We left Marge in Melbourne just before Christmas and returned to Sydney for Christmas and New year – this part of the blog continues after the time spent in Sydney….
Thursday 4th January 2018
Brian kindly took us to the airport to catch our flight back to Melbourne, we arrived back mid-afternoon. In gratitude to Brian for the lift I have included a picture of Brian’s cat – Buttons.
We were staying in the city for a few days before picking the van up from the airport. Being in the holiday season it was a great time to explore the city on foot and using public transport.
One of the biggest differences between Melbourne and Sydney is the public transport system – Melbourne leaves Sydney for dead both in terms of ease of use and frequency and an added bonus is much of it is free!
Melbourne turns out to be Hipster heaven, not that I’ve anything against hipsters – think they’re wonderful so much so that I have been trying to grow a hipster beard myself. Wandering about the lanes late in the evening we ended up in what must be Hipster Central, just sat and watched bar-tending being turned into an art-form. Much tossing and juggling of bottles and shakers – suppose I am showing my age but it all wonderfully superficial. The highlight was when our man failed to open my twist top light beer in the crook of his arm and had to resort to bottle opener. He’s probably been kicked out of the fraternity by now.
On the Friday went to the Triennial exhibition at the NGA.
“The NGV Triennial explores cutting edge technologies, architecture, animation, performance, film, painting, drawing, fashion design, tapestry and sculpture” – their words not mine. .
The pot scourers was a great idea the whole display was made out of small sponge pot scourers.
There was a similar one made out of pegs and another one made out of long sponge flotation things (noodles?).
I hasten to add that these are aimed at children but I found them interesting
The setting for the red flowers was a house with different rooms. Everyone was given an adhesive red flower as you entered. and you had to place the red flower anywhere – well it amused me anyway.
On Saturday it was forecast to be 40+ so we decided to take the tram to St. Kilda Beach- big mistake stayed about 10 minutes and caught the tram back – just too hot.
Sunday morning we caught the bus to Avalon to rescue Marge from the airport carpark. A little apprehensive, she had been there for over two weeks, however she was still there, intact and graffiti free. – that’s another thing about Melbourne there is some great graffiti not that we particularly wanted any on Marge.
Sunday afternoon we went down to one of the few remaining gay pubs in Australia and had a couple of light beers before a rather good Thai meal.
We also spent sometime in the evening people watching in Federation Square – home of the new Apple store(?). One of the less impressive sites was seeing young African guys being moved on for no apparent reason other than they were there.
In spite of this, the few days spent in Melbourne were interesting and relaxing, it really is a very nice city. Our NSW politicians and city planners have much to learn about making cities more liveable.
Monday 8th January 2018
Uber from the hotel to take the 09:30 ferry from Port Melbourne to Devonport. A smooth and uneventful crossing, spent some of it planning the Tasmanian sojourn. We had already booked one night at a campsite on the N Coast so we decided to start off by doing the North Western part of the Island..
First night spent at Turners beach, not a great site but ok. The next day cycled to Ulverstone which we have immortalised on video
Slow Bike Riding
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98145375@N06/38871503005/in/dateposted-public/
As the Norwegians were the creators of Slow TV it is only appropriate that a son of Norway should continue this exciting new media channel. If you manage to watch all the way through, despite the dramatic ending, there were no more broken shoulders.
Ulverstone is a really nice little town, William had a scollop pie for lunch together with a Apple and Blackberry pastry all made from local produce. Very friendly locals.
NB: I will start doing something on the improvement in our social interactions soon 🙂
Wednesday started to move westwards along the coast stopping at Penguin for coffee. Everything here is penguinesque, even the litter boxes in the streets are penguins. Had the worlds most expensive piece of Banana cake – probably contained essence of penguin.
Spent the night at Wynyard, the camp sight was run by a South African who had a house in Mosman – oh how I wish North Shore Bob was with us. Got the shock of my life when I bumped into her in the male showers at midnight!.
Next day Thursday 11th Jan decided it was time to save some money and do some real “Free Camping”. Drove to Stanley which is on a bit of a promontory on the North Coast – wasn’t quite free – $8 only problem was the wind. Stanley is nice little town where the only Tasmanian P.M. Joseph Aloysius Lyons was born and also where some of the movie “The Light Between Oceans” was filmed. Had scollops in curry sauce pies for dinner – not the greatest. William flew his kite on the beach.
Friday 12th Jan – decided to explore the Tarkine area so moved onto Smithton for one night before heading in land and ended up at another Free campsite at Julius River – right in the forest. The Tarkine is part of the Savage River National Park and contains areas of Wilderness. ”
The Tarkine is noted for its beauty and natural values, containing the largest area of Gondwanan cool-temperate rainforest in Australia”
The Tarkine
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98145375@N06/39802084762/in/dateposted-public/
We took the bikes for a couple of trips to nearby walks through the forest, it really is quite stunning.
Monday 15th Jan From Julius River we tried to get to Cradle Mountain without going back to the coast. When we hit the link road decided it was too much for Marge – RVs rattle anyway but on a non-sealed surface they really rattle. We ended up going up the West coast staying one night at Authur River and then turning inland to Burnie.
After free camping for several days we needed a site with amenities – particularly showers and washing machines. The campsite at Burnie was very run down so just stayed the one night but this was long enough to see the nightly ritual of Small Penguins coming ashore after a day out at sea fishing for food for their chicks
Wednesday 17th Jan Drove to Moina where there is a great Free camping site on the shores of Lake Gairdner about 10 minutes drive from Cradle Mountain visitor centre.
From the visitor centre shuttle buses run to several spots where you can pick up walks of varying degrees of difficulty.
We had decided to do an easy walk around Dove Lake which went really well (it is the 2nd easiest category). In fact it went so well William decided he wanted to do a bit more so we took of on the:
- Lake Wilks Track,
- Face Track
- Overland Track
- Marions Lookout Link Track.
These are all rated at hard to very hard. Particularly the Marions Lookout Link Track which one is advised not to use because it’s “steep and very rough”- Fortunately in some places they do have chains to hang onto when scrambling over rocks.
Five hours and 1,300 metres later we arrived back at the van. Fortunately William’s Acrophobia seems to have sorted itself out. I suppose one can only have so many issues.
Friday 19th Jan was a day at rest sitting by Lake Gairdner surrounded by wildlife including platypuses blogging.
Saturday – Again went to Cradle Mountain and did another 5 hour walk. This time we took the easier way up as we wanted to attempt the Cradle Mountain Summit and didn’t want to be totally knackered before we reached the summit trail.
I didn’t manage to get very far up the track it was another hot day however William gave it a good crack while I stayed at base camp looking after the bags and eagerly awaiting his return.
Willy got almost to the top but his vertigo got the better of him – never the less a very valiant effort.
The Way to the Summit – Cradle Mountain
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98145375@N06/28055630319/in/dateposted-public/
My Big Mistake
When we were in Melbourne we bought a scrabble set. I knew from the start this was an incredibly risky thing to do and had been delaying the purchase as long as possible. I knew that to loose at scrabble would be akin to losing at boules but a thousand times worse.
We played for many nights and I always managed to win but eventually due to the worst tiles imaginable I lost. Needless to say life will never be the same again. Anyone who knows William will feel my pain – he’s not the most gracious of winners.
Sunday 21st Left Cradle Mountain and moved to another national park – this time Mount Field National Park which is SW and Australias’ oldest National Park.
We spent three nights at the camp site in the park doing a couple of walks.
The first took in the three water falls and an area of Swamp Gums. Swamp Gums can reach up to 90 metres and are really magnificent trees. The whole walk was about 6 kms through some really nice woodland
Pademelons – Mount Field National Park
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98145375@N06/39854484102/in/datetaken/
The second walk was much more ambitious and started with a 9km uphill bike ride. Even with electric bikes it was still quite an effort.
The walk was around the peak of Mount Field East, we didn’t attempt the summit – it jut looked too hard. The walk itself took us above the tree line, across an area of marsh land before going down to the start point.
The highlight of the walk for William was the 9 kms down hill bike ride which happened without incident in spit of a top speed of 60kms/hr on what was a gravel road
Thursday 25th time to head for Hobart and Mona which we have booked for tomorrow. Didn’t realise it was Australia Day – another reason to change the date!
On the way down, through the Derwent Valley, passed through New Norfolk which from the out-skirts looked like a very plain small country town. However s we hadn’t any breakfast went into the town centre looking for something to eat and came across the most amazing antique / anything-old shop.
The place was spread over several buildings which previously were a school, hospital and nurses home.
They had the most eclectic collection of stuff, including some really nice pieces of glass ware, furniture and old AV equipment. Outside there was a tremendous collection of old cars and trucks including a steam engine.
To top it off hens and chickens were running around in the gardening centre. – great place. Turns out was owned by Penny & Hadyn Pearce – who we think did a TV show at some time. They certainly have a great collection of collectables.
Arrived at the Mobile Home park at the the show ground in Hobart – not the greenest/lushest of places but looks ok and the facilities are new. Plus we have air con and it’s forecast to be getting up to 36º over the weekend.
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We’ll finish this blog with one of the highlights of the trip so far – Cradle Mountain….
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