21st December - Out of Africa

Camping, but not as we know it ! Mark, the Flour Cask bay propietor, met us off the ferry with our 4WD Mercedes and took us to our trailer tent. We spend the next week under canvas but with an ensuite double bedroom with solar powered electricity and hot water and a kitchen/dining/living room looking out across our very own valley which includes a large lake and ends in sand dunes, beyond which is the sea. At night, when the wind stops blowing (whch is not often as we are on an island in the Southern Ocean), we can hear the surf. There is one other human habitation in sight, about two kilometres away on the dunes and seemingly unoccupied at present so at night there is absolutely no light other than the stars and no sound other than the strange birds and the scufflings of who knows what under the trailer.

One particular bird sits in a tree in a copse beside the tent and calls for hours at dusk and again at dawn. It sounds like R2D2 from Star Wars but we discovered later is what is known locally as a magpie, allegedly witha flute like song - presumably one played by a psychotic flautist with no musical training. We grew very fond of it however.

We also share the site with kangaroos, cockatoos, plovers, lizards and a tiger snake, the discovery of which was a bit of a shock and we began to walk more carefully through the long grass. As promised it seems to have been more frightened than us and we didn't see it again.

29th December Back on the Mainland

We are back on the Mainland and staying with Margaret and Ian in Adelaide- friends of Margot from the Centre for Global Education - in a lovely house just outside the city centre which we will visit later today.

But first we need to catch up from where we last left off, leaving Tasmania. With a few hours left on the camper hire we went to Melbourne's Altona Beach. A storm the night before (as we crossed) had stirred the water up so not too attractive for a swim but it attracted this pelican who seemed to find lots of tasty morsels as we had our lunch. 

20th December:  To Adelaide

Up early to walk across the road to the station for the day-long train ride from Melbourne to Adelaide. Ony 3 trains a week between these two state capitals and only 2 first class and two second class carriages so they try to make it a bit of an event. The crew is very nice and try to enliven what is hour after hour of scorched flat grazing land with the occasional gum-tree copse sheltering small flocks of sheep. But the the trip ends with an hour-long vertiginous descent through the wooded Adelaid hills into the city - quite a finale.

Margaret and Ian came and met us at our hotel with some supplies and guidebooks for KangarooIsland.  Peter had booked the hotel online not quite sure what an apartment hotel was but the price was OK so went ahead. Presumably aimed at business people it was more of an apartment than a bedroom with all you could need for a more or less permanent stay. Unfortuanely we had to get up at 5am for the coach pick-up to the ferry as it toured round half the hotels in the city picking up disparate groups of mainly german and italian tourists.

First Photos - Sydney

These are just some random photos that Picasa has deigned to allow me to upload. Two from our day trip to Sydney with Lynn Markham and Chloe, workingup to Christmas at brighton beach near Melbourne and sunset from the boat on its way to Tasmania.I will now try a few more.

Another attempt to add photos

Brighton Beach Melbourne, Christmas is coming

So far we havemostly seen ....

Just seeing if I can upload some photos

Australia - Part 1 - Tasmania

10^th December Train to Melbourne

All day train journey through countryside with surprisingly green rolling hills. Train is a second hand 125 and they don’t seem to do cuttings or embankments so train meandered around every hill and bend. However did see a couple of kangaroos! Train staff very friendly – ‘g’day’, ‘mate’ and ‘no worries’.

 

11^th December  Off to Tassie

Took the train out to Tottenham to pick up the campervan. Long wheelbase high-top Toyota Hiace which seems to drive nicely and compact enough for Margot. Checked out the ferry and then went along to Brighton beach to stroll along past some brightly painted beach huts and watched the wind- and kite- surfers.

 

12^th December to Cradle Mountain

Early disembark so drove inland towards Cradle Mountain National Park, stopping for breakfast in Sheffield, a little town decorated with murals. Got to the park and set up camp by lunchtime so went for an 11.5 kilometre hike round Dove Lake.

 

Amazing boardwalk all around lake with thick shrubs and woodland full of birds you can hear but rarely see as they have so much cover. Similarly discrete mammals but seem to like leaving piles of droppings on the boardwalk – evidently possums and wombats. As it got nearer dark we saw our first possum and echnida (halfway between a porcupine and a hedgehog) and finally a wallaby

 

13^th December - To Lake St Clair

You can hike from Dove Lake to Lake St Clair but it takes eight days and you have to carry in everything so we drove round, a fantastic day-long drive along mountain roads through temperate rain forests of the Central Highlands.

 

14^th December - Down to Hobart

Woken early by a Kukaburra outside the van. Went for a walk on an interpretative Aboriginal trail down to Platypus bay but no Platypi to be seen. Mainly cloudy with showers and surprisingly cold. Wasn’t expecting to be wearing gloves and woolly hat in Australia.

 

 

 

After lunch we headed south towards Hobart but with limited time on the island decided to head on towards the East coast.

 

15^th December Richmond to Freycinet  National Park

Started the day in Richmond, and early colonial town visiting the Prison Museum and filling up on food from the local IGA store. Had a long chat with the storekeeper – seems like the credit crunch is affecting tourism badly and there is not much else going on around there.

 

16^th December  Freycinet  National Park

This is a beautiful peninsula with white sands and turquoise sea. Peter started the day with a run along the beach, barefoot through the surf. Very nice. Then we took another 11k hike up to Wineglass bay lookout from where we could see dolphins, down the other side to Wineglass bay itself, by which time they had wandered off, and then round along the coast back to camp. Started nice enough but ended up in a downpour. We saw wallabies on the beach attempting to share our sandwiches. Resisted as we knew it was bad for them then a kamikaze seagull took the sandwich right out of Margot’s hand as she put it to her mouth.  On Hazards Bay we saw Aborigine ‘middens’ – mainly oyster shells in case you were wondering and a lake full of hundreds of noisy frogs.

 

17^th December  Up the East Coast.

Spent the morning driving up a sunny East coast. Beautiful round pink rocks and white sand. Could live here, but had to keep moving though we did see our first pelican – sitting on a lamp-post. After lunch turned inland towards Launceston through twisty mountain roads and rainforest – and an 18-hole golf course in the middle of the wilderness. Noone playing and no habitation or resort  within a couple of hours drive. Must have been some government regeneration project, there is a lot of talk of corruption on the island and maybe someone benefited but evidently not the local community or even golfers for that matter. We did stop at the Berry Café in Derby which was great with all sorts of  trinkets and puzzles on the table and really good coffee and home baking.

 

These place names are really disorientating, not only are they all in the wrong places in relation to each other (Richmond is just up the road from Swansea, and Sheffield just outside Devonport),  they bear no relation to the places they were named after. Sheffield and Derby are towns of about 500. At least Devonport is a port town and Swansea is on the coast, and I suppose when they were named the originals were not much like they are now either.

 

18^th December Kelso Sands,

As holidays start next week the site here was pretty empty and the lady put us near the woods so we would see the nightlife and as promised we could watch from th safety of the van as wombats waddled and possums cavorted around and under the van until it got too dark to see. Fortunately no Tasmanian Devils which apparently can get quite nasty. So far lots of little lizards

 

19^th December Back to Devonport

York Town is an ex-town, it is no more, and Point Beautiful isn’t particularly beautiful so we went back into Launceston to walk up Cataract Gorge which was a revelation, a mile long walk up the side of a narrow gorge only to find public gardens, a swing bridge and a walk back along the other side.

 

From there back to Devonport, failing to see the giant Platypus in Laporte and on to the ferry after searching the town for a hat for me. In Sydney I didn’t wear my hat and got a burnt forehead. Needed to get a proper wide brim but haven’t seen one yet I like and could afford. Anyway since then it has been mainly cloudy and surprisingly cold with winds that seem to come straight off the Antarctic. Must get something sorted before Kangaroo Island where 32c is forecast.

 

Day 5 - Cambridge near Hobart Tasmania

We are well and about as far South as we are going and its clearly a bit too close to the Antarctic . We are using all the warm-clothes we packed. Too late to write much now but will try to upload a photo album of highlights so far.

Day 1 Sydney monday 5pm

So far so good. Got to Sydney with no hitches so far. But no sleep either since Saturday night and just trying to keep it together long enough to write this as we are off to Melbourne by train tomorrow.

We met an old friend of Margot, Lynn Markham and her littlel daughter Chloe. They took us on a tour of the city, down to Darling harbour and then by ferry round to Sidney Cove passing under the Bridge and past the Opera House on the way. We had a beaut salad at the Opera House cafe and then walked back to the hotel by way of the Botanic Gardens which are beuatiful - most impressive though not quite beatiful were the fox- size fruit bats hanging from the trees, some asleep some gently fanning themselves with their wings - and a couple flying about though it was the middle of the day.

It was hot, just nice but we both got a bit red so will have to be more careful from now on. Peter's in the market for a hat.

Off to bed as I cant think straight. No pictures yet s cant get a connection for the laptop and am using a cash operated kiosk gismo