Devonport Jazz and coastride - July 2014

Barb, Di and Robert had tickets for the Devonport Jazz Festival.  Barb was travelling separately, and we set off with Wanda on Friday afternoon.  It was a pleasant drive up north, with the only fly in the ointment being the predicted northern rains that started falling onto our bikes on the back.  Just before 5pm closing time we found the hardware shop in Longford and purchased a small tarpaulin which we could use to protect the bikes both from the weather and from unwanted local interest when Wanda was parked in the city of Devonport.

We arrived in Devonport at about 5.30pm and parked in an almost empty council carpark just around the corner from the Devonport Entertainment Centre.  A great location.  We wrapped the tarp around the bikes, and got changed for the theatre.  Next we needed dinner, and we found a new Asian restaurant (well, new to us) right next door to the theatre.  Barb located us and shared a wine.  We told the manager that we needed to be out of there within the hour, but somehow that message didn't get through to the chef, and we had to leave most of our main course on the plate when we left for the start of the show at 7pm.

First up was Vince Jones and his excellent band.  This was a fantastic performance from a great talent who also shared his concerns about the planet.    After the show we had wine and cheese with Barb in Wanda.

On Saturday morning we rode our bikes out to the Devonport Bluff to the Drift Cafe.

We had a table booked for a gourmet breakfast and to enjoy a jazz duo.  Barb walked back into town and Robert and I rode to the Saturday market at the Showground.  This was a fairly small affair, with only one organic producer that we could see.  This lovely art and craft building hinted at past glories:

On the other side of the showground we were delighted to find a chook show.

Next up was lunch at the Tapas Cafe, where we heard the Pete Cornelius' band, King Cake.  Unfortunately the sound was too loud and the food nothing to write home about.

Barb drove us out to the Ghost Rock Winery but we found that it was booked out.  Back at the DECC we caught the Adelaide band tribute to John Coltrane, which was excellent, and probably more enjoyable than what we had missed out on at Ghost Rock.

Next on our program was Melissa Oliveira and her band from Amsterdam, with Portuguese influences.

Back to Drift Cafe with Barb for dinner.  If there was somewhere else worth eating out at in Devonport, we hadn't found it yet.  And next morning, Robert and I had breakfast there again, after stopping to check out the view from the bluff.

While Barb headed back south, we drove to Shearwater for a bike ride organised by the Bicycle Tasmania NW group. It was great to put faces to some familiar names and to get to know Keith, Richard, Roger and Graham a bit better.  Richard took us on a 25km circuit of Shearwater. It was a very enjoyable ride, the first section on offroad coastal trail, and the middle section on fairly quiet country roads.

Farewelling our new friends, we headed Wanda towards Launceston, stopping for a picnic lunch at the Batman Hill Lookout.  The last stop was for fuel in Campbelltown.

Mountain River - July 2014

Di and Robert had plans for a wassailing weekend in the Huon Valley.  On the Saturday we had a date with Kat, Philip, Austin and Sophie at the Huon Mid Winter Feast at Willie Smith's cider shed.  It would be good to ride our bikes there, as there was no parking at the site.  

It was a lovely sunny day when we arrived at Misty Hill Rd.  Sophie was still suffering severe jet lag from her flight from Europe the day before and her riding legs were quite out of condition.  But she was up for a ride, so we jumped on our bikes and enjoyed the mostly downhill ride along Mountain River Rd and the short stretch of highway to the cider barn.  

The place was buzzing, with people in pagan mid winter kit all over the place, kids dancing around the maypole, music, an Argentian bbq and lots of food and drink stalls.  The MONA event organisers were doing a great job.

Kat and Philip had got a head start on us and could recommend some good first choices.  The food and mulled wine were great. We enjoyed the best mid winter costume competition, and then watched the huge bonfire being lit.

While there was still good light on the road, we rode back to Mountain River, this time the ride was mostly slightly uphill (!).  After a lovely dinner and more wine, we fell into bed in Wanda.

The morning news was full of the airline disaster in the Ukraine, but the crisp winter morning was beautiful.

All too soon we were heading home again, to get some Sunday tasks done.

Lake Catagunya - April 2014

Anzac Day was on a Friday, and another long weekend beckoned.  The grand plan was to take Wanda away for a couple of nights and then rendezvous on the Sunday morning with our walking group for the Mt Field East walk.
First problem, we found the engine battery was so flat that we couldn't open the electric doors.  We got a nice man from RACT roadside assistance to visit, check it out and charge it up for us. Lucky we'd upgraded our roadside cover to include Wanda! All this took some time, so we ate the lunch we'd prepared to have on the road on the kitchen table while all this was taking place.  We didn't get underway until 2pm.

After the obligatory stop for fuel and tyre checks, we hit the Lyell Highway (A1) and headed towards the west coast.  At 3pm, we toyed with the idea of camping at Hamilton, on the camping ground down by the river, but decided to keep going.  Our "Free Camping in Australia" book showed a couple of opportunities up towards the old Hydro town of Wayatinah.  About 21 km past Ouse, we found the turnoff (C604) to Lake Catagunya.  This road was unsealed but pretty sound  and we followed the directions towards the boat ramp. We found a quiet camping area (no facilities) right on the edge of the placid little lake.  No-one else was around and it was already 3.45pm, so we placed Wanda in the best position, right on the lakeside, and set up our chairs to enjoy the view.

Of course, ten minutes later another motorhome (quite like Wanda) appeared.  They had a little dog and a dinghy and seemed to be quite familiar with the place.  They set out fishing, no doubt to get trout for dinner.

 Robert made a yummy chicken curry for our dinner, and we enjoyed some old movies on TV.  There was no ABC TV reception here!  Sacre bleu.  Later Robert watched the footie and Di finished 'The Maneaters of Tsavo', stirring tales of dangerous maneating lions which attacked the workers building the rail line from Mobasa to Nairobi. There was light rain overnight, and more in the morning.

Next morning another mob turned up with a tinnie and tried some fishing.  We set off, planning to camp at Mt Field, but we took a short diversion first to have a look at Wayatinah. The camping ground there is quite large and busy, and the old town very quiet. Soon we noticed that the house battery was making odd clicking noises and was not recharging as it should from the car battery. After watching it for a while, we decided it would be foolhardy to try camping overnight again, as the battery would not support our heater, and it was going to snow.  Best to go home instead.

On the way, we diverted onto C608 to look at Meadowbank Lake and check out the camping facilities there.  The lake is pretty, but 1km past the lake the campground next to the toilets at the top of the rise is pretty stark.  The road from there down to the campground at lake level looked a bit too rough for Wanda, although the camping area itself looked reasonably quiet and attractive.

We continued on towards Ellendale which looked pretty and quiet, this would be a good spot for tourists to stay before enjoying Mt Field and, possibly in the future, the Derwent Valley Rail Trail.  We tried out a little road up to the right, looking for a spot to see platypus in the creek.  No luck.  Ellendale is just under Mt Field East, where we would be walking the very next day.

The weather was still low and drizzly when we arrived in New Norfolk, good weather for visiting antique shops.  So we discovered the Drill Hall and a couple of its lesser neighbours.  Di was looking out for a wall cupboard to hide the new NBN boxes in, but couldn't find just the right thing.

From there, it was a short trip home.

The investigation of the house battery's clicking noise led to Wanda receiving a set of solar panels, which would help to keep the battery charged up when we enjoyed "free camping".

Lake Pedder - March 2014

It was the Labour Day long weekend, so a good chance to get away.  Several friends had talked about their recent visits to Lake Pedder, and we realised we had not been down that way for a very long time.

We set out on Sunday 9 March.  It was an hour to the Mt Field Visitor Centre, where we bought a Mt Wedge Tasmap and asked whether it would be safe to take Wanda on the Scotts Peak Road.  The response was reassuring, so we set off in high spirits.

We stopped to enjoy the view at the Tim Shea lookout, and then stopped for lunch at the Wedge River picnic area.  This is a quiet little spot, sitting just under the Sentinel Range, next to the pretty little Wedge River which trickles away hidden inside the bush.

More photos were called for when we first reached the new Lake Pedder, at the Hermit Basin, with the Frankland Range in the far distance.

We passed the old hydro town of Strathgordon, and popped up the hill to the Serpentine Lookout.  This little hill has great views down the Serpentine Reach towards where the original Lake Pedder still lies submerged under the larger current Lake Pedder.

We drove on to visit the enormous Gordon Dam, which was a great engineering achievement in its time.

The water levels in Lake Gordon were quite low, some 5 metres below the maximum level.

We walked down the many steps and all the way around the top of the dam.  It is all very large!

Climbing back up to the road, we drove back to the Serpentine Lookout, where we parked for the night.  At one stage we thought we were going to have to share the carpark with some motorbike tourers, but they decided the ground would be softer down on the lawns of the village.

There was a curious incident with a camera.  After several cars had been and gone, Robert noticed an expensive camera sitting on the tarmac.  He picked it up and moved it to a safer place.  An hour or so later, one of the motor bikes came back, and the rider started looking anxiously around.  He was pretty amazed (and grateful) to find his camera there still!

It was very peaceful on the lookout hill, we felt very privileged to have it all to ourselves.  The views from the bedroom window towards the morning's sunrise the next morning were magnificent.

After a quiet breakfast on Monday morning, we drove back along the Pedder road, and turned right onto the unsealed Scotts Peak Road.  We had been worried that this road would be difficult for Wanda, but it was well maintained and no problem at all.   Our first stop was the magical little creatures wilderness trail, obviously built by hobbits.

We passed the challenging Mt Anne and Mt Eliza on the left, there were quite a few fit looking walking parties heading up there.  We kept motoring to the Scotts Peak Dam.

The water is beautiful and clear, with the colour of the tannins. The white and pink stones of the beach are very collectable.

We drove to the lookout hill, and spent some time gazing over the area where the real Lake Pedder is submerged, and also scanning the southern mountain ranges towards the South Coast track.

Finally dragging ourselves away, we headed homewards.