While based in Hobart we took a drive south west to Geeveston, a town in the Huon Valley. We had planned to stay there a couple of weeks later in the year and wanted to check the area out. There was also the possibility of a house sitting job so we went to meet the lovely homeowner who has lived in Geeveston for over 50 yrs. We were very kindly invited to have lunch at her home and we had a wonderful time getting to know Beverley, her grandson and his girlfriend. Geeveston has a strong apple growing and forestry heritage and is close to the Hartz Mountains National Park. We had also heard about the opportunity of seeing platypus in the river running through town. Beverley had never seen any so we were a little doubtful if we would be lucky enough to do so. Well they say patience is a virtue and on this occasion patience certainly paid off. The council have built a little platform over one of the banks of the river. We weren’t sure what to look for but there was an information sign nearby. It advised to keep an eye out for air bubbles rising to the surface and for ripples fanning out. We stood silently, watching closely and fairly soon we were rewarded with the most beautiful little creature paddling intently along the surface before suddenly diving down, out of sight. We watched for about 45 minutes as the platypus playfully moved along the river. It’s webbed paws propelling it along like a lean, mean swimming machine and before the blink of an eye, it dived down with ease and because the water in places was clear, we could follow it’s progress until it surfaced again. We had such fun watching and did so until finally he/she was out of view completely.

Back in Hobart we attended the Australian Antarctic Festival. Hobart is Australia’s Antarctic port and the festival celebrates the work done historically and currently.  We attended Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum which is a fascinating insight to the people and conditions of 1911-14.The museum is a replica of the huts constructed by the men of the Antarctic Expedition led by Dr Douglas Mawson during that period. The original are still in situ at Cape Denison, Antarctica.

As part of the celebrations, the local schools had been invited to produce colourful paper penguins. These were displayed on the harbor front. 

To top off our day in Hobart we attended a concert at the Hobart Town Hall. The Derwent Symphony Orchestra, church choirs and school choirs performed musical pieces that had been chosen from reading the diaries of Mawson and his men. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After two weeks in Hobart we headed north to Longford Riverside Caravan Park. Longford is near Launceston and situated on the Macquarie River. We were going to stay two weeks but stayed for three.

During our first few days we became aware of some birds living in the park. One was sitting on a clutch of eggs and we quickly found out how protective mum, dad and extended family members were. We learnt that the birds were Masked Wing Plovers and very territorial, particularly during the egg / baby chicks period. You couldn’t help pass the nest as it was on the ground on one of the powered sites near the amenities block. Jude was swooped a few times and Ray drove the car to the amenities to avoid them flying around him! Mum hatched four eggs and the chicks were cute to watch……from the safety of our caravan window!

We came home late one night to find them all outside our van. It was cute watching mum shepherd them to safety.

​We have been in Tasmania 7 weeks and the yellow dots on the map show the areas we have already explored.  14 more weeks to see the rest and also have a chance to revisit some places. We went to Cradle Mountain yesterday and seeing it covered in snow would have to be our top hilight but there are so many hilights it really is very hard to choose just one. We love all of Tasmania! 😆

We have no real plan of direction and are open to checking out various events of interest that take place. One such event, The Tasmanian Flower Expo,led us to visit a small vineyard/winery owned and run by a friend of friends of ours from the UK. Grey Sands Vineyard is in Glengarry north west of Launceston in the Tamar Valley. The owners, Bob and Rita, bought the land 30 yrs ago and have spent the time growing the vines and developing a successful business. They have also planted and grown a huge variety of trees and flowers in gardens which are stunning to wander around.We had a very enjoyable few hours there.

​We had the most amazing, hair raising drive up the zig zag road leading to the summit of Ben Lomond National Park. Check out our video below.

For those of you following our blog who are not on Facebook, check out the link below to our YouTube channel and the latest video of our visit to the Bay of Fires, Binalong Bay on the North East coast of Tasmania.  It is an amazing place and if ever you get the chance this is definitely one iconic location you should visit!

If you haven’t already found our YouTube channel, check out the other video’s we have published.   We hope you enjoy this little production!

Well here we are two months into our neverending journey and time to reflect on how it is going, how we are going. 

Distance wise check out the maps below to get an idea of the route we have travelled. 

We are loving every minute of every day. After a few hiccups with Alby (4WD) all is now running very smoothly. Downsizing from a 4 bedroom house to a caravan (Saffy) has been much easier than either one of us anticipated. It is all about zones and which zone is in use at any time. During the day the bed becomes a storage area and overnight the dining table/seats are the storage area. The kitchen counter becomes the office in between meal times. The shower even acts as a storeroom when we are at caravan parks and using the amenities. Saffy is warm, dry, cosy and our home on wheels and we love her. And yes, we still love each other. More importantly we still like each other!! Laughter is the best medicine and we laugh all day, every day. Of course there are moments of irritation and misunderstandings but we quickly work through those and move on. So all in all this has been the best decision for us and we love our home on wheels. 

We decided that instead of going on a bus tour up to Mt Wellington, we would drive up ourselves.  On the chosen day there was some mist and cloud covering the summit but we thought we would take some lunch and eat it whilst waiting for it to clear away.  The summit is 1270 metres above sea level and the road is very steep and winding.  You are rewarded with magnificent views all the way up and there are various areas to pull over and take photos. Below are views from half way up and are of the Tasman Bridge, River Derwent, Hobart CBD and the Wrest Point Casino complex.

As we got closer and closer to the summit our ears were popping and the temperature was cooler.  We reached the actual summit and it was still covered in thick cloud. When we got out of the car, we could hardly see each other and it was bitterly cold. Fortunately we had our winter gear in the car and rugged up quickly. It was very strange watching the cloud/mist roll in quickly and cover everything thickly but a few minutes later it would lift slightly and you could see things more clearly.  Just as you were looking through the viewfinder to take a photo, all would be gone again!  We wandered around as best we could and went into the viewing platform to read about the history of the mountain.  It is officially known as kunanyi/Mt Wellington in honour of the indigenous peoples of Tasmania.  One of many people to climb it was Charles Darwin in 1836 and you can read about that in his book The Voyage of the Beagle. Sadly the cloud/mist never did lift during the couple of hours we spent there but it was spectacular none the less and we got some interesting photos.

We had driven into Hobart to attend the Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. As we drove into the grounds we missed the actual entrance but saw a sign to a scenic lookout. We decided to drive up and see what the views of Hobart were like . We got to the top and it was spectacular. When we got our of the car we could hear a crow squawking really loudly.  Ray went over to investigate and suddenly called out to me….”there’s a koala in the tree!” I ran over and could see some sort of animal in the top of the tree being attacked by the crow. We then realised it was a possum. Watch this clip from the video and be amazed. The full video will be on our YouTube channel soon.

Welcome to Tunbridge……..umm…..I thought we were in Tasmania, not the UK!  Ray has regularly commented on the number of place names in Australia that are found in the UK. Well here was another one and it was significant to us as Becky, Ben and our grandchildren live in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK. We had to go and visit this town and find out it’s history.

By 1830 the tiny settlement of Tunbridge had been named. The name was taken from a local pub, the Tunbridge Wells, which in turn had taken its name from the famous English spa town of Tunbridge Wells.

The Tasmanian Tunbridge was an important staging post on the road from Hobart to Launceston. Today, because it was bypassed in the 1960s, it is a tiny, sleepy little village with a number of interesting historic buildings. Most notable is the town’s convict-era bridge which, built in 1848, is the oldest single span bridge in the country. It spans the Blackman River at the northern end of the town. A simple structure it is important as a rare example of a convict-era sandstone bridge with timber decking. The bridge achieved notoriety as it was a place where Thomas Meagher, a “Young Ireland” rebel, held secret meetings with his co-conspirators.

After spending time exploring Tunbridge, we were heading off to the historic town of Bothwell. As we were heading down the Midlands Highway, we saw a road off to our right which indicated it was another route to Bothwell. It would take an extra hour but we had all the time in the world, so decided to head along this route.  Well, what an interesting, slightly nerve-racking but stunningly beautiful route it was. The road very quickly went from bitumen to gravel, from wide to narrow, from flat to very steep and winding. We kept going higher and higher and our ears were popping constantly. At one stage we had to pull over to the edge to let a grader coming the other way, get past us.  As we looked behind the view was stunning – a panorama that stretched for miles and took in both water and undulating hills. We finally came to a straight stretch of road that went on for another 10 kilometres and to a place called Interlaken – on one side of the road was Lake Crescent and on the other was Lake Sorell  – beautiful beyond words, so we will let our photo’s try to convey the beauty we saw.

We finally made it to Bothwell and that journey was full of excitement too as we saw our first live Wombat and he was just sooooo cute – check out his pics below.  Bothwell is a really interesting town and we had fun exploring.  Where Tunbridge had links to England, Bothwell has links to Scotland. It is named after a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland which lies to the east of Glasgow. All of the town’s street signs have a tartan background.

One of Bothwell’s claims to fame is, Ratho, the oldest golf course in Australia and the oldest known course outside of Scotland. The house on Ratho estate was built for one Alexander Reid who had emigrated with his family from Scotland in 1822. Our scottish brother-in-law, Jock, is a Reid and we wonder if there is a family connection!  We visited the local cemetery and saw the very ornate headstone for Alexander and other family members.

We enjoyed a cuppa and cake at the 1829 Castle Hotel.  We found out from the barmaid that although we thought the wombat was cute and cuddly, locals saw them as a pest and also a nuisance on the roads. They caused more problems than kangaroos when hit by a car as their solid, low to the ground, body caused smaller cars to flip over.

We are staying at the Hobart Showgrounds Motorhome Park and although very different to the Port Arthur forest location, it is fantastic.  We have access to brand new ablutions as well as power, water and sullage for the van.  We are a 5 minute walk to the bus that takes us straight into Hobart CBD and a 6 minute walk takes us into the heart of Glenorchy shopping centre. Mount Wellington towers in the background and is an ever changing view.  It is 1270 metres above sea level. We recently drove to the top of Mount Lofty in Adelaide and thought that was incredibly high but in fact, it is only 727 metres above sea level.

We caught the bus into Hobart and attended the famous Salamanca Markets – over 300 stallholders sell fresh and gourmet produce, arts, crafts and handiwork from all over Tasmania, interstate and overseas. We tasted some yummy cheeses, sticky honey, not so nice peanut paste and some incredibly tasty home made local jams.  Brother Wayne and brother-in-law Jock would have loved the variety of wooden items on display and been fascinated by the variety of Tassie wood.  We resisted from buying much as the van doesn’t have expandable walls!  Afterwards we had lunch at a cafe on the harbour and enjoyed the views over the water and all the activity that was taking place.We saw the MONA Roma catamaran that takes you down to the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), a ferry that takes you on a lunch cruise around Hobart, as well as some very loud and pesky seagulls!

Oxford Dictionary definition of wow – exclamation – expressing astonishment or admiration.

Smiffs definition of wow – oh wow, oh wow oh wow, woweeeeee, oooohhhh wooowww, wow oh wow oh wow oh wow!

Wow has been the extent of our conversation for the majority of the twelve days on the Tasman Peninsula. No photo can truly capture the beauty and majesty of the landscape. No amount of words can truly convey the awesome grandeur that we witnessed in this area of Tasmania.

Tasmania

Tasman Peninsula

The Tasman Peninsula is located at the southeast point of Tasmania.  From our arrival in Devonport at the very north of the state, it took just over four and a half hours to drive to Port Arthur Holiday Park.  The wows started within half an hour of driving as we saw the most spectacular sunrise.

We stayed at the Port Arthur Holiday Park which is 5 minutes drive from the Port Arthur Historic Site.  It is set on 40 acres deep within the Stewarts Bay State Reserve and we were surrounded by huge, tall trees and an abundance of wildlife and birdlife. We booked for 7 nights but stayed 12 nights.

There are so many historical and natural sites/sights to see in this area so we will give you the links to find out more should our pics whet your appetite for more information.

Port Arthur Historical Site including a visit to the Isle of the Dead– we spent two days exploring this site and it still wasn’t enough time. The site forms part of the Australian Convict Sites, a World Heritage property consisting of eleven remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries on fertile Australian coastal strips. Collectively, these sites, including Port Arthur, now represent, “…the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts.” (copied from the brochure we picked up from the information centre)

An amazing find during our visit there, was reference to one Alfred Packham, a young man from Brighton, found guilty of larceny in Lewes, East Sussex and sentenced to seven years. He was transported to Port Arthur on the ship Candahar and arrived in 1842.  Ray’s mother was a Packham and came from Brighton. So there is great excitement that he may be related and research has started in earnest.  We also visited the Coal Mines Historic Site where the worst behaved convicts were sent to do hard labour in the coal mines.

The Tasman Peninsula is full of stunning, awe inspiring natural beauty.  A few of the places we visited were: Cape Raoul, Remarkable Cave, The Dog Line, The Lavender Farm, Koonya, Premaydena and Saltwater River.

So ends our time on the Tasman Peninsula and today, Friday 26th August, we head an hour and a half north west to Hobart. We will be staying at the Hobart Showgrounds for two weeks and exploring as much as possible in that neck of the woods. Farewell for now!