Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
West Coast Wilderness
Hi Everyone,
Just when I think I have it right I get caught up in No service! Nevermind, if I am a day late that's not a problem. Since I last posted, I have travelled from Waratah back up to Wynyard, where I had some modifications done to my lighing. They are almost all LED now. This means they don't draw so much from my battery when I am free camping, and the reading lights are much brighter too. Then I moved on down towards Waratah again, but on a third route! Once again very windy hilly steep. you get the picture? Met up with a couple of Victorians in a Winnebago, at Rosebery, stayed the night beside a river and then we moved on together to Strahan. Stayed at the Golf club for a very small sum, toilets, but no shower. Of course the bar was handy! Another couple arrived and they were also in a Winnebago, and we were all doing the ABT train or Gordon river cruise. I went on the train to Queenstown and then bussed back. while the other 2 couples did the bus first and then trained it. You meet at the halfway point and change engines, I ended up with the steam engine and they started with it. Lunch is served at the halfway point and drinks etc, It is very picturesque, Doug and I didn;t do it 8 years ago as the train wasn't running for some reason.
Next day I moved on to Derwent Bridge, Boy that road up from Queenstown to Derwent Bridge is still the most steep road I think I have been on. It used to be totally barren from the MT Lyell Copper Mining, but there is growth on the hills now, not much but there is an improvement. Apparently the locakls aren't sure they want to revegetate, as it is a tourist attraction in its own right. if you like moonscapes, that is.
At Derwent Bridge is a fantastic place called the Wall of the Wilderness. A fellow has spent the past 4/5 years sculpting this magnificent mural of the history of the west coast in Huon pine. supposed to be about 5 more years to go. No photos aklowed unfortunately, buy the book instead! But why would you do that when it is not finished? Still terrific workmanship, the mens hands and clothing look absolutely realistic.
Then off to Strathgordon to see the Gordon River dam and Lake Pedder. free camped out at Ted's Beach, where it started to pour with rain, I am seeing all those signs saying "slippery when wet"! However it was quite dry this morning. Thank god. So another day of arm wrestling the "donga" around hairpin bends and up and down steep hills. It is 99 kms out to the dam one of the few places I have had to double back on myself. Finally after reaching back to civilisation, and having lunch of fresh raspberries, cream and icecream pancakes, I arrived at New Norfolk, home of 7 antique shops! and a patchwork shop!! Picked up a parcel of my Neways products, and got slugged the freight twice! Now settled into the caravan park beside the river where they do jet boat rides! but I am doing my washing.
Now just try and add a photo for you and then i can "post" this to you. talk to you all next week.
vicki
Just when I think I have it right I get caught up in No service! Nevermind, if I am a day late that's not a problem. Since I last posted, I have travelled from Waratah back up to Wynyard, where I had some modifications done to my lighing. They are almost all LED now. This means they don't draw so much from my battery when I am free camping, and the reading lights are much brighter too. Then I moved on down towards Waratah again, but on a third route! Once again very windy hilly steep. you get the picture? Met up with a couple of Victorians in a Winnebago, at Rosebery, stayed the night beside a river and then we moved on together to Strahan. Stayed at the Golf club for a very small sum, toilets, but no shower. Of course the bar was handy! Another couple arrived and they were also in a Winnebago, and we were all doing the ABT train or Gordon river cruise. I went on the train to Queenstown and then bussed back. while the other 2 couples did the bus first and then trained it. You meet at the halfway point and change engines, I ended up with the steam engine and they started with it. Lunch is served at the halfway point and drinks etc, It is very picturesque, Doug and I didn;t do it 8 years ago as the train wasn't running for some reason.
Next day I moved on to Derwent Bridge, Boy that road up from Queenstown to Derwent Bridge is still the most steep road I think I have been on. It used to be totally barren from the MT Lyell Copper Mining, but there is growth on the hills now, not much but there is an improvement. Apparently the locakls aren't sure they want to revegetate, as it is a tourist attraction in its own right. if you like moonscapes, that is.
At Derwent Bridge is a fantastic place called the Wall of the Wilderness. A fellow has spent the past 4/5 years sculpting this magnificent mural of the history of the west coast in Huon pine. supposed to be about 5 more years to go. No photos aklowed unfortunately, buy the book instead! But why would you do that when it is not finished? Still terrific workmanship, the mens hands and clothing look absolutely realistic.
Then off to Strathgordon to see the Gordon River dam and Lake Pedder. free camped out at Ted's Beach, where it started to pour with rain, I am seeing all those signs saying "slippery when wet"! However it was quite dry this morning. Thank god. So another day of arm wrestling the "donga" around hairpin bends and up and down steep hills. It is 99 kms out to the dam one of the few places I have had to double back on myself. Finally after reaching back to civilisation, and having lunch of fresh raspberries, cream and icecream pancakes, I arrived at New Norfolk, home of 7 antique shops! and a patchwork shop!! Picked up a parcel of my Neways products, and got slugged the freight twice! Now settled into the caravan park beside the river where they do jet boat rides! but I am doing my washing.
Now just try and add a photo for you and then i can "post" this to you. talk to you all next week.
vicki
Monday, January 24, 2011
Waterfall at Waratah
Hi I am in Waratah. I will add a photo if it kills me!
Since leaving Stanley, I have travelled over and back over a section of North West Tassie. I went out to Smithton, a pretty enough town that is involved in dairy, timber and peripheral mining. You have to go through it to get to some of the west coast surfing beaches. I took a side trip into the Tarkine (a new name according to the locals for what was once known as "the bush") it is pretty pristine wilderness, temperate rain forrest. Some huge trees that are very tall and straight, they would give our Karri a run for their money.
Any way I dropped into a place called Tarkine Forrest
Adventures, as they advertise a 110 metre slide into a sinkhole. I thought I might give it a go! So I sez to the bloke; "how do you get back up?" and he sez: "walk". So I thought about it, and reckoned I am still only young once and paid my money and did it!
Well my hair is a lot whiter than it was, and I reckon if I didn't have a heart condition before hand I probably do now! My God it was terrifying!! You sit in this bag sort of thing and they stick a big padded pillow beind your upper body, they give you a foam bike helmet, and then push you off. You are in a cylinder that spirals down faster than the olympic toboggan race and steeper, 110 metres! I tell you when they offered the second ride ( you get 2 rides in the price) I said one was enough. I think I had enough excitement for 1 day.
I drove off to Marrawah and then on to Green Point for the night. It was a small camp site just behind a hill at the ocean front. toilets at the beach and a tap but not much else. Oh the beach had bbq facilities, gas, free, and cleaned daily. there wasn't much flat ground and I was the 2nd vehicle there so I had a good spot, But it was very windy. A big 5th wheeler pulled in and the woman proceeded to do about 10 loads of washing from a little twintub washer. They had clothes lines strung around the 2 trees that were there and their van. Place looked like a chinese laundry! It was so windy she got it all dry in just a couple of hours!
Next morning I drove about 15 more kms to Arthur River and did a 6 hour trip up the river, including lunch and feeding sea eagles. It was really a lovely day except for 2 spoilt brats who were on board with their parents who don't understand the word discipline. The guy doing the commentary was really knowledgeable, rattled off the latin names of the trees and told us all about the temperate rain forrest and how it works etc. They had had flooding of the river a few days before, while I was huddled in Stanley. You could see all the debris about 5 foot up the bank. The river is very deep about 35 foot or was that metres? and there is no logging allowed within several kilometres of the river edge. Mind you that is probably not a hard decision as it is so steep. After that I dropped into another free camp to se if I could get in as I expected it would be full, and there were a couple from Dunalley with the Little Red Ute, and dog Bundy, I think I have told about them in an earlier blog? So I had a chat, but decided to go back to GreenPoint again as it was closer for my jump off to Waratah.
It was quite late when I pulled in but there was room for me.Then I took off for the road around the coast agin to get to the road to Waratah. I doubled back over lot of territory, but dropped into fresh places as well. stayed the night in the carpark at Boat Harbour. Wow that beach can give wa beaches a run for their money. It was pristine white sand, fine like flour, and the bluest/greenest water I have seen outside the tropics. Just gorgeous. Then I went to Sisters Beach to dunp toilet and it was pretty nice too. next night I spent at Wynyard Showgrounds and then a hair raising drive through Hellyer Pass to get to Waratah and another CMCA rally. I would love to set up a camera on my forehead to show some of these roads I am driving over! I actually did get out my camera and took one photo, but of course it was not very steep/hairpin bend like as I am still here! But really driving the motor home over some of these roads is pretty hairraising. The map doesn't show the bends enough!
Thursday I arrived here and settled in at the camp site, I picked up my tax papers from the accountant at the PO. and signed on the dotted line and posted it back! I hope to include some photos, (they have about 45 motor homes scattered around). We played disc bowls, which is a cross between quoits and frisbee,and I advanced to the 2nd round, my 3rd time to play it. i won a raffle of a giant teddy bear, and promptly flogged it to some body who wanted it! and we went out to the local pub for a great 3 course meal for 17.50.
so a great weekend really. I am getting lots of advice about which route to go to Queenstown, and will make up my mind in a couple of days as I am waiting here for a prescriptiom from my dr. So that is Waratah, there is a waterfall practically in the middle of town, a lovely museum and a tin stamping mill. It is quite interesting. Thats all for now as I go to battle ith the photos. cheers
vicki
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Saturday, January 15, 2011
Nuts to the weather
Hi all,
I am referring to the Nut at Stanley in north western Tasmania. I have been here for 5 nights now and will finally be on the move tomorrow, Sunday. I came in from Ulverstone on Tuesday as I had a few things fixed up by a marvellous chap there. Luckily one of the jobs he sorted out was my leaks! the bed and dining table kept getting wet when it rained. Later that day after he squeezed silicon around all my windows, and tightened the door lock, and looked at my battery gauges, and screwed on the new awning attachment, after I had driven on my merry way , the skies opened and tested the leakproofing. Thank god it worked!
I was picturing myself sitting around in a motel or something to get dry. but I booked into a caravan park and turned on the reverse cycle aircon and dried out the bedding and was as snug as a bug in a rug.
I continued across the North of Tassie to Stanley, which is a real cute looking place (if only i could add photos you would see what I mean!), all lovely coloured weatherboard houses with contrast trims all about 90+ years old, in the lee of the NUT. This is a plug from an extinct volcano, looks variously like a plum pudding or something just sticking up out of fairly lowlying country.
Anyway the weather got worse, gale force winds (at one stage over 90knots), and torrential rain non stop for 2 days, and then fairly consistent for the next 2 days. The old doigs donga was fairly rocking I can tell you! I certainly didn't care to be driving in those conditions. Well to make things more interesting i had developed some stiffness and pain in my right leg and thigh, maybe from driving as there is no way on these roads I am using cruise controll! So I had booked a massage with a local lady , right in the middle of one of these squalls! I managed to find a poncho from when I was in New York, and off I set. First off I had yo hold the hood down with one hand , so all the sleeve and arm got soaked, then I was saturated fromn the knees down, my shoes filled with water and my socks were just totally sodden. I made it to the massage! stripped off and did she give me the once over,! told me to have a hot shower and get into bed, as she really had to work hard to get the kinks out of my legs. I have the bruises to prove it too! But I do feel a lot better. My shoes still have not dried out, and I threw the socks in the bin. i kept extending my stay, and finally yesterday it stopped raining in the afternoon, and today it even had the sun out.!
I walked around the town for about an hour yesterday and today I took the chairlift up to the top of the Nut. (i had to walk to the chairlift though!) and up the top it was another howling gale, but I perserverd and walked around the circuit path, supposed to take about half an hour, but it took me almost an hour! but I saw, and took some photos of poteroos, they are little tiny kangaroos, bit bigger than a quokka, (for the west australians_) and also identified the shearwater nests (burrows). So I achieved what i wanted to do by coming to Stanley, as when doug and I came about 7/8 years ago we had a lousy day then too and the chairlift doesn't run if it is more than 40 knots.
So really it hasn't been very interesting week as far as what I have seen but I am safe, dry, and not flooded out. I feel so sorry for the dreadful floods the Qlders are having and WA with its bushfires. I hope all you my readers are safe. good luck and i will hopefully have a more lively week next week. cheers
vicki
I am referring to the Nut at Stanley in north western Tasmania. I have been here for 5 nights now and will finally be on the move tomorrow, Sunday. I came in from Ulverstone on Tuesday as I had a few things fixed up by a marvellous chap there. Luckily one of the jobs he sorted out was my leaks! the bed and dining table kept getting wet when it rained. Later that day after he squeezed silicon around all my windows, and tightened the door lock, and looked at my battery gauges, and screwed on the new awning attachment, after I had driven on my merry way , the skies opened and tested the leakproofing. Thank god it worked!
I was picturing myself sitting around in a motel or something to get dry. but I booked into a caravan park and turned on the reverse cycle aircon and dried out the bedding and was as snug as a bug in a rug.
I continued across the North of Tassie to Stanley, which is a real cute looking place (if only i could add photos you would see what I mean!), all lovely coloured weatherboard houses with contrast trims all about 90+ years old, in the lee of the NUT. This is a plug from an extinct volcano, looks variously like a plum pudding or something just sticking up out of fairly lowlying country.
Anyway the weather got worse, gale force winds (at one stage over 90knots), and torrential rain non stop for 2 days, and then fairly consistent for the next 2 days. The old doigs donga was fairly rocking I can tell you! I certainly didn't care to be driving in those conditions. Well to make things more interesting i had developed some stiffness and pain in my right leg and thigh, maybe from driving as there is no way on these roads I am using cruise controll! So I had booked a massage with a local lady , right in the middle of one of these squalls! I managed to find a poncho from when I was in New York, and off I set. First off I had yo hold the hood down with one hand , so all the sleeve and arm got soaked, then I was saturated fromn the knees down, my shoes filled with water and my socks were just totally sodden. I made it to the massage! stripped off and did she give me the once over,! told me to have a hot shower and get into bed, as she really had to work hard to get the kinks out of my legs. I have the bruises to prove it too! But I do feel a lot better. My shoes still have not dried out, and I threw the socks in the bin. i kept extending my stay, and finally yesterday it stopped raining in the afternoon, and today it even had the sun out.!
I walked around the town for about an hour yesterday and today I took the chairlift up to the top of the Nut. (i had to walk to the chairlift though!) and up the top it was another howling gale, but I perserverd and walked around the circuit path, supposed to take about half an hour, but it took me almost an hour! but I saw, and took some photos of poteroos, they are little tiny kangaroos, bit bigger than a quokka, (for the west australians_) and also identified the shearwater nests (burrows). So I achieved what i wanted to do by coming to Stanley, as when doug and I came about 7/8 years ago we had a lousy day then too and the chairlift doesn't run if it is more than 40 knots.
So really it hasn't been very interesting week as far as what I have seen but I am safe, dry, and not flooded out. I feel so sorry for the dreadful floods the Qlders are having and WA with its bushfires. I hope all you my readers are safe. good luck and i will hopefully have a more lively week next week. cheers
vicki
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Rain In Tassie Falls Mainly on Doigs Donga
Hi Everyone,
Just when I think I have this thing beat, I find I don't.
As you might guess from todays title, it is raining. So I will just back track a little. This may be fairly brief, the first version was lovely and newsy, but then I lost it. just when I thought I had the hang of this blogging.
I am very pleased to be getting feedback from you, it makes it worthwhile.
So after New Year with the motorhoming chapter at Bridport, I made my way to Georgetown. It turned out that an ex of one of my patchworking friends lived in Tassie and belonged to the Bridport group! After we worked out where we knew each other from (I hadn't seen him for about 20 years) it turned out he also worked with my late husband Doug in the then PMG. It really is a small world!
So I went to Georgetown and Graham gave me the old tourist trip, which was kind of him. It is a very lovley town . supposedly the oldest TOWN, in Australia.
I camped behind the tourist information centre. Complete with toilet dump, which was handy.Then I doubled back towards
scottsdale through Lilydale, which just happened to have a very cute little Patchwork shop, I am doing quite well finding every patchwork shop in australia without the book. but it will make it easier thanks Lyn! So I camped at Myrtle Park beside a lovely rippling bubbling river. There are a lot of them. it was really very beautiful, I wish I had a better camera to take better photos. but the one I have will have to do.
Then I bypassed Launceston, as Doug and I had been there before, and headed off to Deloraine and finally Mole Creek to stay the night beside another bubbling rippling river! they are very soothing to hear the water running over the rocks.
All this driving is over mountain/big hills, winding, climbing, hairpin bend roads! Half the time I don't even get into 5th gear let lone 6th.Thank god for automatics I say! I am sure my triceps and biceps will be rippling by the time I leave tassie! So at Mole creek there was not any phone service or internet, unless you hung out over the fence. which I had to do as I needed to make a call about the motor home. (which is where I am headed for tomorrow). I was parked next door to a couple from Wyndham (but not someone I knew from 40 years ago.) Wow I wrote that slowly. 40 years ago! I can't really believe that.
So then I drove off to Alma reserve beside... You guessed it! another bubbling rippling rocky river. There were a couple fom WA also and the wife was an enrolled nurse who worked at Murdoch. so that took care of another couple of days. On the way there I stopped in at Sheffield and finally got some gorgeous cherries, they are just coming in, and I also went to Tasmazia, a complex of mazes that was very interesting and I proved to myself that my sense of direction is still pretty good.
So Today packed up from Alma Reserve and drove into Ulverston to see if I could have a blood test for my arthritis medication and had to go on to Burnie. well the heavens opened and it Thundered and Lightning, and just bucketed down.!! When I arrived at Burnie hospital, i checked out the van and discovered leaks! so this is why I am able to send this, as I decided to book into a van park for the power to dry out the van and charge up the batteries and send off my phone messages and internet access.
Now all I have to do is manage to send this and all will be well. so ends this version of doigs dongas travels!
talk to you all soon
love vicki
Just when I think I have this thing beat, I find I don't.
As you might guess from todays title, it is raining. So I will just back track a little. This may be fairly brief, the first version was lovely and newsy, but then I lost it. just when I thought I had the hang of this blogging.
I am very pleased to be getting feedback from you, it makes it worthwhile.
So after New Year with the motorhoming chapter at Bridport, I made my way to Georgetown. It turned out that an ex of one of my patchworking friends lived in Tassie and belonged to the Bridport group! After we worked out where we knew each other from (I hadn't seen him for about 20 years) it turned out he also worked with my late husband Doug in the then PMG. It really is a small world!
So I went to Georgetown and Graham gave me the old tourist trip, which was kind of him. It is a very lovley town . supposedly the oldest TOWN, in Australia.
I camped behind the tourist information centre. Complete with toilet dump, which was handy.Then I doubled back towards
scottsdale through Lilydale, which just happened to have a very cute little Patchwork shop, I am doing quite well finding every patchwork shop in australia without the book. but it will make it easier thanks Lyn! So I camped at Myrtle Park beside a lovely rippling bubbling river. There are a lot of them. it was really very beautiful, I wish I had a better camera to take better photos. but the one I have will have to do.
Then I bypassed Launceston, as Doug and I had been there before, and headed off to Deloraine and finally Mole Creek to stay the night beside another bubbling rippling river! they are very soothing to hear the water running over the rocks.
All this driving is over mountain/big hills, winding, climbing, hairpin bend roads! Half the time I don't even get into 5th gear let lone 6th.Thank god for automatics I say! I am sure my triceps and biceps will be rippling by the time I leave tassie! So at Mole creek there was not any phone service or internet, unless you hung out over the fence. which I had to do as I needed to make a call about the motor home. (which is where I am headed for tomorrow). I was parked next door to a couple from Wyndham (but not someone I knew from 40 years ago.) Wow I wrote that slowly. 40 years ago! I can't really believe that.
So then I drove off to Alma reserve beside... You guessed it! another bubbling rippling rocky river. There were a couple fom WA also and the wife was an enrolled nurse who worked at Murdoch. so that took care of another couple of days. On the way there I stopped in at Sheffield and finally got some gorgeous cherries, they are just coming in, and I also went to Tasmazia, a complex of mazes that was very interesting and I proved to myself that my sense of direction is still pretty good.
So Today packed up from Alma Reserve and drove into Ulverston to see if I could have a blood test for my arthritis medication and had to go on to Burnie. well the heavens opened and it Thundered and Lightning, and just bucketed down.!! When I arrived at Burnie hospital, i checked out the van and discovered leaks! so this is why I am able to send this, as I decided to book into a van park for the power to dry out the van and charge up the batteries and send off my phone messages and internet access.
Now all I have to do is manage to send this and all will be well. so ends this version of doigs dongas travels!
talk to you all soon
love vicki
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year!!
Hi All and a Very Happy New Year to you.
I have been making friends through the CMCA family of motor homers, and have been made very welcome by them, Here in Bridport Tasmania, we have been in a large paddock behind a farm for the last 6 days. The weather has alternated between very sunny, strong winds and a lazy wind that goes straight through you as it is too lazy to go round.
The local Tasmanians, are so keen for sun that they sit out in it and get quite sun burnt! i want to sit in the shade, but as a newcomer i stay out with them as I don't want to seem unsociable. but I have got sunburnt (and windburnt) for the first time in years! We had a large marquee and a 3way long drop toilet, so all the amenities! On new years eve we had a beautiful combined meal of roast beef, absolutely to die for, ham on the bone and roast potatoes, boiled spuds and various veges, with fruit salad and icecream with raspberries and strawberries on top. they had a chapter member whose family are talented singers supply the entertainment, and although it was freezing cold I stuck it out til midnight! (so proud of myself).
Had a few texts from WA and that was lovely thank you.
Monday we finishing breaking camp, already a lot have moved on. (there were 22 motorhomes) and 1 fifth wheeler. I will head out to Georgetown, and get water and then down the east side of the Tamar valley, I am looking for a place where Doug and I had scones and jam and cream about 8/9 years ago! Then over to the west coast and stanley and the Nut.
So to all my good friends a happy and healthy, and if you are lucky, a wealthy new year.
love from vicki in Doigs' Donga.
I have been making friends through the CMCA family of motor homers, and have been made very welcome by them, Here in Bridport Tasmania, we have been in a large paddock behind a farm for the last 6 days. The weather has alternated between very sunny, strong winds and a lazy wind that goes straight through you as it is too lazy to go round.
The local Tasmanians, are so keen for sun that they sit out in it and get quite sun burnt! i want to sit in the shade, but as a newcomer i stay out with them as I don't want to seem unsociable. but I have got sunburnt (and windburnt) for the first time in years! We had a large marquee and a 3way long drop toilet, so all the amenities! On new years eve we had a beautiful combined meal of roast beef, absolutely to die for, ham on the bone and roast potatoes, boiled spuds and various veges, with fruit salad and icecream with raspberries and strawberries on top. they had a chapter member whose family are talented singers supply the entertainment, and although it was freezing cold I stuck it out til midnight! (so proud of myself).
Had a few texts from WA and that was lovely thank you.
Monday we finishing breaking camp, already a lot have moved on. (there were 22 motorhomes) and 1 fifth wheeler. I will head out to Georgetown, and get water and then down the east side of the Tamar valley, I am looking for a place where Doug and I had scones and jam and cream about 8/9 years ago! Then over to the west coast and stanley and the Nut.
So to all my good friends a happy and healthy, and if you are lucky, a wealthy new year.
love from vicki in Doigs' Donga.
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