Tasmaniover

Hello.

All is well down under. It's our last day in Tasmania today as we catch the overnight ferry back to the mainland in a few hours. In a strange way it's been like a little holiday for us, mainly in the sense that we've spent more than we usually do.

The tent's not looking too great these days and last night we ended up getting a motel room so that we could make some proper repairs. It seems the stuff we bought last year at the beginning of our trip is beginning to wear out, and we're so close the end so don't want to buy anything new. We might have to just blag our way through the next few weeks.

Anyway, after leaving Hobart we had a nice time cruising up the east coast. Tassy feels small compared to the mainland but the roads are incredibly hilly and windy, so every journey took twice as long as we expected. Great place for an MX-5 this...

Most of our time has been spent in the car, oohing and aahing at the scenery which is frequently postcard perfect. We drove over to Port Arthur, an old historic prison settlement, but it was too expensive so we just looked through the hedge. Then we had a couple of nights in Coles Bay exploring the Freycinet National Park, and last night we stayed in Launceston which is Tassy's 2nd city - literally - there are only two cities in this state, despite what the signs say.


Today we popped up to Beaconsfield which is where Australias biggest news story of 2006 happened, but I don't know if you got it back home. There was an earthquake and one miner died, but two others were trapped underground for a couple of weeks until their amazing rescue.

And now we're in Ulverstone, using the computers in the library. Once we hit the big country again we'll be pedalling hard across Victoria and into South Australia again. We want to see a few places there and then get a couple of things on the car checked. Then we'll be heading north, but rather than the highway we'll be taking a more adventurous road through the remote outback called the Oodnadatta track. It'll probably be our last Aussie adventure.

OK, that's been our life for the past week and now here's some piccies of Tassy and Victoria.

Somewhere on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria:


Our mighty chariot, somewhere else on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria;


Still on mainland Australia, it's the lighthouse from Round the Twist! Have you ever... ever felt like this...?


Tasmania now, and getting ready to leave Stanley, in the shadow of The Nut:


The Nut from afar:


Cradle Mountain and some white, cold stuff falling from the sky:


Beaconsfield:



A typical Tassy view, this one from the road up to Mt. Victoria:


Or if you're looking away from the land, this is a typical Tassy view:


And this one:

Tasmania mania

Hello.

After leaving Mt. Gambier we had a nice easy trek along the Great Ocean Road, which seems infinitely smaller than it did last time but still stunning. Unfortunately, every single day since we left Mannum we've had horrendous weather. Every night we've had storms, high winds or both, and the tent is becoming more repairs than original canvas.

We popped in to see Jason and crew again since we had a bit of time to kill, and then made our way to Tassy. After a lot of fun trying to guess our way through Melbourne's hilarious signposts, we found the ferry port and then had a surprisingly easy and smooth crossing over the Bass Strait last Monday night. We arrived in Tasmania, or as it's known round here - 'mainland Australia'. They say the big bit above it is the northern island.

We sailed overnight and arrived at 7am in Devonport. After a quick breakfast and a bit of planning, we set off and immediately Tassy's reputation as being a beautiful place rang true. Within half an hour we had mountain's on one side, surrounded by rolling green hills. Stunning.

We travelled through a town called Sheffield to one of the big tourist draws here, Cradle Mountain. Here we learnt how they've cunningly designed Tasmania so that you can't see any of it's natural beauty without paying an extortianate fee. We had a nice walk round Dove Lake at the foot of the mountain and then continued on to a town on the north coast called Stanley. This small town is built at the foot of an enormous rock that blasts out of the earth called The Nut. It's hard to explain, it just looks odd.

We left Stanley and made our way down the west (which is barely inhabited) to a nice little fishing village called Strahan. Then it was through a mining town called Queenstown (aka Mordor as somebody's written on the sign, since the mining industry has destroyed all the vegetation on the surrounding hills).

The winding highway through the national parks led us to Hobart, where we're currently staying. We've been to the Cadbury's factory today and stocked up on cheap chocolate, and tomorrow we're going to experience the markets which Hobart is famous for.

Can't put photos on here right now but Tasmania really is a nice little island really removed from the mainland Australia. It's climate and scenery is more like England so it's a nice way to spend some of our last time in Oz.

To Tasmania

First, some photos (not in much order):

The Grampians crew:


Cooking inside the tent in Mannum, before we moved in with Paul:





The Blue Lake at Mt. Gambier:






The ladies at Rivapak:






Charlotte and Angus, Paul's dog:






Some off-roading in the Grampians:




We have escaped. We were given a surprisingly lovely send off by our workmates, Charlotte especially made an impression on the ladies. One even rang last night because she didn't get chance to say goodbye to us last week, and she told Charlotte what a lovely couple we were.

They gave us a little present too, some onions and a few Mannum souvenirs. It was quite unexpected but very nice of them.

We're now in Mt. Gambier in the south east of South Australia. It's a nice place, built on an old volcanic area so there are huge craters around, some making beautiful little lakes. We've booked the ferry over to Tasmania for Monday evening and will be purchasing sea-sickness tablets between now and then as the crossing is apparently very rough. In the meantime we'll have a gentle cruise along the great ocean road and enjoy this part of Australia for the second and last time.

When we return, we'll be dashing back across to the west and then north to the middle to see some big rock and lots of desert.

Onionwards!

Well, you'll be pleased to hear that we've cheered up quite a bit since our last update. After a turbulent week or so things have settled down and we've stuck around for a little longer to top up the funds.

Tomorrow is our last day working with onions though, probably forever. Sad though that may sound, we're not too down about it and early next week we'll be leaving the pretty little town of Mannum to begin ticking off the final place on our 'things to see in Australia' list. Starting with Tasmania.

Right, Charlotte's got the tea on and I'm hungry.