Day 404 Somewhere in the Tarkine Tuesday 6th March 2012

Hi Folks

Today started with the obligatory patter of rain on the canvas, just enough to annoy me. However distant blue sky gradually crept towards and over us.

We departed the camp ground at 11 and headed toward Burnie Rob from Tarkine Retreats rang us as we were  driving toward Burnie we met up just after 1200.

There were 3 others with Rob – Raven, Chris and Jessica- all younger than us. We headed south from Burnie for about an hour before turning onto a logging road. The road was fairly rocky and by my estimate we travelled about 20kms before parking.

We were a bit surprised to learn we had a 20-30 minute hike up the hill to the ‘retreat’ we also had to hurriedly pack our kit together , as we did this I could feel myself slipping well out of my comfort zone.

After a fallen log creek crossing and plenty of puffing we arrived we have a large tent with 2 camp stretchers and thin camp mattresses.

As we settled in I hightailed it back to the car to pick up some other items including one laptop seeing as we have 3G. It took about 12 minutes to descend back to the car and twice as long to return.

Tea was cooked and eaten and a fire lit. After some chit chat we retired to bed. There are 8 guests coming to stay tomorrow afternoon for 2 days. It should be an interesting few days until our Friday departure.

The countryside here is fairly typical of Tasmanian rain forest with white topped stringybarks towering and the rest filled in with beech myrtles,blackwood, sassafras, dogwoods, horizontal and huge manferns

Night folks

Simon.

Day 403 Riana Monday 5th March 2012

Art work at lillydale

Hi Folks,

A mercifully dry night at Lilydale with only a couple of showers.

We packed the slightly damp swag, breakfasted and headed towards Golcona for a house inspection. The agent having fractured his ankle during the week was unable to attend so we were hosted by the owners. The house was different, constructed of cut log and mud/cement mortar/render. It was set on 15 acres of fairly hilly terrain with mostly natural bush and some gold mines from the turn of the century. One of these provided a permanent water supply to augment the rainwater tanks. Apparently Forest the mining company have been conducting assays. While we looking the owner advised us to check for leeches. Of course Susan had one on her shoe which raised the adrenaline levels.

We departed towards Launceston and did our debrief. Not a house for us, not that we are looking that seriously. We drove through Launceston and up the Bass Highway to Deloraine where we adjourned for a latish 2pm lunch.

We then travelled to our camp for the night at the Riana Pioneer Park about 20km south of Burnie. Very nice little camp spot at $8 per night with pay showers. There was not a cloud in the sky so I unfurled the swag and mattress on the tarp and baked them dry along with the old roof bag.

I noticed what appeared to be dried blood on the bag of Susan’s trouser leg just below the knee. This prompted a quick leg inspection for sucking critters and a memory of feeling something strange there at Deloraine. The theory is this was a bloated leech falling off. She checked the rest of her body in the toilet block later with no other hitchhikers apparent, which is just as well since I don’t want them dropping off her and attaching to me in the swag tonight!

Unfortunately we are at the edge of the communication network so this blog publishing will have to wait until tomorrow when we head back to Burnie. Having not heard anything to the contrary we will be meeting our Helpex host there tomorrow afternoon to spend a few nights working in the Tarkine at his retreats. This may be out of phone range so don’t panic if we appear to have vanished from the electronic world.

Cheers Simon

Day 402 Lilydale Sunday 4th March 2012

7am in Scottsdale spot our rig if you can

Best Coffee in Scottsdale

Across the bay in Georgetown

The Tamar River in a blur as we drive through rain

Hello Again,

Seems the 4th of March is a wet day in Tasmania. It was last year and it certainly was this year. We hunkered down in our swag last night, with sufficient preparations for a dry night or so we thought. Simon awoke to a persistent dripping on his forehead; the prevailing winds had changed direction and the rain was now getting in under the swag awning. Actually I could have told him that the wind direction had altered at 00:04 last night. The wind howled and I was sure our tarp would take off, I awoke Simon a few times in the night with concern, he grunted and fell back to sleep, so I did the best I could to sleep also.

The drips getting the better of him forced Simon out of bed before 0700 with me a close second, yes the mattress was damp, but not too much. The threatening skies and the bucket of water emptied of the sagging Pajero awning spurred us in to action and we packed the sag in double quick time, had breakfast then waited out the showers, unable to get properly packed up before 1030! We did have lovely showers, $3.00 for 4 minutes, actually they seemed longer.

We didn't chance making a hot drink for breakfast so drove into Scottsdale to find a cafe. We can highly recommend the Art Gallery coffee shop besides excellent coffee (we had 2 lattes each) the galley showcases excellent quality artistic works. The owners are very friendly so drop in if you are in Scottsdale.

We drove westward to Georgetown intending to drive down the East Tamar highway to Launceston but deviated across Batman Bridge and Sidmouth. Before this Simon ventured into Bell Bay to see what changes there were to the Alcan smelter since his previous trip in 1979. "Looks just the same" was the verdict. The Tempco ferro manganese plant was still the same "bloody big muddy brown buildings". Both businesses are under a cloud in the current economic climate.

The trip along the Tamar River was quite picturesque, we would like to explore the area more, perhaps we will have time after our HelpX in the Tarkine next week. I had confirmed this earlier in the day, although the commencement day may now be Wednesday rather than Tuesday, we will know for sure tomorrow. We are going to help with minor building projects, track maintenance, firewood collection and general cleaning.

After deciding to camp at Lillydale we made our way eastward again stopping at a craft shop where I spied some cute slippers for Abella and Arleigh, in conversation with the assistant we discovered she has a brother in Port Noarlunga. I suggested Simon might know him, he was skeptical and pooh-hooed the idea but he did know him, they worked at Mitsubishi together, she took Simon's name and we all had a laugh at what a small world it is!

Lillydale camp at Lillydale Falls is just the same as it was last year, not sure in they ever replaced the stolen washing machine (see day 50 16th March 2011). Sausages for the this time, trout last time....

Mozzies are getting fierce so time to take cover.

Cheers

Susan

Day 401 Scottsdale Saturday 3rd March 2012

Legerwood carving

Plaque for the carving above

Another carving

Carving detail

View down the row of carvings

One of the better looking buildings in Derby

Hi Folks
from a fairly damp Scottsdale. We are at the Northeast free camp on the edge of town. Quite a respectable site well populated with tourists, decent toilets, pay showers and bbq’s etc. We are currently huddled under the awning as steady light rain falls both at our laptops blogging furiously.
We had an efficient pack up this morning at Stumpy’s and headed back along the road to Derby an old tin mining town, The town looks to have seen better days. However there is a new interpretive centre for the Briseies dam disaster of 1929 when the dam wall above the town collapsed during heavy rain (475mm in 48 hours. The water raced through the tin mine below the dam and through Derby with 14 people drowned.
From Derby we headed to Legerwood to view a unique grove of honor to locals who fell in WWI. The trees were planted in 1918. In 1999 the council declared they were a safety risk and needed to be cut down. The local community fundraised, researched the men’s stories and photographs. A chainsaw carver Eddie Freeman was engaged and the pictured sculptures are a result. Quite unique.
Next stop was Scottsdale the largest town in the district. A few food items 8 litres of chateau cardboard (it’s thirsty work on the road) and half a dozen beers. After checking out the free camp we headed to Bridport since Susan had a description of it being a picturesque seaside community with harbour and fish markets. It was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. We returned to Scottsdale and under leadening skies setup our camp. Tea is cooked and eaten another delicious Susan preparation. After our blogging the table and chairs go away and the swag goes down. As long as the wind doesn’t blow the rain horizontal we should be dry.

Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Day 400 Mt William NP Friday 2nd March 2012

Musselroe Bay

Mr Fixit deep in concentration with red connector in his mouth

Almost finished

Reading (to the critters)

Feeding Skip the right food

Hi All,

If it wasn’t for writing the blog we wouldn’t know what day it is. Even saying this we often check with each other and often we are both wrong! A milestone, day 400, it wasn’t so long ago I recall Simon commenting on our 300th day doesn’t seem that long ago....

Amazingly, I managed to get some sleep last night, actually better than expected considering the gale force winds overhead and the crashing of the waves less than 50 metres away. Once during the night Simon ventured out to re-cover the kitchen as the tarp had blown off, we were woken by the crash of the 5kg camp oven landing on the ground (it had been anchoring the tarp). Being cast iron I expected some damage but thankfully it was fine.

As Simon strode off for his morning constitutional I suggested he take the fly-spray as I had observed the long drop to be infested by dozens of small flying critters when I checked it out yesterday. My plan was he would dispatch the critters and I could then have the use of a bug free dunny. The dunny turned out to be worse than expected and after a dose a fly-spray a swarm rose from the pit and Simon ran out screaming, right I am exaggerating. Simon advised the second long drop was the preferred option I followed his suggestion. We didn’t determine what the critters were, not interested in having a second look either!

Deterred by the weather, black skies and ferocious winds we decided not to climb Mt William. 5 hours of wet clothes was not particularly enticing. We drove in to Musselroe Bay for a look see instead; another iconic Tasmanian holiday town. Actually can you call a location a town if it doesn’t have a shop? We walked around the bay and drove down every street (all 5 of them) then we had a look at “Top Camp” and decided our camp was probably the nicest.

I made lunch of toasted wraps with salmon, tomato, onion and cheese, every move eagerly watched by a wallaby, no 2, no 3, it is hard to cook under pressure so clear off Skip. Clearly other visitors have not taken heed of the signs “Do not feed the wildlife” as these guys are tame enough to stroke. I can see why people feed them they are cute and they do have that doe eyed look about them, actually I found the answer break of a new branch from the acacias that they seem to like and give it to them. That brought me a few minutes.....

After lunch I continued reading my book Space (by James A Mitchener) and Simon made repairs to the internal front light of the Paj, it has been kaput tor a while. I must admit (don’t tell Simon) that I am impressed by his ability to fix every small problem we have had on the road. Initially I had begrudged the space taken up by the triplets his 3 identical tool boxes; 1 for mechanical, 1 for electrical and 1 for chemical. Today’s job required the used of his small gas powered soldering iron. Ahh on review of the picture above I notice he has some small red component held in his mouth, just like a third hand (particularly for keys see day 48 25th August 2010).

I went for a wander returning to find Simon reading (The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha) to the Skippys. Tea was roast potatos and carrots, broccoli and KANGAROO, from the IGA. No we haven’t resorted to hunting yet.

Blog typed up for posting sometime. Now for movie time something from our DVD collection.

Night All

Susan

Day 399 Mount William NP Thursday 1st March 2012

That's what i like about the camper....it's big inside!

Chinese point of worship in the cemetery

Mr stinky the bore pump

40 metres to the beach at Stumpy's Bay

Evening folks,
from a windy camp site “Stumpy’s Number 3” in Mount William National Park up in the North eastern corner of Tasmania.
The day started at Weldborough a very pleasant economical camp site. We had a leisurely morning with the last act being a repair to a section of telescoping tube on our recalcitrant car awning. For some reason Susan always gets nervous when I have a hammer in my hand. However I had the mislocated roll pin out and reinserted in next to no time.
We drove up the road to the town of Moorina (Truganini’s sister) and stopped off at the cemetery which has a Chinese monument. There was a large Chinese population in the area before the turn of the century to work the alluvial tin mines. Since the Telstra net work was functional at the cemetery we took the opportunity to perch our laptops on the trailer and post last night’s blog and generally goof off for 20 minutes. I checked the Telstra coverage map and it showed we have coverage here which is incorrect!
We stopped at Gladstone the last outpost of civilisation before the park and purchased 2 nights of camping.
We checked out 4 different camping areas before settling on this one. Not an auspicious start with a Laurel and Hardy moment. Actually it was just Laurel, my fault entirely. I unhitched the trailer and drove off without putting the jockey wheel down. Clunk the tow hitch hit the ground. There is no way we two can lift it since there would be over 100kg on the ball. I used the bottle jack to jack it up put some rocks under the coupling and a large rock under the jack to raise it up enough to get the wheel down. No damage done just some embarrassment. The first time that has happened when we have been away.
There is no water here and 2 long drops at each camp site. Actually there is a rainwater tank at the next camp it you get stuck and surprise, surprise 2 gas BBQ’s. Our camp ground has the pictured bore tap which I managed to get running by priming with sea water per the instructions. The water was ‘orrible very sulphurous. I returned to the sea and washed the bucket out and returned to camp with it full off sea water which is OK for dishes.
We ventured to the beach after nibbles and before tea. Two things stood out. Susan found a dead leafy sea dragon and to our amazement there was somebody out snorkelling in the windy conditions. They were last seen about 150 metres off shore as we decided to go for tea since the light was fading. I am sure they knew what they were doing but even so not an activity for the faint hearted.
Tea was the last of our squid which even though it was tentacles was very nice. I have honed my salt and pepper squid technique and hopefully the next batch will not be too far away.
As mentioned earlier the canvas is fairly rocking tonight in the wind. Based on past experience I am sure it will be ok. We will stay here for 2 nights. We have a house inspection at Golconda on Monday. It is a place Susan finds very interesting and since we are in the area we will go for a look.
We had a play around with the back of the trailer this afternoon as we were here fairly early and have some firm plans on what we need to construct to make our life easier on the road with respect to pack up/setup times and cooking when we use the swag. I am actually quite excited about it.
Anyway a long blog for a day where not much happened a sure indication of no internet connection!

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 398 Weldborough Wednesday 29th February 2012

Pancakes Yum

Milking time thwarts biker and provides manure some of which now coats the underside of our camper

Myrtle Rainforest walk near Weldborough

Dinner

Tuck in

Hi All,

There was a miracle this morning. We packed up and were out of our spot before the appointed time. This was a proper pack up, orderly, not like some of our other “quick” pack ups which have left us wondering where we put everything.

We spent some time last night and again over breakfast discussing improvements to our rig and have decided that we will head home to make a number of improvements in April. Improvements include a slide out storage box and an underslung water tank. Just imagine how quick our pack ups will be if we don’t need to lug all the plastic boxes in and and out!

We stopped for lunch at Elephant Pancakes mine tandoori chicken and Simon's salmon, wine and Camembert followed by pancakes of brandies apricots and lemon and sugar. After literally rolling out of the restaurant we headed up the road unsure of where we would camp for the night.

We caught up to a biker who sped past us proving the tortoise and the hare story. We also picked up some free fertilizer, not that it will benefit the camper trailer.

Later we stopped to do the Rain forest walk of ancient Myrtle trees and man ferns, two minutes later we found our camp for the night behind the hotel in Weldborough. Must be a congregating spot for South Aussies as there were 5 other SA plated vehicles already camped. All in there were 13 campers behind the hotel, most went to the pub for dinner. We had squid again..... hard life. This time Simon included some Chinese 5 spice powder purchased during our shopping trip in St Helens.

Best squid so far! Thanks chef!

We will be incommunicado for a few days no phone reception in Mt William National Park/Musselroe Bay.

Cheers

Susan