7 Mile Beach

We packed up and left Fortescue Bay after our beautiful evening by the campfire enjoying our delicious crayfish and flathead! We had joked with caretaker Matt that if he caught too many crays he could throw one our way! Never did we consider that he would actually do that - but we are so grateful for his generosity as it was excellent. I don't think I've ever had fresh crayfish like that but despite Tommy and Frankie thinking it would be yukky to eat a nasty crab like that, it was so sweet and tender. Thanks Matt! The flat head was pretty darn nice too. 

     

       

 

         

Enjoying the sunshine and yes Erin, we usually do have instant coffee from our thermos!! Your inheritance is safe!!

We only had to travel about 70kms  to this park at 7 Mile Beach and we arrived early afternoon. Tops and I zoomed straight away to the laundry and got the washing out on the line before we set off to Sorell to get a few groceries. This is just our sort of park - small, friendly, clean and casual. We've never been to a park before that supplies bath mats and all ammenities are immaculate even though it's an older park. We are tucked away in the corner (we must look like corner people as we often end up in a corner) by a fire pit with wood supplied. 

          

We are only a short walk to the beach and enjoyed a stroll along the beachfront thismorning.

We are only 10kms from Hobart so today we headed into town to firstly see the MONA gallery. This is a way out gallery with most items of the modern art beyond our comprehension and the old items more interesting - much about ancient Egypt. The building itself is magnificent on 3 levels, very spacious and well designed. Some of the structures about the grounds however were very different and quite clever.

        

    

Sidney Nolan's "snake".     

After there we had lunch in a park then headed to the Cadbury factory but there were crowds there and we learned you have to pay $4 each to purchase things from their gift shop - there are no longer tours - so we gave it a miss. Sorry all those chocolate lovers who were hoping for a bag of goodies from there! We headed into Constitution Dock where we strolled around and enjoyed the ambience of the place. We checked out cray prices and one our size would have been $90 - $100. We also enjoyed watching a seal performing tricks with fish pieces from the nearby shop. 

        

Tomorrow we pack up and head off to our bush retreats at Huonville. Once again it's only a short trip of about 70kms - don't need to get up early and rush anyway.

We guess everyone is gearing up for Easter - it's going to be very different for us being away from the family. Trust everyone is well - keep safe if travelling on the road.

😘😘😘😘 from Marg & Darryl.

Tasman peninsula

We left Hamilton and travelled to Richmond for morning tea. What a beautiful place!! It's even better than I remembered with each building restored to fit the village theme. We strolled up the Main Street and through a market and into some quaint shops. The bridge of course is the coup de gra - it's the oldest bridge still in use in Australia and very much photographed!

     

We came on through Eagkehawk Neck and found this campsite at Fortesque Bay which is in the Tasman National Park. We've got a great spot here - we are looking down on Dennis and Tops this time and we are on a corner spot where we can watch all activities! We have lovely wallabies here that are not too in your face - plus some possums who like rubbish bags! 

          

We have sea views and at the jetty can watch fishing boats going in and out and last night we saw stingrays swimming around. Darryl and Dennis were lucky enough to see a couple of seals - probably come in for the fish bits the fishermen discard. There is a coastal walk Darryl and I went on which is in excellent condition - and still undergoing maintenance work. 

          

     

We loved this little stone bridge on our walk. 

Then we spent a whole day at Port Arthur and really had a great day despite the wet conditions (again!!) They have improved the site since we visited many years ago and our ticket included a short harbour tour, a guided information tour and access to the many buildings. It's amazing to think what the buildings would have been like in their hey day. We trudged over every bit of Port Arthur in the one day so didn't have to return again - even though our ticket enabled that. 

        

        

     Today we toured around to see Eaglehawk Neck and the dog line, Tasman Arch, Devills Kitchen and the Blowhole. It is unbelievably warm and sunny - completely opposite to yesterday's weather! It's amazing how better everything looks when the sun is shining ☀️. 

         

Lucky this dog is a statue! 

We love taking back roads and we get to see so much more of the country side that way. We are having afternoon tea at a little place called Wedge Bay and it's quite hot in the sunshine. 

     

 Tasman Arch

           

The rugged coastline!

Tomorrow we move on again and this time need to find a place with a laundry as our winter clothes stock is dwindling! If this weather keeps up we can get out autumn clothes!!

The cricket was good last night tho listening to it on the radio isn't quite like watching it! 

Hope everyone is well.

xxxxxxx till the next blog.

Upper Derwent

We woke up to steady rain again and it actually has just stopped now at 4pm. Wish we knew it was raining like this at home. We packed our basket again and headed to the Russell Falls in the Mt Field National Park. Even though the day wasn't that nice we could still appreciate the beauty of the area. The picnic areas around the information centre were immaculate with many shelters, very clean electric BBQs, lovely lawned areas and even a stack of wood by the open fire places in the shelters. We had our morning tea and lunch in one of these shelters. The walk to the waterfall was beautiful through huge tree ferns and mossy debris. 

        

The falls were spectacular, falling in tiers from quite a height, and a kind lady took our photo with the falls in the background. Note the winter apparel! 

        

       

Look at the size of this fallen tree. 

We also saw some cute pademelons hiding in the forests. 

            

                   

We decided not to continue up into the mountains to Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder as it was a long way and the cloud cover would spoil any views. So we did a round trip through New Norfolk where we stopped so Darryl could buy a beanie (forgot to pack one) and Tops and I needed more socks as we thought we'd be in 3/4 pants and sandals plus we got a nice faux fur knee rug for when it's freezing and we are sitting in the van! We really didn't expect to be launched straight into winter! How naive we are! 

Seeing we have been so very good, Dennis and Darryl decided to take us out for dinner to the nice little pub just up the road. We checked it out on our way home and read a sign saying open at 6.30pm. So we eagerly set off for our treat - but the place was all closed - the bar, lounge and coffee shop!! Seeing it was Friday night and they have visitors in town for the annual show tomorrow, it didn't make sense. So we were lucky to find 1 cafe open in town - but it was unlicensed so we ate our quite nice dinner and came home to sit around our campfire with a nice bottle of Port!  Our neighbours here are a lovely young Swiss couple touring Australia after seeing much of the world. They only have a little car and tent so they minded our fire in our absence and stayed with us chatting when we got home. I think they appreciated the warmth.

Next stop is going to be down Port Arthur way at Fortesque Bay and we have worked out a route through Richmond. We hope the rain has gone although they do need it here as its been very dry. 

We are looking forward to the cricket final tomorrow - Aussie Aussie Aussie Oui Oui Oui👍.

Till next blog, love from the Tasssie travellers xxxxxxx

Braving the cold ❄️☔️

We had an interesting journey through pretty countryside to Longford where we fuelled up, bought some groceries (and Tops even had time to buy a jumper!) and ended up buying lunch. Dennis at last had pie success and loved his mushroom pie - a change for him after some awful pies in Queensland. We then climbed up 1200 metres to the Great Lakes tiers and found this campsite at Lake Sorell. It's pretty much just a bush camp that probably once was well maintained but now has been let go and is quite delelict. There is only one other camper so we pretty much have it to ourselves. The Lake is closed for fishing & boating as they are trying to reduce carp numbers - so that's why it's quiet. We set up eventually making sure we wouldn't be in shade in the morning but turns out that's irrelevant as there's no sun thismorning at all - only rain ☔️. 

         

Last night was cold despite having a big campfire and we were early in bed. Luckily we were as warm as toast in bed. 

           

We did however have a few disasters in the evening  - firstly we decided to cook a camp oven roast seeing we had the open fire and were looking forward to enjoying that -  but the fire was too hot and we enjoyed charcoal chicken instead!  Then for the second time, my glass of red wine tipped over me and my chair -  I certainly wasn't under the weather so am blaming my top - heavy glass. Anyway I'm using another one tonight  to be sure. 🍷

Then we noticed Darryl doing a war dance around his own fire and learned his butane heater was on fire! He kindly had it on to warm up our camper for me but the gas ran out so he had to put a new canister in. Fortunately, he was wary of this type of gas appliance and took it outside to put the new one in - but it kept leaking gas - and suddenly burst into flames!  Lucky he had his Blundstone boots on and was able to kick the canister away - seeing buckets of water did nothing to quench the flames. Once the canister was away, the fire went out. So that could have been a serious disaster - if he was in our camper we'd be sleeping with Dennis and Tops from now on and if he'd not been able to kick the canister away, it could have exploded and injured him! Needless to say we won't be using that again or buying another one! He checked it out thismorning and its a fault in the heater so for everyone that's a warning to be wary of these appliances! 

                

Use the heater on the right - not the left!! 

We've christened the rain gauge (thanks Scott & Berny) and had 10mm from 4am thismorning and its still dreary and wet so unless the sun comes out, we are stuck here for the time being!  Shades of Barrington Tops! One day we'll learn that altitude = rain and cold!! 

Well, we made a snap decision to make the most of a clear patch and quickly pack up and move on. We were scampering around like mad things and were driving out in record time. We've come to a little place called Hamilton and set up by the river Clyde - and the sun is shining and its 14 degrees - positively warm!! ☀️ We'll use this as a base to do day trips to the Franklin - Gordon Wilderness area. We don't fancy camping in mountains again just yet. 

         

Our setting by the River Clyde. I must find this walk too and maybe have more success than platypus spotting at Rose River.

            

Great news from home with Beth and Dust buying a house in Bendigo and Josh's knee not an ACL injury. 

Love to everyone xxxxxxx from Marg & Darryl, Dennis & Tops.

Exploring Tamar Valley

If it's said that you can experience all seasons in a day in Melbourne, well it's certainly true for here! ☀️⛅️☔️🌀. After a beautiful mild evening around our camp fire, the wind sprung up and changed direction and boy, did it blow! Our canvas flapped all night and anything not tied down blew away! Then the morning was very cold but the day itself eventually was beautiful and sunny! So we need to wear layers. 

Last night was cold but very still so we enjoyed a great nights sleep and this morning is glorious  but unfortunately rain is forecast later on.  

            

We also think we experienced Aurora Australis as we saw this beautiful glow and bright lights in the southern sky - you would have thought that city lights were on the horizon but we are a long way from any city. Then they faded away - we have read where Tasmania is a great place to experience this phenomenon so how lucky we were! 

We had a great day yesterday starting with a lovely coastal walk. We packed our picnic basket and drove to a scenic lookout to witness some glorious beaches and lovely coastline. We then headed to Beaconsfield where we visited the mine museum. That was where there was a mining accident in 2006  and 2 miners were rescued after 2 weeks underground. The whole museum was excellent and we could have spent all day there actually. The actual mining operation ceased in 2012 but there is still plenty of gold there - too expensive to get out. We had lunch in the park then headed to Launceston where we found the Cataract Gorge. That's all Darryl remembers of a footy trip there many years ago. By then the sun was shining and it was glorious on the chairlift, having a coffee and walking back over a swing bridge constructed in 1902. We drove past Penny Lane - a quaint English looking village area then headed back to camp on the eastern side of the Tamar River which was very pretty then over the Batman Bridge - a huge suspension bridge. It was a great day touring and we've found everything so clean neat tidy and well maintained - a credit toTasmania.

           

   

      

Now we are heading to our next spot and I'll have to publish this before we get there as I doubt there will be phone service. We have decided on a free camp area on Lake Sorell - part of the Great Lakes and just about in the middle of the state - even tho we were told that there's no place in Tasmania further than 180kms from the coast. We feel like we've been here for ages and getting off the boat seems much more than 2 days ago! 

Hope everyone is well. Love from the travellers xx😀😀

Touring Tassie

Well, we are off again on our travels with Dennis and Tops and later Chris and Merilyn will join us. This time we have headed south to Tasmania. Our 2 week stint last year whetted our appetite for more of beautiful Tasmania and we have vague plans to see the south,central and Eastern coast. The only thing we are sure of is we will be at the Huonville Bush Retreats over Easter. We are also pretty sure we'll strike some rain - wish we could send it North! 

Our voyage across Bass Straight was quite smooth with just a few gentle rolls from time to time but nothing to make us feel queasy. We appreciated our cabins and after relaxing with a wine and beer, to retreat to our own space with comfy beds and ensuite was lovely. 

On departing the Spirit of Tasmania, of course it was dark - and raining - which kept up all morning and we were almost convinced we would be setting up in the rain. However, it stopped and now it's overcast but dry! It's not cold and not windy so that's a bonus. We headed towards Launceston and found a nice spot in Deloraine for a huge breakfast then took the scenic route to the information centre in Launceston (which was a tricky place to find with not much parking space available!)

We decided to head to Greens Beach as its a small casual park north of Beaconsfield in the Tamar Valley. We can use the fire pit and we found a wood yard to purchase wood as quarantine rules don't permit wood being bought across on the boat. Seeing the sunshine is zero, we've got powered sites - a bit of luxury to use an electric kettle and toaster! We have a lovely spot and can hear the waves crashing so we are very close to the beach. The park is very quiet and we are away by ourselves but there's a general store nearby that makes coffee plus we are welcome to visit the golf club which adjoins the park, so we are pretty happy with our choice.

 

There is also a 10 km coastal walk I'm pretty keen to try out too. We are close to lots of scenic drives so will be packing the picnic basket tomorrow to enjoy some sightseeing. 

The boys are chopping wood and I'm off to explore a little more before we settle down for the evening. It's been a long day so no doubt it will be an early night. We trust everyone is well. 

Keep tuned for more news of our Tassie exploring xxxxx Brays & Greenwoods