Baker's Beach and Ullverstone

The trip in Tasmania is nearly over now.  We found really beautiful spot to camp in a National Park on the side of a river.  It’s very crowded at the park because it is a long weekend in Tasmania.  Weather is the pits as there is a constant dirizzle with strong winds.  Apparently a lot of people have packed up and gone home as the weather has set for the weekend.  Not us Stephensons though!  Alright – we have nowhere to go!!!  Anyway, last chance to go fishing in Tas.  Alex is out there braving the wind and rain and cursing because everyone else is catching fish, but not him. 

Woke up in the morning, packed up the camper and off for a last bit of fishing before we moved on back to Ullverstone and Devonport.  Alex caught THREE fish and two on the same line (used double hooks)!!!  Hooray!!!!  Threw them back though as they were too small.  I picked up a lot of beautiful tumbled pebbles off the beach.  I am going to make myself a ‘Tree of Life’ mosaic when I get back home to remember our travels in Tas.

Rolled in to Ullverstone (Elle and Damien Shields hail from this tiny town) for a cup of tea and scones with Elle’s parents.  They are both so cool.  Fred and Lynne had been camping on Baker’s beach close to us but had left early because of the weather.  We were lucky to catch them as they were off the next day to help out with a Driver Reviver stand.  It was so good to see them. The dogs were gorgeous – Polly and Lady – had to have their share of scones while we were there.  They were such well-mannered dogs J

Off to Devonport we went to board the Spirit of Tasmania II back to Melbourne.  We were very clever this time and bought a picnic dinner at Woollies to eat in our cabin rather than pay the exorbitant prices on board the ferry.  Although the weather was very rough and the ship rolled around a lot, I slept like a baby and didn’t want to get off the boat.  I think I have the cruising bug now and can’t wait to go somewhere with a big bunch of friends.

Launceston

Dropped Kate off and sent back some of our warmies.  Paul reckons we wont need it that much.  ‘Yeah right’ says miserably cold Christine.  We had a great time with Kate and really enjoyed her company.  It’s great for Alex to have a big sister to boss him around.

The best thing about being in Launceston is that I finally got to catch up with my long lost friend Lee and his family.  The freaky thing about seeing  Lee again was that he left Emirates in 2007 and I joined exactly 12 months later.  We were such close friends in Singapore and I agonized losing contact with him and especially his Mum who I love to bits.  Lee, unfortunately,  has just been made redundant and is looking for work again.  Hopefully he finds one closer to us in QLD.  It was great meeting Lee’s lovely wife Charlotte and son Marcello.  Marcello and Alex got on like a house on fire and played with the Lego the whole two days we were there.  Charlotte looked after us so well especially given I had never met her as Lee married her after he left Singapore.  I also got to SKYPE with Lee’s Mum – Aunty Lumu – who doesn’t seem to have changed much since I last saw her.  She was practically speechless when she saw me on the video and I kept trying not to cry.  Aunty Lumu was like a second mother to me when I went through a rough time at home.  I am so glad to have got in touch with them again. 

Branxholm

Kate’s last night in Tasmania.  She had to be at the airport at 10 am so we decided to stay as close as possible to Launceston. On the way to Branxholm we stopped at a place called ‘Pub in the Paddock’. Guess what – it really is a Pub in a paddock.  They have a pig that is an alcoholic and for a dollar you can get a watered down bottle of Boags beer and feed it to her.  What a waste of good beer!! The pub however makes really good desserts and we all had one with the excuse that we had walked so much the day before, so could afford the calories. J

Pulled up in Branxholm close to the local pub.  Was very cold and wet – so decided not to cook for the night.  We had our showers and went over to the pub which gave us their private dining room with a roaring log fire.  We of course had to have a couple of drinks, real home cooked meals and then dessert because none of us wanted to head back to the freezing camper van. The one great thing about Branxholm other than the Pub, were the showers.  They were absolutely divine and warmed my soul!

Freycinet National Park

Got to Freycient really late in the evening and pulled into the National Park’s camping site.  This place is so popular that ballots are drawn to see who will stay here for X’mas.  This side of the coast is famous for its wonderful beaches that people can hardly swim at because it is so blooming cold with Antarctic water.  Woke up leisurely in the morning packed a picnic lunch and took for to the Wineglass bay walk.  Moderately difficult with steep climbs.  Omg!!!!!  On a positive note, I must be getting fitter as my lungs don’t burn as much and my knees didn’t hurt too bad.  It was a steep climb though and well worth the effort to get to the top and then all the way to the water’s edge.  There were a couple of tame Wallabie on the beach hanging out for some food from the people.  One of them wanted to poke its head into our bag to have some lunch – poor guy struck out coz the Stevos don’t feed wildlife.  Sandwiches are so much tastier when eaten outdoors and we refused to share with the native wildlife.  We had a lazy lunch and did what we wanted to do – Alex rock climbing, Paul fishing, Kate and I walking along the beach and then rock climbing with Alex.  I could have camped the night there quite easily if there wasn’t the long walk back up the hill.  Kate and I got a head start as I thought it would be hard slog for me. Only two stops along the way and we made it to the top.  Not too bad at all, but my body is telling me about it while I type this blog up.

Port Arthur

I had terribly mixed feelings about going to Port Arthur since the massacre there in the 1996.  I expected many memorials to be everywhere as it was such a tragedy and given my intense dislike for guns in the hands of the wrong people, I was not quite looking forward to this visit.  It all turned out good.

No reminders of the massacre and not a single sole mentioned it the whole time we were there.  In fact we were there on two beautiful days.  Got there very late in the afternoon so only managed to make the guided tour and the boat tour around the Isle of the Dead and poke our heads into as many of the houses as we could before they closed at 5pm. 

Had to get back to the caravan park quickly as Alex and Kate were booked to do the Ghost tour that night.  Managed to get some pasta into both of them and saw them off with strict instructions to Alex that if he got scared that was too bad and he had to stick it out the whole tour. (Yeah right – we should have known better).  I still have worked out how much of the tour they actually saw as when Paul went to pick them up at 10pm, they were both at reception waiting to be picked up.  Of course Alex got scared and it didn’t help that people on the tour were banging the walls, but the poor little mite had had enough.  Phone reception being as poor as it is, Kate couldn’t ring Dad to come get them earlier.

Our second day saw us with beautiful weather and the four us enjoyed our walk through the rest of Port Arthur.  Look up the ‘worst’ prisons in the world and you might find out about the ‘Separate’ prison.  Guantanamo Bay is not a new way of incarcerating prisoners – Port Arthur was way ahead of the game!  Very morbid and creepy walking through this section.  We went to the museum and looked up our family names to see if any of our rellies were ever convicts at Port Arthur – there were two John Stephensons (Paul’s family naturally)  and two people with the name Crosby (My maternal grandmother’s side of the family).  Every other name we tried came up with nothing.

Hobart

The Royal Hobart show was on while we were there so decided to go for a look-see.  Paul dropped Alex and me off and then went to pick Kate up from the airport.  Alex and I checked out where everything was first – you were right Gete, the Hobart show pales in comparison to the Ekka!  Alex was thrilled to see his sister and took off with her to do the rides while Paul and I devoured some Devonshire teas at the Country Women’s Association stall – yum yum.  We didn’t hang around too long and headed back to our campsite at Franklin.

Strahan to Lake St Clair

We tried to get away quickly but slept in to make up for the strom.  I didn't think it could get any colder...quick...get out of there!

My luck was not going to change...

I know I love my husband very much because I slept the night in the middle of a snow storm 800m above sea level!  Why, because we (Paul) thought it would be such an excitingly diffierent thing to do.  So who was I to argue when the Park Rangers lent us a heater for the van to make life a little warmer - inside the van - but did anyone tell you that to get to the toilets you had to get OUT of the nice warm van and walk to the freezing cold toilet block with the ice block for a toilet seat???? And...the walk was through a SNOW STORM!!!!  Yes, I love my husband...



Alex all snug as a bug



Besides the drama with the snow, we had a really nice walk around the lake and I got to see a platypus in the lake.  The wonder of Lake St Clair is that it is the deepest lake in Australia and along with Dove Lake is a Glacier made lake while the other lakes we have been too are man-made and for generating hydro electricity.  The glacier lakes are part of National Parks whilst the hydro lakes are managed by the electricity companies and offer free camping along the lake.  The national parks cost money - but we have a 2 month pass so pay only for the nights we choose to stay there.





White Christmas?