Back to the Mainland

Cradle Mountain
 

The Edge of the World

The wild north west of Tasmania provided some dramatic seascapes west towards Patagonia with one viewpoint named The Edge of the World. One of Tasmania's main attractions is Cradle Mountain - an area of Alpine scenery. Spending a couple of days in the area reminded us more of Scottish weather with mist and drizzle - and overnight lows of -4 Celcius, but through the mists we caught glimpses of the more rocky outcrops of Cradle Mountain and wandered through some of the valleys where ancient pine trees, many over a thousand years old sit in the temperate rain forests covered in mosses and lichens - all very atmospheric.

Tasmanian Devil

With time running out on Tasmania, and not having seen a wild Tasmanian Devil we visited Devils @ Cradle, a centre where they are maintaining a breeding population of Tasmanian Devils, and Quolls isolated from the current outbreak of facial cancer amongst Devils which is decimating the wild population.



Russel Falls on Tasmania
 

Our last day on Tasmania was spent driving through the beautiful central mountains and stopping at Sheffield to view some of their extraordinary displays of wall murals and on to Latrobe, and the Mersey River to look for platypus. We were fortunate to see a couple of platypus - strange creatures,  searching for food in the meandering river.



Duck Billed Platypus

Back on the mainland we drove around Melbourne to get a feel of the city and enjoyed its fabulous Botanic Gardens, then headed south to Philip Island with its beautiful beaches and rocky headlands. It is famous for its little penguins and as we walked some of the tracks we spotted some resting in their burrows. However with the weather still mainly dull and drizzly we decided it was time to head north and east to find more scenery and to get away from the static weather pattern which had established itself over the Tasmanian Sea.


Little Penguin in its Burrow

Driving north we crossed into the Great Dividing Range - tree covered mountains with beautiful winding valleys. As it is out of season the roads and campgrounds are incredibly quiet. Canberra - the Capital is a planned city with huge spaces of grass and trees between its public buildings, but driving through it had a feel of Milton Keynes - lots of roads with wide grass verges and roundabouts.

Dramatic East Coast
 

We are now on the East Coast of New South Wales about 200kms south of Sydney enjoying the wild coast and beautiful beaches of Jervis Bay. This is a popular area for vacationers and as a consequence some of the wildlife has become very friendly - we have had close encounters with wallabies, kangaroos, possum and have even been attacked by a Kookaburra!

We plan to head north now to explore the Dividing Range and head to Queensland and hopefully even warmer weather.

 



Frosty campsite Cradle Mountain
 

 

 

Tasmanian Mountains

 





Captive Spotted Quoll

 

 

Back on the Road

Anzac Day Parade

After 5 months "enjoying" the British Winter we eventually returned to Australia in late April - managing to arrive in Sydney on Anzac Day. Despite 26 hours of travelling we went in to the centre of Sydney to witness this event. It is amazing the level of involvement - the parade of servicemen, ex-servicemen and organisations took around 4 hours to pass, with over 50 brass, pipe and drum marching bands; even a Sikh pipe band. It was extraordinary to see. The parade concluded with a lovely service at the Anzac memorial in the centre of Sydney. Well worth making the effort.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

We had a couple more days in Sydney visiting the sights, which are every bit as good as the photos, before flying down to Melbourne to be reunited with the van. It was just as we left it and once we had connected the batteries it was fully functional, even starting on the first turn of the ignition. It was great to be back.



Eastern Grey Kangaroo

We had four days around the coast near Melbourne while we recuperated from the jet lag, and did some long waited for maintenance before catching the ferry across to Tasmania. With two weeks before our return crossing we headed east, then down the beautiful east coast with its pure white squeaking beaches and granite outcrops, stopping at some of the National Parks to see waterfalls, huge Gum trees and some special wildlife, including our first sighting of a wombat, two species of possum and even little penguins. The latter surprising us crossing the road, after we had sat for over an hour in the dusk watching their beach with no success.

At the southern tip of Tasmania is the infamous Port Arthur - the punishment centre for repeat offending convicts from across the Australian penal colonies. The weather had started to deteriorate, but it gave a better feel of some of the raw conditions the inmates had to suffer.



Wombat

With bad weather forecast we first visited some spectacular coastal arches and blowholes, before heading to Hobart - a lovely town set in a beautiful landscape under Mount Wellington. Choosing the camp in the grounds of a tavern 15kms outside Hobart we enjoyed blazing log fires and a steak dinner before settling down in the van to the sound of drumming rain. Around 11.00pm a thunderstorm broke overhead, and continued for around 2 hours. As it subsided we could feel vibrations and hear large rocks rumbling in the nearby river. Looking out we were in 2" of flowing water and the river could be seen above its banks. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour we move uphill, further away from the river.

Possum

The morning news headlined with the biggest storms in Hobart with the centre of town flooded and roads closed due to landslips, flooding and washed away cars. Mount wellington recorded over 220mm of rain.

With less than a week left in Tasmania we have started heading up the western side, much more mountainous - rather like Scotland, but with a lot of tree cover, and we are currently in a small town Strachan, on the west coast, with nothing but ocean between us and Patagonia!