Shoot down the Coast

Ray's first weekend here was the Australian Day long weekend so we thought we should make the most of it and do some sight seeing. Being a long weekend and having no accommodations booked we decided to shoot down the coast where we could stay at Scott's for a night (Thanks Scott) and then hopefully find something for Sunday night or if not, head back up to the Grampians.

Great Ocean Road is definitely a must see for visitors and even though we have travelled it a number of times, there were still a few places we hadn't stopped. We arrived at Anglesea in the late afternoon after stopping at Bell's beach – one of the world's top surfing beaches and Point Addis. We had a wonderful meal out and went for a walk down along the beach then crashed for the night at Scott's.

Sunday morning we met up with Aaron and Kat at Airey's inlet. We met at the lighthouse cafe and enjoyed a Devonshire tea. From there we headed down the coast and stopped at Lorne to pick up take away and headed to a picnic area for lunch. Australia is know for its fish and chip take away. Every small town has at least one of these shops. A floor space of no more then 100 sq feet and one can have a take away fish and chip shop. The tasty fair comes bundled in newspaper to soak up the delicious grease.

We stopped and took in the Otway Fly Tree Top walk. This was our third of this type but surprisingly enough they each had a unique feature. On average this one is 25 m above the ground and has a spiral tower that is reaches 47 m above the forest floor. There are only four steel canopy walks in the world, all located in Australian and we have now been to three. The only one we are missing is Illawarra Fly in New south Wales.

We stopped at the Twelve Apostles before stopping for the night in Port Campbell. Originally named "The Sow & Piglets", the Twelve Apostles are a series of off-shore limestone stacks. Wind and sea erosion continually batters them, with one of the monoliths collapsing in 2005, leaving now just 8 standing.

The next morning we back tracked a little and went to see the Loch Ard Gorge. Beautiful coastline!!! I could sit near the ocean for a long time just watching and listening to the waves. We then traveled on to London Bridge, and we carried on all the way to Port Fairy before heading north towards home. At Port Fairy, we went down to the park on the wharf at the mouth of the Moyne River. Docked at the pier was the Earthrace vessel.

In June 2008, the amazing Earthrace vessel set a new world record for a powerboat to circle the globe, and she did this with 100% renewable biodiesel fuel, and a net zero carbon footprint. The voyage was over 24,000 nautical miles, and took 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes, smashing the old record by over two weeks. Aiden is not convinced, he reckons it is Batman's boat!

Dad's here for a Visit

Ray arrived in Melbourne the same day we flew into Melbourne from Tasmania-Jan 18^th and is spending the next 6 weeks with us.  We didn't waste any time around Melbourne but headed straight for home, arriving late afternoon.  It is always good to come home after a holiday and sleep in your own bed.  

Ray has a good flight (s) although long.  It is great to have him out here to show around and experience some of the wonderful things that Australia has to offer. The first few days we spent close to home, touring around the Grampians.  We spent an afternoon going up at the Balconies Lookout and then making a loop north to Zumstein and Ngamadjidj shelter before heading home.  

Ray, Sean and Aiden went for a stroll down the lane and ended up across the paddock at the neighbour's yard.  They picked some lemons (with permission), that we turned into sweet lemonade as soon as they returned. A perfect treat to help beat the heat.

Huon Pines

The Aussies have a similar relationship to Tassy that mainland Canadians have to Newfoundland: an island off the coast that is quaint, with quirky charming people and magnificent scenery.

It was a bit surreal to travel to the island whose newspapers list the weather for the Antarctic, and what a wonderful week we have had. All of us really appreciated our time there. The word that came to my mind was sublime, but I would also add earthy, genuine, charming. It will definitely make our list of places to revisit.

The last 'must do' on our list was a skywalk that was recommended when we were in Western Australia.  We were told it was the best in Australia. Since we quite enjoyed our last sojourn in among the giant gum trees, we made sure to make it to this attraction even though it was a bit off the beaten track and up and over a winding road. The skywalk is also among the huon pine which was an important tree in the ship building days for its long familiar strength and grain that Europeans found to work well in ship construction. The highlight of the walk was a cantilevered portion which hangs up over the river and the clouds opened up just enough to show off the spectacular views.



On the way back we popped in at the Huon Apple and Heritage Museum featuring everything apple and I am now convinced to buy one of these handy devices when we get home. Aiden loves apple for snacks before bed and of course he needs it peeled and sliced. I am quite certain in the thousands that I have peeled and cut that I can't complete the task in under 5 seconds. We then arranged to get back to Melbourne to pick up Ray who is coming to visit for 6 weeks. All in all, Tasmania is one place in Australia we agreed we could live.

Cradle Mountain

After recuperating from colds and dawdling along the east coast, we realized that we running short on remaining time in Tas so we got up nice and early in Launceston and made our way west to the highly recommended Cradle Mountain area. Cradle Mountain National Park is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and is so popular that vehicle access is limited and bus service is strongly encouraged. We took a picnic lunch and caught the bus up to Lake Dove and marveled at all the tourists wearing heavy winter coats because it was only 10 degrees with some light rain. We took a short walk up to glacier rock and drank in the scenery in the changing light and conditions.

From Cradle Mountain we headed southwest through the mining town of Queenstown, through the mountains and then up over some more ranges to the southeast to circumnavigate the wilderness area. There is a very popular internationally renown trail called the Overland track that winds its way south six days over 65 km from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. By road the route around is over 200 km and a few hours drive so we opted for the quicker method given our limited time. We may have to come back and do it the longer way some time.

Making time while the driving was good, we made it all the way to Ouse for a traditional pub meal and then for something different we decided to stay in the oldest continuous operating hotel in Australia: The Bush Inn. What it lacked in quiet modern accommodation it made up for in charm and character. It was also inexpensive and included breakfast. A big day from the north of Tasmania most of the way back down to the south.

The East Coast

We spent two and a half days travelling up along the east coast of Tasmania. We left the Tasman peninsula Sunday morning and splurged by staying the night in a motel in Swansea. It was an interesting little seaside town with a shearwater colony which is quite an impressive bird that spends the summer around Alaska and winters in south Australia. Somehow we could relate to that effort more than we could a few summers ago.



Monday we travelled over to the Freycinet peninsula and explored beautiful Freycinet National Park. We enjoyed a nice picnic in the park and then went up to Cape Tourville lighthouse for some spectacular views of the ocean and Wineglass bay. The weather warmed up nicely so we spent the afternoon on the Friendly beaches and watched some impressive surf and wind turn fine white sand into finer white sand. We then headed north up the coast and spent the night camping in St Helens.

Tuesday we spent the morning exploring and caching along the Bay of Fires which we discovered later was the place where a girl was bitten by a 5 m white pointer shark just a few days earlier. With the multitude of beaches and surfing in Australia, its really remarkable that more people aren't turned into fish food but given the prevalence of flake (shark) in fish and chip shops perhaps it is clear who is eaten more. Anyway it certainly adds an element of excitement to swimming in the sea, similar I suppose to the excitement that Aussies get hiking in the bear infested woods of North America.

Realizing that we were burning up too many days on the one side of Tasmania we bee lined west through the hills toward Launceston stopping only for a pretty waterfall: St Columbia Falls, a couple of geocaches at scenic vistas, and resisted a stop at the pub which boasts a beer drinking pig. We had a bizarre experience along one highway that switch backed up a very steep hill that had been in the sun all afternoon in the 30+ degree heat. The pavement tar was so hot that it was slick and we nearly came to a standstill spinning tires without traction. Perhaps the mix was a little heavy on the tar as most Tasmanians aren't used to temperatures in the 30s. For that reason I imagine that Tasmania is probably the most compatible Australian state for most Canadians.

Port Arthur

Tasmania had a sad start as a colony when the British decided to settle it as a penal colony for convicts. I just finished reading a book that I borrowed from Darryl that talks about this tragedy, For the Term of His Natural Life, detailing the horrid conditions on the convict ships and the desperate existence these men and women lived upon their arrival in Tas. While it shapes and colours the history of the place, it seems so far from the modern streets of Hobart, where fashion and eateries prevail. So safe and utopian is the place now that the excitement of a rebel convict in their heritage is a source of pride.

We spent the good part of the day at Port Arthur exploring the grounds, taking a harbour cruise and listening to a guide describe life in the area. We also observed the memorial from an event we were unaware of, but which almost all Australians know, when a madman decided to bring the misery of the past into the present. All in all Port Arthur proved to be an interesting place.

We then spent the rest of the day exploring viewpoints and a beach on the southern end of the Tasman Peninsula.

Into the Jaws of the Devils

At Christmas Sylvia gave us a book called: “Carnivorous Nights - On the trail of the Tasmanian Tiger” in which three Americans travel to Tasmania with a hope to learn more about the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, which was last documented alive in 1936. It fueled our interest in carnivorous marsupials and Saturday was our big adventure down the Tasman peninsula on the trail of the notorious Tasmanian Devil. We headed to Sorell for brekkie and started off at a brisk pace, only to be pulled over and reminded that we should be more mindful of the speed limit. There is a focus on road safety in Tasmania due to the narrow winding roads and numerous accidents. We tempered our enthusiasm and speed to comply although mumbling that the limits weren't terribly well signed. Along the route there were a number of scenic pullovers which we discovered through geocaching and exploring. At a large blowhole we found some fresh squid, fish and chips for lunch and were amazed at how tender squid is when it hasn't been frozen.

We wandered further down the peninsula toward Port Arthur and found a very busy caravan park to spend the night at and set up our tent. This worked out well then to backtrack a short distance to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park where we came face to face with the notorious devils. Devil populations are struggling in the wild due to a cancerous facial tumor disease that is transmitted by biting. Biting is something that comes very naturally to a devil as we were able to see first hand when we dangled Aiden over the edge as bait, just kidding, it was kangaroo and the caretaker dangled it for three hungry sub-adult devils to consume. With very powerful jaws and designed to be an efficient scavenger, the devils made short work of the food including all the bones which they noisily cracked with earnest.

We also enjoyed a free flight demonstration at the park with a myriad of birds including: a gallah who opened the show, a corella who would fly to people's hands and pick up coins to return and drop in his handlers shirt pocket (and then return them to their owners), a tawny frogmouth who tried to blend in and be a stick, a peregrine falcon with one wing, and a brown falcon who flew under a line of people's legs. All in all an impressive show.

There were also spotted quolls, small carnivorous marsupials about the size of a large squirrel and a few other animals that you would only likely spot in Taz. The only place we spotted Thylacines though were on the licence plates on vehicles and a little booth that showed videos from the Hobart zoo in the 30s.