Mt Field Nat Park

We are currently camped in Mt Field Nat Park and it is cool.  In both senses of the word!

There is only the one place to camp up, a Nat Parks place that charges $20 a night for a powered site or $16 for an unpowered, Comes with clean flushing toilets, hot showers and the campers kitchen etc.

On top of all that, it is in a beautiful place. Definitely a gem!

On the way there we called in at the Salmon Ponds, the place responsible for the original introduction of a pest piscatorial species called the trout.

They have lots of fish in ponds and Karen particularly loved the salmon as they simly flew whenever any food was thrown.

This pic is of the albino rainbow trout.  You have to ask "Why?" though.

One of the joys f the parks here are the walks available and for the past couple of days we have been walking our legs off. Here are a few images . . .

Russell Falls - a beaut walk to get there and falls like liquid lace.

Here's Karen all dressed up for the cool weather at the falls.

All the paths are beautifully cared for with an eye to keeping a minimal impact on the environment. They make it easy to get around and one path took us to the top of the falls.

The camp site is infested with wildlife like this little padmelon. I also spotted a possum that made me look twice. The cold climate means that bigger bodied beasts have an advantage, but I have never seen a possum the size of a German Shepherd before!

Running right behind our camp is a stream that should be stuffed with trout.

They are a bit too clever for me though!

We took a drive up to the alpine area too and spent hours walking around up there. Damned cold it was too, but the scenery was spectacular.

This is Lake Dobson

These are a string of tarns (small lakes left from glacial activity) in a valley. Yes, we walked up past those lakes and on up to the height from which we took the photo and then further on again.

Can you see the ski lift going up the slope to the saddle?

Karen bought herself a beanie despite the threat of hat hair - I told you it was cold!

This is Lake Seal. Somehow I dubt they ever found a seal up there, but you never know.

Wow - Tassie just continues to impress.

Having been healthy and walked for half the day we decided to simply drive somewhere the next day and the destination we chose was Lake Pedder and the town of Strathgordon.

On the way there we drove past one of the greeny camps who are there to protect the forests from logging. As we drove back in the afternoon we saw some of them walking up the road and they were the biggest caricatures of hippies you could ever wish to see. All tie died clothing, playing guitars and recorders and dancing up the road.

Weird.

Anyway, more of the trip there.

We had a beautiful day and glorious surrounds. The icture below is of Karen on a beach at Lake Pedder.

I couldn't resist taking one of the Patrol (now with nice, shiny new brake discs) and the hills beyond.

When we got to Strathgordon we indulged in a ce coffee and cake while we revelled in the view across the lake. Glorious isn't it?

And the dam (and the hydro electric plants) are tucked away but are just as beautiful in their own right.

A great day made even better by calling in at the pub on the way home.  :)

Stupid Vehicles

Had the Patrol serviced today - $1,310 later I am feeling poor.

The steering wobble was caused (as I thought) by an out of spec disc. Trouble is that it, and the other three discs, were almost worn out anyway so I ended up getting them all replaced.

Hope those DBA rotors are as good as they say!

Heading west tomorrow.

Hobart - again,

After the Huon Valley we headed back to Hobart. Aside from Karen's desire to wander the Salamanca markets (which were pretty good if you like markets) I have found the Patrol displaying a pronounced steering wheel shudder particularly on downhill sections under brakes

Time to get them looked at. The Patrol is almost due for a service anyway.

While we were in Hobart I took the opportunity to visit ICS, a company that I had been working with for nigh on two years.

It was great to put faces to names and to engage in a bit of a debrief as well as enjoying a magnificent $5 lunch at the pub next door!

As it was the weekend and the mechanic's was closed we took a drive down to the Tasman Peninsula (where Port Arthur is although we didn't visit it as we have seen it before) and spent a bit of time on the east coast.

As you can see from the pic below, it wasn't great weather, cold and rainy, but the coastline was impressive all the same.

The "Tessalated Pavement" - a natural formation that I had thought was dolorite like the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, but it is actually siltstone that has cracked as the earth has shifted. Unbelievably regular cracks though.

Then, Tassie did its thing and the weather changed from cold and wet to sunny and warm. This happened as we were checking out the officers' quarters and the dog line memorials.

The Tasman peninsula has a narrow neck of land that joins it to the mainland and in order to keep the prisoners in the peninsula they built a line of fierce dogs that went across the neck and were used to keep the prisoners below the line.

Here's us with the memorial.

A few years later they hatched the plan to drive all the Tassie aboriginals down onto the Tasman peninsula where they could "live their savage life" and not bother the white settlers. The dog line was to be replaced by the Black Line.

The plan failed so they just shot them all anyway.

A little further south we hit a place called Doo Town. A small place where all the houses have names that include the letters "DOO". We saw homes with the strangest names.

Doo Town lead us on to three natural phenomena. The Tasman Blowhole, the Tasman Arch and the Devil's Kitchen.

Here's the Blowhole - wildly impressive as it is going off.

Dangerous though and here's a warning.

The coast nearby also shows why you need to resect it.

The Tasman Arch.

I didn't get a pic of the Devil's Kitchen as it was just too difficult to see much.

Huon Valley 3

Today was a day to tick a compass point off the list - Cockle Creek is the furthest south you can drive in Australia and it is a magnificent destination in its own right anyway.

Once again we had a perfect day for the trip and the gravel road at the end of it was smooth and easy. Unsurprisingly there were a heap of camp sites down there with most of them being grassy and clean with bay views.

Bay views?  Yes, this is yet another Tassie destination that simply takes your breath away with its water views.

We decided to take the 2 hour walk from the "Whale Sculpture" to the point and the pictures below whow you some of the highlights.

The Whale Sculpture itself. This is of a 3 month old Southern Right Whale and is life size.

Incidentally, ever wonder why a Right Whale is called that?  It is because it was the right whale to hunt!

And so, on to the water views from the walk out to Fishers Point.

Out near the point are the ruins of what was originally the pilot's house which then became a pub called the Sawyers' Arms.

At the point itself is a light - not big enough to be a lighthouse, it serves the same purpose.

As we walked back we found that the tide had come back in which meant a little wading in those clean, clear waters.  Once you lost sensation in your legs the cold didn't bother you at all!

Seriously though, the water was OK - about 17 degrees.

So, once we got back home we tried the pub again and found it open!

It is a lovely old pub with a great deal of class. It is run by a 74 year old German guy called Con with a small handlebar moustache who does everything from serving the beer to cooking the food and it is well worth a visit.

Huon Valley 2

The Huon Valley has a huge number of things to do and see, but being tourists first and foremost we decided to do the touristy things and the most touristy thing around is the  Tahune Skywalk.

This thing is a series of walkways suspended up in the giant trees that they have in the forests down here,

Yep - that was us on the walkways and below is a shot of one of the huge trees.

The Huon River is calm at the moment, but you can see the logs traped at the side of the river that have been left there by the last floods.

A tree with a window!  Perhaps even forests have Play School.

After the Skywalk we took an hour long walk through the forest that lead us across a couple of swinging bridges.

And from those bridges we ended up in the cafe where we were visited by a number of the large Tassie currawongs who were scrounging for food. Big birds.

On our way home we followed a sign taking us to the "Big Tree" which is . . . . . . er . . . . . . . a big tree.

It is the biggest tree (as in the heaviest) in Australia but after a life of hundreds of years it is now dying

We got home to Franklin and went to the Wooden Boat Centre where they build boats using only traditional mechanisms and materials.

Fascinating stuff and great to meet people so dedicated to their craft.

Apparently Huon Pine is the only wood to use for a boat.

We then repaired to the pub, only to find that the pub was closed and we had to go to the bikers' bar again. We did however meet some people from the camp site doing the same thing (G'Day Barb and Don) and shared a couple of beers with them.

Huon Valley 1

We selected a place to camp in a town called Franklin in the Huon Valley. A nice little place on the banks of the Huon River, which is wide and deep at this point, and which has Ye Olde Franklin Hotel just across the road!

Karen has had a long standing love affair via the TV with Matthew Evans through his TV programme "The Gourmet Farmer" in which he documents his move to the Tasmanian town of Cygnet and his attempts to grow his own food and produce his own delicious little treats.

Anyway, we found ourselves near this town so we paid it a visit.

We both fell in love with the town. It is a lovely place that is full of character and just a perfect size to make it livable. We even started looking at houses (the prices are so CHEAP you wouldn't believe it) that we might consider and they were pretty decent places.

We decided to not buy anything on impulse though so there have been no additions to the property portfolia.

Yet.

On our return to Franklin we called by the pub to find the main pub closed, but they have a separate bar that looks like a biker bar with great music and decent beer.

We're happy!