The Long Farewell

The one Favourite Daughter complained about not being included in the last blog - Anvers breakfast of course!

The Harbour at Stanley with the Nut behind

Emergency Assembly Area at Montagu campground; luckily it wasn't needed because that was our campsite.

Stormy morning clouds and sunrise from Montagu campsite

Cliffs near Cape Grim

Cape Grim Weather Station in the distance

Last walk on beautiful Boat Harbour at low tide

Last breakfast, Anvers

And here is one last shot for all those who don't believe "Carbon Dockside" is not increasing.  It is on the wall at Cape Grim and shows an increase from 330 to 390 since 1975.  Makes you think.

Sunrise/Moonset from Longford

Well, here we are at the end of our Tassie adventure. 

Each place we visit now is for the last time; not being maudlin, but there’s so little time and so many places in this world still to visit. 

Knowing that our time here was coming to an end, we decided that we needed to revisit some of our favourite places, so from New Norfolk, where the van had a complete clean out, we headed to Hamilton to taste once again the excellent scallop pies produced by the only Bakery in town.  No-one thought to check that it would be open on Anzac Day weekend, (No!) but to add insult to injury, the whole bakery had been closed for renovation!  However, my twitcher soul was rewarded with the sight of 2 wedgetailed eagles soaring over the hillside near our campsite, so Hamilton will be a special place for us for more than scallop pies.

Another "last" was the Anzac Day weekend market at Evandale for more of the wonderful Cox’s Orange Pippin apples we bought there several weeks ago.  Alas, they were all bought out in the first 3 weeks – too late, my love – so we settled for a large bag of Pink Ladies, small and delicious, straight off the trees.  With any luck we'll still get fresh apples in Victoria and South Australia, but tasting the wonderful variety of fresh apples which are grown here entirely spoils one for Woolies "fresh"!

We’re congratulating ourselves on the foresight of leaving our return booking on Spirit till 1st May, as Autumn has started with a rush here, and all the trees are turning beautiful shades of red and yellow.  

We visited some of the Highland Lakes last week and woke two mornings to light snow - very exciting indeed.  Hadn’t realized how cold it was outside until our usually quiet and well behaved diesel heater started revving up in the middle of the night, desperately trying to keep the inside temp at its usual 20. Why did we not find the Arthur Lake Pumphouse Campsite before this?  $2 per person per night, pit toilet and 2 showers, a most congenial camp manager, a beautiful lake, and a bonus of snow!

We headed down a very steep and winding mountain from the Lakes to Longford (thanks Tilford for the new brake pads).  Longford is a very pretty little town with all facilities (including the ubiquitous Bakery).  I headed for the ANZ ATM which is situated just outside Woolworths in the main street, only to find a blackened charred hole in the wall.  Evidently it was blown up only the week before – the Thursday night before Easter.  No money to be had here but no doubt much to-do in Longford the night it all happened.

The one thing we hadn't yet seen was Cape Grim on the north western tip of the coast.  I've always been intrigued by the name, and discovered that yet again it was named by Matthew Flinders on 7th December 1798 as he sailed from the east in the Norfolk, confirming for the first time that Van Dieman's Land was separate from the Australian mainland.  It is the location of the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, established in 1976 and operated by CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, and provides vital information about changes to the atmospheric composition of the Southern Hemisphere (and coincidentally has the cleanest air in the world).  The next land mass to Cape Grim is the southern tip of Argentina! 

Finding that the land was privately owned we had to settle for a half day Woolnorth tour, which took us into the wind farm with morning tea at the Director's Lodge which has uninterrupted views of the coastline and outlying islands.  The wind farm itself is fascinating, and generates approximately 12% of Tasmania's residential power needs from 37 x 1.75 MW wind towers on Bluff Point and 25 x 3 MW towers at Studland Bay. 

We drove back to Stanley for another "last" night and woke to grey skies and high winds, a bookend to our first night here way back in September, when we had to shelter under the Nut.  This time Godfrey's Beach was kinder and we spent a rainy day reading and lazing, watching the waves and the utterly mad local surfers, who were all out in their wetsuits looking for good waves.

Off to Boat Harbour for a "last" night before the Bass Strait crossing Thursday night, and mercy be, all the caravans and motorhomes which had been there had magically disappeared.  It's been noticeable over the last couple of weeks that tourists are once again thin on the ground, so, bad for Tassie but great for us!  The only downside to still being here after the Anzac Day weekend is that so many of the shops and cafes close down too, as if suddenly there was no-one else left in the universe!  We thought we might have a "last" Valhalla ice cream at Stanley, but to our horror, all the ice cream tubs were empty - and the shop assistant simply shrugged as if to say "Well, what do you expect?"

This morning dawned sunny and clear, if a tad cold, so we took our farewell of Boat Harbour and headed for Ulverstone where we restocked the fridge with Tassie produce, did heaps of washing at the Launderomat (sic) and found the best little cafe ever (forget what I said about everyone closing).  It's called 32 Cups and both our lunches (and coffees) were not only reasonably priced, but mouth-wateringly delicious.  Fancy finding such a place on our last day; Tassie truly is a gourmet's Paradise (provided you don't expect much after Anzac Day!!!)

So, here we are, sitting in line at the Spirit of Tasmania, with 2 hours to boarding, and looking forward to continuing our Turning Left Tour - only this time we turn left at Melbourne and head west.  New roads, new adventures.

Thank you Tassie and Tasmanians for the warm welcome you extend to all, and your friendly people.