The 1846 St John the Baptist church was a beautiful surprise - inside was a really beautiful 14th century stained glass window. (reportedly from a church in Battle, UK).
We carried on to the coast, and looked for somewhere to stay the night. On the outskirts of town we found an information board showing 'Raspins beach camp area' so that's were we headed. There was one other van there and so we pulled in to join them. The beach was lovely and we were right across the bay, Prosser Bay, from Maria Island. Another penal colony island.
It was beautiful to look at, and nice to walk along, if only it had been 30 degrees not 19 degrees.
Late in the afternoon a young couple in a car pulled up alongside and they proceeded to gather rocks and wood, they made a fire on the beach, cooked a meal, which from their conversation consisted of potatoes. They then spent the night in their car!! Weird but at least they were very quiet, no trouble.
The next day we were off through Triabunna on towards Swansea. On the way we spotted a sign saying "Spiky Bridge". So we had a look - very interesting.
Some beautiful craftsmanship - convict workmanship that is, built in 1843.
Our neighbours in the car from last night appeared as we were leaving - we promised ourselves that if we saw them again at our next stop we'd ask them where they were heading and we'd go the other way!
We then headed West to Campbell Town. The first in our chain of 'Heritage' towns.
Campbell Town was established in the 1820s as a garrison station on the road between Launceston and Hobart it has some very interesting buildings, some more attractive than others.
The red brick convict built bridge is still looking good and has never had to be closed for repairs.
Then it was on to our night stop, the town of Ross.
Ross's stone bridge is the third oldest bridge in Australia and is right next to the little caravan park.
(Not quite the smallest we've stayed in but close).
There is a bypass road around Ross and this means that the town is safe and quiet to walk around. We walked out to the Female Factory and admired the fabulous stone cottages. The antique shop here had a better grasp on reality and I particularly enjoyed the Antiques Made To Order" sign.
It was Saturday night and the local bakery did woodfired pizza - Mmmmm!
As we have travelled the biggest section of the island, and have another month we have time to slow the pace and zigzag around the northeast. So we left Ross and headed south to Oatlands.
A beautiful town with reputedly the largest collection of sandstone Georgian buildings in Australia.
As we got into town just after 10 am we parked in the main street and started a walking tour of those buildings. We started at the Callington Mill in the centre of town. It was built in 1836 and having been restored and reconstructed it is now full operational.
Most of the houses are privately owned but well looked after and the gardens were so 'English cottage garden'.
As we were just up the road we decided to head on down to Richmond.
On the way we detoured into the tiny hamlet of Jericho.(It's near Jerusalem on the Jordan River). It is stated as being one of the oldest townships in Australia, being settled in 1816. There is so little there now that calling it a township is a stretch, but we did see some very old buildings and in the churchyard is the grave of Australia's first Victoria Cross recipient. On the road out we stopped at the ruins of the convict probation station.
Then it was into Richmond, along a road which had a weight (5T)and speed limit (80kms) on it because it was in such a bad condition!
Despite being Sunday, peak season and only 20mins from Hobart we were able to park in the main street of Richmond and took a walk along past the trendy cafes and shops.
The bridge was built in 1832 and is Australia's oldest.
Also in Richmond is Australia's oldest Roman Catholic Church, built in 1836.
The river foreshore is a delightful parkland and there is a wooden platform which enables locals to have a fantastic backdrop to any special photos.
We treated ourselves to an icecream before heading north again, travelling through wine country up to Bothwell.
We passed through the area of Bagdad - naturally we stopped for a photo op.
We had no trouble at all in Bagdad, can't see what all the fuss is, no one shot at us - been there in a motorhome quite safely.
Bothwell may not be as 'colonial' as Ross and Oatlands but has some beautiful examples of buildings from the 1800s.
Bothwell is on the edge of the 'Lakes' area and most of its' activities are related to hunting and fishing. The local garage/store sells lots of magazines on hunting and this is where you can restock your ammunition and then once you've got your quarry you drop it off here for the taxidermist.
THAT van again - Werner and Mary. We ran into the road and waved but they didn't see us. No need to worry, it's a small town and a few minutes later we spotted them again and this time they saw us. They checked in and we spent another night with them.
After saying goodbye the next morning, Werner was heading off to catch some trout, we headed up into High Country. The wind the last couple of days had been unrelenting, and it really dropped the temperature. We were glad that we had winter clothes on board, longsleeve top, sweatshirt and jacket were the order of the day.
We braved the cold for a quick look around the abandoned settlement of The Steppes.
The Steppes was the home of the Wilson family for a period of 112 years, that started in 1863.It was started as a police station to deal with the pilfering of stock in the district and on the plateau.
The cloud came down and we drove on across the plateau through 'The Lakes' up towards Longford.
There was a steep dirt track off the side of the road before we started our descent to Poatina and the plains - it lead up to the lookout and the view was stunnning so we made it our lunch stop.
Then it was downhill all the way - some of the switch back bends had 15kms limit on them, it was a very twisty road but wide enough all along its' length and the traffic was very light. Then we were into fertile farmland and the town of Longford.
Gosh it is so like an Irish town! Even the weather! This is another Heritage town but is a busy modern small farming community town - the old buildings aren't a high priority here.
We've picked up a 2012 brochure on Launceston and found that there is a Motor Expo and a Wooden Boat Rally in Launceston on the same weekend - Jan 21-22. So we have to check that out and factor that into our plans.
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