WYUNA - POPULATION: 3650

WEDNESDAY 28.3.2012: It is with further regret that we report the demise of yet another Leyland Sister to the call of the wild. Last night as the sun set over the campsite Poodle Palace was invaded with flea sized insects. The once white ceiling was black with the critters, plus throw in a few mosquitoes and moths and that spelt the end of Carole's great outdoors adventure! We tried everything, but finally conceded and just slept with sheets over the head. We woke to half the original number of creatures, but at one point it looked as though the next stage of the trip would have to be made with Carole, Madison and Shayden remaining in bed!

They bravely set forth into the front of the house and to ensure Carole remained on deck she drove to Yarrawonga - did not help the demeanour when "Tom Tom Dolly" took us through all the closed off flood affected areas. We travelled with windows down, but it took another day to completely leave our flying freeloaders behind!  

 TUESDAY 27.3.2012: Travelled to McCoys Bridge Freedom Camp at Wyuna which is situated beside the Goulburn River.

HUNTLY - POPULATION: 4,800

MONDAY 26.3.2012: Unfortunately we have to put our trip to South Australia and Western Australia on hold for the time being so we are making our way back to Lemon Tree Passage. We are fast tracking through Victoria and NSW, with a view to returning to both at a later date.  

Compulsory stop at Bendigo Pottery - so many beautiful items, such a tight budget! Pulled in for the evening at Huntly Lions Park.

KILMORE, VICTORIA - POPULATION: 5,200

SATURDAY 24 - SUNDAY 25.3.2012: Arrived safely and began a series of "Welcome Back to the Mainland Reality Checks".

1. Visited Simmone (Carole's niece), who is currently working on Neighbours. Toorak is some 5 minutes (as the crow flies), from St Kilda. One and a half hours later with closed off roads and bumper to bumper traffic we arrived - city drivers have such a tolerance for motorhomes - not!

2. Next stop Kilmore Caravan Park - one of the few places on our chosen route that allowed dogs. Scheduled 40 minute drive, another hour and a half.

$30.00 PER DAY

3. Kilmore Caravan Park - mainly cabins and residents, with a small plot for vans. The van next to us was so close that we could have touched their awning. It is difficult to support the caravan park's case for closure of the Freedom Camps.

FREEDOM CAMP:
$3.00 PER DAY

Kilmore is contentiously claimed as Victoria's oldest inland settled town. It was a stronghold of early Celtic settlers from Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall, and remains a strong Celtic area to this day.

The Leylands spent most of their time in Kilmore sleeping!

MADISON WENT
INTO HIBERNATION!

DEVONPORT

OUR 5 MINUTE VISTA BEFORE
THE MOVE TO OFF LOAD THE PETROL

FRIDAY 23.3.2012: Completed the washing, yes shaved the legs, cleaned the motorhome and cleared the fridge. The day dawned and with chores complete we set up for our restful day in the park facing the ocean. Decided to recheck the travel details - no fuel in the generator or jerry can. On the trip over the Leyland Sisters had not fired the generator so there was no issue. We packed up and headed for an appropriate petrol dump point, then ran the generator to burn up the fuel. All this literally through a thunderstorm - hail included! Cleaned the jerry can, soaked up excess fuel and really did not relax all day! Did make it to the boat on time and the poodles made the trip across in the motorhome. As before, we sedated both, bid them farewell and made our way upstairs. Much easier access onto the boat from Devonport than St Kilda. We ordered the wine, found a seat and were advised of the expected thunderstorms and high seas - had TravelCalm for tea. Not much sleep, but the trip was bearable. Just love this warning sign - can imagine having a quiet picnic waiting for the Spirit to sail past, the rest as they say, would be history! We have thoroughly enjoyed everything about Tasmania and completely underestimated the amount of time we required here. There are so many areas that we did not reach or activities that were not experienced. Tasmania is certainly a well kept secret.

DEVONPORT

WEDNESDAY 21 - THURSDAY 22.3.2012: Having spent last night at Deloraine Freedom Camp we set out for our last day of sightseeing in Tasmania. Purchased supplies from Ashgrove Cheese at Elizabeth Town and continued on our way to a privately owned garden at Moltema. Villarett Gardens date from the first years of the century when Beech, Holly and Oak trees were planted, around which the gardens have been developed since 1977. Ten acres of formal gardens comprising of exotic shrubs and trees, roses, herbs, climbers and bulbs, with numerous water features throughout. Beautiful, just one issue, the gardens were on very, very very steep slopes - no problem walking down, but we had to traverse the side of the slope to return up the hill. Felt a little like mountain goats, but probably looked more like lumbering elephants.

RAINED THROUGHOUT

THE WALK!

GARDENS

Last stop of the day was a return to Anvers Chocolates - just had to! With a touch of Déjà vu we pulled into Abel Tasman Caravan Park in preparation for our Tasman crossing.

LAUNCESTON - POPULATION: 106,153

LAUNCESTON HARBOUR

TUESDAY 20.3.2012:  F-i-n-a-l-l-y, we made our way to Launceston. Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia's oldest cities and is home to many historic buildings. Like many Australian places, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom – in this case, Launceston, Cornwall. Launceston has also been home to several firsts such as the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, the first Australian city to have underground sewers and to be lit by hydroelectricity. We headed for the Launceston Basin Chairlift, which is the longest single chairlift span in the world (total length 457m - centre span 308m). Early citizens of Launceston took a ragged swamp and turned it into the Cliff Grounds Gardens.

CATARACT GORGE
BACKS ONTO THE GARDENS

SUSPENSION BRIDGE

FANTAIL PIGEONS, GUINEA
FOWL AND PEACOCKS WERE
INTRODUCED IN THE 1800'S

There were walks throughout the gardens all of varied lengths and difficulty. Naturally we took the chair lift to the top and found the cafe for lunch. Lunch is shared with the resident peacock families - imperative that you stayed on alert otherwise a head on a rather skinny neck would appear over the table edge and proceed to take the food either off the plate or out of your hand - due to apathy, one lady actually lost her entire sandwich, with no refunds available! On the way back to the chair lift we had to wait for the locals to move.

The plan was to view Cataract Gorge from both the chair lift and boat. We climbed aboard the Lady Launceston for a Cataract Cruise. The riverbanks and slopes of the gorge shelter several of Tasmania's rarest plant species and vegetation. It is also home to the tiny Cataract Gorge Snail, possibly only found in this reserve.

CATARACT GORGE

MYRTLE BANK

SUNDAY 18 - MONDAY 19.3.2012: We extended ourselves and drove a little further to Myrtle Bank. $3.00 a night - your own site, table, chairs, garbage bin, use of amenities, plus campfire and barbecue - perfect! We were allocated Campsite 2 by the river, so we drove round an enormous park looking for our area. Finally found No 2, but the site had a caravan (with awning out and pegged), a motorhome, plus 2 cars. We pulled up aways and contemplated our next action. Almost a Guinness Book of Records - we have never seen a campsite packed up with such speed - 10 minutes and that included attaching the car to the caravan. As we took up residence we noticed the fire still burning!

Highlight of the stay - viewed our first platypus in its' natural environment - back rolls, feeding and scratching. Only have a photo of water movement, but the experience will forever be in the memory bank - we hope!

WELDBOROUGH - THRIVING POPULATION: 250 CATTLE, 50 SHEEP, 30 PEOPLE

ST COLUMBIA FALLS

SATURDAY 17.3.2012: Had lunch at the pub then made our way to St Columbia Falls - 10 minutes further up the same road! Claimed to be the highest falls in Tasmania with a drop of 90 metres. 

 

Having completed our exercise, we continued on our "Pub Crawl". It was a l-o-n-g drive, but after 19klms we called it a day and pulled into the Weldborough Historic Hotel. For $10.00 you stay at the rear of the pub and utilise their toilets and shower. This hotel is one of the oldest in northeast Tasmania - the hotel started trading in 1876, where it catered to a large and thriving tin mining community which included many Chinese workers. 

PYENGANA - POPULATION: 123

FRIDAY 16.3.2012: After a wonderful stay at St Helens we prepared for departure. Due to the sand and rain we had placed our thongs in a plastic bag for cleaning at a later date. Searched for the bag then realised - yesterday morning when making our way to the fishing charter, the garbage had been thrown in the bin - along with Sybil's $130 orthopaedic thongs and Carole's $2.00 Go Lo specials. Function on all cylinders when we rise early! The day's plan was to have two stops - Pyengana Cheese Shop and the "Pub in the Paddock", then head for Launceston.

PYENGANA CHEESE SHOP

Pyengana cheese production started in the area in the early 1900's and has never ceased. Pyengana's cloth-bound cheddar has been awarded gold medals at national cheese shows.

We travelled a further 5 minutes up the road to the "Pub in the Paddock" at Pyengana which is one of Tasmania's oldest country pubs, licensed for over 100 years. Pyengana (pronounced 'pine-garna' - from an Aboriginal word 'meeting of two rivers') is a hamlet located in the north east of Tasmania. It is part of the Break O'Day Council administrative region.

"PUB IN THE PADDOCK"

As we drove in we saw caravans "set up" in the paddock. Yes we could stay, just needed to frequent the pub - hard ask! We had a wonderful time - the country back drop, sharing the paddock with Billy (the bull), who was quite happy to chomp his way round the motorhome and finally, the "Beer Swilling Pigs". Buy a specially brewed bottle for $1.00 and then have Prescilla or Pinky take a shot - priceless.

 

"BABES"

Only one concern - during the night Carole woke to an earth tremor. She soon determined that the probability of the tremor was minor, but the likelihood of Billy rubbing his "itch" against the motorhome - enormous! Sybil, Madison and Shayden slept on unaware of the event!

IMPLEMENTING THE "OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF
MIND" TECHNIQUE!

ST HELENS

DIANAS BASIN

MONDAY 12 - THURSDAY 15.3.2012: We returned to Dianas Basin Freedom Camp and delighted in the fact that the weather had turned! A fishing charter with Michael Hayley was organised for Wednesday. The day dawned and it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, not so good the 7.30am start! There were only 2 men on board besides Michael so all looked promising for a good day's fishing. As with Les, Michael was able to provide some invaluable fishing tips and yes we caught many fish - again not that we had time to count them, b-u-t WE felt that Carole had the greatest haul of everyone on the boat - HA!

JUVENILE PACIFIC GULL

"QUEEN OF THE BOAT!"

ST HELENS MARINA

LAGOONS BEACH - CHAIN OF LAGOONS

FRIDAY 9 - SUNDAY 11.3.2012: Headed back from whence we came - photo opportunity at the Spiky Bridge, Swansea. Located 7.5 km south of Swansea, Spiky Bridge is a convict bridge which was built in 1843. It was constructed from fieldstones which were laid without mortar or cement. The parapet features fieldstones laid vertically which gives the bridge a spiky appearance. It has been claimed that the spikes were designed to prevent cattle falling over the sides.

SPIKY BRIDGE VERTICAL FIELDSTONES

GALA ESTATE CELLAR DOOR

Back on the road and next stop was at one of the most perfectly placed cellar doors that you would ever encounter - you almost drove over it so you just h-a-d to stop! It was rustic and what you see in the photo is all there is - just perfect. Gala Estate on the Tasman Highway at Cranbrook is now home to a new boutique vineyard. We ensured the estate's future by making the obligatory purchases - someone has to! The inside decor was as rustic as the exterior.

GALA ESTATE DECOR

We continued on to Bicheno for lunch and then took the coastal route back past Falmouth and Four Mile Creek to Chain of Lagoons at the base of the Elephant Pass. The road beyond Four Mile Creek was only opened during the 1980's. The next few days were idled away at the Lagoons Beach Freedom Camp.

BICHENO

LAGOONS BEACH