Time Flies

As they say, time flies when you're having fun. Once again I have been out of range for a while, still no phone coverage as that is with Virgin. This iPad is with telstra and not always reliable. I had three days with Zudi in Hobart. It was good to stretch out in a real bed for a few days and to leave the van open to air. I went to a Red Hatters lunch and met the twenty ladies there. There is wonderful fellowship with people I've never met before. I hope to stay with Zudi on the way back.

Before I left Hobart, I met with Judith and David whom Jan and I had met on a cruise a couple of years ago. They may not be the King and Queen of Hobart but they are certainly the Duke and Duchess. Both have generations of family involvement in Tasmania. We had coffee at the Henry Jones Hotel which I think is  part of the old IXL buildings. David's grandfather was the original Jones there, I think.  We had a quick walk through the Salamanca markets and will spend more time there next weekend if I am around.

From Hobart I went to the Wall in the Wilderness - a continuing work of art detailing the history of the area. The artist has already spent six years working on his timber sculpture. It is hard to capture the proportions and the scope of the wall as photos are not allowed and the only postcards show small areas of detail. The work is incredible. Muscle definition is beautifully portrayed. Even veins in the hands, neck etc stand out. The photos here are taken of the postcards I bought.

Hobart Old and New

Richmond is one of the oldest towns in Tasmania, only half an hour's drive from Hobart. I stopped there for most of the day yesterday. With its many very old buildings and English style gardens, it is a delightful little town. At this time of the year, as the Autumn leaves turn, it is beautiful to stroll through the area and savour the sights and smells of the town.

The Catholic Church is the oldest church in Australia still in use  and stands on top of a hill (of course!).  I think the Richmond bridge may have been convict built. It is an interesting structure as its symmetry gives the impression of a reflection of the water below. Several buildings date from the 1830s and give a solid established air to the town.

Over the past fifteen years one of the creative visionaries of the area has put together a model of Old Hobart Town.  He used maps, plans and historical records to recreate Hobart so it is an authentic model of the city in miniature. Among the buildings are hundreds of figures, all in proportion, living life as it would have been - although embodying the quirky sense of humour of the builder. Trees have been planted and developed through bonsai techniques to be appropriate size and shape. The attention to detail is incredible with fallen logs, grazing animals and even my granny - a buxom lady driving a horse and cart.

A  couple of weeks ago  I met up with some ladies from the Red Hat Society and I am now in Hobart staying with Zudi who has made me very welcome. On Friday I am meeting with the Red Hatters for lunch. I came prepared with a purple outfit and a red fascinator. I have my name badge which has my name and also my royal title, Lady Loquacious, Dowager Duchess of Dismal Decrepitude. I may be falling apart but I'm not reluctant to admit it.

Today I caught the Hop On Hop Off double decker bus for a tour of the city. It was interesting to see so many of the miniature buildings in their modern setting. The ticket is valid for three days which is sensible for sight seeing. I did the circuit then roamed around the town for quite a while, rather than having to race through a lot of activities in one day. Tomorrow I will go back and see a couple of things which really appealed to me.

Government House

Zinc works

Museum of Old and New Art MONA

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The forecast is for good weather for a few days so, all going well, I will zip across to Queenstown and Strahan on the weekend. I made the most of a fine day to empty the van, wash everything and sweep out two weeks of sand and dried mud. I also shoved under the seat several things that I don't expect to need. I packed in Brisbane in Summer so much of the clothing I brought is far too light. It is hard to pack for a different season at the best of times but clothes for a Queensland Winter are not suitable here.

Give Me a Home Among the Gum Trees

A couple of nights of camping near gum trees has given me some differing experiences. The night before last I stopped at a fairly crowded parking area. The only flat spot was under some very tall trees, lovely shade when I arrived. As the evening wore on the wind picked up. I was lying in bed with my moon roof open looking at the trees blowing madly in the wind. I was trying to tell myself that the tree had been there for two hundred years and was unlikely to drop on me in the next twelve hours. I was mentally writing my blog, that if the branch that fell was small, I wouldn't care. If it was large, I wouldn't know! When a fairly large limb dropped near my car in the middle of the night, I realised that my safety was more important than word games on a blog and moved the van down near the beach, more sheltered than I had been and hidden behind low growing shrubs that couldn't fall.

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Tucked Away Among the Gum Trees

The following night I was at the Fortesque Bay camp ground. Once again I parked under tall trees but I was very careful where I parked. The ground was wet and slippery and I had come in on a dirt road, so the car is absolutely filthy. With the ground so muddy, the inside is also pretty grubby. But it was right on the beach and a beautiful peaceful spot to park. I still have potatoes that Nikki's dad gave me and a couple of eggs so I cooked up a feast. If I had waited I could have had paella with some fellow campers.

They say that a day where you learn nothing is wasted. My neighbors introduced me to wwoofing. Cathy and Mark with their girls Paige and Jordan are Willing Workers On Organic Farms. After registering for that scheme, families or individuals go anywhere they are needed - not necessarily organic farms. They have been doing maintenance style work, laying pavers, mending fences etc and are about to go to look after horses. They stay for a week or two and then move on. While they are working, they have meals and accommodation provided and get a chance to try out different lifestyles.

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Entry to Static Display

The past two days I have been at Port Arthur. It is hard to believe that a place of so much beauty could have been such an inhumane hell hole. Many of the original buildings have survived the years, others have been restored and others are partially destroyed as a result of large bush fires. Almost all buildings were convict designed and built. The information centre is extremely well done with static displays giving huge amounts of information. There are tours and cruises, all led by very knowledgeable guides. Port Arthur is only about 50 km as the crow flies from Hobart and until about 1905, the only way in was by sea. I think only three prisoners ever escaped as most couldn't swim and the seas are very rough. Overland wasn't generally possible as the only way out was through Eaglehawk Neck which was guarded by the military with dogs.

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 Women in Port Arthur

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A Soldier's Life

The settlement reflected the values of the times, where kids as young as seven were transported. The juvenile centre at Port Arthur was the first in the world to provide for youngsters and separate them from adult criminals. They were educated and given a chance to make a life after their seven years of incarceration were over. Adults here were generally reoffenders and conditions were harsh. Various types of punishment were trialled, from harsh floggings to sensory deprivation in total dark and silence.

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Timber getting

It was no wonder that, when the penal colony closed, authorities tried to obliterate this part of our history. Many of the buildings were demolished and removed before public opinion demanded that history and Port Arthur should be maintained.

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Church walls are all that remain

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Memorial to victims of 1995 massacre

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Port Arthur

Leaving Port Arthur, I detoured through Eaglehawk Neck and recorded some of the beauty there while the sun shone. The blow hole was quite spectacular as there was quite a swell. In the photo you can see the small passageway where the sea rushes through. In the same area are the fossil cliffs with crashing waves at the base. The rocks are eroded into such interesting shapes. The tessellated pavement effect in the same area gives just another view of the patterns of nature.

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Fossil Cliffs

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Tesselated Pavement

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The Blow Hole

Tonight I am staying at the Dunalley pub which provides free parking, on the assumption I suppose that travellers will support the pub's bar and/ or dining room. There are dozens of vans here.

Natural Beauty

Wet, Windy but still Wandering

The past few days I've been in the north-eastern corner. I started my jaunt there with a few hours in St Helens where the main attraction was free hot showers at the marina. I knew I was heading for a camp with no shower. I never thought I'd see the day where I didn't have at least one shower and in Summer, two or three. It would be hard to skip the shower on a hot day but there have only been two really hot days  and I was in a caravan park then.

Marie and Bill

I spent the last two days at the Bay of Fires. I believe Captain Furneaux named it for the Aboriginal camp fires he saw burning as he sailed this coast in 1773 but it could quite as easily have been named for the orange lichen that covers the rocks up and down the beach. I stayed at a camp called Cosy Corner 2, right on the beach. With wild, windy weather, right on the beach was probably not the best spot to be but it was cosy behind the vans and in bed at night.

Once again I was amazed by the clear white sand and the aqua blue sea, swiftly changing to a deep aquamarine verging on purple. With these contrasts and the orange rocks, the shore here is just magnificent. I waited two days for the sun to come out but there were just momentary flashes of sunlight and nothing better forecast for the next few days.

So again I am on the move. There have been some really chilly days and evenings and I imagine it will only get colder as we move more into Autumn. As I haven't been to the south of the state yet, I thought it was time to go there before it gets too cool. I had met up with Bill and Marie again at Cosy Corner and had a coffee with them in St Helens on the way through (after another hot shower). A quick drive through St Marys and Bichenau has brought me just south of Swansea at Mayfield Bay campground. I had a short walk along the beach but the sand blasted me with so much wind behind it. I'm not being sociable tonight. I'll finish this then read for a while and get away early tomorrow for Sorrell on my way to Port Arthur.

A busy Day

As on most days, I made the most of a shady spot and a dim camper and slept till about 9.30. Plenty of hot water at this camping ground so I had a long hot shower and washed my hair. Three dollars and four minutes was all it took. Feeling human enough to face the day, I strolled back to the van stopping to talk to a few people along the way.

I followed up on an invitation from last night and had coffee and home made biscuits with Marie who was waiting for her husband Bill to arrive back from climbing a mountain.The clothes I had rinsed out 12 hours ago were now dry so I packed up and set off for Derby, just under 50 km away.

Derby was the site of a very prosperous tin mine in the mid 1800s with thousands of workers, about half Chinese many of whom had come from the goldfields of Victoria. Tin mining requires vast amounts of water which was initially piped long distances through intricate constructions of races and pipes. Eventually a huge dam was built. After exceptionally heavy rain, the dam burst flooding the whole valley and the mine with more than a billion litres of water. An interpretation centre in town gives a great multi-media explanation, well worth a visit.

That was my first stop of the day. After a good look around and enjoying the 15 metre screen experience, I had a coffee and wrote some postcards. After a stroll to the post office, I went back to the cafe for a long lunch, reading my book and also sharing travel stories with a couple of groups of fellow travelers. I think there are more visitors than locals in Tassie and all seem to want to talk. And here in Derby that was particularly noticeable. From its heyday with ten thousand residents, it is a tiny town of no more than 30 buildings with half a dozen shops probably barely making a living.

After a long hard day so far, I found the camping area - once again a free camp. I had a bit of a chat with Sharon and Doug. When they left for a walk through town, I had a little afternoon nap. Refreshed, I followed with a stroll along the river bank, at least a hundred metres each way. A few others had arrived by now and I got some recommendations for the next few camps.

I met one of those intrepid cyclists. Antonina is a Polish Canadian woman in her late 50s doing a three week cycle from Hobart, up the east coast, across to Launceston and back to Hobart. Then she is flying to Alice Springs to do another three weeks around Uluru and The Olgas. Each year she goes somewhere different, Norway, Spain, Japan being recent trips. Some trips are more strenuous than others and she may not have cycled more than about 1000km!! Here in Tassie which I would have thought was fairly mountainous, she was averaging 50km a day. While she pitched her tent, I made a cup of tea for us, figuring that she had her preparations down to a fine art by now.

Sharon called in later and we had a long talk. I hope I catch up with her again. She and Doug have discovered geocache.com which I intend to find out more about. It is like a global online treasure hunt - sounds like a great interest to add to a trip.

A bit of reading, a few rows of knitting and mt exhausting day was at an end. I have been out of Internet range so this blog is already old news but I'll post it anyhow.

Going East

I decided not to stay in Launceston. A city is a city. I wandered around a bit and ended up in Scottsdale. This is an RV friendly town with quite a large free camping area on the outskirts of town. There are twenty or more groups here in caravans, campers and tents. I am impressed with the hardy souls cycling or hiking around this mountainous state. They arrive, pitch a tent, cook a meal and look as though they have just done a pleasant stroll.

The local tourist centre is extremely helpful. I got a lot of information and planned a day of sightseeing. My days of course are only half days by the time I get started. I am very thoughtful and try to let those who want to get on the road early have first use of the amenities. There are good facilities here, although a hot shower costs $3 - but that is very cheap camping as this is the only cost to stay. There are efficient bbqs and plenty of taps with fresh water. The resident ducks wander around the camp grounds and obviously don't fear for their safety - probably too old and tough for the pot! A platypus lives in the creek and some campers saw it last night. I will do my little vigil tonight and try my luck.

During the day I went for a drive to the Ralph Falls which are among the tallest falls in Tasmania. They must also be the narrowest falls. No doubt there are times of the year when there is a better flow but today they seemed to be about 50cm wide for most of the fall, and a metre of so at the widest part. That was after a hike down from the car park. The information I got from town said it was an easy 20 minute walk. I've actually done a few walks recently and manage Level 1 walks with no problems. This was not an easy walk and others agreed with me. I went back to the tourist centre and suggested they edit their information as several people who were on the track with me said they would not have started the trek if they had known how difficult it was. There were a few young people who just about ran down and back up, but for oldies the material was misleading.

On the way to the falls I stopped for a while in the very small township of Legerwood to admire the carvings. A number of trees in the town were to be removed because they were becoming dangerous. A forward thinking group raised money for the trees to be carved as monuments to local men killed at war. Each tree features one serviceman e.g one shows a fellow armed and on duty on one branch, asleep and dreaming of his lady love (also carved) on another branch, etc. They have obviously been treated and polished and are a great sight lining the Anzac Park. Another couple are in the park in Scottsdale.

After Autumn, Winter and Summer this last week, it was back to pleasant mild weather today. The scenery is wonderful on a clear day with so many mountains and valleys and trickling streams everywhere I walk. Camping at night is fine. I rarely bother putting up the awning as the van is very cosy at night. There is always someone to talk to and to share a drink or a cuppa. People who are lonely on the road only have themselves to blame.