TASMANIA.. West Coast 28.1.13

Strahan.

Today has been a 'wash the clothes and charge the gadgets' day as we are in a caravan park on the beach at Strahan. It is a pretty place nestled between the rainforest and Macquarie Harbour and is famous for being the base for Australia's most successful environmental protest, which saved the lower Franklin River from being dammed and hence flooding what is the largest remaining wilderness temperate rainforest area in the world. It is now World Heritage listed for the benefit of the planet and its people.

We explored the town and bought obligatory Huon Pine slabs to make a coffee table as well as a breadboard and the following day we watched a demonstration of a giant trunk being sawed in half. The sawdust has effective anti- silverfish properties and smells wonderful.. A bit like nutmeg I thought.

After strong winds the previous day, we set out on the Wildness Heritage River Cruise in warm, calm weather. Although we had allocated seats we were able to roam the ship at will, including the bridge. The captain took us across Macquarie Harbour and then through 'Hells Gates' into the Great Southern Ocean, not possible in bad weather and gave us an informative running commentary as we motored along.

The lighthouse guiding ships through the narrow Hells Gates.

Fish farming. .. Salmon.

Then a leisurely cruise up the Gordon River, stopping at Sarah Island to see remains of the penal settlement used for recalcitrant prisoners from Port Arthur, where prisoners were forced into hard labour. The classic novel by Marcus Clarke, 'For the Term Of His Natural Life', is based on the life of one such ( seemingly innocent) man.

We did a short bush walk and then had a scrumptious lunch after which a large number of guests had a nanna nap!

We saw our first tiger snake in Tasmania... A juvenile we were told and I was surprised as I thought they were a yellowish colour.

A young Huon Pine.... only 70 years old!

Back on dry land we bought tickets for a short play called ' The Ship That Never Was', a very clever and entertaining bit of theatre, partly based on an escape by boat from Sarah Island. Well worth seeing.

The next day we left our civilised caravan park in Strahan and drove to the People's Park to do a short walk to Hogarth Falls. A lot of it was boardwalk through rainforest and and quite lovely. The local school children had drawn their impressions of plants and written descriptions of them and these were on information boards along the walk. They were really engaging.

Hogarth Falls.

Before we left Strahan where we had phone service, we ordered flowers for Laurel, Glenn's mum, who will be 91 tomorrow. We hope you have a great day Laurel.

We then headed out of Strahan along the beach to the Macquarie Heads along a rough gravel road. There were a number of camp grounds there and from the beach we had a landbased view of the lighthouse guarding Hells Gates we saw the day before from the boat.

Queenstown.

The 41 km trip from Strahan to Queenstown was slow through heavy forest and along winding road, much of it uphill. Glenn regularly pulled over to allow faster vehicles to pass as there are no overtaking lanes. The descent into Queenstown is a moonscape of scarified, bare hills and eroded gullies, in such contrast to the lush rainforest which originally covered the hills. The town itself has a sense of timelessness and authenticity compared with touristy Strahan.

On the way out of the valley we stopped at the top of the hairpin bends to see Iron Blow. It is the decommissioned, open-cut mine which was the beginning of Queenstown's mining fame. The 'eagle-eye' view from the springboard is panoramic and the emerald water filling the huge hole is spectacular. It brought to mind The Super Pit in Broken Hill which is a monster by comparison!

We are enjoying the walks in cool conditions but still have a way to go to cover all 60 of them!

The lookout at the top is built around the rocky outcrop.... Making space for nature!

Frenchman's Cap Walk.

The Wall.

We ended the day with a visit to The Wall, an amazing low relief sculptural panorama by Greg Duncan. He tells the story of the Tasmanian Highlands and he told Glenn he would be finished in two years. The scale of the work is an incredible 100 meters long, carved from Huon pine with sensitivity and finely detailed realism. The beauty of the timber panels and their story, is continued on the floors which are laid with off-cuts from the laminated panels.

We are now on the edge of Lake King William for the night just west of Derwent Bridge. Very peaceful! So peaceful that we stayed two nights.

Dinner tonight cooked in butter on the fire.... beautiful flavour and pink flesh. It is a brown trout given to us by Norm who was camped near us at Burbury Lake last night. He fishes regularly for trout and hangs them in a safe to dry them. He also gave us a rainbow trout caught this morning which will be dinner tomorrow night. What a generous man. In exchange we were able to give him fresh date scones cooked by Glenn in the camp oven with a drop of warming port to sip as we sat around the fire. We also fed his cute dog Diesel, some bacon tid-bits at breakfast this morning. How good it is!

 

Tasmania -8. Arthur Pieman Conservation Reserve.

25.1.14

Allendale Gardens

We are in the north west of Tassie and started the day with a visit to the Allendale Gardens south of Smithton. The owners, Max and Lorraine Cross, have done a superb job of developing a magnificent garden which moves the viewer from one 'room' to the next so nothing is missed. Before we started we 'girded our loins' with home-made scones and blackberry jam made from the berries in the garden, with lashings of cream. The jam took me back to childhood days in Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains, when the whole family went blackberrying for Mum's jam. The flavour was the same... delicious!

In the garden the peacocks roam freely and we saw several impressive displays by males courting the females of their choice. I've never before watched the wonderful spread of beautiful feathers and heard the rattling sound the male makes when he shakes them. He then moves towards the female and attempts to entice her under the umbrella made by the fanned feathers. There were lots of baby peacocks as well and feathers which we could take with us. I collected enough for ten grandchildren!

Allen Creek which boasts platypus, ripples its way through the garden and is crossed by six bridges. The dahlias, roses and fushia's were in full flower and the variety of plants was stunning.

Apart from the summer flowers in full bloom at every turn, there were wonderful walks. There was a Birch Walk where the leaves shimmered in the light above our heads. Another was through a forest of tall ferns where the light was dim and the forest floor mossy. A third was through old growth forests with stands of stringy barks leading to the towering 'the Old Man of The Forest . The Californian Redwoods were majestic and in the fairy glade we searched for the hidden fairies just like children and kept at it until we found them all!

We also inspected the productive veggie patch thick with a crop of peas just being harvested, enough to keep the family supplied for the next year. They snap freeze them. They had traps set to catch the rats they thought were eating the beans, only to discover it was a hare tall enough to jump the wire boundary. The garden was a labour of love which absorbed us for hours and we were grateful to the owners who shared their life's work.

From the gardens we continued south-west until we reached the west coast at Couta Rocks and eventually the Athur - Pieman Conservation area. We chose Prickly Wattle camp ground for the night. There were a few others scattered through the bush but we had a lovely little space to ourselves. It was a warm day so we had bush shower.

Arthur River.

A young family not far away told us about the ranger organised activities and we went to a bush skills class and learned how to twist string from lengths of raffia and then cut and shape an object from kelp straight out of the ocean. Glenn made a stubby holder and my creation went in the bin today because I was too impatient and removed the stuffing too soon and the object shrank to miniature size!!

A successful kelp basket.

The ranger office had some interesting taxidermy, especially the eagle which we'd never get so close to in the wild.

Narrow bridge over the Arthur River.

Mouth of the river.

Looking east up the river.

Edge of the earth Pt. Gardiner

There is a plaque on the headland at Pt. Gardiner which marks the western-most point of Tasmania and it is known as the 'edge of the world'. When you stand there and look west, there is nothing but ocean until the east coast coast of Argentina!

Happy birthday Lib. Australia Day.

That night we drove as far as we could as we were backtracking, and ended up back on the wharf at Stanley where Glenn caught a squid and Beth showed him how to clean it. He has the bug and says he's getting up early tomorrow to catch some more as one is not enough for dinner. We'll see!

HE DID !!!! and we ate them cooked in butter and garlic on the campfire and they were delicious. We were camped beside the beautiful Henty River, about 20 kms from Strahan, soaking up the serenity.

 

TASMANIA - Stanley 23.1.14

From Boat Harbour we drove the short distance to Stanley and found the free camp on the docks, already home to many travellers, including our new friends Joe and Lourdes, Errol and Beth who got here a day earlier.

Very arty seat!

Glenn bought a rod and a squid jiggler from a guy on the jetty and he went fishing. Unfortunately he didn't catch anything but I caught two fish: one a gift from a Philipino lady who had a bucket full and another from Joe who also had a bucketful ! We filletted and floured them and cooked them for dinner, only to discover the Phillipino way which was cut them in rounds, salt and oil them, and throw them on the barbie. Much simpler! We have had two wonderful nights here around the 'fire in a gas bottle' barbecue with our new friends from Singleton, and have learnt a lot about fishing and cooking as well.

Beth does the cooking and Joe, Errol and Lourdes do the fishing. Works well.

Today we climbed the landmark 'Nut'. It's the solidified lava lake from an extinct volcano which dominates Stanley and the surrounding area. There is the option of a chair lift up and back or a steep walk with stunning views. We walked up, did the two kilometres circular walk at the top and then walked back. The views from the top were panoramic and we saw paddy melons feeding along the way in sheltered forest ares. A lot of the vegetation was windswept, with hundreds of mutton bird nests dug in the low scrub. Unfortunately a lot of the birds die on their epic journey and are washed ashore on beaches as we see every year at Scott's Head on the NSW coast. At the top we met a German girl who is crewing for a British fellow. They intended to sail to Japan but the weather is not suitable at the moment so they are moored in the harbour just near us. We looked down onto our car and van parked at the base, the marina, jetty and the bay. On top of the Nut the wind was strong enough to hold you up.

Our car and van is fifth from the left, still hitched to the car.

While we were in Stanley we indulged in a seafood lunch at the pub. We had half a lobster each with salad and a few wines and enjoyed the view and the sunshine. The area is famous for its crayfish and rightly so we thought.

The area also has a famous son. The first Tasmanian Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, was born here and the cottage he raised his family in, is now open to the public and has a wonderful collection of memorabilia, and historic documentation of his life and times. He and his exceptional wife raised a family of eleven children. He died in 1939.