TASSIE TRAVELS IN OUR TRAKKA DEC 2014

This blog is a little bit different to the ordinary…all the 3 weeks entries are coming at once, as we have already been (in 2014). So look on it as a reflective piece on the travels to this far-more-than-apple-island, and hopefully an inspiration and possible aid to those of you planning your own journey sometime. Our Trakkadu is an All Wheel Drive  VW turbo diesel campervan…a step above the Kombi of old. On the coldest and windiest days and when camping areas were full (not common) we opted for a cabin. This journey does not include Cradle Mountain and Strahan and Franklin River as we have been there before. Allow 4 weeks instead of three if you wish to roughly emulate what we have together with a couple of the iconic wild places. Enjoy!

Most writing by Bronlyn Schoer

Pictures by both Gary and Bronlyn Schoer

Sunday 30^th November

Devonport – Penguin - Burnie – Wynyard – Crayfish Creek

We arrived at Devonport at 6.30am after a smooth crossing of Bass Strait despite our cabin being hot and stuffy.

A good brekkie was enjoyed at Wendy’s – the first café off the boat which set us up for the day. We bought some veggies from the growers’ market stall at Latrobe. I had sworn to two border quarantine inspectors on disembarking that I had no fruit or veggies on board, only to discover the next day a full bowl of mangos and tomatoes sitting snugly in their usual spot – the sink. If they had been discovered, a BIG fine would have ensued – a lucky, innocent escape. We ate them quickly to negate the risk of exotic escapees!

The Cherry Factory was closed but the Anvers Chocolate Factory tempted us to purchase some illicit goods. The drive along the length of the Mersey Estuary was very pretty and we headed to the little town of Penguin which does silly things to promote its name – a giant penguin of course plus "penguin" in many stores names, town garbage bins penguin look-a-likes etc. Gary of course, delighted in these eccentricities.

The Makers’ Centre at Burnie was a good local initiative to promote quality hand crafters. A stylish centre overlooking the harbour was home to a milliner, kangaroo poo paper maker, glass blower and a cheese company. 

Large acreages of opium poppies were just starting to bloom with pithy warnings on fences regarding illegal entry to paddocks.  Swathes of white daisies were ready to be harvested for their pyrethrum oils and hay balers were busy wrapping the early summer pasture into large plastic covered wheels of fodder. The pastures of northern Tasmania must be nutritious because we passed some huge herds of diary cows and many head of ‘Cape Grimm’ cattle – they looked like Angus to us.

A stroll down Crayfish Creek

Our campsite for two nights was on the banks of Crayfish Creek about 14km east of Stanley. It looked a bit run down, but the toilet block was clean and each campsite snuggled into an individual spot enclosed by natural vegetation. It was lovely to have blue wrens and other birds hopping around our site with its bushy divide, giving each campsite considerable privacy. 

Even the old fashioned coin operated showers were a challenge – each with a different combination of coins and timings – a lady patiently waited for me in particular, because she could not understand the coin/timer combination in the other cubicle!

Monday 1^st December

Crayfish Creek – Stanley – Marrawah – Arthur River – Couta Rocks – Julius River – Edith Creek – Stanley – Crayfish Creek

Couta Rocks for Morning tea stop

A scenic circuit to explore the northwest Tarkine Forest Drive filled in a pleasant day. The weather was a second day of low grey cloud and drizzly rain.

Sumac Lookout over Tarkine wilderness

Despite notations on maps of ‘unsealed major track’ the road was sealed and an easy drive. Grazing and timber felling seemed to be the main landuse with crayfish boats working out of Stanley.

 The area had an air of old fashioned farming – homes were unpretentious and some verged on an obvious ‘struggle street’ appearance. The well kept cottage gardens along the coast gave way to windbreaks and discarded farm equipment lying around.

We drove along the edge of the huge Tarkine rainforest area – tall eucalypts and Huon Pine with a magnificent understory of bronze-tipped Antarctic Beech and masses of tree ferns, mosses, orchids and fungi.

The Savage River National Park protects a part of this majestic forest but large areas are still contested and logged.

On our return to Stanley we succumbed to the purchase of a SMALL freshly cooked southern crayfish for $60.00 – selling at $110.00/kg.

Most are earmarked for the growing Chinese market. It was fresh, delicious and sweet – a real treat back at our camp.

Tuesday 2^nd December

Crayfish Creek – Wynyard – Waratah – Savage River Mine -  Corinna

Yet another low cloud, misty, drizzly day as we retraced our steps to Wynyard and then headed south to the village of Waratah skirting the eastern edge of the Tarkine Forest. The thickly forested topography grew increasingly rugged with deep valleys and swift running streams cutting their way to the west coast.

We have delighted in a display of ‘sprummer’ wild flowers along the road – much pink and white bushes of heath, yellow cassia, white flag lilies, pink swamp heath, button grass, white ti-tree and two delightful finds of a large Tasmanian Waratah and some Christmas Bells. Not quite WA in spring, but it certainly made the drive enjoyable.

White flags on ridge of Savage River

Nice compact dirt roads in region

Tasmanian Waratah

Tasmanian Waratah Stand

Tasmanian Christmas bells

Cassia sp

Macro shot of Cassia

We cut through tall forest, at times overhanging the winding steep road, along with logging roads branching off every few hundred metres with clear felled coups and regrowth trees at various stages of regeneration stretching for kms.  The isolated little town of Waratah was obviously a timber town celebrating its plant namesake with street plantings along the main road.

The narrow sealed road wound its way across the Tarkine Wilderness to the Savage River iron ore mine - an uninviting settlement of dongas and motel style accommodations for the workers. There was neither a picnic seat nor a diesel fuel supply point to encourage the passing grey nomads to pause a-while. The ore is pelletised and transported in a slurry over 160km by pipeline from Savage River to the north coast near Stanley for shipment overseas.

A good unsealed road twisted and turned through beautiful, river-dissected forest country to the little gold mining settlement, now eco-resort, of Corinna nestled in the valley of the Pieman River about 20km from the west coast. It has proven to be a bit of surprise! We thought a camp site by the river would be an easy find, but no such luck. The eco-resort has full control of the little village and surrounding valley – the 10 camp sites were already booked, small miners’ cabins were full and we had to take a larger one, or find a difficult campsite by the roadside. The trusty Visa card was produced and we found ourselves unexpectedly in a cosy pseudo miners cabin with running tank water and a warm gas fire for two nights, ready for a boat trip along the Pieman River tomorrow.

We were as warm as toast in our unexpected lodgings. The little fat bush wallabies foraged among the mossy forest floor at our back balcony as we sipped a nice red wine. 

Wednesday 3^rd December

In Corinna to Pieman River Entrance

The mist still hangs low over the tall forest and we set  off on a river cruise down the Pieman River to its entrance about 23km downstream. The little wooden boat, Arcadia II, chugged at a gentle speed so we could easily see the Tarkine Forest on either side – a mix of wet sclerophyll and cool temperate rainforest.This area was originally opened up by the timber getters in the early 1900’s – Celery-top pine and Huon pine being the sought after prize. 

Arcadia II on a misty morning

The huge logs were snigged by hand out of the forest to the river, marked with the logger’s insignia and then floated downstream to the mouth where they were caught in barriers. 

A flood was often needed to shift the logs. It was a hard, brutal existence for the men. Both durable timbers were sought by ship builders and later for mine construction.

Prospectors for gold and tin followed hard on the heels of the timber getters. Settlements such as Corinna increased to 900+ people with several pubs and rough cabins. The blazed foot tracks  gradually became rough trails for horse and carts. Numerous coastal steamers plied their trade on the west coast, but many were lost on this storm-ravaged coastline.The local Aboriginal people lived in semi-permanent dwellings in villages along the west coast. Their huts were circular dwellings with stone walls and brush/timber roofs. They not only used the rain forest for their sustenance, but also the abundant coastal food supply and used canoes constructed of bundled small timbers from which to fish and travel to close-by islands.

Life here is already very slow

Another rustic Pieman Heads cottage

Pieman River-mouth landscape

A White-faced heron poses on the river's edge

Thursday 4^th December

Corinna – Zeehan - Lake St Clair

New barge

Still misty, cool and wet with heavy rain overnight. The small river  barge enabled us to cross the Pieman River  for $20. The good road twisted and turned for the 150+km to Lake St Clair. It required concentrated driving, trying to anticipate what might be coming around each tight corner.

The roadside vegetation varied from perched button grass swamps, cool rainforest to open eucalypt woodland. Distant vistas were backed by the  mountain ranges of western Tassie.

Typical Button-grass swamp on way to Zeehan

Tasmanian Dog-rose

The museum of early settlement in Zeehan was really well set out, telling the story of the early pioneers of this region. The quest for mineral riches dominated the motivation for exploration of this wild part of Australia.

Zeehan Theatre restored to former boom-time glory

The forests were dense and often impenetrable, the land steep and thickly vegetated. It rained constantly and was cold for most of the year. Mining leases rarely made money for the prospectors and the ephemeral camp townships quickly disappeared leaving little evidence of their existence.

Savage River and Queenstown are the major remaining mining centres but the Mount Lyell copper mine has recently closed and the Savage River iron ore is currently a marginal operation with plunging iron ore prices This difficult environment really has created its own protection, especially since the successful Franklin River campaign of the early 1980’s which put a stop to the constant damming of free rivers for hydro- electricity production.

It was a delight to drive though the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park today on our way to Lake St Clair National Park. White flag lilies and blooming heath shrubs of white and pink created a lovely forest understory, and a few bright red flowering Tasmanian Waratahs were a particular highlight in our flower spotting.

Waratah/eucalypt forest

The national park camp ground at Lake St Clair is set into the forest. Sites are a bit squeezy, and the trek to the ‘loo is a bit too far in the cold, for my liking. However, it’s great to experience the beauty of the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness (from the VW at least) – one of the few substantial wilderness regions left in the world – a precious national resource.

Blogging in comfort

Friday 5^th December

Lake St Claire – Hobart

Just a gentle driving day from the Central Highlands to Hobart. The forests gave way to more open grazing country. Along the Derwent Valley, orchards and poppy fields were common, and the odd wildflower tempted us to stop for a closer look. And a prickly animal was tempting fate as it crossed the road.

Bush pea

Wildlife along the road

We stopped at an old pub at Hamilton – parts of it dating back to 1836. The publican was chatty and trying to train his new cook to not put gravy over every nice homemade pie with chips and peas served up! 

From Bridgewater there was a 4 lane highway into the centre of Hobart – a bit like driving into Newcastle. Our apartment is right on the harbour right beside Salamanca Place.

Saturday 6^th December

Salamanca Market, Hobart

The market is a great mix of over 300 stalls selling Tasmanian wood craft, foodie stalls loaded with jams, chutneys and vinegars, toys, clothing, second hand books and food stalls. We wandered through the crowd, bought some Xmas presents and lunch items. And we even left camera at our apartment as we knew we would load up with goodies.

We returned to the apartment for a picnic lunch of pate, Bruny Is camembert and sour dough bread. A few fresh berries finished off lunch. Gaz took to his pillow for an afternoon siesta before returning to an afternoon explore through some bookshops – he has an uncanny ability to sniff them out. Including a first edition of Scott’s Journals ("for sale in India only") and Frank Hurley’s diaries.

We visited a tapas bar to watch the early night life of Salamanca Place. Chubby girls wore skirts that came up to their backsides with gangly, unsightly platform sandals. Others were determined to wear their sleeveless tops because December has begun, even though the maximum was 15^oC with drizzly rain and there being no day >16^oC for days. A good case of determined wishful behaviour in the face of every bit of weather evidence to rug up!

Sunday 7^th December

Hobart Museums

Mist and drizzly rain accompanied us to  the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery well as the reconstructed facsimile of Mawson’s Commonwealth Bay Hut – we of course visited the authentic one in January 2006 during our ill-fated voyage to the Ross Sea. I was timing Gary to see how quickly he would share the stories of his Antarctic adventures to unsuspecting strangers – I have to say he was very restrained.

Glover Tasmanian Landscape

Tanleboveyer

Our journey of exploration was to actually find the front door of the museum! There was an excellent Antarctic display as well as a comprehensive account of Aboriginal history and lifestyles prior to European settlement. Indigenous Tasmanians built semi-permanent villages of stone huts and were able to travel by flimsy canoes to close-by islands, especially in the mutton birding season.

Of particular interest to us was a good collection of early colonial art especially some by Glover, painted about 1840 – he placed Aboriginal people in the landscape – even at a time when they were being actively hunted and killed by the early settlers.

On the recommendation of an Australian food writer, we tried “Fish Frenzy” for lunch on the harbor. It was better than the average fish’n’chips, but was still battered fish with chips… The Mawson Hut called. 

Hobart Harbour...perfect setting for fish and chips

The Mawson museum is staffed by enthusiastic volunteers who REALLY were interested in our story of 2006 – I don’t think we fully understand the great privilege we enjoyed by being able to visit Commonwealth Bay.

The hut was a perfect replica of the original, even down to the Baltic Pine weatherboards being milled in the same Norwegian timber mill that processed the original timber 100 years ago.

All proceeds from the museum are re-invested in the ongoing maintenance of the real site in Antarctica.

Monday 8^th December

To MONA – Museum of Old and New Art

This wonderful cultural treasure sets a new gold standard for a fresh approach to the presentation of art to the public. David Walsh, a Tasmanian philanthropist, who earned his fortune through gambling has endowed Hobart with a new national cultural icon. His humour, entrepreneurship, and intelligence shines through in all aspects of the enterprise. From the fun ferry ride with deck bound sheep to the original architecture of the gallery building visitors are taken on a challenging journey and encouraged to suspend prejudice and preconceptions as to what “is art”.

Mona Roma 1...the ferry to wonder

The car park had a convenient space reserved for ‘God’ and one beside it for ‘God’s Mistress’ and the elderly and infirm visitors could avoid the 99 step entrance, sneek around to another entrance from the ferry and catch a golf buggy to the museum door – it was embarrassing, but very welcome.

The building has been cut into the sandstone of a headland on the Derwent estuary. The collection is displayed on three levels – basements 1 –3 and you are divorced from all natural light or an outlook over the river. This reinforces your separation from a sense of scale or ‘normal’ life as you are challenged by a variety of modern installations, sculptures and paintings. The levels are seemingly juxtaposed to each other within this huge rock walled space and you feel the steel internal stairs are suspended in space – a very eery sensation.

There are no wall-mounted labels,  but rather each visitor is issued with an iphone type device where you can choose a summary about each art work or indulge in an 'art wank’ (a full and esoteric description of the piece) or tap into ‘Gonzo’ -  Walsh’s personal thoughts around some pieces.

The exhibition is constantly changing but the ‘Rainbow Serpent’  by Sidney Nolan – a huge modernist piece made up of thousands of small, tonal paintings is a fixed piece of the collection having influenced the shape of the museum building to enable it to be hung. Nolan’s huge piece was a masterful use of his deep understanding and skill in manipulating colour and tone.

Walsh’s humour was clearly evident in some installations – especially a library room full of pure white books of blank pages – is this the future of the printed word in our increasingly digital world?

We just didn’t understand some of the stuff, especially the film story board of an American avant garde opera/film maker; however a scientific mechanical food digestive system was great – being fed twice a day and doing a poo on cue daily at 2.00pm! 

From feeding at left to pooing at right...an artistic working model of digestive system.

The bright red fat Porsche was a commission by Walsh – the duco was immaculate and the car a statement on the acquisitive nature of our modern obese society. Ouch!

We decided against a short trip in the POSH bar on the ferry – a $50.00 return trip per person - to be separated from the proletariat and just long enough to quaff a glass of champagne. There were some suckers who took advantage of the opportunity!

Gaz went off shopping for a new woollen shirt which is proving elusive to find and I limped back to our harbour-side abode. The retail hunter returned triumphant – a very unusual occasion.

Tuesday 9^th December

Hobart – Huon Valley – Frankston – along the edge of the d’Entrecasteaux Channell - Gordon

A cheapie campsite by the water overlooking Bruny Island but it was still misty and freezing – 14⁰C, not counting the wind chill factor off the water. Far too cold for us to sit outside for too long to enjoy the long evening twilight.

Rugged up for Tassie weather

We had an easy drive south from Hobart along the Huon Valley. Lots of orchards of ripening cherries and fields of a variety of berries.

We stopped to purchase the local fare to either sample with cream for dinner or to eat along the way, leaving our trail of pips and stems behind us. The tantalising blackberries are only at the flower stage – a great  disappointment. The apple crop won’t start to be harvested until the new year but we did try some apple ciders – the pear and cherry was tasty and we bought a couple to add to Keean’s Xmas hamper.

Frankston is a centre of timber boat construction. Our guide explained the way that every part of the boat was distinguished by three numbers…distance from the front, centre and bottom to top. Like the x, y and z axes of a mathematics problem. Huon  pine was the choice of timbers as it is light, strong and marine worm- resistant, but importantly relatively easy to work with.

Regrettably the trees take 1000 years to grow a meter  wide trunk, and we have ripped most of them out so the futures plan is not very well catered for. This means that timbers such as celery pine and blackwood are used for non-feature parts of the boat.

The small boat building workshop is actually a training institution and one can enroll in anything from a three day course to make wooden oars to a 7 week course to make a simple dingy, with big money paid for tuition and a “sponsor” buying the materials ($10 000 for a nice Huon dinghy) and getting to keep the boat built by the training team.

Tetsuya (famous Sydney Chef) has been a notable sponsor of a bigger craft in the past. One could sense the comraderie of the oar and boat builders there today…including a female team making their lovely oars with old-fashioned tools. We even saw some old "sea salts" boiling water to send steam up a pipe within which timbers were softened to bend the ribs of the boat they were constructing…a practice that is not much different to how the Vikings did it to make their longboats.

Wednesday 10^th December

Gordon – Bruny Island

We took the 11.15am ferry across to the Island - $30.00 return. There are a few specialist food producers on the island and of course, we intended to try them all during our stay. We stopped at the whiskey distillery and smoke house first. Passed on the whisky but enjoyed the smoked pork sausage and varied pates and pickles.

We drove up to the northern area of the island – the general landscape is reminiscent of Kangaroo Island but only larger, more hilly and further south – therefore COLDER, even in summer! It was obvious that the island is a retreat for mainlanders – 1950’s style weekenders mixed with smart ‘retreats’ with an architect's obvious touch, many of which, have lovely views over the isolated inlets.

The next foodie stop was Bruny Island Cheese. They have a lovely café and cheese tasting room. The maturing cheddars can be seen through large observation windows – like babies lined up and asleep on shelves.

The making of wood fired sour dough bread is also in full view – quite interesting to watch. But, it was the lovingly set out native gardens around the café that really added to the ambience of the place. It was obvious that passion and effort has been invested into this venture and the resulting cheeses were delicious – the camembert, being the closest to an earthy French soft cheese that I have tasted in Australia for a long time.

The oyster farm was marked by a great sense of humour. – “Get Shucked – Fuel for Love”. They grow Pacific oysters and the ones we tried were delicious.

The van’s bed mechanism has jammed (for a second time) and so we quickly decided to check into a comfy cabin at Adventure Bay instead of camping in the cold, windy weather and work out a solution for the van. After ringing Trakka, we have decided to purchase a new frying pan with lid and survive the rest of the trip with the bed down and made. We are able to function without access to the saucepan drawer and no bench seat! (Postscript: On return to Sydney Geoff was most helpful at Trakka as he fixed the problem and gave a lesson on “prevention is better than cure”.)

Typical pebbly Bruny Is shore

Thursday 11^th December

On Bruny Island

We explored the inlets, forests and hilly country in the southern part of Bruny Island. There is a little bit of grazing and fodder cropping but the national park and forestry areas make up most of this part of the islands.

A furtive photographer

A quickly taken photo inside the National Park

The entry fee of $24.00 to the national park was a bit steep – so, to much of Gaz’s horror, we snuck in and drove through without paying as we went as far south as we could to the Bruny Lighthouse. We enjoyed a picnic lunch with guilty pleasure at the National Park campsite at Jetty Beach, but Gaz didn’t want to hang around in case he got arrested!

The forestry roads took us through some areas of cool rainforest with Myrtle Beech still dressed in their coppery-gold new foliage while large areas seemed to have been logged.

We finished off the afternoon by visiting the last foodie enterprise – the berry farm, to collect our evening ration of fresh raspberries.

Pied Oyster-catchers on beach opposite cabin at Adventure Bay

By late afternoon, there was a cold wind blowing and we retreated into the warmth of the cabin. Thank goodness we have the 3G wifi connection on my iPhone – too bad that my email ‘send’ function was not working! We can read emails and the SMH, but are very restricted in communication with friends – perhaps they are grateful for this.

Friday 12^th December

On Bruny Island

This has been a classic ‘down day’. It’s cold outside (still…) so we are bunkered down catching up with the diary, doing some washing, downloading photos and Gaz is composing a Xmas message to unwary friends. The afternoon will be filled with a repack of the reconfigured van layout and planning the itinerary for the next 10 days.

Saturday 13^th December

Bruny Island to Tasman Peninsula

We headed for the 8.30 ferry to enable us to reach a Telstra shop to sort email issues out. We relied upon ‘Jane’ to get us to the location and not my memory and instincts. ‘She’ was hopeless and so email wasn't answered from my computer until we got back to Melbourne.

Cutting across Hobart was a doddle – it really is a small town, with the trappings of a city, like freeways etc, but little traffic – great! We headed for the ‘pick your own’ berries at the Sorrell fruit farm. Gary now refuses to bend in the search for strawberries – he’s probably right, because you are encouraged to pay your money to search, but often there is no viable fruit to find – cherries were good, but those in the local IGA were better!

The road wound around the waterside and hills of Dunalley where a narrow isthmus leads you onto the Tasman Peninsula.

The Oysters are in rows in aqua inshore waters 

 We had a delicious sampling of  Pacific oysters grown in the clear, pristine waters of the bay we overlooked. Oyster farming is a huge industry in this part of Tassie.

We made camp in the Tasman National Park at Fortescue Bay overlooking the bay framed by lovely eucalypts. Unfortunately, we were on a bit of a slope so everything gradually slid off the table and bench. Yet again, the entry was $24.00 plus $17.00 camping fee –all rubbish taken out, no water and just a long drop toilet – just a bit expensive me thinks.

Macropod visitor at campsite

There were very strong afternoon onshore winds which dropped the temperature even more – we were very glad we brought our wooly slippers.

Sunday 14^th December

To Port Arthur and onto Triabunna

This important historic site seems very familiar. Since I visited here with the family as a kid in Dec 1959 and again with Gary in 1982, millions have been spent on tasteful professional restoration. Visitor interpretations and signage is very good, including a short harbor cruise and guided walks.

The best bit was a lovely man driving his electric car – he just appeared at key times and transported us across the longest walking stretches which enabled me to explore most of the site. Gardens were lovely, planted in authentic varieties and large swathes of green lawns stretched down to the edge of the harbour.

Church skeleton

Convict-made sandstone bricks

Gaol in a gaol

The penal colony buildings are interesting to visit, but once you have been there a couple of times, the delight of discovery loses its edge somewhat. We therefore didn’t bother with giants causeway, rocky arches etc along the quite interesting basaltic coastline.

Instead of camping further around the Peninsula, we headed for Triabunna further north. It is a small fishing village supported by cray and abalone fishing. The small campground was mostly full of the classic small fibro holiday shacks. Some seem to be permanently occupied, but most are awaiting their summer holiday residents. We were squeezed into a small space that could only be tolerated for one night – one large winnebago was just door width from their neighbor –horrible!

Monday 15^th December

Triabunna to St Helens via Swansea and Bicheno

We called into Kate’s Berry Farm for some strawberries, but it has become really commercial and berry punnets were more expensive than the old IGAs. I still have strawberry vinegar in the pantry purchased here 6 years ago, so avoided all such items.

Kate's Berry Farm Shop

Berry Farm looking to Freycinet peninsula

We hunted down a second crayfish at Bicheno – still $100/kg., but it was a final indulgence – fresh and sweet. A good size for us to share was 750g. The fishermen are getting $75.00/kg off the boat so can’t expect to pay anything less once cooked.

Just north from Bicheno were some east coast wineries. Gary remembered the name of Merv Bishop’s photographer friend from the SMH who moved down to Tassie to start a vineyard – it was Freycinet Wines.

 We wandered in and made ourselves known– the white wines were delicious, grown in their cool climate conditions. We are still adjusting to the pinot noirs – their lightness of flavor but size of the price of decent ones ($60+) needs some getting used to. We bundled up a dozen to send off to Melbourne.

Once at St Helens we hoped to go onto Binalong Bay to camp at the southern end of the Bay of Fires.

Typical orange lichen rocks at Bay of Fires

Coastline near St Helens

The coastline of curving beaches and orange algae-covered rocks is very beautiful, but camping options far less optimal. Little clearings in the bush without even a drop toilet were not appealing to to us, so we retreated to the Big4 at St Helens – ensuite and all. But what a lost opportunity for a little community – we still felt that a lot of Tassie tourist infrastructure is still more typical of the 1960’s, on the mainland. Isolated locations in WA were better served for the traveller without a van toilet, who wanted to explore the natural areas of the state.

Tuesday 16^th December

In St Helens & environs

We set off inland to the Pyengana Valley and cheese factory. Gaz found his ‘bookshop in the bush’ and of course collared two more books to add to his Antarctic collection. 

Pyengana Valley Vista

The road wound through dense forest with breakouts of cleared land for beef cattle and dairying in the Weldborough Pass area.

The Pyengana Dairy now has 24 hour milking by robots to produce the raw milk for their famous cheddar cheese – we had seen a report of this on Landline. The best variety was a bitey, naturally salty style that is matured for 18 months. It has won all sorts of national awards including from the Gourmet Traveller Food awards. They supply the best cheese shops and restaurants on the mainland – yet another Tassie food speciality at the premium price end - $41.00/kg.

We had hoped to follow a forest road circuit route back to St Helens, but when local advice was suggesting to ‘just keep turning left and you may end up driving through someone’s potato paddock’, we thought we should keep to the main road and follow a less adventurous route tomorrow as we head toward Launceston via Pipers Brook vineyard on the east of the Tamar estuary.

It has blown a strong easterly gale for most of the day keeping the temperature down and threatening rain – not pleasant for outdoor living.  The people next door were banging in extra pegs and guy ropes along the base of their tent.

Wednesday 17^th December

St Helens to Launceston via Pipers Brook & George Town

It has started out as a rare sunny day as we head west to Scottsdale and the Tamar Estuary. 

Near Heads of Tamar Estuary

The Tasman Highway wound its way across the classic northeastern landscape – hilly, forested country interspersed with lush grassy valleys where cattle, dairying and cropping dominated. 

The Pipers Brook Vineyard was your usual corporate wine producer. Hectares of grapes surrounded a huge tasting room, café and winery complex established in 1974. 

Gazza at Pipers Brook Winery

We tasted the sparkling, pinot grigio, pinot gris, (more elegant than p. gris!) sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir. Like other tastings, we are yet to really like a pinot noir varietal - perhaps more accustomed to the heavier styles of shiraz and the tastier grenache etc. we purchased a tasting ½ dozen to take back to Melbourne. Following this we had lunch in the café – huge ham baguette for Gaz and a tasty lamb pie pour moi.

Gary was determined to revisit George Town with the image of a lighthouse and a collection of small buildings in his mind. I had NO memory of the place. Sure enough, there were three light houses to protect the entrance to the Tamar Estuary and a very interesting collection of late 19thC light keepers and harbour masters' white washed homes. 

The village had a lovely ‘feel’ to it and even more modern homes echoed the white tones of the original buildings.

The Bell Bay industrial complex is located next to George Town and a expressway led into Launceston. Many heavily loaded timber and ore trucks barreled past us headed for Bell Bay for alumina smelting and wood chip production. You can imagine Gary’s comments for the next ½ hour! The camp ground in Launceston has seen better days but is being upgraded to a Big4 status so our stay will be a minimal 2 nights – but still $35.00/night.

A young woman with a boy aged about 4 was sleeping in her car next to us. She had a few bags and placed towels on the windows for privacy. It really disturbed us to have this sort of social problem right next door – we didn’t know whether to offer assistance or not. Gary spoke to her next morning and found she was from NSW and planning to find a house in Launceston because of hoped for cheaper rents etc …

Thursday 18^th December

In Launceston

With a trusty annotated mud map we set off to explore the city - a maze of 1 way streets. We headed first to the Queen Victoria Museum your typical late 19thC collection of rocks, stuffed Tasmanian animals especially the Thylacene and big boned dinosaurs etc. 

A pathetic reminder of  our past ignorance

Upstairs was a WW1 set of exhibits focusing upon the stories of Tassie soldiers. The new building was a recycled industrial site – very effectively redesigned.

The Tasmanian Design Centre held a very classy arrangement of handmade jewelry, silk painted scarves, knick knacks and lovely handcrafted wooden furniture from the classic Tasmanian timbers. A few well-dressed ladies of the city were browsing, probably for Xmas presents.

Fate led us to a lovely bookshop in which to browse, there was another further down the Mall – how good is that there are two long time such stores still surviving in such a small city. We located another good menswear store, Routleys, where Gaz was able to find a good selection of quality wool/cotton long sleeve shirts – Gowings from home is so missed.

On the recommendation of the ladies from Routleys we had lunch in a bistro that had a variety of boutique beers and ciders on tap. The strawberry/pear cider was delicious as was the crushed apple – both on tap. Across the road was an outdoor clothing & equipment store. I have been looking for a medium weight rain/wind proof jacket for the Europe trip next year – and I found one! It even folds in on itself into a little pack. Just what the Dr ordered.

We will be pleased to get onto the road again tomorrow – two days to explore the west Tamar region and the small area to Devonport. We will be happy to get back on the boat on Sunday to Melbourne. It’s still light at 9.00pm but yet another very cold and at times windy and wet day - certainly not the sandals and t-shirt weather we thought we would have.

Friday 19^th December

Launceston to Kelso via Tamar Wetlands and the wineries of Tamar Ridge and Holme Oak.

We only had 50km or so to travel along the western shore of the Tamar estuary to the western entrance at Kelso. I realised we had visited the Tamar Wetlands before – a bit of relief given my total memory lapse on Georgetown.

Variegated wren on reed

The previous night had got down to 6⁰C in Launceston and I struggled to keep warm. However the day started off well in cool sunshine. 

The black swans, white faced herons, masked lapwings and warblers smiled at Gary and a Copperhead snake lay all curled up in the long grass below the boardwalk…only three snakes in Tasmania, but they are ALL poisonous!

We decided to sample the wines of Tamar Ridge. The vineyard had a superb position overlooking the estuary with large storage holdings dug into the hillside to store their sparkling wines as they mature on their lees.

Sampling a nice Tassie Pinot Noir

Every variety we tried was delicious from the champagne style, to riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir. The botryitis sticky was viscous and delicious- just as it should be.

The vineyard was purchased in 2000 by Brown Bros of Milawa. This was a well-planned strategy, to mitigate the impact of increasing temperatures in Victoria and a need to broaden their range with quality pinot noirs and cool climate whites including champagnes. The tasting room had a sweeping view over the estuary and served a few platter styles for a light lunch. We noted tasteful cabins high on the hill – to be noted for the future.

Tamar Valley from Tamar Ridge Winery

We followed the wine map carefully to the much praised Holme Oak vineyard. We were rather underwhelmed by their offerings and were unable to taste the good wines of 2012 – their production quality varies greatly if there is too much rain – 2011 and 2013 were not good years.

The drive to the tip of the mouth of the Tamar wound through shoreline views with vineyards stretching down to the shore. No wonder it’s a popular spot in Tassie – close to the amenity of Launceston but well out of the city hussle and bustle in just 30 minutes.

Tasmanian Wombat visits our Tamar campground

The Big4 camp ground was located in a rural area – the proprietor kept the grass down to discourage the tiger and Copperhead snakes! We submitted to the comfort of a cabin for the night and were delighted to have wombats gobbling the grass beside our front step. I think it’s the first time we have actually seen them up-close in the wild.

Saturday 20^th December

Kelso to Devonport via Beaconsfield, the Raspberry Shed and Ashgrove Cheese

Bright sunshine at last! A stiff westerly breeze was blowing but the Tamar water sparkled. A short stop in Beaconsfield was a delightful surprise. Their market was on and we found a magical wooden toy maker – just doing it for the love of it! The model builder had a wide variety of complex trucks, dozers, boats, cranes, cars and even a two storey doll’s house with an internal lift.We couldn't resist purchasing a couple for our grand nephews and nieces.

The rolling countryside was a beautiful landscape of sunlit golden paddocks of recently cut hay rolled into giant round triffids, waiting to be rolled into neat storages for winter fodder. 

There were also large fields of pink opium poppies now in full flower as well as newly planted potatoes and ripening grain. All of this was with a dramatic backdrop of the Western Tiers – the escarpment of the central Tasmanian plateau.

The Raspberry Shed was a local phenomena – there wasn’t a single item of food or beverage that didn’t have raspberries incorporated into it – we polished off a raspberry crepe, waffle, milkshake and smoothie – enough to last us until the next Tassie visit.

I rather envied the $7.00/2kg of jam quality berries that I spied in  the deep freeze.

Although not feeling hungry, we briefly stopped at the Ashgrove Cheese Factory and purchased a kilo of the crumbly, tasty style of cheddar they make so well.

Cow used to make mixed herb cheese

Making Ashgrove cheese crumblier

Entering Devonport we reflected somewhat on our third trip to Tasmania. It certainly runs at a slower pace to Sydney and the camp grounds and road infrastructure still need to be further developed. This is perhaps its attraction – with surprising delights such as MONA and fabulous cool climate wines and delicious fruit and dairy produce thrown in to delight visitors. The ‘find’ of the trip has been the lovely ciders – our favourites were crushed apple and strawberry with lime.

As we sit in the warmth of the dying day, the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ has just glided past our camp site to its dock 500m down the road. We will be boarding her for Melbourne tomorrow at 9.00am. Gaz managed to get a last Tassie photograph of her with the Big 4 Jumping castle in the foreground…a symbolic end to our apple isle odyssey.

A day-time voyage on the Spirit of Tasmania, so Gary pretended he was in Antarctica and hot the deck with a long lens to capture any seabirds attracted to ship. He managed to get a couple of passable snaps of the Australian Gannet.