From beauty mate to Beauty Point

Latrobe was a very pleasant town, a good mix of shops with the usual retail, op, craft, antiques and the remarkable 'Reliquaire'.
 Reliquaire has 19 rooms packed solid with all sorts of 'spectacular' objects, there's so much to see, in the maze of rooms that they give you a map as you enter!
You want a 4 foot high white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland? - this is the place.
A fantastic leadlight lampshade - this is the place.
1920s Art Deco bathroom tiles - this is the place.
Weird, wonderful jewellery - this is the place.
Dolls, Teddybears, puppets, toys large and small - this is the place.
There's a whole room dedicated to Betty Boop.
Michael stayed outside but I was strict with myself and resisted all temptation, it's a shame that they didn't allow photography, it means I can't show you some of the amazing items.
 If you're ever in Latrobe and like kitsch shite you have to visit.

This platypus was the only one we saw..

As usual we checked out the op shops for books and I got 2 by Geraldine Brooks, one from each shop, across the road to each other. There are at least 4 hairdressers in town and one of them could fit me in so I had my 2nd cut since leaving Perth. It's quite short now and almost all 'au naturel' just the tips are blonde; it's actually not white all over but it is very grey!

The river through town is the Mersey River and I spotted a pair of black swans and their cygnets - not something you'd see on the other Mersey.

We left Latrobe on Saturday morning and drove across to the western side of the Tamar River. We then drove north through Beaconsfield, Beauty Point, Kelso and out to the tip, at Greens Beach. It was not a good weekend to look for peace and quiet at the beach. Lots of people took the Friday, between the Australia Day public holiday Thursday and the weekend, off. Greens Beach caravan park was full to bursting and the whole of the beachfront was packed. Kelso was 'almost' full; they could squeeze us in for the Saturday night and then it would be quieter as they all headed home on Sunday. Not even the promise of having wombats roaming around the park tempted us to spend a crowded night there, we drove back down to Beauty Point and checked into the caravan park there.
 We've got a lovely site, with a hedge around it, and river views.

As forecast most people moved out on Sunday, we relaxed, 'veged out', just reading and relaxing. It was so nice we decided to spend another 2 days here. 4 days in one place - that hasn't happened often!

Monday morning around sunrise it started to rain and it rained all day! We were glad to be off the roads, parked on solid concrete, lots of power and access to long hot showers.
Today it's back to sunshine and just a few clouds in the sky, we're sitting outside and the Fairy Wrens are hopping around our feet. The male is picking up breadcrumbs and feeding the baby!

Sorry about this photo but the little beggars move very quickly!

Australia Day arrives

No platypus in Deloraine, oh well, we know we can see them in  Bombala NSW (been there, done that).
Deloraine was bigger than I'd expected; we walked along the river banks

and back up through the town on Sunday afternoon.

We spotted 3 op shops (thrift shops/ charity shops) which gave us 3 reasons to have a look around the town on Monday morning.

My maiden name was Harris, so was pleased to find this store, Michael is still ahead though, in Ireland there's a store, a supermarket and a pub owned by Mullanys.

After 'doing' the shops we headed back out to Westbury. Here we checked out some ancestry for a friend, hopefully we have established a contact which will prove useful.
 Then we visited "Pearns Steam World".

The Pearn family has been farming in the area for many long years, the 3 brothers Jack, Verdun and Zenith never had any sons and the family decided that the farm machinery should go into a museum and it's a very good museum too.

We even had a couple of trips around the site on the little train.

We chatted to the volunteer at the museum and mentioned Andys Bakery down the road, we got a few details: When he first started Andy didn't charge motorhomers  to stay, he was happy for them to come to Westbury, and of course they ate at the bakery. Often he would take out trays of scones for them, and the place would be packed. Then he sold up to his brother and nephew, unfortunately he sold the name too, much to his regret as he is now embarrassed by how it's being run.
After lunch, not at the bakery, we left Westbury, back through Deloraine on to the little village of ElizabethTown. Our destination was the Ashgrove Cheese Factory.

They have painted cows in their grounds (unlike the Margaret River ones these have not been vandalised).

Now this is a big operation and the cheeses are available Australia wide. We had a tasting and confirmed our choice of the Wild Wasabi as a personal favourite. (since then have found the Blue Bite and that's very good too).

Then it was back down the highway a short step before turning off along side roads and onto Railton.
                                                                "The town of Topiary"

Apparently there are over 150 topiaries in town; some very large and spectacular, some still growing.

Our overnight stop was in the motorhome park there and we'd just pulled in and parked when another van arrived. It was Annie, (and her whippets Connor and Clancy). Annie lives in Darwin but is travelling for a few months, we were parked near her in the Hobart showgrounds. We had given her our email address but that zero causes a bit of confusion and she'd had difficulty getting through to us, it was great to see her again.We had a long chat over a coffee before heading into our 'homes' when the sun went down. Here in Tassie there is no warmth left in the air or ground once the sun goes down it's cold. We've had days where we've got sunburnt but at night we still need the duvet on the bed.

The next morning we prepared for the long drive to Sheffield, "The Town of Murals", 11 kms away.

En route we got a call from Werner and Mary, they were leaving Mole Creek and heading for Sheffield.
We parked up in Sheffield and before too long we spotted them coming along the main street, they parked up and just then we saw Annie drive into the car park. The 5 of us headed off to the bakery for coffee and morning tea before splitting up to do our own things. We don't know when we'll see Annie again as she's sailing back to the 'big island' on Saturday. Werner and Mary were off to Railton and then coming back to overnight with us, at the motorhome park in Sheffield.

We walked around, checked out most of the murals, buildings and shops before heading out to the recreation ground and the motorhome park. We got a spot on the grass and 'bagged' a space next to us for Werner and Mary (not that anyone else came along.) Another time we're glad of our 'bi-lateral' awnings, the thermometer in the van was reading 30degrees. There may not be shade but we do have a lovely view of Mt Roland out of the van window.

Werner and Mary arrived and we had afternoon tea, which ran into happy hour, which ran into dinner and all too soon the sun was setting and it was 9.00pm!

The next day we all sat out for morning coffee, the time ticked away towards midday and commonsense prevailed - we were all going to stay another day.
Mary and I left the boys talking and walked into town. We checked out each and every shop, yes I spent money! A pink 'hoody' and a silver bangle! When we got back the boys had moved their chairs just a little, to keep in the shade. Then it was 3.00pm - almost happy hour and a repeat of the night before,but tonight we went in for dinner at 7.00pm.
That night there was a fantastic sunset so I was back out with the camera..

The next day, Australia Day, we went our separate ways. Werner and Mary heading off to a beach somewhere and we ambled over to Latrobe via the village of Wilmot. On the way to Wilmot we passed through 'The Promised Land', a small farming community. There was a large Christian Brethren community near Sheffield and they named the area, others around are Paradise, Nowhere Else, Garden of Eden and The Nook.

Wilmot is 'Home of the original Coles Store'. we stopped in for a coffee and sausage roll - a very uninspiring place, a wasted tourist opportunity. It's not really enough just to have a sign saying that it's famous, there has to be something else on offer doesn't there?
The store was owned by George Coles from 1910-1921. His son started G.J.Coles & Co in Melbourne. The story goes that he was friends with the Slater family who ran the store in Sheffield and he told them that he wanted to open a store in Melbourne with nothing selling for more than two shillings and sixpence. The Slaters couldn't be persuaded to invest - hence the title of the mural on the side of Slaters Store in Sheffield - 'The missed opportunity'.

From Wilmot we drove up to Latrobe and checked into a lovely caravan park. We've got a shady spot next to the fence and it's nice and quiet. Apart from the sounds of the Australia Day fair and local sports competition opposite, and the helicopter rides flying over - it's a great Australia Day in a country town, a really nice sunny day, beauty mate!!!

Wooden it be nice

So there we were at Lilydale Falls Reserve.

A nice spot but it's heyday was probably a hundred years ago, its' camping facilities are definitely past their use by date. It's a very popular spot for barbecues and picnics and if you are totally self sufficient then it's a great place to overnight but if you want a shower, you have to get a key from the Lilydale store, there's a $50 deposit and they charge $6 a night. Don't go for the key and they don't know you're there.
 The Falls are obviously better in winter but still worth the 5 minute stroll.

The next day we went back up to Scottsdale, another lunch at that great bakery and then back down towards Launceston by another route. This one A3 passes the Sideling Range Lookout and the views are amazing, you can see Bass Strait, (well I suppose it is only about 30kms away).

We stopped here for a while and chatted to the local (Springfield) blacksmith who was up there enjoying the views whilst he had his lunch. He was a very interesting lovely old chap.

Then a few kms further down the road we came to Myrtle Park Camp Area. This is a great spot, it's only 35kms from Launceston and just $3 a night, with clean toilets and showers. They were very busy but had a large 'overflow' area which was reasonably level and we found some shade. Having an awning on each side has caused a few comments but it came into its own here. It's lucky that they have a manager on site and have a maximum stay of 7 days policy so that it doesn't deteriorate into somewhere where people set up camp for the whole of summer, Dad comes down at weekends and the kids turn feral.

After 2 days it was time for the big city - Launceston.

On the way there we checked out a possible overnighter in St Leonards, after a day in the city. 

It seemed a 'possible' but I wasn't sure.

 Michael on the other hand was VERY sure - "No way. It's a cottage".

 (A place where gentlemen of a certain persuasion meet like minded gentlemen).

So, we went into Launceston, found a good place to park and only needed to pay for one hour because after 11.30am it was free. It was just a short walk to the Seaport and the Wooden Boat Rally.

Am I the only one who thinks that this seat looks like a Venetian Masquerade Ball mask?

We bought a couple of raffle ticket to win a little wooden boat - you never know your luck!

After checking it all out we walked up into town for some lunch and a look around.

 We plan to do most of our Launceston sight seeing when we're parked up at the motorhome Combined Chapter Rally in a couple of weeks time, but had a quick walk around. What grand buildings, nearly all still intact. The city council is apparently strict on maintaining the heritage appearance and the tallest building (Myer store) is going to remain the tallest. No modern skyscrapers.

We left Launceston and headed down to Evandale, an historic village that hosts a large Sunday market. There is a motorhome overnight park there but as it's in the market grounds it's not available Saturday nights and there is no alternative nearby. (The council has put no camping notices at the park that was suggested to us.) So we had a quick look around the village, it reminded us a little of villages in Gloucestershire UK, and then we headed on out. We drove up to Hadspen intending to stay there but the caravan park was really unappealing and the 'town' had nothing to offer, so we pressed on.

We stopped in Westbury. There isn't a caravan park in Westbury but the bakery, Andy's Bakery, has a motorhome park out the back. We made a BIG mistake and checked in without checking it out!

Once we'd set up I went to the loo - ugh! and then I couldn't find the showers so I went and asked.

I was expecting a charge for the showers but $6.00 a pop! and the shower was a moulded plastic cubicle on the edge of the yard (like the transportable toilet cubicles you have at shows, concerts etc.) - and the

 best thing was that it was open air - it didn't have a roof!! 

So we were paying $12 to park, and if we both showered, another $12. That's $24 a night.

Luckily I got our money back and we moved on.

We moved on to Deloraine, only 16kms down the road so we can go back and do sightseeing and graveyard checking (we haven't forgotten Max)in Westbury as day trippers.

Deloraine has a 'self sufficient motorhome park' and a caravan park.

 The caravan park is $30 a night for a powered site (only $6 more than Andy's 'yard'), the toilets are spotless and we're parked right next to the river. There's rumour of platypus in the river. 

Pilots, Happy Feet and Feta

We were well refreshed after our weekend stay at Branxholm but we didn't sit around the whole time we were there. On Sunday afternoon we walked across the Red Bridge over the River Tamar,

 along the Chinese Heritage Trail up to 'Henry's Hut'. This is on the site of a Chinese tin miner's hut. Inside the hut is a small display and short story about migrant Chinese miners.

As we were unprepared for long bush walk, we were both in sandals, we didn't take the long walk along the 'water race', we returned to the caravan park along the banks of the river.

The next day we went to Scottsdale, in the heart of 'Dorset Country', here we topped up scripts at the chemist, and were delighted to see a Chicken Feed store. These are cheap, discount, variety stores that sell great potato crisps at $2 a bag. (I think that by now they own Crazy Clark's stores in WA).

We stocked up on said crisps, washing up liquid and laundry detergent.

 There was an award winning bakery in town so we gave it a try for lunch. Mmmm, good pies, great coffee and lots of fresh bread to choose from.

Then we drove up to Bridport on the coast.

It was reasonably busy, but not as busy as St Helen's or Bicheno.

I think the 'peak' of the peak season has finished. I've got a sneaky suspicion that the season is only from Christmas to when the tradesmen go back to work on January 9th.

We then carried on heading west to George Town (yes, that is two words).

We passed through some interesting country, reminiscent of the scenery around Wynyard on the north west coast.

George Town was a surprise in that it doesn't have a large percentage of properties for sale.

It's an active working town.

There was a 'real' butcher in town so he got some trade and then we went to the information centre on the edge of town. The very friendly, helpful staff invited us to stay behind the centre in their overnight area. They even came over at the close of business and gave us the newspaper to read.

We spent a very quiet night there and the next morning did the 'tank business' (emptying black & grey water tanks, and filling the fresh water tank), then drove into town and took ourselves off on the 'self guided' Heritage Trail - a walking tour of the town and Port of Dalrymple.

That took us to lunch time so we had a sandwich and a milkshake at the signature cafe.

After lunch we drove out to the edge of the estuary of the River Tamar, to Low Head.

We found a shady spot up by the lighthouse and had a little rest before we headed off and visited the Maritime and Pilot Station Museum.

It was a very interesting museum and surrounding grounds. 

The little area of Low Head is still undeveloped thanks to the foresight of the locals who raised the funds in 1963 and bought 550 acres of land to remain undeveloped. If they hadn't done this I'm sure that Low Head would now resemble the tip of the Mornington Peninsula - which is Melbourne's playground. Low Head would be Launceston's playground.

After tea in the cafe we parked up again, rested, had dinner and then at dusk......

Penguins

We had been meaning to go on a Penguin viewing tour ever since we arrived in Tassie and we finally got around to it. The timing and location were perfect because we only had 5 kms to drive at night, after the viewing, to our overnight stop (back at the info centre in George Town) and it didn't involve disturbing other caravan park residents or having to disconnect and re setup etc.

We met at the viewing platform and had a good intro talk and then once the first penguins started arriving we went off in small groups with our guides onto the beach and through the rookery.

It was amazing, we are both so glad to have done it.

The next morning when we walked into the info centre to thank them and say goodbye we were treated like old friends; they are such lovely, friendly people. And we whole heartedly recommend Low Head Penguin tours.

Then we headed south before turning north east out to Lilydale. On our way we stopped at 'The Fly', Tree tops adventure - a flying fox system taking through the forest and tree tops. We thought we might give it a go until we found out that 'the tour' takes 3 hours and costs $100 each. We could have had a segway 'tour' instead at $85 - but we chose neither and headed on.

6kms north of Lilydale we went to a Goat  'cheesery' - I kid you not, that's what it's called in the tourist brochure (no pun intended).

The Yondover Goat Cheese Farm is in an absolutely stunning location.

We had a tasting - yum! 

And then we stayed for lunch, a cheese platter! WOW! It was really delicious, it's such a shame that this is so small an enterprise and doesn't have retail outlets, these cheeses are outstanding. We comforted ourselves by buying 2 pieces of feta and some feta in Italian herbs and oil.

Then we said goodbye to the kids, in the playpen (this time the pun is intended), and headed back towards Lilydale.

Just down the road from the 'cheesery' we took a detour to the Tunnel railway station. The town was called Tunnel because when the railway went through, in 1888, that was what was needed to get through the mountain - a tunnel. All that's left now is an abandoned station platform and the old tunnel. 

We took a walk along the track and ventured into the tunnel.

It's a shame that this hasn't been incorporated into some tourist venture - it's just an abandoned, wet, smelly tunnel now.

Then we went back to Lilydale and set up for the night at Lilydale Falls Reserve - and that's another blog.

East Coast

Wow, we appear to have stumbled into a time warp - for a couple of days we were back in winter. There was even snow on the mountain near Hobart!
 But we luckily sped through spring and are now well and truly back in summer.
 We were last in Longford and so close to Perth (not home Perth, Perth Tasmania) that we had to drive there for a look.

 Not much to see,  the usual small country town, so we pressed on south east through the Henrietta Plains and then out on the Esk Highway through an area called The Dog Kennels  to St Marys.

St Marys is like so many other towns in Tasmania - lots of For Sale signs.  Apparently 60% of the town is unemployed.
We had a wander around town taking in the Quilt Gallery, which is also the agency for Wide Span Sheds - multi-tasking or diversification? The museum called Cranks and Tinkerers is in the process of moving premises so was in a bit of disarray. The present building is up For Sale and was the old supermarket,  the sale includes another small shop next door and a 4 bedroom house - the asking price is $400,000. (They're dreaming son!)
The Recreation ground offered free overnight stays and spotless toilets and hot showers so we set up for the night.

We took a short drive out to Irishtown, but it's nothing more than 2 houses now. (Oh ! and lots of wrecked vehicles.) On the way out there we did see a nice touch of whimsy..

The next day we took the road out to Bicheno, a big tourist, seaside destination.
The road out of St Marys through St Marys' pass was spectacular.

Bicheno and the surrounding area was full of motorhomes - the most we've seen so far. Have they been here on the East coast all along or just arrived?

Bicheno town has 3 or 4 caravan parks, about 10 cafes and restaurants and was really busy with holidaymakers, our first real sign of the peak season.

We had lunch in Porks cafe, Michael says the fish and chips were the best he's had for a very long time.

We only popped down to Bicheno for a day trip and were soon heading north again, back up the same road (there really isn't a lot of choice if you don't want to use narrow dirt roads). Up through Scamander, passing little coves and beaches with huge granite boulders covered in orange lichen.
We stopped for the night at St Helens, and again this town was buzzing with holiday makers. The shops were full and it felt like a vibrant seaside town.
 On the edge of the recreation grounds the council has set aside an area signposted as :
                      An Overnight Rest Area for Campervans and Motorhomes only.

Fantastic, there should be more like this, no vehicles that are not truly self contained.
We naturally supported them by staying the night.

Next day we headed further along the A3, stopping first at "Tasmania's Top Bric-a-Brac Shop" it sounds much bigger than it is. It was actually quite a small shop but had lots of interesting things from books, china, jewellery, glassware, lace, lavender products and souvenirs.
 Next stop was a coffee stop at the Holy Cow cafe. This is at the Pyengana Dairy Company, naturally enough in the village of Pyengana. They have been making cloth bound cheddar cheese here since the early 1900s. We had a 'cheese tasting' session, but didn't add any to the fridge. It was cheddar exclusively.

Carrying along the road to the dairy we drove 10kms of tortuous winding, twisting, very narrow road which had obvious signs of damage from rock falls and slippage, up to St Columba's Falls.
The highest falls in Tasmania having a drop of 90 metres.

There was a 10 -15 minute walk from the car park to a viewing platform (at the base of the falls) but due to flooding the platform was closed for repair. We had a good view of the falls from the car park so settled for that, we suppose that currently they should really be called a 'cascade', but image that in winter they are really dramatic.

We stopped for lunch at a lookout near Weldborough. It would have been an almost 360 degree lookout if the trees hadn't grown so tall! It used to be a farm but Forests Tasmania have taken it over and the thistles are doing well.

Next stop was to see the Chinese Memorial in the Moorina cemetery.

The area was a big tin mining area in the 1800s and Moorina itself once had 7 hotels, 3 banks, the usual story - when the mines close the town dies. Now its about 3 houses in total.

The town of Derby didn't have any overt appeal, so we drove on....

                                                                                                         to the little township of Branxholm.

The town is in the middle of a hop growing area, it has a supermarket, bric-a-brac shop, cafe and a pub.

 It also has a swimming pool and next to the pool is a small caravan park, there are about 6 powered sites, the ablutions are clean and it's $14 for a powered site so this is our stop for 2 or 3 nights.
We still have to check out events in Launceston but now that we're up here in the North East we could be there in a short time. Otherwise it will be up to the coast and town down the banks of the River Tamar.