21/01/2012 to 28/01/2012 Getting Here and The First Week

Who said my wife was not a sailor? We loaded onto the Spirit about 5.30pm Saturday evening, found our cabin, Deck 7 cabin 7010, a lovely little 2 berth cabin it was too, with a port hole, well a “bigish” window anyway. A light diner of pasta was the go, well you guessed it, it did go for one of us and consequently only one of us will be making the sea voyage back to the mainland while the other has had a change of mind and is going to fly back a day earlier. They tell us it was a reasonable crossing, ha I say, our cabin was the second from the front on the port side and when I went to bed I could hear and feel the bow of the ship bashing through he waves, and I would suggest that anyone considering the trip take your own pillow to your cabin.

OUT THERE?

SPIRIT HILTON

Arriving in Devonport at 6.30am does not give you too much scope for breakfast, so it was the good old standby of Macca’s, food for me and tea and toast for Gaila, someone was still not feeling the best. We met two couples on board, one from Gympie in Qld – they had been coming to Tassie regularly for the past four years. They had bought a property at Beauty Point and were doing it up with the plan to make it into a B and B. The other couple, younger, they were from WA, he worked in the mines – fly in fly out, she studied. The really weird thing is that I used to work with her father when I was in the RAAF. Any way they left WA and have rented a place at Greens Beach and he will continue to fly in fly out to the mines in WA.

GREENS BEACH

We travelled out to port Sorell about 18 Kim’s east of Devonport, stayed in a large but pleasant c’van park for a few days while we checked out the local area. During the 3 nights at Port Sorell we went to Beaconsfield (yes that Beaconsfield), the mine is due to close in June this year, on to Beauty Point and Greens Beach. Beauty Point ok, Greens Beach absolutely beautiful. Did a round trip to Sheffield, Latrobe and back to Port Sorell. Beautiful countryside, nice chocolate factory, tasted a variety of chocolate nougat – butterscotch, hazelnut truffle, vanilla and a whole heap more that I can’t remember (no purchases – tight eh, what more can I say) and cherry place in Latrobe(nice cherry and raspberry flavoured ice cream).

PORT SORELL

POPPY FIELD

I have been really amazed at the amount of Poppy fields in the area, apparently Tassie supplies about 75% of the world’s legal Poppy crop (opium poppy). Everywhere we go there are poppy fields.

After three days of brilliant weather we moved on to Hadspen (just outside Launceston). That journey took us via Latrobe (no stopping this time) through to Deloraine also stopping at Angove’s Cheese factory (didn’t buy any but tasted a heap). They have some really weird cows at this place.

ANGROVE'S COW

Deloraine – nice town visited the info centre and museum – they have a display of 4 huge silk murals to showcase the area (Yarns artwork in Silk). They are magnificent – textured embroidery (Mum you would have loved it). Done in silk by the local ladies. ("Words can't describe this beautiful community art project depicting the Great Western Tiers region. In four soft sculptured panels of hand-dyed silk, one for each season, YARNS was created by more than 300 people using embroidery, applique, cross-stitch, weaving and quilting techniques. Non-stitchers are just as impressed as those who understand the efforts that resulted in this amazing work. Created under the guidance of artistic director Niecy Brown, YARNS will entice the visitor to further explore the area's caves, waterfalls, walks, fishing, animal and bird life, rivers and mountains, history and lifestyle.") This bit was borrowed from a website – Google “Yarns Artwork in Silk”.

JOHN HART CONSERVATORY -
CITY GARDEN

In Hadspen we stayed at the Big 4 c’van park, not bad, but not as good as Port Sorell – no beach just over the hill etc – but it served its purpose. Arrived 25/01, they put on a Happy Hour on Australia Day evening, got to meet a few of the other travellers – one couple had been in Tassie for 9 months and still had about 5 weeks to go before they head back to the mainland. Anyway Australia Day we headed into Launceston for a look, the City Gardens were really nice with a conservatory and for some reason they had a troop of Japanese monkeys of some type on display in a rather horrible enclosure.

The Tasmanian Auto Museum next to the gardens, so I had to visit – cars were owned by car club members from all over Tassie and they volunteered them to the Museum for permanent and semi-permanent display, as well they have a showcase display that changes every three months. This one was of Alfa Remao’s – very nice they were too.

JOHN HART CONSERVATORY - CITY GARDEN

While at Hadspen we took a drive to Campbell Town (nice looking freebie), onto Ross to Oatlands (another nice freebie to check out later) and then to Interlaken through the Great Lakes Conservation area, to Cressy and Longford and back to Hadspen. Oatlands has a brilliant old Mill that has been restored and they have a companion shop the sells the flour that is milled and product baked with the flour.

There was an archaeological dig going on behind the mill by a group of UTas students and visiting PhD Students from Canada. They were looking for the old Tannery that was attached to the goal. There is an open day for the community on 11 Feb, maybe we will get back there and see what they have uncovered. The drive through Interlaken to the Great Lakes area showed more Poppy field and great scenery.

We visited the Design Centre Tasmania – they showcase woodwork from local artisans using local timbers. There were certainly some beautiful pieces on display and for sale. This particular piece you could have for just under $25,000 (between 5 and 6 feet tall)

 Well here we are at the end of our ten week journey through Tassie, so it has been great the people have been great, the scenery is really breathtaking at times. Feilds and fields of poppies, magnificent forests and woodlands. We are really looking forward to the next week, so say tuned in will be coming in the next few days.