January 2023

Day 345, Wednesday the 4th January 2023

It was nice to be back on the road again after such a long break and Covid.

Our first night was spent at the Tribute Hotel, where they provide a space to free camp behind the hotel. Of course we had dinner at the hotel.

There was lots of nice scenery along the way.

Day 346, Thursday the 5th January, 2023

Lots more nice scenery along the road.

We also stopped at the Dog on the Tuckerbox in Gundagai. It is a great rest spot where you can buy food and gifts.

The area is the home of the Wiradjuri people. In 1838, the town of Gundagai was gazetted.

This site is a monument to the early pioneers in 1932. The dog on the tuckerbox is part of Australian folklore, where in the early days the area was serviced by bullock teams crossing rough tracks and river crossings. The bullock carts would often get bogged in the soft ground, and the dog would sit on the bullocky’s tuckerbox (food box) guarding it while the bullocky would go to get help.

We ended the day free camping in the Tuan Campground just outside of Chiltern. It was a lovely little camp area with lots of wildflowers, very private.

Day 347, Friday the 6th January, 2023

We drove through the little town of Rutherglen. Rutherglen is renown for its dessert wines in particular, so we made a point of visiting the cellar door of Stanton and Killeen winery which we were told had some of the best wines and dessert wines in the area.

We were not disappointed and after a tasting, bought a few bottles of our favourites. Two of the owners of the winery had lived in Portugal for a while to learn how they made their wines and in particular their ports. After gaining as much knowledge as possible, they came back to Australia and applied this knowledge in their winery.

We spent the night at the Jaycee Island free camp ground. Set up by the council for self contained RV’s. It was beautiful, right on the lake, lots of bird life.

Day 348, Saturday the 7th January and day 349, Sunday the 8th January, 2023

We spent 2 nights at the Barwon River Holiday Park, nice caravan park, really good facilities and it was only 15 minutes from the Spirit of Tasmania boarding site. Spending the extra night there allowed us to do the washing and clean the fridge out ready for our trip to Tasmania.

Day 350, Monday the 9th January, 2023

We boarded the Spirit of Tasmania I at 7:30 am, we had a really good trip, the seas were relatively calm for most of the time, but we were glad to get off at the other end, not a lot to do on board although we did watch a movie.

Arriving in Davenport Tasmania

Day 351, Tuesday the 10th January, 2023

We did our grocery shopping in Davenport and headed to Cradle Mountain National Park. The scenery was really pretty along the way.

we started noticing the unique and creative letter boxes, here are some of them.

We spent the night at a free camp in the Vale of Belevoir Conservation park, right by a beautiful lake. We had a few visitors that night and a lovely sunset.

Day 352, Wednesday the 11th January, 2023

We woke early and drove to the Cradle Mountain Visitors Centre where we caught a bus to Ronnie Creek where we would start the first of our walks for the day.

The first walk we started at 8:30 am, was from Ronnie Creek to Crater Lake. It was not a difficult walk, the only challenge was that it was climbing all the way.

From Crater Lake, we continued the walk to Marion’s Lookout, this was a more challenging walk and there were chains put in up the mountain to assist people up the very steep side of the mountain. Once at the top, we were in awe of the beauty. We decided to have lunch here and just look at the gorgeousness in front of us.

you could follow the path along and climb to the summit of Cradle Mountain, but we were both still fatigued after recovering from Covid so we decided not to climb any further up the mountain.

We then climbed down to Dove lake, we took the more difficult path because it was shorter, this path was straight down the mountain with chains put in to assist the treckers, very happy for the chains, the path was very, very steep and rocky.

We got back to the bus stop at 4:30 pm, having walked 12 very challenging kilometres taking 8 hours to complete. Great Day, muscles were sore, but we were happy that we did it.

We went back to the Vale of Belevoir for the night. We saw our little Wallaby again and another beautiful sunset.

We spent the night at the Waratah Caravan Stop, a council run RV camp ground in the town of Waratah. Lovely spot, Tasmania certainly has some great cheap and free camp grounds.

Waratah was a mining town and supported a tin mine at Mount Bischoff. It is built at the top of a waterfall, and water was diverted from the stream to provide water for mine sluicing and processing.

Day 354, Friday the 13th January, 2023

We travelled towards Bernie, as we wanted to see the Little Penguins at the Little Penguin Sanctuary. When we got there, we had a ploughman’s lunch by the sea.

In the evening, we visited the Little Penguin Observation Centre. It was amazing, the juvenile penguins stayed in their burrows all through the day then came out of their burrows around 8:30 awaiting the parents return from a day of fishing. There was a lot of argy bargy amongst the young penguins as they all tried to get as close to where the parents would come in. They knew that they would get fed first if they were closer to where the parents came in.

We could see the parents coming in on the rocks behind where the burrows were, then they would just stand on the rocks, groom themselves and just take some time for themselves. At first I could not work out why they were taking so long to come up and feed their young, then the first parent came into the feeding area and I understood why they took their time. The young penguins were as big and in some cases bigger than the parent, as the adults came into the feeding area, they were literally attacked by the young penguins. The young penguins jumped all over the adults, in some cases actually bringing he adult down, and piling all on top of the adult as the adult tried to feed as many beaks as he could – it was brutal. Having said this, the penguins were very cute.

Day 356, Sunday the 15th January, 2023

We made our way to West Point, which is the most westerly point in Tasmania and took our selfie.

Day 357, Monday the 16th January, 2023

We spent the night at a little free camp near the Pieman River Track. At dusk we walked to a nearby headland to watch the sunset.

Day 359, Wednesday the 18th January, 2023

Today we leave Sandy Cape and head for Strahan, but first we have to get out of Sandy Cape.

Due to weather, we decided to not do the Balfour Track, it was quite a challenging track and with all the rain, not prudent to attempt it. However we did take a turn off the Tarkine Track to follow part of the Balfour Track to what we thought was the Balfour Ghost Town. When we got there we were surprised to find that it was not in fact a ghost town. There were 4 permanent residents and many holiday shacks for non permanent residents. Right in the middle of town was a shack set up as a sort of bar – you couldn’t buy anything, it was just set up so you could sit in it for a break in your journey. It was certainly very interesting, travellers had left/donated all sorts of memorabilia inside. The owner was unfortunately not there when we arrived, sadly she had taken her dog “Bob” to the vet to be put down as he had suffered a stroke that morning. A lady who was putting out food for the wallabies in the owners absence explained the situation to us and asked that we not camp there tonight as they would require privacy so that the other town members would be congregating to support the owner and to mourn the loss of their beloved “Bob” that evening.

There were a number of quite tame wallabies on site, tame enough to not run away from you if you kept your distance, but still wary and would not allow people to approach them.

Day 361, Friday the 20th January, 2023

Today we travelled to Corinna to catch the Fatman Barge across the Pieman River, not a very wide river, but you needed to get on to get across. You could drive around the river but it was a very big detour.

We travelled on to Zeehan, a little mining town

And we stopped for the night in Strahan, at the golf club which was open to self contained RV’s for a very small fee, where we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Day 363, Sunday the 22nd January, 2023

We woke early to get on the “Spirit of the Wild” cruise boat to do the Gordon River Cruise. The boat has an electric motor to reduce the amount of noise, it is very luxurious, with a beautiful Tasmanian produce lunch. There was so much food that anyone who wanted seconds had lots to choose from.

The cruise was fantastic, definitely a highlight of our holiday in Tasmania. We travelled down from Lang Bay out to Hells Gate. Hells Gates is the name of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour, The main channel is kept clear by the presence of a rock wall on the outside of the channel’s curve. This man-made wall prevents erosion and keeps the channel deep and narrow, rather than allowing the channel to become wide and shallow. The Aboriginal name for the harbour is “Parralaongatek”. It is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel entrance to the harbour.

The channel was named “Hell’s Gate” by the convicts sent to the area as it was their point of “entrance to hell”, their hell being the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island and the outlying surrounds of the harbour.

The main channel on Macquarie Harbour is kept clear by the presence of a rock wall on the outside of the channel’s curve, this wall is called “The Training Wall”.  This was a fantastic feat of engineering, designed and built in the 1890’s. It’s design creates a giant funnel that scours out the sand, making the channel clear and safe for shipping, but without the need for dredging. Train tracks were laid right up to the water’s edge, then the train pushed rock off the end into the water, and the gaps were filled in by hand. Then the train track was laid over the new bit of wall, and more rock was pushed of the end. This was repeated and the wall was gradually extended. It took 300 men 2 years to build the wall, but without it Strahan would not exist. you can still see twisted lengths of train track are still visible on top of the wall.

we sailed past Salmon farms in the harbour. The harbour has a layer of salt water under the fresh water over the top, from the rivers, you can actually see the differences in colour of the water where the salt water has come to the top, which has a greenish tinge and where the fresh water remains on top, which is a dark blue. This circumstance makes it perfect for salmon farming as salmon require both salt and fresh water to allow for healthy growth and to stop mites from infesting their gills. The colour of the salmon is determined by a supplement made from crustaceans, the more of the supplement that is given, the more “red” the salmon meat will be. Different markets require different shades of red. In the wild, the salmon would eat the crustaceans naturally.

We continued onto the Gordon River.

The Gordon River starts below Mount Hobhouse in the Franklin-Gordon Wild rivers National Park, then draining the eastern slopes of the King William Range. The river flows to the Gordon Range before flowing through the Gordon Gap and into Lake Gordon, a reservoir created by damming the Gordon at the Gordon Dam. Together with water from Lake Pedder, the purpose of the reservoir is for generation of hydro-electricity.

Flowing from east to west through Lake Gordon, the river passes through the Gordon Splits, which are a series of gorges The river finally reaches its mouth and empties into Macquarie Harbour at Wrights Bay, where we enter the river for our cruise. The area is world heritage listed and pristine. It is a privilege to be able to come here.

We got off the boat to do a short heritage walk through some of the rainforest. It was an easy boardwalk but you did get to see some beautiful rainforest scenery including some ancient Huan Pine trees.

We then sailed to Sarah Island where we were able to disembark and follow a guide around the island who explained what the island was about. Known to Aboriginal people as ‘Langerrareroune’, but called ‘Sarah Island’ by the British who operated a penal colony on the site back in the early 1800s after the wife of his sponsor. The island is remote and isolated.

The history of the island is incredibly dark. It is said to have been one of the most appalling and cruel of all the convict stations. Convicts living here described the settlement as ‘hell on earth’. It’s primary purpose was to serve as a place to send those who committed new offences after arriving in the colonies, the troublemakers and the absconders. A prison of last resort. 

Every morning there was a roll call. Any who failed to answer their name were flogged. For breakfast they were each given a litre and a half of skilly, a thin broth made from oatmeal and water. After breakfast, they were assigned to their work crews and sent on their way. Floggings were severe and a “Cat” was used, this was 3 cat of nine tails put together and lead pellets were put into the tails to inflict as much damage as possible.

Out of 180 escape attempts, only 3 people escaped

134 non Aboriginal people died on the island.

• 1 convict was flogged to death, he was sentenced to 50 lashes, was unconscious at 30 lashes, found dead at 35 lashes.
• 1 convict supervisor was murdered
• 2 convicts were murdered then eaten by another convict
• One man died by accident when he fell from a rock
• 2 men died from illness
• 2 men drowned
• 1 man was speared by a local Aboriginal group
• 3 men were hanged
• 1 man was shot by the military, when he tried to steal rum from the store
• 9 men were lost at sea

During 1833, during the ongoing government sanctioned forced removal of all Aboriginal people to islands in Bass Strait, 61 Aboriginal people were held in custody at Sarah Island, in 4 months 16 had died from white mans disease.

After the cruise, we visited Hogarth Falls, a pretty little waterfall after a short walk

We stopped at the Iron Blow Lookout, which is an old copper mine and an ancient volcano.

Day 364, Monday the 23rd January, 2023

We drove through to Hobart.

We stopped in at the Frenchman’s Cap walk. This walk is a very challenging 5 day return walk to the cap, we walked to the first suspension bridge over the Franklin River, a 15 minute walk.

We took a selfie at the geographical centre of Tasmania

Day 365, Tuesday the 24th January to Day 367, Thursday the 26th January, 2023

Tuesday the 24th of January, we completed one full year on the road, it is strange because it doesn’t feel like it. We have seen some amazing, beautiful and interesting things, we are so grateful that we have had this opportunity, and it still continues for another month.

We explored Geeveston today, we had a look around the streets and the information centre here is also a museum for the wood industry and some old manually powered machinery.

There are a number of wooden carved statues throughout the town and in the museum which have been carved from King Billy and Celery topped pine by a talented artist called Bernie Tarr who started his career as an artist by carving toys firstly for his children then by selling his carvings at the Salamanca Markets in Hobart.

Following is some street art as well as some of the buildings in Geeveston

The highlight of our stay in Geeveston was the Platypus was frolicking in the river, we had to wait till 8:30 at night to see them, but they were amazing. We saw a parent and juvenile grooming themselves and playing around. I managed to get a couple of photo’s, which are not very good because of the light and they move a lot, but if you get a chance, have a look on my Facebook page, I posted a video of them playing which shows them much more clearly.

Other visitors to he river

Day 368, Friday the 27th January, 2023

Today we visited Hastings, the Hastings Thermal Pools and the Newdegate Caves.

The Hastings thermal pool is a constant 28 degrees all year round, still too cool for me however, it is fed from a thermal spring, where the water is warmed by being forced through the earth at high speed. A warm creek runs almost along side a cold creek. We did a little walk around the back of the springs, which was lovely, however we were disappointed by the pool, I had been expecting a natural pool, but that is not what it looked like.

Newdegate Cave is the largest dolomite tourist cave in Australia. Its caverns began to form more than 40 million years ago.

Day 369, Saturday the 28th January to Day 370, Sunday the 29th January, 2023

Today we travelled to Cate (Bob’s sister) and Phil’s place to catch up with family. We have been very excited for this day. We had a lovely BBQ dinner with Cate and Phil of course, as well as Shannon, Savannah, Tom and Ed, our nieces and nephews, and Savannah’s family, Daniel her husband and her beautiful babies, Sophie, Matilda, Ben and Harry. We had the privilege of meeting Harry for the first time, he is just 6 months old.

We had a fantastic time, it is always so comfortable and calming being here, after dinner we lounged upstairs on the balcony where we stayed up till early hours of the morning talking, sipping wine and eating beautiful Tasmanian cheese with great company, what could be better.

The next morning we had delicious breakfast at the local café, which is also where Shannon and Tom work.

Day 372, Tuesday the 31st January, 2023

Today we visited Bruny Island, known for its beautiful scenery and incredible food. We didn’t spend too much time on the island but got to do some of our favourite things, such as having lunch at the Bruny Island Cheese Company – yum, get some incredible oysters from Get Shucked and have a little look around.

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