RETURN TO DIARY

We arrived at Hobart and on our first night in the park we were awoken by a screaming argument outside our van at midnight. With words such as "attempted murder" "take the F**** knife" and heaps more abusive words the police soon arrived. The poor guy next to us was only in a tent, a few feet from this mad, screaming couple. He also rang the police and when they asked him where he was he said "in his tent". when they asked where the disturbance was he said "outside my tent". After a police search of the area no knife was found and they were taken away in separate wagons. While the search for the knife was going on around our caravan the girl was placed in a police wagon, 200 metres away from us. She could easily be heard trying to demolish the inside of the van and screaming obscenities at the police. Another guy, the victim, who was earlier attacked, was taken away in an ambulance with a knife wound to his hand. The next morning, Sandy who was up at daylight, found the knife and after her morning run rang the police. They arrived, bagged the steak knife, and took Sandy's particulars saying she may be called as a witness in the court case for assault. He issued Sandy a "Property Seizure Receipt" for a steak knife even though Sandy strenuously told me later "It wasn't her knife!!!!". He didn't say don't leave Tasmania but was surprised that we had no fixed address, so our mobile number was taken. Later we found out the victim didn't press any charges and the couple were released later that day. We opted for safety, so first thing in the morning we moved away from the tent the arrested couple were sleeping in and found a site in the middle of the park with hopefully more respectable neighbours! Another couple, who didn't sleep either, followed us with their van 30 minutes later up into the middle of the park.

Over the next few days we drove up Mount Wellington (great views) day tripped thru Battery Point (old houses) and walked around Salamanca Markets (lots of the same again). Sandy did buy a silver Pygmy Possum pendant by Ruth Waterhouse, a respected artist from Kettering near Hobart. At the Island Markets we purchased some fresh Atlantic Salmon for $20 a kg, so nice that before we left we bought some more.

Opossum Bay

After 5 years on the road we actually found a property we both loved. Even with the cold weather of Tasmania and the prospect of a similar priced house in hot Broome we both considered it. Thankfully it was too expensive, in the high $500's, so our dilemma was solved. It was a small 10 square, one bedroom, house with a boathouse on your own part of the beach below the house. Overlooking the entrance to Hobart in Opossum Bay, you would have a constant feast of yachts, boats and ships to attract the eyes.

Friday we went to the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. They were still setting up and no one asked us for a ticket so we just walked in. We met Ross and Jackie in there who had the same experience. A bit disappointing as the majority of boats were actually yachts. On Sunday Anne and Gordon (campers near us) gave me a 4 day pass so I returned for another look without Sandy who was happy to stay home. A few more exhibits, lots more yachts, boat building demonstrations and a host of model boats entertained me for a few hours.

Tall ships were part of the entertainment.

Lots of Yachts

I quite liked the small wooden yachts

and the small boats

incredible wood work

I like looking at these wooden boats

This was the prettiest one with a blemish free sparkling paint job.

The Dutch brought this one across the oceans for display

After 3 days you can't blame him for taking time out to read the paper

Lake Sinclair

After leaving Hobart we dropped into Lake Sinclair (brown trout) which had walks from 3 hours to 7 days. We strolled down to the lake then carried on to Lake Burbury where we camped the night.

Before arriving at Queenstown we had to travel down this road consisting of 99 bends, 1st gear all the way!

At Tasmania Special Timbers Mill in Queenstown (Gold and Copper mining) I picked up a slab of Huon Pine and Black Hearted Sasafras. The Huon I have made into a new coffee table for Sandy and the Sasafras is for a jewellery box Sandy is hoping her father will make for her but he doesn't know that yet.

Strahan - Huon Pine Port

Strahan is a tourist town with only a few old buildings and lots of new "old" accommodation available. A timber mill and timber shops are on the wharf and boat, jet and plane rides are available from here.

Hells Gate, No that's Sandy in front, Hells Gate is behind her.

Hells Gate at Macquarie Heads is the main entrance into Macquarie Harbour and Strahan, also the beginning of Ocean Beach (40 k's long).

Trial Harbour campsite from the lookout behind us.

We were told to go to Trial Harbour by a couple we met at Gladstone who were going to live and set up a photographic gallery at St Helens on the East coast of Tasmania. Surprise, surprise we found Anna and Margie camped here at Trial Harbour on the other side of the island. They have rented a shop and house in Zeehan (silver mines) for their new gallery. Check out www.realtasmania.com for their website. This campsite at Trial Harbour has been one of the best we have stayed in since arriving in Tasmania, we stayed for nearly a week. The first 3 days I made the Huon Pine coffee table for Sandy and the rest of the days we relaxed, climbed a hill and took short drives. We could have dived for abalone as we saw 3 snorkellers come out with a bag of abalone each from just off the shore.

Trial Harbour Sunset

The sunsets over the ocean reminded us of our West Australian sunsets, the past couple of years all of the sunsets have been over land.

After saying goodbye to Anna and Margie we were to head up the coast to Arthur River but the Ferry at Corinna was too small for our car van combination so we detoured and travelled to Granville Harbour (nice) then via Reece Dam, Lake Pieman to camp overnight at Waratah. Lots of campers here who are day tripping to Cradle Mountain. The next day we started the silica sand, dusty track via Savage River, Corinna to our overnight camp at Donaldson River. Lots of forest and such a variety of minerals/rocks on the road verges. This area is known for its minerals and I can see why. A 7kg nugget of gold was found in this area and I tried gold panning a few creeks but didn't find any. A local gave us a hot stock tip. The mining company he works for will pay off their startup costs this year and he expects the price to soar. He bought shares in this nickel mine at 5c each, they are now worth 65c ea. Check out Allegience, he believes it could go to over $3.00 a share.

This part of the track was extremely steep in places and they have bitumised the steep hills so that it can be traversed in the wet. Even so, on 3 hills I couldn't get the car and van up the steep climb and had to change to low range 4WD, Sandy wasn't impressed! I guess the gradient would be around 1 in 6 or worse, a lot of the highways in Tasmania have hills at 1 in 10 which we easily climb in 1st gear.

The rest of the road to Arthur River was quite a variety of landscapes, forests, no tree hills, grassy plains and more. The road twisted back on itself many times and was never straight, must be following the original horse tracks.

The Nut on the left and Stanley on the right.

Stanley was a surprise with many old buildings, almost all restored and kept in pristine condition. The Nut had a chairlift to the top but we took the walking track, got to keep fit somehow. Beautiful views all round from the top. Check out a map of this area, Stanley sits on a strange formation of land with the east and west inlets. The tide is 3 metres with a gentle sloping bottom so the beach can be a kilometer wide at low tide and a few metres at high tide. 16 shipwrecks in Stanley Bay and many whales are deceived here and beach themselves. Man or animal they all come to grief here on this deceptively beautiful piece of water.

Next month is our last on Tasmania then back to W.A. See ya.