We’re Insania for Tasmania (as Peter Andre might say!) June 16, 2008

From NSW to Tassie 029

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

After the energy shown on the last day of our last blog, things took a decided downturn whilst we stayed in a lovely campsite in Shepparton. It was probably because the site was so nice, we decided to do nothing the next day…at all. Got up late and just loafed around, eventually getting it together by about 3 in the afternoon, enough at least to put some washing in and for a game of tennis (Soph won on tie-breaker, I gutted to come so close for a change!). During the evening we watched Ned Kelly the movie, suitable viewing for this area. It was a bit basic, those poor Irish thieves, those nasty Victorian Police etc, but pretty good viewing and easy for us to picture as we’d been to the place of his arrest (by the way very disappointed that no-one, not no-one made any comments about me putting a cooking pot on my head by the huge Ned Kelly statue, c’mon we’re out here embarrassing ourselves for you people, send us an e-mail!).
Next day was more energetic as we got moving to drive down towards Melbourne. As we drove along the Hume Highway through Bendigo and beyond, the Victorian State country-side was gorgeous when the sun came out and looked like a bad day on Exmoor when the frequent, heavy rain showers swept through. We had to make a choice of going via the Cathedral National Park East or to Lavendula, a lavender farm West. The thought of a nice lunch and a lavender flavoured scone won through on this rainy day so West it was. Drove for a few hours to get to this place, which had been recommended by my brother’s fella Mustafa, we took directions from a kindly old man (who looked like the toymaker in Pinochio) and he guided us out of town for 20 minutes – guess what, SHUT, the kindly, idiotic old man! Ended up going to a café and having a BLT and a massive bowl of chips (so big even we couldn’t eat them all!) to eat away our sorrows. Got through the rush hour traffic to Mustafa’s house in Melbourne without incident, it felt very familiar coming back here. Nice night with Phil and Mus, take out curry and lots of sitting on the sofa. Slow start next day and had brunch in Kensington (very nice) and then took a walk around the Victoria St markets, a big old fashioned market under vast sheds selling all sorts. As the market shut, the place was alive with people shouting out ‘dollar box’ ‘cabbages one dollar’ ‘bag of apples one dollar’ (which Phil bought), everything goes!
That evening had to leave and drove to the Station Pier in Melbourne Port to get on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry for our overnight trip on an Ocean View Recliner, half as pricey as a cabin and four times more uncomfortable! Bit roughers with the ship steaming along at 27 knots and shaking like a Type 42, but slept pretty well apart from me having the odd dream about the cargo doors opening and the ship flooding. Sailed into Devonport (and that phrase takes me back) in the early morning light, as the sun rose over the McDonalds by the docks. First stop an all you can eat brekky with free coffee, very nice and then we drove over the Mersey River (yes there is also a small ferry!) via the Victoria Bridge and headed West to Ulverstone, passing Leith and yes the sunshine was on it, where we booked into a campsite. Then headed through Penguin, in season packed with the little fellas but not now too cold for penguins which is a bit ominous, and on to Stanley. This is a small town nestled around a peninsular called the Circular Heads, its’ centre point being a large edifice called ‘The Nut’ which has 150 metre cliffs plunging to the sea below. It looks like a mini Table Mountain and even has a small chair-lift (if you’re lazy according to the pamphlet). The chair-lift looked circa Swiss 1930 style, so we decided to walk up the incredibly steep path to the top. As we got about half-way up we passed an old boy in a powder blue trackie and trainers, he told us he walked up and down twice a day. Obviously as mad as a badger, he asked where we were from and his eyes watered when we said Plymouth, he was only based at Mountbatten on the flying boats during the War! We wheezed passed him and continued up to the blowy, cold but crystal clear summit. It was a stunning view West across to rolling green fields, beaches and beyond to Cape Grim, which is surrounded by 3 big islands Robbins, Hunter and 3 Hummock, like protective brothers. This land was inhabited by whitey in 1826 when the Van Diemen Lands company bought 350,000 acres of it. It was initially thought to be ‘wretched’ and there was a real struggle getting people in, until the Scots found out about it! It has a real feel of being at the ends of the earth though and a recent scientific survey graded Cape Grim as having the cleanest air in the settled world and standing on the cliffs looking North you wouldn’t disagree with their findings. We walked round the top and as we came through a leafy glen spotted several wallabies in the undergrowth, expertly failing to catch one of them on film as we struggled to get our camera out of its’ bag! Dew shone on the spongy green grass like shattered diamonds and it was beautiful. Back down the path and into the van we drove East again towards Penguin where we turned inland and made our way through rolling fields and then thick forestry to the Preston Falls, completely deserted we had the place to ourselves which was great. Further into the hills was the Leven Canyon, it was fantastic, sun shining through the tall gum trees and 243 muddy steps down to the gorge and an old bridge over the thundering waters below, which charged down to a 90 degree bend in the river called the Devil’s Elbow, all very dramatic. We were caught up in the moment and pressed on through the bush, we passed a sign which read ‘For experienced bushwalkers only’ and about half a mile in realized that we weren’t, it took goat like agility and nerves of steel to get as far as we did. Scared of snakes and aware that every overhung hole had a spider’s web on it, we stayed just long enough to get some phots of the river and the Devil’s Elbow, before slipping, sliding and sweating back to the van. As we drove back to the camp-site, we decided to follow signs for Cruickshank’s Lookout and we were glad we did, although knackered by all the walking we pushed on up through a final wooded hill and were greeted by a stunning vista. A metal platform hung over the valley precariously and it felt like you were looking out from a static helicopter. The Leven Valley stretched out before you, the foaming river cutting a swathe through the lush foliage and the monolithic granite of the gorge walls creating a real photo moment, lucky enough to be up there on our own for a good 20 minutes before other walkers joined us it was peaceful and grand. Had steak that night and witnessed a stunner of a sunset over the bluff at Penguin – what a day.
We have now traveled further East and, passing through Ashgrove, visited the Cheese Factory and Shop, which was like a dream come true for Sophs. We sampled about 16 cheeses and chose our favourite 5, then went back to those for further testing and then, after picking out the relevant packs, went back to double check our final selection. All in all we ate about a kilo of various cheeses each (all this at 11 in the morning). They had colourful, painted plaster cows in the fields outside which looked visually stunning. Next up we stopped off at Launceston to purchase our tickets to the States and then back home (bit of a sad moment). Then we drove to the East coast and a place called Cole’s Bay where we have holed up tonight. The last part of the journey was at dusk, with the sun setting through the trees and over Great Oyster Bay, Tasmania is a wonderful place it really is. We saw Wallabies in the trees and had our first ‘near miss’ of one on the road, which would have spoilt the serenity of the evening a bit!
2 interesting facts to take away with you reference Wombats. 1. They can run at speeds of 40km/h (that’s sub 10 sec 100 metre times) and 2. They poo square faeces – unbelievable! I’m not sure if 2 facts are linked, Linford Christie any response?