Day 5 Somerset to Strahan

Well, so much for internet access. They shut the room up at 7:30 – while we were still cooking dinner – and when it finally opened the next morning, I found that the internet speed as approximately slow modem. Facebook, a waste of time. Posting trip diary on blog – timed out after 20 minutes, and I gave up. The blog will have to wait until we can get on-line properly again.

Also, not a good start to the day because I awoke to a flat tire. Upon fixing it, I discovered that my old bike pump is stuffed, and the compressed air shots had run out. All bike shops in Burnie are shut this day – even though it’s officially a working day. I’ll have to look for bike shops on the road.

We headed south out of Somerset going into old-style rolling country. Real Shire type land, for Lord of the Rings fans. We stopped and bought fuel at a genuine old style general store. Not only were they selling fuel and other normal stuff for a servo, they were also the post office, the bank, a travel agent, and the local restaurant.

We gradually moved out of the rolling mixed farmland into more forestry dominated land, mostly mixed pine and gum, and the land was gradually becoming more hilly.




This was our gentle introduction to West Coast Tasmania roads, where the roads are tight and windy. The speed limit is officially 100 km/h, but that’s sort of some distant fantasy. They don’t even put warning signs on slow corners unless the warning speed is 45 km/h or slower. And when you’re driving a motorhome with a high center of gravity, and bald front tires, you take the corners slowly indeed. It’s a good thing that we both like manuals, because in our six-speed manual diesel, we found ourselves changing gears every 100 meters or so.
Our gentle introduction ended with a bang when we entered Hellyer Gorge.





We’d never heard of this, and there was only a small sign announcing that we were entering Hellyer Gorge State Forest, but we’d already noticed – it’s a crazy (and very slow) descent, followed by an equally crazy ascent. But really beautiful. We noticed this a number of times – things that would be outstanding features elsewhere don’t even rate a mention on the West Coast. At the bottom of the gorge, there’s a little park and a great little walk along the river that runs at the bottom of the gorge. Highly recommended.



Eventually we made our way to Cradle Mountain. What a beautiful place. And what an incredible mountain.



(aside: We found Cradle lake very confusing. There was no sign that explained how the bus system works, and why you do or don’t need the bus. Do research in advance). We got a bus to Dove Lake, and walked the shortest walk they had, the Lilla Lake walk. It was a light workout for Kath, Melyssa and I, but a substantial challenge for Tali – small steps for us are very big for her. Eventually she finished up on my shoulders.





Then we had a long wait for the bus back to our motorhome, but it was a lovely day, so we didn’t mind. There was a lot of people at Cradle mountain. From either the car park or Lille lake we could look across the mountain top and see many people walking the tracks.

The long wait for the bus at Dove Lake left us running behind schedule, so we were a bit pushed for time as we drove south from Cradle mountain deeper into the wild west coast of Tasmania. It’s really amazing how desolate and sparsely populated the whole area is. We passed through two very picturesque towns nestled in small valleys with steep mountains all around, Roseberry and Tullah. I really would have loved to stop, but time was running against us – as it was for the two guys on bikes riding south out of Tullah as we passed. I guess they were going to sleep in a tent on the side of the road because I couldn’t see how they’d make the next town before nightfall, given the number of crazy uphill sections in front of them.

Finally we arrived at Strahan, docked the motorhome, and bought our first dinner at the camping ground diner. After that we chilled on the local beach, chatting another family from Newcastle who’d made their way down the wild road from the far north west (I’d love to do that 4wd only road, but there was no way to fit that into this trip). Then Kath finally get on-line for her Facebook fix at the Diner.

Day 4: St Helens to Somerset

At the outset, we knew this was a down day – a long drive today. We needed to get from St Helens to Somerset, so we could start the West Coast part of our holiday. But this day turned out to be not so good for a couple of other reasons.

It started first thing in the morning when we found that the girl’s scooters had been stolen overnight. We had left them outside the door of the motorhome, along with our seats and a few balls. This is nothing unusual – everyone else leaves these things outside overnight. But they were gone, and we saw no hint of them. The girls were naturally pretty upset.

Then, when we were checking out of the park, I wound the drivers window down (electric window), and it refused to go up. Nothing we could do would budge it. We ended up checking the fuse, and I stripped the door down later at lunch, but I couldn’t see anything. So we drove through the day with the window down (both noisy, cold and insecure), while the motorhome company tried to figure out what to do about it – no easy task, this whole state really is completely shut down over this Christmas weekend.

In fact, that was a problem for a different reason – we needed fuel, and service station after service station was shut. I was starting to get pretty concerned when we came to our last chance town (Avoca) but fortunately it was open.

On the first day we had discovered Longford, and we liked it so much we went back there for lunch on the way past Launceston. Then we followed the Bass highway down to Burnie, stopping at a series of farm shops: Raspberry Farm, Cheese Factory, and Chocolate Factory. Yum.

After the chocolates, Kath decided to drive. Shortly after pulling out onto the road, she found the window annoying, and pulled the button to make it go up. Something I had done many times myself. Well, this time it went up. Apparently, according to Kath, this is a woman’s touch thing. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The girls certainly laughed. Lots. Seriously, I guess it’s a loose contact – we won’t be touching that window for the rest of the trip.

Tonight we stopped at Somerset – a lovely little camping ground just across from a gentle beach. It has internet access!

Day 3: Bicheno to St Helens

We started this day with a Glass Bottom Boat tour in “The gulch”. The gulch is a narrow channel that forms Bicheno’s natural harbour, about 30 metres wide and 100 metres long. Initially, I didn’t expect much, compared to the equivalent tour on the Great Barrier Reef at Green Island, but I was very wrong. Just in the gulch and a little to the south, we saw a wide variety of seaweed, and fish. In addition, we saw squid, an octopus, and a couple of different kinds of rays. We all enjoyed this trip greatly – very good value for money. We also bought some fresh fish from the fish factory at the dock.







From there we headed north towards St Helens. Many of the attractions we were interested in were still closed – for Boxing Day – rather to our surprise. One stop that was open was the Eureka Farm at Scamander. In the approach to Scamander, we’d been looking at mile after mile of burnt out forest – a real huge bush fire, and we’d been guessing at how long ago it was. Eureka farm is an orchard that sells apricots and berries and derived products, such as Jam and Ice Cream. It only just survived the fire, which was in 2007 – they had a copy of a newspaper article about the fire on the wall of the barn, and the burnt trees were all around. But enough survived for them to go on, and the fresh fruit and ice cream we bought from them were just sensational – highly recommended.

After lunch at St Helens, we made our way to Binalong Bay. This comes highly recommended, and while we could see its potential, a stiff northerly breeze was blowing, and the girls did not enjoy this beach at all. The huge jellyfish drifting up the river didn’t help at all either. So we abandoned that and drove around to the Bay of Fires. This was pretty fun in our big RV – fun for the drivers, at least, but not so much fun for the passengers, and by the time we got to the Bay of Fires, the northerly had picked up to at least 40 knots. Not fun at all.



Kath drove on the way back, and dropped me off so I could ride my bicycle back to St Helens. Not as far away from St Helens as I’d originally hoped – the wind was too foul for that, but far enough that I found a detour into a forest, crazy enough to come off on a hill and get a flat tire in the bargain. Fortunately I had remembered to pack my repair kit ;-)

Finally, we made it to our camping ground, managed to mostly unwind (except it was a washing stop). For dinner we had our fresh fish with salad, followed by a sensational fruit platter from Eureka Farm.

We really are on holiday now. But the internet – where’s our internet access? Some members of our family are pining for the internet, and it’s not the one you’d expect (though the iPhone may help!)

Day 2: Triabunna to Bicheno

We awoke to a very quiet Christmas morning. I went out for a bike ride round behind Triabunna, and in the whole 45 minutes, I saw one pedestrian and two cars, including on the main coast road north from Hobart. As I came back into the camping ground, I saw my cyclist friend. He was a German who flew into Hobart with his bicycle, and is cycling around Tasmania – he’s allowed a month. Everything he has squeezes into two panniers, including his tent. I’d love to do that ;-). We passed him up the road later, laboring on one of the many steep uphills on the road.

We stopped for Morning tea at Swansea, and the girls had fun playing on an outdoor gym. It has all the machines you’d expect, such as bench presses, lat pull downs, etc. Very ingenious – every machine works off your own body weight, and it’s all for free in the local park.










We arrived in Coles Bay on Freycinet Peninsula for lunch time. I had kind of hoped to explore Freycinet, but everything was shut for Christmas day, except the visitors centre where they take your $24 entry fee. So all you could do was walk, and Tali is not up for that yet. So we turned around and went to Muirs Beach, just on the North end of Coles Bay, where there was a lovely little artificial lagoon just the right size for Tali to play in, with a fun wall to jump off for Melyssa. It was a lovely warm day, so eventually I was seduced into going snorkeling. The snorkeling was actually pretty good, but oh it was cold. I spent half the time holding my hands out of the water warming them in the sun.
















We finally arrived in Bicheno (another recent winner of Tasmania’s Tidy Town award) in time to have a lovely relaxing rest before dinner, followed by a gentle walk along the foreshore. A lovely day, and we finally all feel as if we really are on holiday.

Day 1: Longford to Triabunna with Motorhome

Longford (up the road from Launceston) is a beautiful place. A lovely river rolls gently by the camping ground. Oh, for a kayak, but we had decided to leave them behind, on the basis that we couldn’t safely leave them in Hobart with the car, and we couldn’t take them in the motorhome. So, of course, the trip will be full of wonderful kayaking opportunities. Naturally, since Longford is such a lovely place, we won’t be seeing it again this trip.

We packed up and headed south for Hobart, destination Hobart airport at midday. Our first stop was Ross, historical city and multiple tidy-town winner. We found a lovely bakery for morning tea. One of the tourist attractions in Ross is the “Female Factory”. Well, it’s not actually what it sounds like – I was wondering whether to ask for instructions there. Instead, it’s a factory that was staffed by female convicts – more, I think, a place to keep them in safety.

Then back onto the highway for our quick run to Hobart. One thing I’ve noticed a lot in Tasmania is many road side sculptures. There’s a few real ones, but there’s many more ‘informal’ ones, made using straw and balloons and old clothes and second had props. There’ll be a picnic, and then further down the road, a fellow mowing the lawn, followed by a string quartet. I’ve even seen a flock of ducks flapping in the wind. It’s quite fun, actually, and adds interest to the road trip.

At Hobart, we exchanged our car for a 6 berth Motorhome. We only have 4 of us, but I’m sure glad we have a 6 berth - we have just enough space. The girls sleep down the back, and we are sleeping up over the top of the cabin.

There’s more storage in that thing than you’d expect. For instance, my bike is tucked in down below. And I could add a few more surfboards and so on yet. It took us about half an hour to get instructions and get all our stuff transferred out of the car. During that half an hour, a front came through, and we had ferocious winds and heavy rain for a few minutes. Fortunately, the rain came after we’d moved everything out of the car, but unfortunately it came just after I’d parked it out the very back of the airport carpark, and I was caught outside with no cover.


We’d only been on the road for a few minutes when copious quantities of water started sloshing around the back of the motorhome. We stopped in alarm – what had happened? Was this some storm leakage?

No. Kath had investigated the bathroom, and discovered that the tap wasn’t working. Because the water pump switch is backwards to standard (down is on) and what we were told. The last thing I did before we left the airport was turn the water pump off. Except I turned it on, and it started to fill the sink down the back of the motorhome. Eventually, we were bound to notice. What a mess to clean up… at least it was clean water, not some of the other possibilities I first feared.

Our first stop was a super market, to stock up for the next two days (Christmas and Boxing Day). As I walked into the supermarket, who should we meet but Bernie and Alison Caudery. We knew they were in Tasmania, but didn’t expect to meet them until much later in the trip.

We finished the day walking along the foreshore of the little fishing village called “Triabunna”, (another recent winner of Tasmania’s Tidy Town award) listening to the fire engine making its way slowly around town. Eventually it came our way, and the girls got a wave from Santa, along with a handful of lollies. A lovely ending to a somewhat trying day!

Tasmania Day 0: Melbourne to Longford

Like all good programmers, our holiday started counting on day 0, with us dragging ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn in order to arrive at the Spirit of Tasmania early in the boarding process. Unfortunately, we did not arrive early enough – all the waiting space is long full. And it’s particularly unfortunate because a cruise ship has just docked before the Spirit of Tasmania arrived from it’s overnight trip, and the place is just chaos. After going around the block a few times, we gave up and went for a walk along the beach. We finally get to board 5 minutes after the ship was supposed to leave, and the ship finally left nearly an hour late.

The crossing was fairly quiet – the weather was good, with a light swell. We discovered to our surprise that there’s not a lot to do on the boat. The kids playground and games rooms were very disappointing, so we had to entertain the kids for the whole trip. Not only were we an hour late, the trip lasted an hour extra too.

Grrr.

By the time we got to Devonport at 8:15 pm, we were pretty tired, and looking forward to a quick trip up to Longford, our destination for the evening. But no, Tasmanian customs had other ideas. Every car that comes off the boat has to be ‘inspected’ – which seemed to be largely an honour system, in that they asked us whether we had any unmentionables such as apples (from, say, Tasmania). They insisted on me opening the boot – so I had to take the bike off – but when I popped the boot, the guy looked at all our stuff, and said, right, thanks. So why make my pop the boot so you could see what you could see without opening it? Beats me. Took us 45 min to get the front of that line, and we were about a quarter into the queue of cars getting off the boat.

But we did, finally, get to Longford, to our little cabin for the night.