Hi Folks,
After 438 days the nomads have returned to the land of the barking dog
We awoke to pale sunny morning somewhat earlier than we had intended thanks to the loud jabbering of the oriental neighbours on the next site at 6. Susan had a much more considered and polite word with them than i would have had .
We had a chat with a neighbours from SA who had 4 children in their Jayco van. A good experience for the kids although the youngest at 18 months was a worry near the campfire. No coincidence that his name was Jonathan!(my son's name).
We packed and drove towards Horsham having decided to return home today. The sun was shining upon our decision. I was quite surprised by the size of Horsham which was much larger than i remembered. We refuelled and made our way steadily back to Adelaide pausing only for a Subway at Tailem Bend.
The house was tidy and in good repair. We unloaded the roof bag and made ourselves comfortable.
We are going to pretty busy here with jobs on the camper and catching up with family and friends.
For me a merciful release from blogging which is sometimes a strain at the end of a busy day.
However rest assured readers it will recommence when we move out into the great outdoors once again.
Cheers Simon
Day 438 Grampians Monday 9th April 2012
Hi Folks,
A delayed blog since we are beyond the range of the networks. Today's blog starts on the ferry just after midnight. We were in the "Ocean Recliners" and Susan who had been travelling pretty well succumbed once again to mal de mer. I helped her hold the bag until she stopped wretching and staggered off to the toilet. She returned and changed seats so she was in the aisle. She had another bout of vomiting before collapsing into her seat. I found it very difficult to sleep sitting up but of course was fast asleep when the wake up call of the ferry blared out at 6am. We both had poor nights sleep and it showed today with both of us short on patience and a tad bad tempered.
By 7 we were driving through the mercifully deserted streets of Melbourne. First stop was Ballarat for 2 big breakfasts and coffee. It was then on to Ararat where the weather was decidely unfriendly. We visited the outdoor shop where we bought our table on the way over to Tasmania all those days ago. After buying some food staples we continued onto the Grampians where after my afternoon nap we setup in the swag in the Smith Street camping ground. Susan has never been here so it will be a new experience for her. The weather is cold with occasional showers but should improve. We are looking forward to a long deep nights sleep!
Cheers Simon
Day 437 Somewhere in Bass Strait 8th April 2012
Nowhere Else is a REAL place
The massive capsicum greenhouse
The massive capsicum plants
My mosaic
Some of Kayes mosaics
On the little greenhouse
Two Islands
Jen and Fung's contribution
Hi All,
The Gypsies took their time packing today; in reality there was not much to pack just a few clothes bags, the coffee machine and some goodies from Kaye’s and my cooking exploits. We will be enjoying K’s Special Tomato Sauce, Tomato and Apple Chutney, Kasundi Green Tomato Chutney and Strawberry, Vanilla and Rhubarb jam over the next few weeks YUM.
Today we had a final walk around the Capsicum farm and took some final pictures. We did do a small final “job” which was to place my mosaic masterpiece (cough, cough) in the path. The design depicts the road to Nowhere Else between Devils Gate dam and the mountain peaks toward the east, clouds and sunshine. Some of the other helpers’ designs are pictured as well as some of Kaye’s designs. Kaye made us lunch of chicken soup and presented us with matching Easter bunnies, which we will save for a few days.
This blog is written from the front seat of the Paj parked adjacent to the Derwent estuary while we wait the Spirits arrival (Tasmania, not almighty), we can apparently start boarding by 1830. I was just about to type “that is if the boat arrives by then” and I look up and see a red form out of the corner of my left eye. I mentioned this to Simon and we discovered I was looking at a sign at the breakwater DUH!
It is now 1745 and the boat hasn’t arrived, somehow I doubt we will be boarding by 1830. Time for my ginger tablets, let’s hope I won’t be feeding the dolphins this trip.
Cheers Susan
Day 436 Nowhere Else Saturday 7th April 2012
View from the hill
Prickly
Shelter in the Alpine Garden
Fungi
Farewell Scrub Chickens
Hi All,
A leisurely start to the day today, we had provisionally decided to drive toward Chudleigh and visit a couple of foodie places again and ask them to autograph my Providore book, this was to occur after Simon visited the Super Cheap store in Devonport, they had an irresistible 20% off everything sale.
Simon saved lots of money at Super Cheap mainly because he didn't buy anything! Well done....
I browsed a couple of stores looking for a protector for the mattress in the camper, several styles available but not what I wanted. Having spoken to other travellers they keep the bed made up and protected - saves a few minutes in the set up/pack down, and would also save us some room in the roof bag. The only problem we have is the dust that settles on the mattress, a waterproof fitted mattress protector seems like a better solution than the huge plastic sheet I use at present. Another project for the trip home.
After our puddling about it was lunchtime and then on to Chudleigh, however Simon had another idea to visit the Tasmanian Arboretum instead, as we had missed going there in November. It was a healthier option, and we wandered about for 2 hours or so, drinking in our last views of Tasmanian countryside, hard to believe we leave tomorrow. We have remarked several times that we feel quite Tasmanian, we certainly have a good appreciation of what the state can offer and the choice locations to settle here. Not that we have made that decision yet, we know there is more to see in this big country.
Kaye made us a wonderful roast dinner of chicken with stuffing, potato, sweet potato, beetroot, corn and peas, followed with dessert of creamed vanilla rice and rhubarb. Simon will be back on rations after tomorrow.
Kaye lead a general discussion of where to next, I wish we knew. I will update our profile on the HelpX site and see what eventuates. We still have a list of hosts who have asked us to visit, maybe a game of "pin the tail" will help us to decide.
Simon is already knocking out zeds
Night all
Susan
Day 435 Nowhere Else Friday 6th April 2012
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| Susan's misty morning pictures |
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| Danger man at work |
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| Finito |
Hi folks,
Susan checks the window when she gets up in the morning and if the sunrise looks good she snaps away. Hence the pictures on today's blog.
A constructive day today. Susan and Kaye cleaned a heap of material out of the old dairy and some stuff from the garage. Fires were lit to burn carboard and prunings. Susan also gardened.
After watering the compost heaps I set about building an insulated box for the water heater. This took the rest of the day and turned out a reasonable result. The box was lined with left over polystyrene sheet.
The weather today was warm and balmy with occasional sun. Tonight we had big flashes of lightning, thunder and rain. The cat is locked inside, not because he is scared but because he keeps going out on the verandah and bringing in frogs. He was trying to beat his way out of the cat door with his head to get to critters on the other side of the glass. The weather forecast is for gales and rain. Hopefully it will have calmed down for the Bass straight crossing on Sunday night.
Tomorrow we are having a day out for our last full day in Tasmania.
Night folks,
Cheers Simon
Day 434 Nowhere Else Thursday 5th April 2012
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| There is a prize for the best caption for this image |
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| Eric has been very industrious |
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| Chestnut tree and double decker guard |
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| Walnut tree |
Hi Folks,
Today we pottered along. Susan planted a walnut and chestnut tree out in the sheep paddocks. This involved constructing two tree guards. The results are in the pictures and they look excellent. My contribution was belting the star pickets in with the monster sledge hammer and keeping my "sage" advice to myself.
I scraped the damaged paint from the carport poles and repainted them. I also recoated the frame for the water heater surround. A quick trip into Sheffield followed to buy a battery, sour cream for tea and to visit the hole in the wall money machine.
I have moved the mousetrap from the camper trailer to inside the house. It sits baited ready to despatch any of Hydro's (the cat) presents that have escaped.
Susan knocked up a pumpkin soup for entree for tea.
Another glorious balmy autumn day today. However the forecast for the rest of the easter weekend is not overly cheery. However the weather here is so variable and localised who knows what will happen!
Night folks
Simon
Day 433 Nowhere Else Wednesday 4th April 2012
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| Creek on Union Bridge Road |
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| Marakoopa cave |
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| Marakoopa Cave |
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| King Solomon's Cave |
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| King Solomon's cave |
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| King Solomon's cave |
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| King Solomon's cave |
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| Aragonite KingSolomons cave |
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| Water pool in King Solomon's |
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| Devils Gullet lookout |
Hi Folks,
A day off for us although by the time we left the house it was after 11.
The weather was sunny and warm contrasting to this day 12 months ago in Nubeena where the blog notes there was an Antarctic gale blowing.
We drove the "back "route to Mole Creek under the shadow of Mount Roland and over the low range that separates us from the next valley that the Mersey River runs through. On the way we stopped at picturesque creek crossing on Union Bridge road.
We arrived at Marakoopa Cave in time for the 1pm tour. The ranger suggested we drive up to Devils Gullet as an alternative to driving to the end of the Lake Rowallen road which was my original intention since it takes you to the base of the Walls of Jerusalem walk and goes past some free camps. Marakoopa Cave was large. It was not overly full of formations but does has the best glow worm population of Australian caves. At least that is what i think the guide said. We did see a lot of glow worms. It also has some large cave spiders which can live for many years and can grow to 22cm across the legs.
Apparently there is a cave called Kublai Khan nearby which has restricted entry with a waiting list of 3 years. This has a huge shallow lake and enormous columns.
We journeyed on to King Solomons cave. This was smaller and tighter to move through and was packed with many excellent formations. The caves were quite different to each other. I preferred King Solomons due to the variety and quantity of formations.
Leaving the caves we drove towards Lake Rowallan turning off onto a dirt road up to Devils Gullet. 15km of mainly up hill travel and we found ourselves in the familiar montane countryside reminiscent of Mount Field and Cradle Mountain. We parked the car and walked the 500 metres to the lookout. This was perched on the edge of a fairly steep drop. Although the day was sunny and calm the updraft was fairly whistling up the cliff. Spectacular views which you can see on the soundless video.
We drove up the road to Lake McKenzie a shallow hydro lake formed by damming the Fly River which flows through the valley below Devils Gullet. From what I could see water is discharged from the lake through a viaduct before disappearing down a pipe to the power station on the river in the valley from whence it is discharged. This is just a guess.
With the shadows lengthening we returned home just after dark for the beef hotpot dish from last night. Another great meal washed down with dry red.
Another tough day.
Night Folks
Cheers Simon
Marakoopa cave
King Solomons Cave
Fisher lookout
Devils Gullet minus the wind noise from the up draft. Cradle mountain is to the right on the horizon. The Fly River is in the valley
Day 432 Nowhere Else Tuesday 3rd April 2012
Hi folks,
We pottered along today. First up was stacking the weeds that Susan has accumulated over the last week into the empty compost bay. We filled it up so i had to jump up and down on top to compact it.
Susan filled holes in the lawn.
I cut a table frame to make the shell for the water heater screen. I had to weld the cut tube in a different position. My welding skills haven't improved over the years but it finished up reasonably solid. Susan painted it with a rust binding undercoat. She prepared a Thai pumpkin soup which was timely since the slow cooked beef wasn't ready in time for tea. Kaye knocked up an excellent damper since we finished most of the bread for lunch. I wasted some time recovering deleted files from a slip of the mouse while I was doing a clean up.
That was about it for the day. Day out tomorrow.
Night folks
Simon
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| Start of the day nearly empty compost bin |
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| End of the day nearly full |
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| Modifed table frame |
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| New neighbours |
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| chop, chop, chop,chop |
Hi folks,
We pottered along today. First up was stacking the weeds that Susan has accumulated over the last week into the empty compost bay. We filled it up so i had to jump up and down on top to compact it.
Susan filled holes in the lawn.
I cut a table frame to make the shell for the water heater screen. I had to weld the cut tube in a different position. My welding skills haven't improved over the years but it finished up reasonably solid. Susan painted it with a rust binding undercoat. She prepared a Thai pumpkin soup which was timely since the slow cooked beef wasn't ready in time for tea. Kaye knocked up an excellent damper since we finished most of the bread for lunch. I wasted some time recovering deleted files from a slip of the mouse while I was doing a clean up.
That was about it for the day. Day out tomorrow.
Night folks
Simon
Day 431 Nowhere Else Monday 2nd April 2012
Hi folks,
The start of another week. Our last in Tasmania this time round. It is going to seem quite surreal back on the big island.
Today Susan was filling holes in the lawn while i carted two pallets up to the vegetable patch to construct another bay on the compost bins. Susan had already drawn up a plan of bins A, B & C with multiple arrows of what had to be shovelled where. I duly shovelled under the watchful eye of the Kommandant who was attending under the guise of wetting down the heap and doing some shovelling but was really checking for any deviation from THE PLAN. When we built the heaps on our last visit the middle bin was full of wet material,. This had matured quite nicely into some fairly decent looking compost and was shovelled into the right hand side bin. I then shovelled the bin currently filled to the brim and with fresh scraps on top into the middle bin. The material down the bottom was well on the way to compost and should be ready in 2 -3 weeks. I also took the opportunity to cut some old carpet to cover the tops of the bins. While i was shovelling a large grey rat hopped out and ran around the vegetable patch. Typically the cat was asleep under the verandah when required. He did however appear 5 minutes later and uncannily went to the last clump of weeds that i saw the rat in. However he meandered off to some old hay bales to perform his sadistic catch and release (generally inside the house) game with the mice.
Susan in the meantime was in the kitchen making kasundi. This took several hours. The final verdict will not be known for a couple of weeks.
One of my coaldust bricks made it into the fire tonight. It did start burning but i am not sure how it went. It did reduce to a pile of grey sandy ash which glowed red when poked a minute ago so i guess it is ok. The bricks don't seem to have much physical strength although i will be interested to see the one i cured in the mould.
Thats all for now.
cheers Simon
PS pictures to follow
The start of another week. Our last in Tasmania this time round. It is going to seem quite surreal back on the big island.
Today Susan was filling holes in the lawn while i carted two pallets up to the vegetable patch to construct another bay on the compost bins. Susan had already drawn up a plan of bins A, B & C with multiple arrows of what had to be shovelled where. I duly shovelled under the watchful eye of the Kommandant who was attending under the guise of wetting down the heap and doing some shovelling but was really checking for any deviation from THE PLAN. When we built the heaps on our last visit the middle bin was full of wet material,. This had matured quite nicely into some fairly decent looking compost and was shovelled into the right hand side bin. I then shovelled the bin currently filled to the brim and with fresh scraps on top into the middle bin. The material down the bottom was well on the way to compost and should be ready in 2 -3 weeks. I also took the opportunity to cut some old carpet to cover the tops of the bins. While i was shovelling a large grey rat hopped out and ran around the vegetable patch. Typically the cat was asleep under the verandah when required. He did however appear 5 minutes later and uncannily went to the last clump of weeds that i saw the rat in. However he meandered off to some old hay bales to perform his sadistic catch and release (generally inside the house) game with the mice.
Susan in the meantime was in the kitchen making kasundi. This took several hours. The final verdict will not be known for a couple of weeks.
One of my coaldust bricks made it into the fire tonight. It did start burning but i am not sure how it went. It did reduce to a pile of grey sandy ash which glowed red when poked a minute ago so i guess it is ok. The bricks don't seem to have much physical strength although i will be interested to see the one i cured in the mould.
Thats all for now.
cheers Simon
PS pictures to follow
Day 430 Nowhere Else Sunday 1st April 2012
Showing their best side
Todays harvest
Capsicum King - the crown proves it!
Her kitchen ruled tonight
Hi All,
I was expecting some hilarity this morning but nothing eventuated, well actually the extra hours sleep we were going to have was a joke, we were up earlier than usual.
There was however some hilarity last night. Hydro the cat is quite good at catching critters and came inside with a mouse, there are plenty about at the moment (and I will relate a couple of other tales later) after teasing the poor thing with drop and catch game the little thing finally got away. We all had our feet up after it had run across Kaye's foot once. Eric tried to find it with the torch but without success, just when we had all settled back in our seats Eric jumped up ever so calmly grabbed his left leg and said "its in my trousers" and with a bit of shaking dislodged the critter who scuttled off again. Having another laugh about it this morning Simon trotted out a one liner asking "did it run back down with a scared look on its face", more laughter.
After a leisurely breakfast we got to work. Peiling who stayed overnight headed to the greenhouse, me to the veggie garden and Simon and Eric continued work on the carport. Kaye headed to church in Port Sorrell.
During a break I was watching the "boys" and snapped them in action, some adjustment to the framework was necessary as the alignment was out by 40mm or so.
As often happens a car pulled up in the driveway (usually to buy capsicums from the stall) this time it was a fellow from Melbourne looking for the geocache hidden by Kaye's son an avid player. Not knowing much about the sport/game I chatted to the fellow and have suggested to Simon that we could play as we travel, he wasn't too keen....seems he is too busy or so he says! Apparently Simon's old boss is also a player, I reckon it looks like fun!
After harvesting the rest of the pumpkins and cutting the corn canes for next years bean frames I filled in holes in the lawn. Simon finished work on his aerial which actually works.
Peiling cooked tea a traditional Taiwanese recipe of spicy pork with rice and veggies, delicious.
Tomorrow I make Kasundi green tomato relish.
Night All
Susan
PS the other mouse tales:
- Day 417 Simon did not tip out the wash up water before we turned in, but was on the job first thing in the morning, having a habit of turfing the cutlery out he swirled the water around and noticed a dark shape "the mouse" I suggested - it was!
- Day 425 Evidence of a mouse in the camper still, it has been eating the tarpaulin, so we set a trap with peanut paste. It works a treat another critter dispatched, that night we were discussing the mouse problems at Nubeena this time last year.
- Day 427 I am driving home from our day out and a text message From Nubeena "Do you know if there are any mouse baits left" Simon replied and baits located seems they are running riot there too.
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