February 2023

Perentie Wandering February, 2023

Day 373, Wednesday the 1st February, 2023

We travelled to the little town of Franklin to have lunch with Cate and Ella, Bob’s sister and her daughter.

One of the Franklin Lockups, which were portable to wherever they were needed

We had lunch at a little Turkish Café called Cinnamon and Cherry, seriously some of the best Turkish food I have ever eaten, beautifully prepared and presented and absolutely delicious. If anyone comes to Franklin, I highly recommend you have a meal here.

Cate and Ella with their main’s, Cate had an eggplant pidé and Ella had a vegan Turkish Breakfast

The food was so good we opted for dessert, Cate had a Chocolate Cherry cake

Bob and I shared a chocolate orange cake

After lunch we visited the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, it is one of the few wooden boat schools in Australia, teaching modern and old ways of making wooden boats. You can do a course and make your own wooden boat, large or small, paying for the tuition and the materials of course. We had a tour of the school and learnt about some of the basics of wooden boat building – it was very interesting.

This boat was made by students and is now up for sale

This boat is currently being finished by students. You can come and do a 2 week course and make this boat then take it home.

This boat is also being built by students

This boat was a 2 year long project, built by students and was on it’s way to the wooden boat show in Hobart to be sold

Day 374, Thursday the 2nd February, 2023

We drove to Cate and Phil’s house to pick up the parts we needed to fix the transfer case on the truck, which we had delivered to her house, so I took a few pictures along the way.

The Tasman bridge over the Derwent River

Day 376, Saturday the 4th of February, 2023

We had such a great time at Cate’s last week that we decided to show our gratitude and cook for them, not that we just wanted to have another great night with great company of course :-). Savannah and Daniel were going to a wedding, so we helped Cate and Phil babysit the kids. They are gorgeous kids, definitely, all of them know their own minds. Savannah and Daniel will have their hands full once they are teenagers.

The view from Cate and Phil’s house is beautiful

Luckily Harry loves his Great Uncle Bob, and Great Uncle Bob loves Harry

I remembered to take a photo once the kids got back from the wedding, Ben woke and wanted cuddles from Dad, but the others kept sleeping. Top left to right, Bob, Phil, Cate, Shannon, Brady. Bottom left to right, Savannah, Daniel Ben and Max.

Day 377, Sunday the 5th February, 2023

We started our trip up the coast today. We drove through the historic town of Richmond and stopped for a quick look.

The old Richmond Bridge, the oldest bridge in Australia that is still in use, built by convicts in 1823

Haven’t seen Goliwogs on sale for a long time, I didn’t think that they were allowed to be sold. However the history of the goliwog began with British soldiers who occupied Egypt at the end of the 19th century. The Egyptian workers wore the initials W.O.G.S. on armbands, indicating that they were Working On Government Service, they were also known as Ghuls by the British troops, which is the Arabic word for desert ghost. Their children played with stuffed black cloth dolls, which were gifted to or purchased by the British troops when they left for England. The dolls were known as Ghuliwogs at the time, later changing to Goliwogs.

Day 378, Monday the 6th of February, 2023

We headed up the coast taking in the beautiful scenery along the way. We stopped at the Devils Corner Cellar Door, we didn’t do a tasting, but we enjoyed the views from the facility.

We spent the night at the Freycinet Golf Club RV camp, it was the closest camp ground we could get to where the Wineglass Bay walks started. The closer camp grounds in the national park were all booked out.

We walked to the bay at sunset to take in the view.

Day 379, Tuesday the 7th February, 2023

We got up bright and early to do the walks at Wine Glass Bay, we had heard how beautiful they are and they did not disappoint.

Wine Glass Bay in Tasmania is a spectacular part of Australia, White beaches, beautiful mountains and great walks, We decided to do the walk up to Wine Glass Bay lookout then down to Wine Glass Beach, then back to the car park via Hazard Beach trail, it took about 4 and a half hours and we walked just under 13km. It was a hot day, we were absolutely exhausted, but so glad we did it. We did treat ourselves to ice-cream afterwards.

On our way up to the Wine Bay Glass lookout

just liked this little stick with the artwork by the Scribbly Gum Moth

As we come out of the bush after our walk down the mountain – spectacular

The water coming out of the little creek which is a spectacular orange/gold colour as it comes out into the beach

The little creek with its orange/gold colour courtesy of the tea trees and button grass surrounding the creek.

We ate lunch on some rocks at the northern side of the beach, this was our view

A couple of juvenile sea gulls being fed by their mother

We chose to walk back to the carpark via the Hazzard Beach walk.

We came across this rather large black Tiger Snake, we just stopped and waited till it slid under a log. Tiger snakes can be aggressive so we were very cautious.

A little lagoon we passed by, also where the Tiger Snake was.

Hazzard Beach was beautiful.

An Eight Legged Sea Star – no I did not pose them, this is how I found it.

The last leg of the walk was along the coast, but the main view was bush.

Back to town for ice-cream – what a view…

Day 380, Wednesday the 8th of February and Day 381, Thursday the 9th of February. 2023

After the spectacular Wine Glass Bay, we travelled north again to the Bay of Fires, named by English navigator Tobias Furneaux in 1773 when he saw fires burning along the coast, lit by Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The bay of Fires was also the traditional meeting place for Aboriginal tribes.

The Bay of Fires is also spectacular with it’s white beaches. pristine blue water and orange boulders. The orange on the granite boulders is due to orange lichen growing on the boulders.

We stayed a couple of nights at Sloop Reef Campground, a beautiful place right on the beach. We did a lot of exploring, it was absolutely beautiful.

Mama Seagull keeping tabs on her teenagers

A couple of cute buildings from we saw along the way.

Day 382, Friday the 10th of February, 2023

Heading up to Horsehead Creek again for our last night in Tasmania, we board the ferry tomorrow morning. It will be sad to say goodbye to Tasmania.

Along the way we saw more beautiful scenery and we also stopped at the Anvers Chocolate factory – very nice chocolate.

Day 383, Saturday the 11th February, 2023

Up early to make our way to the Spirit Of Tasmania ferry for our trip back to Mainland Australia. The trip is very long, but it was also very calm and smooth.

We arrived at 8:30pm at Geelong, Victoria on Mainland Australia and travelled as far as we could that day, which was just past the Victoria, New South Wales border and stopped for the night at a roadside overnight rest area.

Day 384, Sunday the 12th February, 2023

We drove straight up the highway making a beeline for Abermain.

We arrived around 8:00 to a lovely welcome sign put up by our neighbours, we were very surprised and very touched, such a lovely thing to do.

Home at last, with a beautiful Welcome Home sign at the front fence

Sophie and Mick’s beautiful girls showing off their handiwork – so sweet, we are very lucky.

And so we come to the end of our wonderful adventure. It has been absolutely amazing, I am so glad that we have done this. I encourage everyone out there to do the same or do something similar if you can. There will always be excuses for not doing it, but they can all be overcome if you wish it.

Thank you to everyone who has followed our adventure and I hope that you have enjoyed my photo’s as much as I have enjoyed taking them.

Till the next time.