My Tassie Trip

this is me and DH waiting to drive on the Ferry in Melbourne. It takes from 8pm to 7am the next day, to cross to Tasmania. The crossing was quite smooth, so no travel sickness for me!

OH look! A computer! I sneaked a peek at DG which greatly amused DH! (not)
$1 for 4 minutes!

This is a house in Sheffield, near Devonport. There were lots of nice houses in Tas! Sheffield is well known for its murals, but there was roadworks through the main street (it was off peak tourist season), so DH didn't stop for the photo opportunity.

A little further on is the town of Railton, known for its topiaries, grown from Buxus.
A train

A rather large elephant. The fence was 1.8 metres high.

A ploughman

We then crossed to the East and went down the midland highway to a town called Oatlands. It had lots of historical sandstone houses, some still being restored. This is the flour mill. It had been burnt out some time ago and they were in the midst of restoring it. We climbed to the top, (very steep and about 4 levels) but the top level was covered in pidgeon pooh, and it reeked!

Oatlands had a couple of Topiaries also, this one is an Emu I think!

I loved this one! Dogs on a farm quad

From Oatlands we drove a bit further south, then into the hills to visit my brother. He took us for a walk around his 50 acres in Elderslie, and we found this old deserted farm house that a Macrocarpa had grown up through

This is the outside wall. Look at the root around the sandstone block!

This is me on the Throne LOL.
My Brother built a steelframed shed and lined it with plywood. He made this throne and another couple of bits of furniture out of Shipping pallets. He also made his suit of armour!

Sunrise out of the window!

He cooked us a stew in the camp oven on top of the fire. It go so warm in the cabin, we had to leave the door open!

This is where we slept. Martin (my brother) has a shipping container that was his first residence, so he slept there and gave us this one. It was the best nights sleep I'd had in ages!

Heres Martin doing the dishes! There is no running water and no power, although he had borrowed a generator to put on a slide show for us on his computer. (I wanted to go on the web, but they said no)
I loved his house and could have lived in it for, mmmmmm about 2 more days I reckon!

Me and my Bro.
He has made an attempt at gardening , by planting trees and some Ericas, (on the left) but there are wallabies about that eat everything, so only a few plants survive. Not only that, but its quite dry and exposed. There were alot of Dicksonias growing in the gullies, and Blechnums too.

The next day we drove back north on the Lakes highway. On the way we stopped to look at some sculptures in the bush, in the middle of nowhere.

Possum

Platypus

snake and echidna (anteater)

wombat

We kept driving and drove the western side of the great lake
That night we drove to Hadspen (half way from Devonport to Launceston) and checked in to our Cosy cabin (great place to stay)

This message was edited Jun 15, 2008 7:29 PM

The next day we headed out to the track. It was freezing!
The fog was thick.
I'm not sure what this was all about. It might have been a sculpture being built, or being used to stoke the fire! I took phots over the next few days to see how it was made. If DH cuts enough wood, I'll make one at home!

This is the track at Quercus youth park. The whole reason we headed to tasmania was for my husband to compete in the Australian national vintage motocross titles. He has a 1974 Bultaco Pursang 360cc, and had been given a yamaha YZ 465cc to ride for a mate.
Unfortunately, the Bultaco, which he spent 5 weeks prepping for the race, would not start, and after driving out to a local mans house and spending hours in the dark trying to fix it, it finally started, did half a lap and crapped out again!

This photo was taken at 11.30am and the fog did not lift until after 1am! It was freezing!

The next day saw me rugged up with three pairs of socks, thermal long johns and top, gloves, scarf, hat, and earplugs! Luckily it was a beautiful day, so the gloves did come off for a time!

Here is DH in Action. He came fifth overall in the pre 85 unlimited cc class, which was quite good since there were around 30 competitors in that class, and DH hadn't ridden since August last year.

After 3 days of racing (one of which I spent in bed with Gastro) we packed up and drove to launceston for a look around.
We found this place "Cataract Gorge" about a 5 minute drive over a hill from Launceston! It was so close to the city you can walk there!
It has the longest single span chair lift in the world, so we went on it.

This is the suspension bridge over the gorge. It was closed for June, for painting and maintenance, boooooo! We walked around the cliffs and found a lookout above the bridge to have a look. There were many walks to do, and we did most of them. It was good after being cooped up all week.

This is on the other side of the chairlift. It must look gorgeous in spring! There were hydrangeas, Azaleas in bud, Rhododendrons in bud, roses, redwoods, maples, elms, bulbs popping through the leaf litter! There is a cafe too which we stopped at for a cuppa and a bikkie.

At the cafe there were some hungry residents who were quite funny. You'd be eating your bikkie and a head would pop up next to the table and peer at you with one beady eye! Halarious!

On one of our walks we found a tree house! The trees were made of concrete and are something I'd like to have a go at! I might go and get some cement and sand and chicken wire. Think I'll start on something smaller to begin with.

On the walk back over the gorge, there was this lovely maple overhanging the water.

After that, we drove over to Devonport and boarded the ferry again. Once again it was smooth sailing, and I watched a movie and had a few beers!
The next day we drove north from Melbourne to Bargo and took my daughter out for dinner for her 21st. Then it was the long drive from Sydney back home!
Its so good to be back home, and DH mowed the lawns and I did like 100 loads of washing!
Our housesitter did a great job and the dogs were really relaxed and happy to see us.
I spent a day pruning, mulching and whipper snippering as I was suffering withdrawals from gardening! All was good so now I'm ready for the next holiday, Cairns in two weeks!
I hope you enjoyed the trip
Sue
my Jesse!

What a wonderful trip, congratulations to your daughter on her 21st! Through your words you've shown a Tasmania I haven't seen... Thank you so much! Good Luck with the Cairns trip though!

That was very very interesting, you visited some really novel places. You are also a great tour guide. Are those going to be you up coming projects the topiary's etc. Will look forward to seeing a bit of Cairns in a few weeks. Well done Sue. Les.

I was in the middle of a long rave about how much we missed you ...how wonderful the pics were ...how cold was it ? ...would you live there ? ...happy birthday to your beautiful daughter ...fun to catch up with daughter? ...brother? ...happy to be back ? etc ...and my mouse cracked a fit and would not work. Welcome back Sue!

Dont you hate that Chrissy? I lost my post when i tried to chat with you and jean in yakkety yack, and its too hard to write it all over again!
Thaks Jen, we had a good time, all though i did have gastro which was really yukky! Eeeewwwww! All good now though.
Hey lesley, yes, am trying to get Dh to teach me how to weld (been asking for 5 years now) Then I can make some of the metal shapes to grow them in. I do have some xmas trees started, 3 years and they've still got a way to go!
I'll do a new thread for cairns, and have plans to visit the botanic gardens and a couple of brom nurseries. Look out for that one!
Sue

What a fabulous tour guide you are Sue, you hit all the great highlights. Looks like your brother is quite the outdoorsman. That suits us well as the cabin we have in the mountains is quite simple and we love every minute of it.
The topiaries are phenomenal - love that elephant! And those sculptures out in nomans land, what are they made of wood and stone? Looks like you and DH had a splendid time! Welcome home.

Sue, Thank you so much for the guided tour. Enjoyed it immensely.