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| Tasmania Jan 2011 |
Just a quick visit - a nice getaway from all the normal hectivity.
Friday 21st
My second time on the Spirit of Tasmania, & first time in a cabin. It was running a bit late and I was asleep not long after passing Ricketts Point. It'd be nice if you could watch directly ahead, you can sort of see a bit if you lean out the sides & there was a great view of the landing-lights-like beacon stretching many kilometres into the bay, all flashing in sync.
Saturday
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| From Tasmania Jan 2011 |
Off the ferry at Devonport, it was great to hear an interview on ABC Local Radio Tasmania about a new uke group starting in St Helens. While driving along the main street - Formby Road!
I drove to Port Sorell for a stretch of the legs around the conservation area and the first of many rivulets that Tasmania seems to specialise in. I'm not too familiar with them elsewhere. Then a meandering trip around the top right corner; an indirect route to morning tea in Exeter, then a stickybeak at Beaconsfield, a short hike around the impressive Batman Bridge across the Tamar River, then on the way through George Town I discovered that a folk festival was on and a couple of my buddies were playing later that day. It would have been great to see them but it would have put a dent in the schedule & I seem them around in Melbourne quite a bit, so I continued touring with a walk around Low Head, then Mount George, then lunch at Bridport. I drove out past the Barnbougle Dunes clubhouse just for a look then headed inland, refuelling at Scottsdale. It was good to be on the sort of drive where if you see the sign for a lookout or nature trail, you can just go & check them out.
I had miswritten the phone number for the St Marys (or was it St Helens? No I'm sure it was St Marys) ukulele group & thought that it'd make sense to drop in a few Melbourne Ukulele Festival flyers for them so after descending through the forests to coastal St Helens & stopping to grab a few nibbles, I made my way back up into the hills in the hope of finding a notice somewhere (in a shop window?) with a contact number for Barbara, the organiser. This plan worked perfectly up to the point of my phone call going through to an answering machine. I completed the last leg of a long day and found the Bicheno Wintersun Gardens motel - very pleasant. Some delicious chowder from the restaurant up the road hit the spot then back to my room to do some work on my ukulele art competition entry & watch the tennis.
Sunday
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| From Tasmania Jan 2011 |
Off to Freycinet National Park - via a supermarket for brekkie. I hadn't had much of an idea of what I'd find there - shops, accommodation, and information about the park, but everything was really well set up. I'd struggled to find sub-gourmet-level accommodation on the web but there seemed to be a fair bit of it. The park office was well set-up to cater for crowds of tourists. My 24-hours pass suggested an obvious combination of walks - Cape Tourville (where Shelly called me to report an ill penguin at St Kilda - I touched base with the appropriate people & the situation was sorted out, unfortunately the penguin was later euthanised), Sleepy Bay (Southern End), and then the Wineglass Bay/Isthmus Track/Hazards Beach Track circuit. It was a perfect day for walking, mild and overcast - personally I found it a tad cold for swimming though some other tourists had a dip. I was a bit surprised by the number of very unfit people tackling the Wineglass Bay track, which is reasonably challenging. The rest of my loop was a longer track but fairly flat. Great scenery under the spectacular Hazards, lots of wallabies & an echidna, and friendly fellow walkers were highlights. I saw 4 dead penguins on a small section of Wineglass Bay beach, with a chunk taken out of the torso of a couple of them. I made good time - probably 25% faster than the advertised times.
I'd received a message from Barbara so drove from Freycinet back up to St Marys & had a good chat and dropped in the flyers. Back down to Bicheno for fish & chips, then I went on the penguin tour. I've already got lots of penguin friends but I was interested to see how the tour operated in comparison to the St Kilda experience. Finally back to the room for the cricket & tennis & a deep sleep.
Monday
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| From Tasmania Jan 2011 |
On the way out of Bicheno I had a look at the very impressive blowhole - an excellent show despite being mild seas. I still had a few hours left on my 24-hour park pass so I went to have a look around The Friendly Beaches - a gorgeous morning, I was still too much of a wuss to go for a swim. Wading in up to my shins had me wincing.
I turned towards Hobart with stops at Swansea and Triabunna. I drove around Bellerive and had a coffee at Long Beach and did some songwriting, having hitherto foregone my plan of unwinding and instead tried to cram as much as I could into each day. I checked into the hostel, collecting a parking ticket in the process, and went off to the HUG meeting. They were a great group & I hope to see some of them at MUF. It was also nice to have Deidree & Peter drop by for a chat and to exchange CDs with Deidree.
Tuesday
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| From Tasmania Jan 2011 |
Back to mad running around. Inspired by Gary's trip, I made an early start to get to the southernmost road in the country. Breakfast in Huonville and a break at Dover, past heavy dark rivers, then finally to Cockle Creek. Including breaks it'd taken a little over 2 hours to cover the approx 120km. Next stop - Antarctica? It was a terrific mild morning, you could see that it would be very inviting to French expeditioners. I took the short walk to the whale sculpture. Heading back I explored interesting diversions - Hastings Caves Thermal Springs pool - disappointingly cool but at least now I've been for a swim in Tassie. Not enough time for a cave tour though. I was starting to worry about cutting my schedule a bit fine but I took the gamble and figured I'd just have enough time for a lightning visit to Tahune Airwalk though I nearly bailed out a couple of times on the journey into the forest. It would have been great to explore a bit more of the forest - as it was it was an expensive single walk particularly as I completed the circuit partly in a light jog.
Well and truly time to head back to the ferry, I turned on Deidree's CD and made my way back up through the middle of Tasmania - a refuelling stop at Oatlands but thanks to Winnebagos doing 80km/h in 110 zones, and roadworks blocking the overtaking lanes, I was starting to stress out about the impending deadline, undoing all the relaxing I'd been doing... but though I cut it a bit fine, all was well & I even had time to grab a slice of pizza before boarding.
Worn out - early night, work up the next morning just off St Kilda pier, Happy Birthday To Me!
Next time: the Ida Bay Railway, Hastings Caves, the other Tahune Airwalk walks, MONA, Bay Of Fires, West Coast.
