Doin the Lap

Well it’s been a while since our last update and so much has happened. I have to start by saying it’s Matt writing this time and you may notice some difference in the quality. Maybe I should have spent more time listening to Miss Molloy about constructing sentences and less time hassling her out about her underarm hair. RIP Molly

We had been looking forward to getting to Launceston for two reasons.
1- Matts Aunty Anita and Uncle Alan live there.
2- Shays Mum Lee was coming to visit us.
We spent a few days in Longford just outside of Launceston doing some electrical repairs and making the table into a bed for the upcoming visit from Lee.

We organised to meet my Aunty Anita and Uncle Alan for lunch at their place. It was so nice catching up with them with just the four us and Lucas. Although we do see them once or twice a year when they come to Perth at Christmas time, we have never really had the chance to sit down and just have a chat. Aunty Anita made us the most amazing coronation chicken on a bed of salad and we sat and talk about all things Tassie and more. We got some hot tips on places to go and things to see. Lucas loved the fact he could crawl on the carpet, a privilege he had not had for at least 2 months.

Well it’s fair to say we were pretty excited picking Lee up from the airport. Lucas was straight in her arms and was as happy as us to see her. We headed straight out to the Bay of Fires. Lee was trying her hardest to stay awake and take in the beautiful country side and rain forests but finally cercombe to the all night flight and spent the next hour snoring. We stopped at a dairy farm that had some cheese tasting and the like. The self-milking cows were pretty amazing. When they felt the need they would make their way across the paddock, press the button at the gate and walk right up to the machine that hooked on to the nipples and milked away. When they were done they could hit another big button on the way out that would start a rotating brush to give them a little scratch.

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The next two weeks we went up the Tamar and visited places like Grindelwald (a swiss village), Exeter, Beauty Point (watched a sailing race from the pub deck) and greens beach. We loved the Beaconsfield mine museum probably because we were surprised it was so good. We also had a coffee with the battery family -Andrew, Alicia and Chelsea, Hannah and Claire. The battery family is our nickname for them not only because they are double AA (Andrew and Alicia) but because they have so much energy. Traveling with 3 kids around Australia with a pop up and seeing just about everything they possibly can and still have time to watch movies or read books and that’s not to mention frequent blog updates.

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We then headed to the northwest and found some great free camps. On the far northwest coast we went to a place called Arthur River. There is a lookout there called the edge of the world and you really get the feeling that you were a long way from anywhere. It had a really mystical feeling about it. To the west of Tasmania is the longest expanse of Open Ocean in the world. I can’t explain what that looked like but somehow it looked like ‘the edge of the world’.

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We made our way back to Davenport stoping at Stanley for a few days. Stanley is a picture perfect town full of history and amazing views from the ‘nut’. I was hell bent on catching a fish while in Tassie and was sure it would be at Stanley Warf. Not to be…
Back in Devonport and back in line for the ferry. We waited at the docks for 3 and a half hours passed our boarding time in a full blown storm. Shay and Lucas slept in the caravan and once the line stated moving I had no choice but to go. I had shay on the phone and it’s fair to say we were all shitting ourself. We had lightning and the heaviest rain we had since arriving in Tassie. Great night to cross the bass NOT …..4 metre seas had the huge ship heaving and riding up and crushing over each wave. It was so noisy it felt like we were sleeping in the engine room.
We were glad to get off the other side.

This is on a calm day

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We will hopefully post from Melbourne to Sydney soon so keep posted.

It was so cold when we visited Port Arthur. In the morning, at Matts request, we walked the Cape Raoul track to Shipsterns Bluff. Jumpers, beanies, rain jackets and all. After 40 minute walk through ferns, forest, over a log bridge and up a rocky path, we finally made it to the lookout. It was extremely high up on a pretty narrow ledge and the wind was howling. The whole way there we were expecting to see this….

But instead we were rewarded with this…..

Matt was a little disappointed given the hype we had heard about the spot and considering he carried Lucas in his arms under his rain jacket for the whole trek there and back. But we can now say we’ve been there.

It was a little bit the same at Port Arthur. We froze our butts off and were in and out of drizzling rain for the whole 4 hours we were there. Even the guide (in his big boots, scarf and dry-as-a-bone) commented on the extremely cold weather.
I had no idea just how big a place it was. Not having done too much research (Matt does most of that) I was expecting to see not much more than a jetty and a prison, but it’s an entire village. Or at least what is left of one. It covers over 90 acres and has everything from the prison, solitary cells and church to the little civilians cottages that surrounded the prison.

The prison operated from 1833 to 1877 (I think that’s right) and it was the destination for the hardest of convicted British and Irish criminals as well as juvenile convicts, some as young as nine years old. The 30m wide Eaglehawk Neck was the only connection to the mainland. This small section was fenced and guarded by soldiers, man traps and half-starved dogs.

Due to fire damage and sheer age most of main buildings are not much more than ruins. They have under gone a lot of resteration work at Port Arthur an it some how lost some of it’s feeling to the point where the solitary cells (where a lot of mental abuse went on sending many to the asylum ) actually felt peaceful and church like.

We then camped for a couple of nights at Friendly beaches just out of Coles Bay where Matt caught some long awaited waves. Just a bummer the swell happed to hit on a Saturday along with 20 other locals.

Lucas enjoyed all the wallaby’s coming by breakfast, lunch and dinner too. On the last day we did the walk to wineglass bay beach. Such a beautiful spot. I did feel sorry for Matt carrying Lucas for nearly 3 hours on his back up and down steep rocky paths. I was struggling at times just with a backpack.

We’ve now spent the last couple of days eating (at Bicheno’s yummy café), drinking (at Iron House Brewery – Four Mile Point) and sleeping leaving me feeling like I need to do another 3 Wineglass Bay walks just to break even.
Well we’re off to Launceston tomorrow to get the caravan in order ‘cos MUMS COMIN TO TASSIE….Yay!!!! Then back to the East coast so we can all explore Bay of Fires together. So excited!!!

To all our fans and followers (hehehe) our apologies for not keeping the blog up to date. We have been hitting the free camp spots hard and although they usually come with awesome beach/mountain/forest locations there are a couple of little things we have to go without. Hot showers and flushing toilets being the main ones but also a lack of power and reception, hence the delayed updates and lack of contact with family and friends. So I’ll fill you in on what we have been up to the last couple of weeks….here goes!

Matt and I aren't ones for hanging around a city for long but Hobart is so cute! Hobart is the second oldest city in Australia and with a population of only 200,000 (to put it into perspective there are 1.7 million in perth metro and 500,000 people in the whole of Tasmania) it really makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. That is until you visit MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), the largest privately funded museum in Australia. What an unlikely place for such a unique, controversial museum. Brenda had told us we must go and see it, so we found a caravan park walking distance and strolled on over.

As you enter the building and, whilst inside a glass lift, descend down 3 floors to the basement, you are instantly captivated. The lighting is dim and the walls are lined with concrete and stone giving you the feeling you are descending straight through the earth. We first came to a single light globe with a heartbeat monitor below. As you hold the handles of the heart beat monitor the light globe starts to light up and flash at the beat of your heart. The next person to follow does the same as you have done and your heart beat moves to a line of light globes hanging from the ceiling and down a corridor. As you follow the line of globes it leads you into the “Pulse Room”. A black room filled with light globes hanging from the ceiling and all beating in time to a different persons heart beat. It’s spun out to think that you are standing there looking at the heart beats of nearly every single person in the building.

There are lots of explicit paintings, pictures and sculptures and very morbid displays of art. Even though the walls and ceilings are many meters high, the lighting and confronting imagery give you a real sense of claustrophobia. We came to a room with a massive tv screen and beanbags on the floor so we took Lucas out of the pram to sit down and just chill out for a while. The music was quite relaxing and the imagery on the screen appeared to have been taken from under a microscope. As we watched we tried to work out what it actually was we were seeing. It the suddenly struck us….we were watching a movie of blackheads being squeezed one after the other!!!! I think the only thing that drove Matt to look through the entire museum was the Moo brew brewery that is attached. It was definitely and eye opening experience and a must for anyone visiting Tasmania. I think it may have won best Australian tourist attraction last week.

Whilst in Hobart we visited the Cadbury factory (had more excitement buying chocolates at Woolworths!) and Salamanca Place. Unfortunately we weren’t there for the Saturday markets (We heard they were a must) but we did go for a wonder through the old buildings and stop for lunch at Cargo where we ate the BEST pizza’s EVER!!!! Sorry Embers but these pizza’s were the bomb. We had a seafood and a chicken tandoori and both Matt and I could not decide which one was better….mmmm….I wish I could have just one more slice )).

From Hobart we headed as far South as we could possibly go – towards Cockle Bay. Found a nice little possie right on the beach, lit the camp fire and whilst I picked and ate wild raspberries, Lucas picked and ate wild wallaby poo. Well we think that’s what he ate anyway!

After spending the night in Recherche Bay we headed back up the coast through Geeveston (bacon and egg stop) to the Tahune Air Walk. A bridge/pathway built high up in the tree tops overlooking the Huon river. Not to dissimilar to the Walpole tree top walk for those familiar. After completing the main walk Lucas and Matt headed back to the caravan for lunch and continued on the walk to the two swinging bridges. I hadn’t read anything about the extended walk so when I got to the first bridge I was just slightly nervous. The base was not much wider than my feet and it was suspended by cables over a fast flowing rocky river. It wasn’t until I got to the middle and the whole thing started to bounce and swing that I secretly shat my daks so your lucky I even took this photo!

We camped the night at Gordon (along the D’Entrecasteaux channel) with the intention of jumping on a ferry with the caravan to Bruny Island in the morning. That night we had the worst weather since landing in Tassie, plus it didn’t help that we were in the most uprotected spot possible. We parked the caravan under the beautiful shady gumtrees (real smart for falling branches) with a nice ocean view. Just before dark a family of 3 rocked up with a tent right on the waters edge. The weather didn’t hit til later that night and at 4am I looked out of my window and they were gone. I felt so sorry for them. Our caravan ha been shaking in the wind all night and there was a river of water running right under where there tent had been. Poor buggers.

The weather wasn’t much better in the morning, so after some quick banana pancakes we headed to Richmond, the oldest existing town in Tasmania. We did a couple of wine tastings at the local winery and went for a walk through the oldest, still intact, gaol in Australia (It predates the penal colony at Port Arthur by five years).

We contemplated leaving Lucas to learn a few hard lessons……

But then decided he was just too darn cute......He definitely gets his looks from his mothers side

Next destination- Port Arthur

Well there is definitely a lot more than the bas straight separating Tasmania from the rest of Australia. What a stunning diverse land. So green and mountainous with the most beautiful forests, lakes and waterfalls. We were only booked to stay in Tassie for three and a half weeks but we have loved it so much we have extended our stay by an extra four weeks!

We brought the car and caravan over on the night ferry and after waiting on the docks for over 2 hours (the boat arrived 2hrs late) all we wanted to do when we got on board was go to sleep. We had 2 bunk beds and a mini fold out cot in our cabin and about enough floor space for 2 backpacks. You certainly wouldn't want to be claustrophobic. At 2am, being the true sailors daughter-in-law that I am, i made the most of having our own ensuite and spew bags. I never knew you could actually get seasick whilst sleeping. In the morning i woke up to the wake up call over the speakers and matt handing me a fresh hot coffee. What a great husband i have. Lucas was so spun out. He was just laying in the cot not making a peep and looking very confused. He could touch all 4 sides of the cot at once (he's used to a single bed), see mum and dad peering over the side of the cot and this strange lady's voice making all these announcements.

The first town we went through was Sheffield - the town of murals. Nearly every shop wall and building has been painted with amazing life size murals depicting the towns history. 

We stopped for a coffee in a quirky little cafe and then headed to our first tassie camp spot. Matt was so excited to have an entire lake to himself that he was skinny dipping within an hour of setting up camp. By far our best camp spot to date . 

The next morning we headed to cradle mountain.  We did the 6km walk around dove lake and it was so so cold. Poor Lucas' little cheeks were so pink for the cold wind. The temperature difference from where we were camped to the far side of the lake was amazing. 

Mackintosh lake was our next stop where we caught up with a family we had met in Melbourne. Andrew and Alecia, along with their 3 girls, Chelsea (4), Hannah (2) and Claire (10 months) are on the last leg of their around oz trip having left from New South Wales last year. I thought we were doing well starting our travels with a 6 month old, Claire was 8 weeks old when they left!! We had a couple of drinks around the camp fire and woke up with slightly sore heads in the morning. Alecia showed us how to make some pretty awesome damper on the fire. Add a lashing of butter and cover with golden syrup....hey presto....instant hangover cure!

The following night we camped at ocean beach. It felt like we were home again watching the sun set over the ocean.

In the morning we headed back into Strahan for a boat cruise down the Gordon River. It was a beautiful 30 degree day and I didn't get seasick once! We stopped off at Sarah island, Tasmania's oldest convict settlement (1822-1833), where we were entertained by one of the most colorful tour guides we have ever had. She knew her history and loved her job making the whole experience so enjoyable. In fact, she told the story of the island so well Matt bought and is reading the book 'for the term of his natural life'. 

Making our way to Hobart we did a couple of short walks through the lush forest, 

checked out some of the waterfalls at Nelson falls 

and tried to spot a platypus at platypus lake (Lake St Claire). We didn't have any luck with spotting a platypus but I did nearly trip over an echidna. The poor little think was so scared from my scream (Matt thought I'd done my knee) it was trying to nuzzle under the moss. I didn't realize how little and fluffy they are. I just wanted to pat it but Matt didnt think that was a very good idea!

Welcome to Victoria- Where the roads are narrow and potholed, the sky is grey and every day comes with a chance of rain!
No, just kidding. It has been beautiful but I think we've definitely had our fair share of cold weather now. God I'm such a grizzle guts. It's too hot, it's too cold. Poor Matt, no wonder he's got grey's in his beard .

Every stop we have made along this Great Ocean Road has been as beautiful as we thought it would be. The Bays and limestone cliffs are amazing. I must say Port Campbell is definitely up there as one of my favourite spots so far. Our camp spot backed right onto the creek and it was less than a 5 minute walk along the sand to the beach. It is only a small beach but it did look so amazing the way it was engulfed by the massive limestone cliffs. The day we got there the swell was massive and there were guys jumping off the jetty with boogie boards and riding the waves under the jetty- Crazy!!! I'm surprised they didn't get hammered if you saw how close to the reef and rocks they were. Then the following day was so calm there was hardly a ripple in the bay, perfect for swimming and snorkelling.

We spent an afternoon visiting all the tourist spots- London Bridge, Bay of Islands etc. but the one I thought was most special was the 12 apostles. We had seen them once before with Ben and Nici and there was practically as many flies as there were people. This time we decided to go as early as we possibly could (within reason). Lucas woke up at about 6.30am and we jumped straight in the car. Other than a couple of 'wicked' campervans the carpark was empty so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was quite overcast but after sitting on the walkway looking out over the ocean a break came in the clouds and the sun shone straight out onto the 12 apostles lighting them up beautifully. It was the one morning I was happy Lucas had woken up early.

Apollo Bay was our next stop and we had 180 degree views of the ocean from our caravan. Nearly every day Matt slipped on his wetsuit and walked 2 minutes down to the beach for a surf. While Lucas was sleeping I could just sit at the caravan and watch him in the water. Not that the swell was anything to rave about. Far from it. I think Mother Nature turned the swell off as soon as we left WA. Matt got some awesome waves at Johanna (possibly one of the best rides he ever) but other than that there has been absolutely nothing. He has gone out searching for something today (thirteenth beach) as it's one of the best days we have had in over a fortnight (swellnet gave today a whopping 2 stars..woohoo!!). Fingers crossed he gets a couple of good rides.

From Apollo Bay we drove about 30 minutes along the winding and slightly scary Great Ocean Road (they make the roads so narrow and when your towing a caravan it's a little bit nerve racking) to Wye River. Here we nabbed another great camp spot backing straight onto the river. Lucas loved watching all the ducks waddling under his feet. We met a couple from Melbourne at the Wye River tavern and had a great night drinking red wine with Ben and Suiegn. Ben donned a pretty good beard so he and Matt struck it off straight away. Suiegn's dad had given them a box of well-aged red's from his cellar to drink on their travels and after 6 bottles of wine and 4 beers Matt and I struggled to piece the night together. There were a few quick dashes to the loos the follow morning and Matt kindly fed the ducks in the river his previous night's dinner. Thank god Lucas was an absolute angel that day, full of smiles and not a single winge or whine.

As we had been to Lorne before, (only briefly mind you) we decided to head that little bit further to Anglesea where we are now. We picked this caravan park just for Lucas. It's in the top 10 caravan parks for kids nationwide and I'm sure Lucas will agree with the ratings. As well as a heated swimming pool, giant bouncy cushion, gym, spa, games room, movie room and multiple play grounds it has a massive toddler room specifically for kids under 5 years. After spending nearly every morning and the odd afternoon in there, within a week, Lucas is now up and crawling around...yay!!! Looks like we're going to have to grow eyes in the back of our heads from now on.

Off to Melbourne tomorrow for 3 nights and then we are on the boat to Tassie....YAY!!!! I'm really looking forward to Tasmania. It looks so beautiful with all its lush forests and waterfalls. I'm just a little nervous about being on the go every day, the cold weather and free camping but I'm sure we'll all get the hang of it.