Day 9 - Cradle Mountain

We might describe today as a day of experiences.  It was sunny and windy as we set out to go to Cradle Mountain, about 90 odd kilometres inland from Devonport.  It was about 10 degrees. We drove through undulating countryside, past apple orchards and dairy farms. As we approached the mountains, twisty, turning roads took us through eucalypt and rain forests. The Forth River Valley was quite spectacular.

050315 Apple orchard at Spreyton, destined for the Spreyton Cider Factory

050315 The Forth River valley

050314 The Forth River

It was hard to stay focussed on the main road as there were sign posts inviting us to deviate to "have a look see".  We did this into Lake Barrington, a beautiful man made lake, which has been the site of international rowing championships.

050315 Lake Barrington

Rain started to fall as we made our way up to the highlands.  As we went up, the temperature went down.  3 degrees as we approached the Visitor Centre at the Cradle Mountain National Park ..... and the rain turned to sleet.  It had snowed at the Centre 5 minutes before our arrival.

050315 The car's thermometer at 1116 hrs EST

We took a shuttle bus the last 9km to Cradle Mountain and in those 9 km we experienced four seasons in one day five times.

Cradle Mountain and the mountains nearby had a dusting of snow on them and with Dove Lake in the foreground, we were blessed with a spectacular sight.  It was made even better as the clouds, hurtling by, dropped their rain and gave way to brief periods of rainless sunshine.  We struggled to get a complete picture of Cradle Mountain as the passing clouds persisted in covering the higher peaks.

050315 Cradle Mountain with Dove Lake in the foreground

We did not do any of the walks in the Park as the weather was just too inclement.  We took the bus back to the Centre and returned in the car.  This enabled us to look around a bit more, at our leisure.

050315 Typical countryside near Cradle Mountain

050315 Low growing ground cover on the highland

050315 Blooms even in the cold country

050315 More blooms in the cold country

050315 Highland grass waving in the wind

050315 Lilla Creek near Cradle Mountain

050315 Ronny Creek near Cradle Mountain

050315 The board walk runs 9km from the Visitor Centre to Dove Lake

050314 It's old, it's still alive  and it's covered in moss and lichen

We returned home via Moina, Wilmot (Valley of Views) and Forth.  The temperature increased to about 14 degrees as we descended to the coast.  The weather remained predominantly overcast with occasional showers and a persistent 50+ km/hr wind. Even the animals were scurrying for cover.

050315 An echidna on the roadside heading for home too

Country humour again. The road home included a novelty letterbox trail.  There were too many to photograph but we have included a selection. 

050315 On the Novelty Letterbox Trail

050315 On the Novelty Letterbox Trail

050315 On the Novelty Letterbox Trail

050315 On the Novelty Letterbox Trail

There were funny place names again today.

050315 These crazy Tasmanian names

Lamb roast tonight.  Yum!

Day 8 - Devonport to Narawntapu National Park

We motored 120km today after a lazy morning at camp.  In so doing, we took in an area east of Devonport along the coast and ending up in the Narawntapu National Park.

Our first eye opener for the day was a raspberry farm which was splendid in its white covering, top to toe ...... and there were berries on the canes.  Tempted though we were, there were as many berries when we left as when we arrived.

040315 Raspberries

040315 Raspberries - a bigger picture

040315 Raspberries - the really big picture ... and this was only half of it

There were many little hamlets stretched out along the coast including Hawley Beach, Freer's Beach and others which we did not visit.  Our first target was Port Sorrell but it seemed to have morphed into this series of smaller beach developments.  It is on the Rubicon River so needless to say, this river was front and centre for most of the time.

040315 Hawley Beach on the road to Port Sorrell

040315 Got the message at Freer's Beach

040315 The boat ramp at Freer's Beach - with wind blown sand

Our second target was Narawntapu National Park.  This is on the eastern side of the Rubicon River. Sadly though, National Parks staff were conducting a controlled burn and driving through the smoke to reach places like Baker's Beach was unpleasant.  We admired their ticker in conducting the burn in 50km/h winds but they were unfazed.

040315 The Rubicon River in from Port Sorrell

040315 Rubicon River further upstream

040315 Eastern side of the Rubicon River at Baker's Point in the
Narawntapu National Park, with smoke from Nat Parks' controlled burn

040315 Baker's Beach in the Narawntapu National Park

040215 Wind blown water taken from Baker's Point

This was a very relaxing afternoon and we were not confronted by decadent challenges as we were yesterday.  We were however blasted continually by strong westerly winds.  On the upside, the sun was shining most of the time.

040315 A peace offering after a brief shower and the annoying wind ? - alas "No"

Day 7 - A Decadent Drive Around Devonport

Today dawned bright and sunny, cool, but comfortably so. What better to do than tour around Devonport.

170km later we had completed a decadent drive around Devonport, taking in the towns of Latrobe, Deloraine, Mole Creek, Sheffield, Barrington and Spreyton.  The towns themselves were not decadent, just the produce emanating from them.

These included,

• Chocolate from the Anvers Chocolate Factory, most decadent of the lot
• Cherries from the Cherry Shed.  We missed the cherry season by two weeks so had to settle for the biggest, fattest, darkest red, depipped, frozen cherries which, once thawed, were sweet and flavoursome, albeit a bit mushy
• Cheese from the Ashgrove Cheese Factory
• Raspberries in chocolate from the Raspberry Farm.  We had lunch there but didn't venture into the realm of their desserts
• Icecream from the Van Diemen's Land Creamery
• Cider from the Spreyton Cider Company.  

Needless to say we had tastings at every venue.  There is nothing like fresh produce from the farm. The cider tastings were very generous and all were 7% alcohol, so we had to restrain ourselves.

030315 Decadence 

031315 Anvers Chocolates

030315 Maturation room at Ashgrove Cheese Factory

We saw some lovely scenery including the Meander River at Deloraine, Mount Roland near Sheffield and Devil's Gate Dam near Barrington.

030315 The Meander River at Deloraine

030315 Mt Roland near Sheffield

030315 Devil's Gate Dam

The country humour was in evidence as we passed through a commercial pine forest where there was a sign which read "Quiet, trees growing".  There was also a place named "Nowhere Else" but we could not find it so we can only assume it was somewhere else. 

030315 Proof there is a place called "Nowhere Else"

Rubbish collection day was quite a sight in Latrobe.  Maybe green coloured bins would be more aesthetically pleasing.

030115 Garbage collection day in Latrobe

It took us most of the day to do the "decadence circuit".  We arrived home to a temperature of 21 degrees but with a nuisance wind which caused all the caravan park's residents to stay indoors.

It is between seasons here for flowers but we did see three beautiful clematis at the Ashgrove Cheese Factory.

030315 Clematis at Ashgrove Cheese Factory

030315 Clematis at Ashgrove Cheese Factory

030315 Clematis at Ashgrove Cheese Factory

Journey to board a ship - Preamble to our Tasmanian Trip 24/2/2015 - 1/3/2015 (Days 1 to 6)

We started our 1760 kilometre journey from Brisbane to Melbourne, our boarding destination for the ferry to Tasmania, on 24 February 2015.  What a long way to go to board a boat!

We took the New England Highway initially, staying our first night in Glen Aplin, south of Stanthorpe.  It is fruit picking time in the Granite Belt and the back-packers were in evidence at the caravan park and there was fruit on the trees.

On our second night out we stayed at Gunnedah as we moved westward from Tamworth to intersect with the Newell Highway.  There was some useful rain overnight at Gunnedah, which would have helped the already well presented countryside.

The outstanding feature of the drive to our third night stopping place, Parkes, was the locust swarms.  The first thing we did on our arrival was clean the car and the front of the caravan, even before setting up camp.

The following night was spent in Jerilderie.  It is in the Riverina, Australia’s famous rice growing area.

Shepparton was our next stop, a short 145km drive from Jerilderie and quite close to Melbourne.

200km from Shepparton the next day, had us in Melbourne.  We detoured slightly to Nagambie to fill in some time and saw Nagambie Lake and the statue of the famous sprinter, Black Caviar, on its shoreline.

010315 Racing on Lake Nagambie

010315 The statue of Black Caviar at Nagambie in Victoria

010315 Black Caviar's lineage  

With the help of a Melbourne friend, we made our way to Station Pier, through extremely heavy Sunday afternoon Melbourne traffic.  The boarding arrangements were horrific and it took us two hours to board the Spirit of Tasmania.

010315 The "Spirit of Tasmania"

The ship was fully loaded and there was not much space between vehicles - quite an experience.

010315 On the "Spirit of Tasmania" looking aft

010315 On the "Spirit of Tasmania" looking for'ard

010315 On the "Spirit of Tasmania" looking aft
from the other side of the van

There wasn't much room in the cabin either.

010315 Our cabin in the "Spirit of Tasmania"

010315 The corridor outside our cabin on the "Spirit of Tasmania"

After an evening meal at the Captain’s Table – the name of the restaurant – we settled down in our small cabin for the 9 hour trip across Bass Strait to Devonport in Tasmania.  The voyage was noticeably rough at times, which gave us interrupted sleeps but no seasickness, thank goodness.

We arrived in Devonport at 6.00am to a sunny day, a temperature of 11 degrees, and a lazy, cool breeze.

010315 Leaving the "bowels" of the "Spirit of Tasmania"

Our Tasmanian adventure has begun.  It became increasingly overcast during the day and, alas, it didn't warm up!