Hobart TAS Sunday am - Catch Up Time

Prologue

Hyvää huomenta Huomenta.  

Sataa kissoja ja koiria.

Anna & Elias please teach me how to write “Lorna walked to the Farm Gate market and shopped for local produce” in Finnish?  

Is the correct colloquial expression for her decision to shop in this weather “Olla kaikki muumit laaksossa?” is the best translation to English 'has one of her Moomins left the valley?" (Having eaten the food Lorna bought it is not the right expression for the situation, is it.  I should probably be saying "Kiitos paljon".)

I on the other hand am sitting at the desk in the lovely serviced apartment we fluked upon, in the room to which they handily upgraded us, looking out over the Hobart wharves determined to catch up with our travel blog whilst trying not to stare out fixedly at the torrential rain streaming down the plate glass windows behind the desk J 

Oh well best get on with it, wait where did I leave my tea, like my eldest son, I cannot write unless primed with plentiful tea.  Where is that teekannu? I wish I had a pannumyssy, maybe shaped like a chicken.

As usual there are copious photos at http://rogerdavis.jalbum.net/

Where did I leave you?  Ah yes in that pretty little town named after one of Britain’s least memorable prime ministers, the fourteenth Earl of Derby, aka Edward Stanley.  

Interestingly, to me, a town named after a Whig (who later became a Tory) was the birthplace of teacher and later PM Joseph Aloysius (Joe) Lyons whose early political affiliations to the Workers Political League and later the Australian Labor Party were as far from Whig & Tory as can be.  Wait I hear that well known teacher of Australian history, Mr Davis of Shore School call out, he went on to switch to the UAP and his widow, Dame Enid, was later a pillar of Menzies Liberal Party so perhaps the ghost of Edward Stanley had the last laugh.

But I digress.

The Tarkine, Cradle Mountain and Strahan

The Tarkine to Cradle Mountain

We left Stanley with high hopes of a break in the weather to explore the Tarkine, alas we were wrong.  It bucketed down all day.  Proper rain, the car gained a good covering of Tarkine grit and we abbreviated our scheduled 160 km exploration of the area to some short hikes into the rain-forest to get a feel of the place.

When we had had enough wading in the mud and rain,  we  hastily assembled a sandwich using ingredients from the car fridge  and contentedly sat and ate in our seats, happy to skip pulling out awning, table and chairs.  Then we  headed for Corinna and the Fatman Barge.  There was a very small break in the rain whilst we crossed the Pieman river.    

There are several lookouts on this magnificent road which reminded us of the Wicklow Mountains however very little impetus to get out of the car as the rain and mist were prevalent at all times.

Cradle Mountain 

Cradle Mountain Wilderness Lodge was basic but adequate for  two nights. 

I don't think the crow that sat on the veranda throughout our stay was necessarily channeling a vulture but it might have been.

We had had enough sense to book into Peppers for dinner and after a bottle of wine our cabin was much better.

I awoke the next morning and was a) impressed with the accuracy of the Bureau of Meteorology's forecast and, b) less than delighted to see dark skies, heavy rain and no prospect for much improvement.  But Dove Lake circuit was our planned morning walk, we had our warmest waterproof coats, hats scarves and gloves and keen Duke of Edinburgh award leader David Davis would be ashamed if his parents let the side down.  So off we set and were the third car to park in the enormous but empty Dove Lake circuit car park.  I will not got so far as to say it was actually hailing as we did up our coats but it was raining really hard.

According to the “60 of Tasmania's best short walks” website and handy booklet, Dove Lake Circuit is 5.7 km and takes 2 – 3 hours no mention is made of 'only if the circuit  is open all the way round and undertaken in reasonable weather'.  

In general the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service do a cracking job so it would be to carp to mention that  first time the we heard of the 'closure of the track  after the Ballroom Forest for an upgrade' was not on the web site but at the start of the circuit.  In retrospect it was the second most hateful sign of the day that said 'until the end of November walkers would not be able to return to the car park via the circuit and would have have to turn back'.  We decided we would walk for an hour in one direction and then turn back at about the half way point and we set off.  

It was a good decision.  Dove Lake Circuit was among the most fantastic walks we have ever done. In fairness it was not all bad weather, we experienced every weather from sun (about 5 minutes) to sleeting rain (most of the walk), Antarctic winds (Lorna's is willing to sign a statutory declaration) rain that got through five layers including our waterproof outer layer capped by sleet and hail.  The are united in our view that we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  

There is only one point of contention and negotiated  the following joint communique; we were about seven eights (Roger) or two thirds (Lorna) around the track when we got to the closed section,  and an even more hateful sign that said the path would be closed for upgrades until the end of October, that was the preceding week!  Can it all be the fault of the CFMEU that this construction project was not completed on time?  

The walk  was just as magnificent on the way back to the car park despite us being colder (two pairs of gloves cold),wetter and having to pass, first, a blissfully unaware wombat grazing on the edge of the path, and then, lots of people on the one-way track who were all going in the prescribed direction. Some of these later arrivals were quite insane to be attempting the walk without wet weather gear given the weather, there was even one chump in thongs.   ‘Our 5.7 km walk was either close to 11 km (Roger) or 9 km (Lorna).  either way, we were exercised and spent the rest of the day drying the hats, coats, shoes, gloves’

The next morning we started the day with the Enchanted walk, a much more lackadaisical affair, more to the point, the weather seemed to be clearing.

Onto Strahan

We were back on the road to Tullah, Rosebery, Zeehan and on to Strahan. The drive veered from picture perfect landscape to mining towns with huge holes in the round.

We attempted to do the side trip to Montezuma falls but luckily met some mad off roaders close to the entrance who were covered in mud from the top of their heads to the back of their ATVs (upscaled quad bikes – all terrain vehicles)  who advised we try and walk the 14 km  if we were interested – we weren’t. 

We were of a mind to just get to Strahan and unpack (we were still feeling the effects of Dove Lake).

As if on cue, the sun came out and Strahan came into view.  We checked into our tired but beautifully positioned river front room and then meandered across to the wharf  to pick up our cruise tickets for the next morning.  Dinner was at the Bushman's Café.  There are meals in Tasmania we will remember with such pleasure and this was one of them.  Really good, really fresh food and a dessert which featured rhubarb.  How could life be better? I found out the next morning.

Gordon River Cruise  

Our brilliant day did not get off to the most auspicious start,  Alas only one of us was listening carefully when we booked in for the cruise.  The good news is the one who wasn't listening was adamant the cruise left at 0815.  I on the other hand knew we needed to be at the wharf at 8.15 for the 8.30 departure.  One of  the things one learns all too slowly when one is married to a Taurus is when 'resistance is futile'.  Another thing one learns if one is smart is when to give in.  I am not smart and took longer than I should have done to agree to arrive at the wharf at 0800 for an imaginary 0815 departure.   Feel free to ask Lorna about it when next you see her, she was most gracious in defeat and by 0820 we were both having a brilliant time :-)

The cruise was fantastic, the weather was fantastic, the Gordon river was still and mirrored the clouds and river banks, Despite the swell being considerable less than the average 5 metres, Hells Gates [sic] were suitably hellish  (Note to Anna & Elias; the convicts who allegedly named the entrance to the treacherous entrance to the harbour, were not very good with apostrophes; I think they meant Hell's Gates).  

Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, on Sarah Island was sunny and interesting, we opted not to follow the 'shouty' guides and use the self guided tour brochure.  It stayed dry for almost all of our time on Sarah Island, except for the last few minutes after I went back on board for a comfort break abandoning Lorna, at which point the shower started.  Happily it was Lorna who had the wisdom to wear her light raincoat.

We fell in love with Strahan,  It is one of those perfect little spots in the world – totally dependent on tourists and yet the locals are geberally welcoming and it manages to not be full of kitsch, overpriced restaurants and oil based deep fryers.  For a place with not a lot to do, we would both happily spend a week there sitting watching the river, taking photos and reading, punctuated with walks, a flight over the Gordon and maybe a ride on the steam railway.

Strahan to Hobart

We started the day with a very early circuit of the Hogarth Falls walk (that wonderful little 60 short walks book yet again delivers).   The walk starts form the People's Park which probably tells you all you need to know about the early politics of Strahan.  

Hogarth Falls is reminiscent of the waterfall at Devils Glen in Wicklow and  spectacular with the high  rainfall.  (Anna & Elias, the Irish seem to be ambivalent about the use of apostrophes in place names, sometime it is written as Devil's Glen probably safest to give it its name in 'the Irish' Tiglin )  

We are also told there are platypus in the river but you know how shy platypus are.

The Strahan to Hobart leg is all about the drive across Cradle Mountain National Park  through Queenstown, Derwent Bridge, Tarraleah and Hamilton.  First stop was Queenstown, a mining moonscape and a museum with a very lonely man selling entry tickets who likes to capture visitor and talk to them about anything but the exhibits, we were lucky to escape.

On the way out of town we stopped at Iron Blow lookout, one of those lookouts with a platform out over nothing so enticing to those with vertigo.  Roger took photos from the end of the platform, Lorna got more than half way out.

Many hairpin bends, vast swathes of scenery and and a stop for lunch.

Then came two hydro-electric pipelines, more hairpin bends, an exciting time following a double B log truck chucking large lumps of bark at our windscreen and some very dusty roadworks,   We wre exhausted by the time we arrived in Hobart to find Sullivans Cover apartments had upgraded us to a three bed penthouse, the washing machine has been grinding out our washing ever since.  (Anna & Elias, whilst I am being an apostrophe pedant, given Sullivans Cove was named after John Sullivan, Permanent Under Secretary to the Colonies, it really should be called Sullivan's Cove it would probably better to give it its indigenous name if only anybody knew it.)

Conclusion

We are having a couple of lay days on Saturday and Sunday and doing day trips from Hobart for the rest of the week.  We are having a wonderful time and hope the rain stops overnight for our sake if not Steve Smith and the boys.