Seven Days with Favourite Daughter and Son-in-Law

Port Arthur family time.

The Pyromaniac's favourite occupation.

Dave in Seventh Heaven.

This is why we love them.

The Dog Line at Eaglehawk Neck designed to stop escapes from Port Arthur

This is just the start of the cold weather - thanks guys!

Dave's panorama of the Enchanted Forest

Don't stand between Katrina and a fire

Fantastic photo of the Blowhole, Bicheno.  Ray wishes he'd taken it!

This is Katrina's grumpy face at not being able to climb Cradle Mountain, and all because it was suggested that zero degrees and 30 knot winds and rain were not ideal conditions for climbing to the top of the mountain (a 5-hour walk). Our beautiful girl said it wouldn't take her 5 hours anyway - her challenge would be to do it in 3.  Sanity prevailed.

Ross Bridge, Tasmania's oldest, and Favourite Son-in-Law.

It’s been over a week since we farewelled Katrina and Dave after their short holiday in the van with us.  They had both competed in the Canberra Marathon and Half Marathon on the weekend of 15/16 March and then jetted off to Hobart to join us for a 7-day (actually 5-day when you take one day in and one day out) trek around Tasmania.  We estimate that we covered approximately 900 kilometres in that time, travelling from Port Arthur to Cradle Mountain via the east coast.

Having taken our 4 ½ ton van up and down Mt Wellington while Ingrid was with us, we decided to cheat and hire a small car to show our guests Hobart from Mt Wellington.  It’s only 20 kilometres from Hobart CBD to the top of the mountain, but the road is narrow and steep in places so we were much more comfortable (especially coming down) in the car than the motorhome!  What’s more, parking it near the Hobart waterfront was a sight easier than the van as well, so we walked around Salamanca Place and Constitution Dock before settling down at Mures for some fresh seafood.

The next morning we set out early (for us) for Port Arthur, which was on the Request List, travelling via Dunalley and its great bakery.  We dropped Katrina and Dave at Port Arthur and set up for the day in the peaceful campground only a few kilometres away, preparing to up sticks and pick up our guests when they rang at the end of the day.  However, they surprised us late in the afternoon, finding their own way back to the campground on foot and we all settled down to a roaring fire and Tasmanian wines and food.  The campground comes alive at night with wallabies and potoroos, and with blue-winged parrots and currawongs visiting for nuts late in the day.  It was noticeably cooler that night than it had been on our last visit, although we still sat outside till late in the night, enjoying our fire.

Bicheno was next on the list, 220 kilometres north of the Tasman Peninsula along the Tasman Highway (not).  We called in at Triabunna for a look-see across at Maria Island and the interesting maritime memorial on the waterfront.  The next decision was whether or not to drive to Freycinet for the walk to Wine Glass Bay, but with time being short, and having already spent enough time driving that day, the decision was to leave Wineglass Bay for another visit, so we drove on via Swansea and the great Barkmill Bakery (more pies!) to Bicheno.  There’s a great little campground there within walking distance of the Bakery/Ristorante/Ice Cream Shop/Providores, so we set up camp there for the night.  As well, we drove via The Gulch, Bicheno’s beautiful sheltered harbour, to the Blowhole (see Dave’s great picture), stopping off at the crayfisherman’s lair to order a fresh lobster for dinner.  Certainly sir, just go and amuse yourselves for 45 minutes and it’ll be cooked, cleaned and ready to eat!  Again, see photo of Dave enjoying said lobster!

Katrina and I did a quick walk late in the afternoon up to Whaler’s Lookout on a nearby hill, which gives a wonderful view up and down the coast, and the next morning she and Dave left the old people sleeping and walked the coastal path, stopping at the Bakery for coffee on the way back (without us, I might add!)  It says much for Bicheno that our guests fell in love with the place, despite not having seen it at its sparkling best, as we have.  The town was named after James Ebenezer Bicheno, the British Colonial Secretary for Van Diemen’s Land from 1843 to 1851.  However, not everything in Tasmania was named after the English (or the French); Waub’s Bay commemorates a local aboriginal woman (Wauba Debar) who was stolen from her tribe as a teenager to become a “sealer’s woman”.  Her bravery in rescuing two sealers in a storm is commemorated by a headstone above Waub’s Bay, the only aboriginal woman to be so honoured.

Leaving Bicheno early-ish the next morning, we travelled via Perth (no not WA), Longford, Campbell Town and Sheffield and then the long and winding mountain road via Gowrie Park (Prettiest Daughter will remember it well) to Cradle Mountain, where we had booked a site at the Discovery Park for 2 nights.  The camping ground there is well set out with each area being surrounded by trees, and a with a large and well equipped camp kitchen close by.  We were very glad of the kitchen and its 2 roaring log fires as we had intermittent rain for the time we were there.  We persuaded Dave and Katrina to hop the commuter bus down to the Cradle Mountain car park just for an orientation trip, as it was too late  (and too cold and rainy) to do any long walks that day.  They were the only ones on the bus, and having promised Katrina wombats, what did she see on that trip, but her first wombat, wandering across the road and holding up the bus!  They did a short walk and returned in time for dinner and communion with other walkers/families in the kitchen that night. 

Unfortunately for Katrina there was to be no walk to the top of Cradle Mountain the next day.  It was bitterly cold and with intermittent rain, so after a satisfying cooked breakfast (thanks Dave), we all set out on the National Parks bus to Ronnies Car Park, and walked the 6 kilometres or so back to the Ranger’s Hut.  It rained on and off for most of the walk, but at we were rewarded at the end of the walk with a sighting of another wombat, so it wasn’t a wasted day.  (See Dave’s wonderful panorama of one of the magic areas we walked through that day).

Our last day was spent mostly covering ground back from Cradle Mountain to Hobart, but with stops along the way to see Oatlands, the Ross Bridge (Dave’s photo once again), ending up for our last night at Treasure Island Caravan Park, just opposite MONA in Berriedale.  Our last meal together was at our favourite Mezethes Greek Restaurant at Salamanca Place.

I estimate we covered around 900 kilometres in the 5/7 days Katrina and Dave were with us, and despite 4 of us living and sleeping in our van, I don’t remember a cross word!  (Ed: Ray did put the wind up Dave a little by going the wrong way round a roundabout in Hobart but it was only a small one and  no one took a picture so Ray says it never happened.)  I’m sure our guests were delighted to be back in their own comfortable bed in Brisbane, but it was great to have them with us, and to be able to share some of our Tasmanian experiences.