To Lake St Clair

In true Barry fashion, I cant just get in the car to go somewhere without stopping at every tourist attraction along the way. Nicole and family were following behind us this time, and I am not convinced that she was prepared to actually stop and look at stuff, as Nic appears to me to be definitely the " I just wanna get there" type of gal. Luckily, (for Nicole), I was going too fast to stop in time for one of the lookouts across the lake. The fact that i was actually going over 40km/h was surprising enough, considering that the local government here appears to have had competitions with road builders to see who could build roads with the most sweeping bends and be the most difficult to travel when towing 2 and a half tonnes of caravan. Very rarely were we driving along a flat section of road that didn't have 35Km/hr bends, or that were such a steep decline that I was forced to go that speed in 2nd gear just to ensure that my brakes weren't smoking more than a teenage delinquent by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.
We stopped for a look around Queenstown and to have some lunch. The descent into town had us thinking we needed to keep our doors locked and driving through, but it was really nice in the middle of the town. We went for a walk and stumbled across the B end of the Strahan - Queenstown rail journey, and got some good close up views of the Steam train and carriages. Lunch was of course at the local playground, and then we were off to Lake St Clair.... sort of.....
I came across a rest stop with a short 10 minute walk to the Nelson Falls. These were pretty spectacular despite the trickle of water running down them. Apparently Tasmania has missed out on nearly 2 metres of rain in the last 12 months, and water is actually hard to find outside of the massive lakes and dams. All the creeks have enough water flowing to keep the trout alive, but the locals are all saying that they are surprised at the lack of rain so far..... we have had 0mm since arriving on the island 2 weeks ago, which is completely opposite to what i had been expecting on this trip.
We then set off again and as I realised it was now after 3pm and we still had over 100Km to go, I agreed to stop no more and get to camp.
Lake St Clair caravan park is actually a very small part of a private company that has a huge restaurant in the middle of the National Park with about 50 Chateaus and cottages dotted throughout the area. The local concierge showed almost zero interest to us lowly campers, and neglected to tell us that it would be easier to get a wheel barrow into our reserved spot, than to try and reverse in 11m of car and caravan between the gum trees on the single lane path.... or that we had to be careful getting out of our caravan once parked due to the neigbouring site being close enough to smell any escaping flatulence. ( Luckily for us that our neighbours were Nicole and Rob, and apparently theirs doesn't stink.... according to them).
We did however get told the forest was alive with tiger snakes, so that made us feel much better.
The park itself was a great location, but unfortunately being squeezed in so tight and therefore being conscious of the amount of noise the kids were making, made it a little stressful... but I sat down and had a few drinks to forget about it, as only a true seasoned camper would do.
Tomorrow we are doing some walks... Rob and Nicole are taking Tyler and Dylan with them and Ned to do a 13Km walk, whilst Tracy, myself, Kayla, Gracie and Patrick are sticking with a a shorter 5Km walk due to Tracy's knee still not ready for the tough runs.

Loving this holiday life.

(Queenstown park with an amazing backdrop)

 (Queenstown monuments to the miners and the history of the town)

 (The Steam train being turned around ready to head back to Strahan)

 (Photo bombed in the nicest way, at Nelson Falls)

 (my amazing reversing skills got us wedged in)

Strahan

We have tried getting into the caravan park for a few days now with no luck. They are both full and the people answering the phones are about as helpful as a freezer in Iceland. Turns out that both parks are actually owned by the same guys and the reviews aren't that good anyway. I stumbled across the fact that the golf course owns a pocket of land next to the greens that they let you stay at for $10 per night. No toilets or showers but you can use the solitary toilet at the club which is about 150m away. Sounds great to me - I can pee anywhere. There are also free public showers on the foreshore at Strahan which Nicole and family used, and were every bit as good as the reports said they were. I didn't bother with them tho.... I had a shower in late November so I reckon I have a few weeks left before I need to think about another one. 

The golf course sites are great. Tons of space and a great big cricket / footy oval right outside our door. The trip here was slow thanks to the mountainous roads, but I got here with the brakes still working and the van still attached, which is always a good thing.

On day 2 here we got on one of the cruise boats and went on a 5 hour trip up the Gordon River (otherwise known as The Franklin river). We had 20 knot winds last night, but this morning it was as calm as can be, which helped those few in our party that don't like waves. 

The crew were super organised at getting  us on board and seated. The seats were really just our allocated home base as we could move around the boat as much as we like... And we did. I think I only sat in my seat for about 15 minutes out of the 5 hours. 

Had a great encounter with a massive pod of dolphins on the way out, and the history lesson broadcast to us as we passed each significant part of Macquarie harbour made the journey fantastic. We had a couple of stops up the Gordon River and in the harbour where we got off the boat and walked around, including Sarah Island which was full of fascinating history regarding the convicts that used to be incarcerated there, and all the peculiarities of running a penal settlement on such a small island. 

Getting back on dry land late afternoon, it was pretty quickly agreed that the kids needed to run off some penned up energy, so we took the frisbee, boomerang and cricket set out to the middle of "our oval". The frisbee kept Nicole and Gracie occupied for a short while, the boomerang very quickly became labelled as a stick, and the cricket match became a full on test match with the rules changing nearly every ball due to someone getting out in a way they weren't happy with. 

At 4 o'clock we wandered up to the golf club and sat outside with a few brews whilst the kids tore around like caged monkeys trying to amuse any poor sole that happened to be looking their way, and finally decided to head back to the van before we had a lifetime ban placed on us. 

Off tomorrow to Lake St Claire, hoping that the crap reviews of the caravan park we have seen so far are from grumpy 5 star caravanners and not from normal happy campers like ourselves, with our 6 very loud, but very happy children -(who, by the way, were behaved so well on the boat today that 2 separate couples came up to us at the end and congratulated me on my parenting skills). Ok... They really said that our kids were wonderfully behaved and very pleasant. I am taking that as credit to Tracy, Nicole, Rob and myself as being good parents. 

What a massive nut

Last night, Tyler decided to change our plans rapidly by waking up heaving, so Tracy managed to wretch open the door and push him out the van just in time to witness the entire day's food consumption come flying out a whole lot quicker than it went in. After about 20 minutes of him lying on the grass next to the van and Tracy was confident he wasn't going to Ralph anymore, he came back to bed but this time with a bucket nearby "just in case". I took this opportunity to get up out of bed and relieve some night time pressure of my own, and then we all managed to get through the rest of the night incident free. 

Tyler was very much not feeling well all day, and his ability to reproduce anything that made contact with his stomach wall made it easy for us to not feel guilty about not feeding him for the rest of the day. 

We packed up and headed back up the coast just west of Burnie at a place called Somerset. This was entirely because I had insisted I wanted to see the far NW corner of Tassie, regardless of anyone else's wishes. Turns out the caravan park was an old drive in and apparently hasn't had any maintenance since it closed 20 years ago, although I must admit the amenities were up to standard so the state of the park didn't really matter. 

I took Dylan And Kayla to a place called the Nut at Stanley, about 100km NW of Somerset, whilst Tracy stayed at the park and Tyler slept for the entire afternoon. 

We struck an awesome day weather wise and the town Stanley was amazing, especially from the top of this rocky outcrop. We caught the chairlift up which was pretty interesting, then walked around the top taking in the views, then Trekker down the path that was literally a concrete path at a 45 degree angle that tore any remaining muscles off your calves by the time you got to the bottom. 

This meant we had to reward ourselves with an ice cream and a paddle in the amazing ocean. I then set off on the hours drive back to see if Tyler had been taken to hospital or not, but thankfully he was very much feeling better and we had a full nights sleep. 

The next day, Rob and Nicole took off for a bit of bush camping inland at a place called Hellyer Gorge whilst I took Tracy and Tyler up the coast to visit various places that we had zoomed past the day before and saw some more incredible coastline. Turned out that we ended up at Stanley again so Tyler could experience the chairlift and the climb up the nut. 

On the way back we took a turn inland to find a waterfall at "Dip Falls". The sign said it was 28km in, and as I reached the 39km mark I began to question my incredible sense of direction. All of a sudden we found the last sign leading us to a waterfall that was really not even a match for my average night time visit to the toilet after a big night on the grog. Just around the corner however was a walk to "the big tree". This thing was enormous. 16m around the base (and like the other sign, I think that was 15-20% short), and 64m high. The whole surrounding forest area was full of other massive trees, and once again was a memorable place with lots of photos taken for a slide show we will probably never look at, but hopefully the kids will always remember. 

The wildlife of Tasmania

Today was all about educating the kids. That's what we told them anyway. Just up the road there was a place called Trowunna, which is one of Tasmania's leading Tassie Devil breeding and conservation parks. 

We all headed out ready for the feeding tour at 11am and got there with about minus 2 minutes to spare thanks to my lack of understanding of just how long it takes to get 3 kids in the car and ready to go somewhere. I was ready..... Why wasn't everyone else ready for %^* sake. 

The guide looked pretty horrified at first when his group suddenly increased from the couple already there to an extra 4 adults and 6 kids who seemed to share the same skill of being able to talk over each other about any conversation and at twice the volume, but soon realised that he actually had some things to say that they were interested in... This of course resulted in about 20 questions a minute being fired off at him, ranging from "how big are wombats", to "where is the Tassie Devil" to "will he poop on you?"  

A few other stragglers joined us over the next 10 minutes, each time the guide saying "Welcome, you are just in time", which I feel was code for " can't you read... The tour started at 11...."  

We learnt a fair bit about wombats, and the kids all got to pat the baby he was holding, then we moved onto the star attractions - The Tasmanian Devil. 

The teeth on these things look like they could strip the flesh off a sleeping child quicker than a baby with a potato peeler. 

It didn't seem to stop the kids fighting though with each other to see who could hang the furthest over the fence with their outstretched arms, but as it turns out, these particular ones were quite used to having someone walk around in their enclosure feeding them a small kangaroo like animal that was picked up off the side of the road 4 hours earlier.... Or shot fresh that morning when roadkill is in short demand. 

There were 11 Devils in this area and when the carcass was let out the bucket, they swarmed onto it and started gorging themselves like they hadn't been fed for a month. Apparently this is what they do and can eat 40% of their own body weight in one meal. I hate to think what size comes out the other end a few hours later. (And it reminded me to talk to Dylan about his eating habits...)

We had lunch just outside the park and then went back in to check out the kangaroos that inhabited the bottom end of the park. The kids absolutely loved this part and we spent probably another hour or so filming them and just being amongst them, admiring their joeys and interaction with each other... Especially Nicole who was fascinated with, and couldn't put the camera down, when big daddy decided it was time for his afternoon session regardless of what the ladie roos wanted to do. 

We finally set back to camp and had our hour or 2 in the creek cooling down, then set off just before 5 to look for a new walking trail in the forest nearby. We found a great spot with some awesome palms and dense forest with a quick 15 minute walk each way that provided a great outlet for the kids to expel some of their energy before tea and bed. 

Another big day with some great photo opportunities and some even better memories. 

Tasmazia

Today is our first "all day out" day. We headed out to an amazing place called Tasmazia. It is essentially a massive area of hedges that have been planted and cut into an awesome maze. Dotted amongst it is an amount of funny little signs, statues and other little quirky items that the kids had to find and cross off the provided "treasure map". 

Throughout the maze, there was some funny little signs with sayings that amused the kids, and myself probably more than they were meant to... But worth stopping and looking at. 

There was also some other separate areas and hedge mazes with their own thems, such as Embassy Gardens and The Village of Lower Crackpot. I am still not convinced we saw everything, despite spending well in excess of 5 hours there, but it is safe to say we were all completely knackered when we finally left. 

I am still not convinced that we aren't situated directly underneath a hole in the ozone layer, because this 30 degree weather is feeling like it could roast potatoes in about 10 minutes and I have enough sweat pouring out of me to refill the nearby empty  dams. 

On the trek back, there was some amazing views that the photos just don't do justice for, but I stopped anyway to take pictures. 

We rolled on back to the caravan park and promptly set up our chairs in the middle of the creek again to try and cool down, which took a whole 5 minutes thanks to the near icy water flowing by us, and settled in for another great night under the stars, drinking a few bevvy's and not much else. 

Mole Creek - Here we come

Our first real stay was to be at a town called Mole Creek. We spent last night discussing how to get there with Nicole and Rob, and I was adamant that I was going the straightest, least winding, least hilly route, which was down the main freeway. Our van will be somewhere close to 2.2 tons when loaded and I am not a fan of stretching the car to its limits trying to drag the van up a 60 degree incline. 

We couldn't leave Devonport without spending some of the kids inheritance in the local Woolworths, and we did need to actually eat for the next few days, so we managed to lose a couple of hours filling all the empty trollies with enough food to solve Africa's starvation woes, and finally set off. 

I had studied Google maps and knew the way out of town and onto the freeway, so that was all I needed to get there. 

Apparently not. 

About 10 minutes into the drive, my amazing sense of direction started telling me I was going the wrong way.... I finally relented and had another look at maps and confirmed my thoughts. I now had 2 dilemmas- firstly admitting I took a wrong turn, and secondly having to tell Nicole and Rob that I wasn't following them down the freeway, but instead was heading deep into the bowels of going down the least straight, most winding, and most hilly route...  Bugger. 

The car certainly had its work cut out getting us to Mole Creek, and not just up the hills.... The funny thing about getting to the other side of a hill is that if you go up one side, you have to come down the other. Just as well my driving skills are as excellent as everything else I do, and I managed to get to the bottom with my brakes still working, the caravan still attached, and the car still running smoothly. Phew. 
We had found this little place (Mole Creek) on WikiCamps (which is our electronic camping bible..) when searching for somewhere different and a little inland bit turned out to be an amazing little park. There was a total of about 20 spots, half of them alongside a creek, and the other half across the dirt roadway. We managed to secure a double spot backing onto the creek and set about spreading ourselves out as much as we could. 

It is surprisingly hot here - the car temperature says 32, but I swear it feels closer to 38. As soon as I felt I could get away with sitting down with a beer, I grabbed my chair and plonked myself smack in the middle of the creek. The water temperature must have been all of 15 degrees, and it took about 2 minutes to cool down and almost want to get out... Almost. 

It doesn't get dark here until well after 9pm, so we took off around 5 o'clock for a local walk to the Mersey Valley lookout, and we weren't disappointed. Magnificent views for such a short walk (only 800m)

We were sitting up late having a drink or 3, as you do, and I kept getting up to watch the local brown trout in the creek launching themselves out at the moths trying their hardest to hover just above the water without being eaten, when I noticed a platypus fossicking in the shallows. It was getting darker by the minute, but not too dark to see and get a few happy snaps of this beautiful creature that is apparently super rare to see in the wild. 

Cheers to what looks like is going to be some good days ahead. 

East Devonport

'Twas a long 9 hours on the ferry, but very well organised. There was an entertainer that moved around the ferry gathering groups of kids and teaching them how to juggle etc. there were arcade games, a jungle gym for the younger ones, a licensed bar forbid older ones, pokies down on a different level.... Everything you need basically, to take your mind off the hours ticking by. 

We finally disembarked at about 6:30 and headed to the caravan park which was literally only 700m away. By the time we set up, took off into town to get some takeaway and cleaned up, it was bedtime for the kids and not much later for us. 

In the morning we went for a quick walk along the coast line admiring the rocky beach and convincing ourselves that the pace of walking would make up for the amount of calories ingested over the last few days. 

Packing up and heading to Mole Creek shortly. Let the adventures begin.