000’s, the trees were declared unsafe and they had to be removed. It was lovely that they had been able to keep the trees and ensure that each still represented the men they were planted for.
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| Little Blue Lake outside Derby |
Onwards and upwards (with a fair bit of down also) we crossed the mountains. Doug stopped the car at the side of the road at one point to let the brakes cool down - you could smell burning rubber. Before too long though, we’d reached our destination for the night. The little hamlet of Pyengana lies in a beautiful valley, famous for its dairy cattle. Before we reached our campsite, we stopped in to visit the Pyengana Dairy Co. and sample their cheeses. Suffice to say that they were very good - we’d bought our happy-hour nibbles and a bottle of wine to enjoy with them and were back in the car in record time.
Camp that night was in the grounds of the Pub in the Paddock. The pub offers free camping in their grounds for self-contained travellers. The pub closed early on Sundays so we weren’t able to repay their hospitality and so we settled in with our “picnic” from up the road, and only had to share this view with one other van. Pretty good eh?
Well, that’s our first week gone already. Eight weeks is going to fly. After a visit to St Columba's Falls in the morning, we're off to the coast tomorrow, and hopefully grab a beachside campsite.
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