Tasmania Through Our Eyes.

With our friends Hilda And Jean we headed for the Tasman peninsula and Port Arthur.

 This is Jean trying to hide in the barrel.
There where many dogs like this place along both sides of the causeway to stop the convicts from escaping.

 As you can see we found more blackberries along the road and yes we all had a good feed.

 There is a small place on the peninsula that is called Doo town and they
all have special names for their places. Doo Love It & Gunnadoo are just a few that we like.

Went onto the blowholes, the Devil Kitchen and the Archway.

At the blowholes we came across a caravan selling food so time for lunch. The best was ice cream and mixed berry's, More blackberries yummy yum. So we all had a dish of this delicious delights.

Spent a  night in a motel.  That night we also did a guided ghost tour of Port Arthur. Very interesting. Specially when there is a good crowd, and a good guide.

Next day we went back to look around the historical site ant to learn bout the convicts. 

So that will be our next story. Bye.

Tasmania Through Our Eyes

Campbelltown our next stop, just a over nighter at a free park. Took a walk down the main street to look at all the tiles of the convicts which were sented out from England. Some where so young and sent here on such small crimes. The old bridge was designed by a convict then built by convicts. Also these lovely carving carved by a Tasmanian.

 Passing through the town of Ross we stopped to have a cuppa and we had heard of these beautiful custard squares, so just had to try them out. It was really good.

   As we wondered down to the famous old bridge. 

Bob found a new friend and stopped to have a chat.   


 Oatlands was our next stop here we stayed at the old flour mill. It was free for the night, so stayed 2 nights.

All these towns that we have stopped at are on the main road to Hobart. Down the centre. It was a good drive and some interesting place to see. but one of the best bonus we have so far come across are the people of Tasmania, they friendly and very welcoming.

We arrived in Acton Park and stayed here for about 4 weeks at a very special friends place, with Marie and her family.
We also had special friends arrived from Perth WA .
During this time Marie also celebrated her big 60 birthday. So was something special to be there at that time.

Our next adventure is to visit the Tasman Peninsula with our Perth friends.
Bye for now.

Tasmania through our eyes.

From Sheffield we moved onto Deloraine a great spot which had small statues place down the main street. We stayed in the caravan park for a couple of days, which was right by the river, which had platypus, ducks and geese playing around so was lovely to sit and watch them. We then moved onto a free parking area just down from the police station and stayed another 5 days. And would you believe it there where 6 other van from Western Australia there so the first night we all gathered for happy hour to chat and to hear all about place people had visit and where they were going. A good night was had by all.

While here we took off to explore the countryside.

Visiting Alum Gorge, a great walk into see the gorge. And by now we have slowly started to wear long pants and a jumper. As the weather is cooling. At Chudleigh we found a honey place with a variety of honeys, the one I loved was Aniseed and Bob went for the Leather wood. So after our purchases back to the van we went to make some toast and try out our honey, yummy.
We also visited King Solomon cave and Devils gullet, here it was so cold and windy that we just walked in had a quick look then out again. .Along the way we came across this old lady by the petrol station. We have found that the Tasmanian people have a great imagination, and we often see their artistic skills popping

up as we drive around.
And this house covered with a creeper. There is so much to see by just driving around. Also found a berry farm, so went in for lunch nice hot soup and raspberry crumble boy this was beautiful. Our next stop was at Longford a caravan park on the edge of a river, a good clean and tidy park. Woolmer heritage Farm we had a guided tour and alot of history belonging to this place. A trip in Evandale where they have a huge festival every year, the pennyfarthing races. A quaint little town. Between Longford & Evandale we came across our first lot of blackberries, we ate more than we picked they were so good and just the right time to pick them. So we had blackberries in the freezer for a short while.  Campbelltown was our next stop. So more next time. bye for now.

Tasmania through our Eyes

In February 2014 we boarded the Spirit of Tasmania for a trip to Tassie.

We had a day trip across Bass Strait, it was calm and sunny so we really enjoyed the trip.

It was a full day sailing, and on arriving into Devonport, and after going  through customs, we were going through the gate when we saw  two people waving madly at us, and it was our good friends Adrianna & John.They had been in Tassie for a week so decided to meet us. We spent the evening with them, then next day after stocking up on supplies we all headed to La Trobe. Where we spent a couple of hours going through this amazing shop, it had toys teddies , dolls, and was like  little rabbit warrens, going on and out of the different rooms.

 On to Railton the place of Topiary here we had a picnic lunch in the park. Met the man who wanted to put Railton back on the map, so started the topiary around the town. He had done a amazing job and was also teaching the locals how to train their plants.

Next it was Sheffield the town of murals. Spent a few days here. Bob and I stayed at a free parking ground, while John & Adrianne stayed in a cabin. The murals where beautiful, and every year alot of them are repainted and a different scene appears. Here our friends left us to fly back to the main land. We took a few trips out from here, visiting Wilmot with its many different letterboxes. Also a day trip to Tasmanza, a miniature town. This was great it had a maze which we spent time trying to find our way out..

We had a great day roaming around this village. Next day time for more adventures.

So look for our next blog to see more of our travels.

Hello,

We continued our way to Cooktown, but stopping at many of the bays along the way.

This bay was blowing a gale, but the views where wonderful.Looking back we could see the fires burning on the hillside. They Do a lot of control burning up north.

What do you think of this beautiful tree art, we found at one of the campsites. Someone must have had a great imagination.

We also called into Keatings Lagoon and found these lovely magpie geese, hundreds of them, and had a great walk around the park.

A lorikeet having a feed in the botanical gardens.

And found this wooden snake at the botanical gardens in Cooktown

We stayed in this cabin at the caravan park. And have you ever stayed in the same room with 2 grown who snore all night. Not the best thing to do. But we loved cooktown with its old buildings, and small

township. Unfortuately we only stayed for the one night before moving on, heading back to Wonga Beach but taking the main road back.

This boat just interested us as some one lives on the house boat.

T

 The benches up the top where amazing as it told the story of the town and Captain Cooks arrival. The tiles all were done by children, and very interesting reading. The boat above was also interesting as it play music when you hit the different pipes. The bay of Cooktown. Before we left we heard that the best fish & chips were sold here so we had some for lunch before we left. On the way home saw a dingo kangaroos. We really enjoyed our trip and there was certainly a lot to see. So worth taking the time to go.

 Bye for now.

 

The Bloomfield Track, a rough dirt road, going through the Daintree National Park heading towards CookTown. People told us that it was boring nothing to see just dirt and a bouncy ride. Well I'm glad we didn't listen, and we always go when people tell us that, because most of the time we have a great time and see so many different thing, just as this was the case. A good friend also came along in his car in case we had a breakdown or got stuck. Yes the road was

dusty and bouncy that was part of the adventure. We had a few rivers to cross and the boys had a swim at one of them where the small fish exfoliated their feet.

as you can see the trees and shrubs were covered in dust.

Here we are

stopping for a bite to eat  and a cup  of tea. Along the way. Our first night we stayed at a place called the lions den. We slept in these donger,  we were told to try their pizzas out will we ordered one and that fed the three of us it had everything on it, it was yummy and tasty.

The Den had many memorabilia around the wall so we spent some time having a good look around.

Now look at these unusual flowers, the top one was the cannonball flower and the blue one was the jade flower, I thought they were lovely.

And the sign at the bottom certainly put the message across.

Will continue along our way to Cooktown next time. Bye for now.

Hello to All,

Townsville our next stop, we stayed at the show grounds just out of town. Spent some time looking around Townsville, it is Australia's largest tropical city and has been recognized as a centre for marine research. With the Great Barrier Reef at its door step. It caters for the tourism with a lot of Café and restaurants along the foreshore. And its a great spot for water sports with jet skiing, water skiing, white water rafting many other water adventures.. We attend the night market on the foreshore it was a great night. good weather and a lot of happy people. Townsville is also the place that Bob fulled the car with petrol instead of diesel, we had it drained out the next day with no damaged except for the pocket with a huge fuel bill.
We travelled up the coast calling into many of the beautiful beaches, walking the gorges and seeing many waterfalls. In Cairns we took the Kuranda Scenic train up to Kuranda and spent a day wandering around looking at he craft & art shop. We came back on the sky rail. A bit scary as it was raining and we couldn't even see the cable so it was like we were hanging in limbo.
Port Douglas we had breakfast with the birds at Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary this was really good but certainly don't leave your food unattended or it would be gone.
Wonga Beach a campsite right on the beach we intended staying for 4 days but eight weeks later we headed off. We really had a great time here and were able to attend the markets in Mossman under the rain trees. Wonga was also a spot where we could travel out to see different places, like the Daintree Nation Park

 We several days traveling to the daintree as there was a lot to see and plenty of walks. This huge bird is the cassowary, and we saw lots of these as we moved north of Queensland.  Even the beaches where good but I wouldn't swim at them.

At Wonga beach a lot of the visitors would go out fishing and any left over we would have a fish and chip night. We would take our plate, knife & fork and have a great social evening. Some one would site poetry, sing tell jokes, but we all enjoyed it. In  Mossman we went to the Mossman gorge which was a good walk in to see a beautiful waterfall and even better when it had been raining. The Bloomfield track was a trip we did and took 4 days to do. So will write about that next time. Bye for now.