Hobart

A city with a small town feel. Cheap real estate, high unemployment, but a very friendly place with a good positive feel. A very nice place really.

We happened to be in Hobart during the bi-annual wooden boat festival. I didn't know there were so many wooden boats around. They really are floating pieces of functional art and they've certainly cornered the market on varnish.

We stayed at "Snug" about 25k south and drove into town. There are no parking charges in the city on weekends and public holidays, nevertheless we found a park for $10 for the day about 100m from all the festivities.

One of our mates rang us the day we arrived. Cleo had been down to sort out some job prospects so we caught up. As chance would have it, JJ and Alistair were also in town so we caught up with them too, then we bumped into Jock and Margie, friends of ours from Gove (now living in Bunbury) and their mate Scott and his partner (forgot her name...oops, sorry!).... amazing! Alistair was down for the festival with JJ. Jock, Margie and their mates were heading up to walk the overland track (as we are). The difference being they are doing the chauffeured walk with a guide, chef, wine, comfortable accommodation. They are quite a bit older than us, so I can appreciate the need for soft warm beds, log fires, etc.

 Lots of wooden boats...

The gang...

Bruny Island

About 30k south of Hobart turn left at Kettering and you're at the Bruny Island Barge. $65 for the car and van return is pretty reasonable and at this time of the year they run continually. It's about a 30 minute ride.

We stayed at Adventure Bay on south Bruny in a van park. It's about a 40 minute drive from the ferry and is the place around which many activities revolve. The Fluted Cape Circuit walk is great, high, close to the edge, white wallabies can be seen in the area together with some ancient whaling station remains. Capt. Cook also landed here. They have the remains of the tree into which he carved his details in 1770.

The boat cruise from the Bay along the east coast down as far as the Briar Islands in the Southern Ocean is awesome.

We stayed 2 nights and could have been there for a week quite comfortably.

On the way off the island we did the Elizabeth Bay walk (about 3 hours) and stopped by a local cheese place for lunch.

On top of the Fluted Cape (on the walk)

The fluted Cape from the cruise.

 The breathing blowhole

 One of the caves on the cruise

 Seal colony on the The Briar Islands

More of the Flutes Rocks

An old whaling hut that has been taken over as a fisho's hut behind the dunes at Elizabeth Bay.

Triabunna

What a little gem this place is. It's the gateway to Maria Island, has a Pub, a campground behind the pub, some old (very old) army barracks, and a takeaway place that does a roaring trade.

We stayed behind the Pub for the price of a gold coin donated to their local charity. We arrived and set up about 1pm, by 5pm the place was full of tents. In fact more arrived during the evening. One happy camper had the grave misfortune of setting up his tent about 2ft from our diesel heater exhaust, needless to say he arose perhaps a little earlier than he'd planned.

 The Pub campground.

Coles Bay

We stayed a couple of nights a the "Bay of Fires" then headed south. We stopped in several places on the way south as the road generally follows the coast and there's interest everywhere.

We've been to Coles Bay before and were lucky to find the best value caravan site ever in the Freycinet National Park ($16 including power and water), on the beach (well back about 50m).

No sooner had we pulled in and set up when the neighbours invited us over for drinks which we repeated for each of the 3 nights we were there. Wine, nibbles and proportional jocularity was amply shared.

Rose and I did a 17km training walk in the national park. We left the camp around 10am and arrived back just before 5pm. We carried full packs. Rose actually carried mine (20kg's+) for a km. We went out to the lodge to celebrate. We slept well that night.

 At the lighthouse this morning

Lorraine, Christine, me, Phillip, Glen and Gay. Bob was off getting me a glass of "Black Chook". Rose took the photo.

Looking down at Wineglass Bay from the lookout.

St Helens (Bay of Fires)

St. Helens is very RV friendly. From the time you arrive, there's free spots, dump points, drinking water, extra long car parks, and everything is easily accessible.

He stayed about 12km north along the coast in the Bay of Fires National Park at a campsite called "Cosy Corner North". We have a parks pass ($60 for 8 weeks). Cosy corner is free. We tucked in behind some trees about 30m from the beach. The wind was expected to reach 60kn that night... and it did There were tents, chairs, all manner of loose materials blown all over the place. We were wraped up safe and sound and only saw the carnage in the morning... oh well!

We spent some time walking along the beach and got some pretty good photos of the angry sea. Later we backtracked about 20km and visited the "blue Tiers" National park. They had a 8km walk around the national park which we thought might be similar to the conditions we'd experience on the overland track in February.... It was cold with a light drizzle and we got a little lost. We met the editor of "Tracks" magazine on the mountain. Tracks is the official magazine of the National Trail. A really nice bloke travelling by himself.

It's hard to tell from this photo but the water was shooting a good 50m and it was continual.... not good surfing weather!! 

Pyengana

Further East we go. The roads are windy and narrow, but even though it's the tail end of the holiday season, the roads are very quiet.The hills and valleys in this part of the state are beautiful.

We've pulled off the road at Pyengana. It's a cattle area surrounded by state forests. There's a cheese factory, tassie's highest waterfall (Columba Falls) and the "Pub in a Paddock".

We stayed at the Pub for free, but the meal cost us $67. That's why it's free. The Pub has some history with various celebrities dropping in from time to time. We didn't rate a mention. The Pub also has a pig that likes beer. Patrons are encouraged to have a beer with the pig. The food is pretty good and so is the wine. So if you're interested in good food and dining with a perpetually pissed pig, then this is the place.

 Columba Falls.

A fern glade on the way to Columba Falls

Derby

What an amazing place. An old tin mining town and a tad dysfunctional. It seems that tour buses used to stop by regularly. Tourists came to see a functional period display of old trades in a lane way of old shacks. These trades included the smithy, the baker, jewellers, etc. The govt wanted to generate more interest in the town so they commissioned a new, modern display centre (and I mean ultra modern), the building now contains the same information, artifacts, and etc that used to be displayed in the old functional displays. It took them 2 years to build the new building which they did on the old function display site. During the 2 years, the bus operators decided there was nothing more of interest and they now drive straight through. The ultra modern building receives occasional visitors and is looking run down and shabby. So much for the "tin dragon route"

But wait there's more. The old open cut mine is across the river and has a white sandy beach, but there is no way to access it. An old tin tunnel 500m from town can be accessed by crossing the river along bridges being built for the newly developed 90km of mountain bike tracks. The MTB track terminates in town and there are bike cleaning facilities, hot showers, toilets, etc...

So, in summary it's a really nice place, nice friendly people, great free camp right on the river, and in an idillic setting but it's lost it's identity.

We loved the place.