​February 17 - Minor bucket list day

Today we crossed something off our bucket list - we walked around Dove lake in the Cradle Mountain National Park. It was beautiful! The circuit is 6 km through heathland and woods of beech, myrtle and other strange and exotic lushness.

Lindsay heading out on the Dove Lake circuit

They list it as an easy walk of 2 hours - we took over 3 hours which is normal for us, we always take longer! In addition to the regular Dweag (Wheat-Doig) stops to look at birds and photograph flowers and generally look at everything that caught our eye along the track, I struggled a bit with the climbs (which weren't expected) such is the dismal state of my fitness level. But we made it! Yay!!! Wet - oh yes because it drizzled and rained much of the walk. But as they say this is Tasmania! We were close to cloud line some of the time - it was gorgeous and we'd both highly recommend it - that's if you can't manage the 6-7 day Overland track! I tell you our thermals and raincoats AND walking sticks got a good work out today.

The next day we left for Wynyard via Sheffield, but with promises to return to do some of the other walks accessible from this northern end of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP.
The north-west coast is different to the north east coast. Calmer waters, big tides, shallower and with an air of calm.

Rain clouds over Wynyard

We camped at Beach Retreat tourist park right on the beach - really beautiful with a board walk right along the beach into the village.
We stuffed ourselves almost sick on a Sunday roast lamb lunch at the local pub and dashed home between squalls of rain. Those clouds were teetering on saturation point!
The weather has been unseasonable it seems with a fair bit of rain and much cooler temperatures than normal - so we took a drive into Burnie to buy more thermals. They have been our life savers.
The next day we were heading  into the wide blue ceiling in another tiny plane in the care of yet another Biggles team whisking us off to King Island this time off the north west corner of Tassie mainland.

​February 14 - back on Tassie mainland
Back on the mainland, we were rather achy and tired after 4 days of rather rough roads - but it was worth every bump. We took a much needed day or so rest, time to wash and regroup before heading west to Burnie and Wynyard. We spent a few lost moments wandering in the Tamar wetlands and picked a swag of plump blackberries growing wild along the side of the road - blackberries and cream for dinner that night ... yum!

All clean and rested, we headed slowly west stopping every now and then to ogle the view - it is so beautiful on this part of Tassie, lush and green and delightfully bucolic (unfortunately I didn't get a photo). Villages with British-sounding names, gardens bursting with glorious colour, fat cows ... one place we stopped Chudleigh is wall to wall, or rather roadside to roadside, roses. The reason we stopped was to buy honey. The variety was astonishing from honey collected from the iconic Tassie Leatherwood, through messmate, stringy bark etc etc to honeys flavoured with lavender, rose, spices, chili and many more - plus honey icecream, yum!
We took the scenic route from Mole creek - such a cute name - with views over the West Tier mountain range and ended up at Gowrie Park where we camped for a couple nights - an easy drive to Cradle Mountain NP. This tiny village is surrounded by soaring, rocky peaks and nestles at the foot of Mt Roland a huge steep rock wall.

Lorinna 'railway station'

After we set up camp, we took a drive through some awesome countryside including a very interesting settlement, Lorinna, deep in the highlands. No through roads. It's real 'hippy' territory and quiet fascinating - lots of 'veggie' gardens, buildings cobbled together, shells and odd pottery tucked into tree hollows. Back to nature with some interesting farms built near the Lorinna railway station. Never did figure out where the line started and finished but presumably it was connect with either mining or the timber industries.
We came across a young woman stripped to the all together bathing in mud on the edge of Lake Cethana. This is the other Tasmania, the interesting one harking back to the days of Bob Brown and the Gordon below Franklin protest days. It was a fascinating drive albeit longer that we expected because we ended up on a mountain track with no place to go!

​Flinders Island 11-13 February

Saturday we spent time in the north of the island and that included a delightful picnic lunch stop at Emita beach overlooking quiet, tranquil waters.
Furneaux islands were discovered by the British 1773 - over 50 islands splatter across the sea. Of course others had described them before that. This and other gems of history both human and natural we learnt at the history museum at Emita. We both reckon it is one of the best museums we have visited. With many rooms devoted to specific parts of history - maritime including ship building, geological and wild life, and there's a reconstructed mutton bird processing 'plant' dating back to the 1800 and early 1900s. Quite an elaborate set up albeit rather grizzly when you think about the reality of it. Moonbird is the aboriginal name for these beleaguered birds, perhaps because they fly in to their burrows on dusk or later after feeding all day far out to sea; they are actually short tail shear waters. I believe they got their name as 'mutton' birds from the early settlers, whalers and sealers who ate them. Apart from their food value, they were highly prized for their rich oil which is high in omega3s; you don't want to know how that was collected. Rather ugly! They are now semi-protected, fortunately. Hunting these birds is a traditional practice for the aboriginals of Lady Barren Island.  They harvest the oil and use it to produce an extensive range of toiletries and therapeutics.

We camped that night at a beach at the southern end of Marshall Bay, totally alone!

Sunday 12 February
The ever present wind started to pick up in intensity and the forecast was for stronger winds the following day when we were to fly home - oh dear. Our flight was rescheduled a number of times the upshot of which saw us heading back south to camp at Yellow Beach again, but we indulged in a scrumptious dinner at the 'pub' overlooking Lady Barren Beach in the twilight! A photo couldn't do it justice as the wind added mood to the raw power of the setting. We tasted abalone for the first time! Can you believe it? Seafood here is plentiful and fresh, you order what seafood you want in advance and the fishermen catch it for you! is that service or what?

Monday 13 February
We woke to very strong winds. The stands of melaleucas/paper barks were clacking together in a crazy Morris dance, whispering and whinging as they swayed and jostled. It turned out to be a day of waiting as our flight departure changed numerous times, but we finally got off the ground, albeit in extremely scarily high winds. Biggles and Algy did a brilliant job of bringing us back to mainland Tassie safely albeit on a bumpy flight path! It was a wonderful visit.

​Flinders Island - Friday 10 February

Yellow Beach

We woke to a grey misty day wrapping quietly around us cozy and safe like a blanket. It is frog-weather today and tiny scraps of glistening skin on springs are bouncing all around as well as in the toilet! Yes we have a toilet in this bush camp as well a BBQ. The 'gobble bonk' of frogs breaks a delicious silence. We are at Yellow beach and this morning the water beckons but there's little room to dry bathing paraphernalia in the mist-laden air.
Post frog-exploring, we launched into the day with a BBQ breakfast banquet (these things are all relative) - in the mist. Quite delicious but then all food tastes better outside. Then we were off to explore.

Special pellets are in the chalet to feed these darlings

The chalet has sleeping upstairs, fire downstairs 

We discovered Patriarch Inlet and Wild Life sanctuary where pademelons and Bennett wallabies eat out of your hand. We wandered across marshy green then through a little forest of trees and bushes where we happened upon 'George of the jungle' caterpillar out exploring on the end of his silken thread.

This sanctuary is cared for by a small group of dedicated 'friends'. We returned there to camp that night - we slept in the van. There's shower and toilet and a small chalet with a huge fire box and chimney - we lit a fire to dry our clothes and shoes. It all seemed quite luxurious to us - warmth and space can take on such proportions.

The chalet

Flinders Island - Thursday 9 February 2017
Photos, as magical as they may be, miss so much when trying to describe the world out there - sadly, so do words. The sky might be glorious with clouds edged in pale gold or crimson at sunset or drooping under engorged clouds slatey with unshed rain. But without the sound of wind through trees, waves lapping or crashing, or the heavy spicy scent of coastal scrub and ...... I realise that I am waxing a tad lyrical, but often I feel totally inadequate when attempting to describe the world around me.
So where was I? Oh yes heading off to Flinders Island with a young 'Biggles and Algy' tweaking buttons and dials, watching multicoloured screens not much further than an arm's reach away - I am seated right behind the cockpit.
From my tiny window, I look down on pewter seas reflecting a watery sun peaking through its early morning cloud-blankets and suddenly there's the shoreline edged in knitted lace. We are there!
The Furneaux Island group and merely scattered scraps of rock, tips of an ancient rocky land bridge to the mainland now submerged. Once again I am reminded how little I know about our Island nation and resolve to explore more, albeit one tiny corner of it.

We collect our tiny, rather down at the heel, camper van - windows won't close because of moss growing in the runners, shelves fall down when you go around a corner and the gear box is on its last legs, but it's home for a few days - and head off armed with a map and a few provisions towards Strezlecki National Park. We explore coves and silent beaches edged with huge granite boulders smeared with brilliant orange, yellow and white lichen, breathe deep the warm spicy smell of coastal plants - succulents like samphire and pig face, native currant bush (Heath-type plant - this one at least. There seems to be loads which all look like wild currant to me) and listen to the quiet whispering of breezes through she-oaks. Sounds, smells and sights which take me back to holidays on the sand dunes of Pt Lonsdale and so many other coastal places in Australian and elsewhere.
First day we got bogged! Of course - there has to be one in each trip (hopefully only one). So many roads to explore but ..... first we just needed to test the limits of this little sleeper capsule that we'll be holed up in over the next 5 days .... hmmmmmmm! Pushing the van, all good exercise - for me NOT!

So what happened between August and now?!
It's February and we are camped beside a tranquil beach with quiet and time to think. Even the waves are simply a gentle lapping. Where in the heck are we? We're camping at Yellow beach, Flinders island within sight of Cape Barren island - in very rustic and rudimentary bushcamp-style and the peace and quiet is heavenly. It's just what I have been hanging out for - my mind is always so noisy!
What have we done since I left off in Georgia - on the travel side of life that is?
Well .... we first we took a short caravan trip to get some dust in our hair, (test out a few modifications to the caravan) and to get a big eyeful of the glorious night sky in Innes National Park on Yorke Peninsula, SA. The NP encompasses a rather awesome ship wreck coast - yet another one along the southern shores of Oz. It's a wild sea we border to our south! But the coast is awesome - rugged cliffs from which birds hurl themselves only to be picked up and dumped right back by gale-force winds roaring in from the Bight. Cliffs that have been carved into fanciful shapes, tower over a turquoise sea and send out tiny gleams of glitter from remnant shards of gypsum embedded in the tracks - tons of gypsum were once 'collected' here some of which ended up in our schoolrooms. Remember chalk, the not so nice chalk dust, cleaning the blackboard ? seems a long while ago.

The patterns give pause for thought - I need Geology 101!

Then we hopped on a train and went to Sydney for a month. Boy talk about contrasts! From gypsum-encrusted lakes and gale force south-westerlies blowing in from the Southern Ocean to Potts Point, the Vietnamese fish markets of Cabramatta (don't ask - it was on the to do list!) and driving south-easterly winds piling in from the Pacific Ocean sculpting similar phantasmagorical works of art in east-facing sandstone cliffs - this is one small corner of Australia. Wonderful is it?!
In Sydney we joined a group of birdwatchers and headed miles out to sea to the edge of the continental shelf. Boy were we sick ... ugh! It was way too rough. We were on the trail of the pelagic birds that sail over those waters waiting for the rich pickings welling up from the deeps. And they're not the only ones.... we saw humpback whales, dolphins and an enormous sun fish - a first for me and what a huge, strange creature it seemed to me.
And before we returned to Melbourne, we completed our walk around Sydney harbour, wahoo! According to the map, we'd walked 60km PLUS 50-60 ks of side loops as well as some repeated favourite segments over 4-5 years, a little bit at a time in snatched escapes to Sydney. Who knows how far we actually walked. The harbour is superb, an experience which takes you clambering over rocks and through tidal pools one minute and then up steep steps to burst out into suburbia and fragrant gardens the next. And always the vistas are beautiful, awesome, and spectacular. We enjoyed every step - almost!
Now we are exploring Tassie and some of its island. It promises to be a journey to remember. Talk to you anon!
[Posted some time later when we have internet access  albeit intermittent - such are the joys of travel! And incidentally we left Flinders Island in 60 k/h winds.  What a contrast]

Tomorrow and many tomorrows - Tasmania! 4 Feb 2016

What time does the sun get up? after us for sure tomorrow ... ugh!  We load the van and months worth of gear and food etc and head for Tassie for a new voyage of discovery - Tassie's islands, Bass Strait islands, coastal and mountain wilderness, lakes and rivers, 'bush walking' and  .... general gypsy-like days of bliss.  I'll catch up with you along the road somewhere.