Sunday, March 11, 2007

 
TASMANIA (Part Two)

Tuesday 27th February:

We had a slow start this morning as we were only moving a short way up the coast to St Helens. The town is a bit bigger than Bicheno and is known as the Game Fishing Capital of Tassie. We took a long walk around St Helens Point in the afternoon and got caught out in the rain ending up a bit bedraggled. The rain kept up all night so we stayed tucked up in the van.

Wednesday 28th February:

It’s still raining this morning but it’s not going to stop us from sightseeing. We drove out to St Columba Falls which is in the mountains behind the small town of Pyengana. The walk down to the falls was through magnificent rainforest. The tree ferns flanked both sides of the path. The falls were running well with all the rain. On the way back through Pyengana we stopped at the local cheese factory for some tasting. In the afternoon we drove up to Binalong Bay and the Bay of Fires. We were checking out possible dive spots that the local dive shop had given us. There were some great free camp spots along the beaches at the Bay of Fires. There were quite a few caravans perched up on the sand dunes overlooking the ocean.

Thursday 1st March:

It’s still overcast but we are going to dust of the fishing rods and try our luck out on the point. We fished for a couple of hours but I only got one bite which turned out to be a giant bullray and it broke my line. Later we took a drive south of St Helens up through St Mary’s Pass (built by the convicts) to the towns of St Mary’s and Fingal. Both towns had lots of old sandstone buildings from the convict days. We came down the mountain through Elephant Pass and stopped for some pancakes and coffee at the “Famous” Mt Elephant Pancake House. The sun was trying to break through as we drove back along the coast through Scamander.

Friday 2nd March:

On the move again up through Weldborough, Scottsdale and on to Georgetown and Low Head. We stopped at the Weldborough Pass to take a walk through an ancient myrtle forest. Low Head is situated at the mouth of the Tamar River. We have a good spot in the van park overlooking the river. We had a drive around Georgetown and Low Head in the afternoon. The sunset over the river was spectacular.

Saturday 3rd March:

We were off to discover some Tasmanian gold this morning. We had read about some old gold mines in the area around the town of Lefroy. We found the old mines in the state forest and spent a couple of hours detecting. Twistie found a big blue tongue lizard and I found a couple of bull ants (ouch!), but no gold was sighted. We tried our luck with fishing in the afternoon along the Tamar River in Georgetown. Ferg caught a small salmon on a lure but it jumped off on the rocks and escaped.

Sunday 4th March:

We arranged to go diving in the Tamar River today. There is a spot around one of the channel beacons that is supposed to be pretty good. We had to dive on the top of the tide which today was at 12.30pm. The wind had picked up in the afternoon and the river swells were quite choppy. The local dive operator took us out along with one other fellow. The diving was great, a lot different from the coral reefs we know. We swam through our first kelp forest, what an experience! There were a lot of new fish varieties that we had never seen such as the boar fish. The water temp was a cool 22 degrees but we lasted for just under an hour. It was a bit tricky getting back into the boat with the big swells but the dive was well worth it.







Monday 5th March:

We are off to do some sightseeing of the Tamar Valley district. We followed the east bank of the Tamar river heading south to the city of Launceston. We stopped at the small town of Windemere to admire a beautiful old church perched on the banks of the river. We stopped in Launceston at Cataract Gorge but we couldn’t take a walk into the reserve as we had Twistie with us and as usual “No Dogs Allowed”! Never mind we continued north along the west bank of the Tamar driving through some very pretty villages. We stopped at Beaconsfield to visit the gold mine museum. Eventually we came to the mouth of the river directly opposite to Low Head where we were camped. We took a short cut home via the Batman suspension bridge.

Tuesday 6th March:

On the move again heading west today through Devonport to the small village of Penguin. We took the scenic route through Ulverstone and wound along the coastline road. We have an excellent site right on the water at the Penguin Caravan Park. We took a walk into town along the beach. Later we tried fishing, virtually from our doorstep, and we both caught a couple of fish. They were an unkown species so we gave them their freedom. We enjoyed a magnificent sunset overlooking the calm ocean and sipping on a glass of wine.

Wednesday 7th March:

I tried out the local hairdresser today while Ferg played on the internet. In the afternoon we drove into Burnie for a game of bowls. We had a great time and the members of the South Burnie Bowls Club made us feel very welcome.

Thursday 8th March:

The weather was perfect this morning so I dragged out my watercolours for the first time and painted a picture. The view was stunning sitting outside our van looking down the coastline. We did a spot of shopping in Burnie later in the morning and tried fishing again in the afternoon. It was just one of those perfect days to soak up the sunshine.

Friday 9th March:

We took off early this morning into Burnie to have a walk around Fernglade Reserve. It’s lovely walking in the early morning before anyone else. We came across a small wallaby on the path. Afterwards we took the long way home via some spectacular farmland in the Leven Valley. We went bowling again in the afternoon, this time in Ulverstone. I played really well and actually won a frozen chook.






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