Down to Hobart or alternatively into Winter

Well this was the big trek to the South and for the knowledgeable visitors to this site it will be obvious that Mike went South with trepidation and Katherine looked forward to the revisiting of European weather, albeit supposedly "Summer Weather"

Well - Mike was right and in spades, we encountered hail and weather that in our bones felt like deep winter.

In fact, whilst we were in the Midlands of Tasmania on route from Burnie to Strahan there was Snow on Mount Wellington in Hobart.





This Photograph shows Queenstown in the distance from our overnight stop location.

A few hours later we were inundated with rain and similarly Queenstown which had disappeared into the clouds that enveloped us during the night.

This was Guide Falls and whilst it is difficult to see, Katherine on the left would be under water when the falls had the normal winter rains. This place was special for not only a very pleasant stop for the night but was also a place where we saw live and wild Platypus's. These animals were in a pool at top of the falls.

The volume of after under normal circumstance must be some sight.

Has we travelled South there was a number of waterfalls, this is a waterfall in the distance whilst there was a great deal water from the heavens there should have been more scenic Falls.

This section of our travels from Burnie to Strahan was strewn with cold weather and rain.

But we persevered and continued Southward.

It was not all rain though.

This was a local sight

At first we thought it was a "Dunny"

On closer inspection it turned out to be a milking parlour

as can be seen from the next sign.

This must have been some lady

No visit to Tasmania is complete without a sighting of the Tasmanian Devil.

Having seen these critters in action we realised we had heard them at night during the overnight road stops in the forests

The shrieking during the fight for food is to say the least - shocking.

A great way to dispose of a body, they eat every think including the bones


This Gullah is much more a thing of beauty and intelligence than the Tasmanian Devil, endemic to WA and ever present in Tasmania.

This is also a beautiful piece, moss growing on a rock face in the middle of Tasmania. the colours, variety and quantity have to be seen to be believed.

Also a sight to be seen to be believed.
This model policeman s dressed to perfection and has a moving arm suggesting you stop and visit the local Museum.

No real problem, except that 100 metres before this model we passed a speed trap, no problem for us but the speeding motorist following us would have had heart failure.

Some peoples view of front garden decoration is rather weird, none weirder than this on the road to Port Arthur.

Another weird vision on this road was the high tide marker (See the boats name) at one small town.

We believed them when they said this was the high tide level.

Well maybe they had a few drinks at the time.

On reaching Hobart we travelled the Derwent River and went under the massive bridge that spans the river -over a kilometre long but is quite narrow. Perhaps reflecting the fact that there are only just over 200,000 people who live in Hobart.

It is a small city.

Before leaving this part of the world,a new sight for us was the "Hop" crop.

Apparently this is quite unusual, beer is not made from the old fashion Hops any more. But here was the original source for beer!!

When the sun was shinning there was harvesting to pursue.

The blackberries collected served Mike for a few weeks.

This was the theatre at Zeehan, built in the 19Th Century for a town now of a few hundred inhabitants.

There are a large number of mines in the area but very few people.

So the theatre is just a visitors attraction, still a very nice building.

This was the sight from our bedroom window, Lake King William,

This Lake is normally one of the sources for the Tasmanian Hydro power system. Under normal circumstances this would be a huge lake but as you can see the water has gone and all that is left are the tree stumps.

Is this our future??

Having seen the worst case scenario we now come to the future.

This is the next Lake in the series.

Full and more importantly, beautiful.

There were a number of these and when the weather was fine the views were special.

When it comes to special, what about George

This is a part of the good life - he was saved from a road accident and now keeps watch on the visitors to the Tasmanian Devil park.

Within the Tasmanian wilderness there are good times as can be seen from this photograph.

Distance from Perth =4121

Distance travelled =7704

Days on the road =116 days