Hurrah, a weekend with no engagements in our diaries! We grabbed the opportunity with both hands, packing up Wanda early on Friday and by 5.30pm we were leaving the city. Our plan was Mt Gnomon on the Saturday and the Don rail trail on the Sunday.
With Robert pressing the pedal to the metal, it wasn't long before we exited the highway at Melton Mowbray (the hotel is for sale!). Once off the highway the roads are really pretty, and there is little traffic. We loved the drive on the A5 through the farmlands and along the Highland Lakes Road. We were making a return visit to the pleasant little campground at
Pumphouse Bay on Arthur's Lake, and we arrived without any fuss by 7pm. The campsite was just as nice as last time, although a little more crowded, probably as it is the tail end of the school holidays right now.
Now that I get a senior's concession (how did that happen?), our overnight stay cost the princely sum of $2 - what a bargain. Sadly the temperature started falling rapidly, and before long our neighbours without large comfy vans like Wanda were looking a bit stoic as they hugged their fires. We enjoyed a cosy evening, free of electronic entertainment. There was no TV or phone signal - this seems to be a good way to get an early night!
It was windy and wet overnight, and in the morning we woke to see mist and constant drizzle. The nice young family near us who were camping in a tent took refuge in their car for breakfast, and it wasn't long before our other neighbours who were effectively living outside a small van had packed up and gone home. We enjoyed eggs and ham for breakfast and headed north on the B51 through the Great Lakes Conservation Area and the pretty Great Western Tiers Conservation Area. Descending from the high plateau to the farmlands below, we emerged from the cloud and drizzle into clear skies, leaving the bad weather of the south of the state well behind us for the rest of the weekend.
The pipes of the Poatina power station dropping down the Tiers, and the precise stepping down of the tailrace at the bottom, were impressive. We admired the contrast between the wild beauty of the highlands and the technical magnificence of the power generation facility.
We chose country backroads to pootle our way towards Deloraine (C515, C514...). Just before Cluan we came across a marker for the
Great Country Ride bicycle touring route. In Deloraine, we parked and checked out the town centre. We found that the Deli has moved up the hill, to a larger and more stylish setting. There is an excellent art and craft shop at the lower end of the street, with beautiful silk wall hangings and good quality Tasmaniana.
Then it was time to motor on to
Mt Gnomon Farm Restaurant, up the hill from Penguin. Here Eliza Wood and Guy Robertson have recently expanded their excellent pig and rare breeds farm to add a new butchery and a small restaurant. We were greeted by the hugely talented Eliza, who happened to be doing double duty as the chef that day, and the enthusiastic
wwoofers who were helping out in the restaurant. The restaurant has great potential and it will be lovely when final touches like landscaping are completed. We enjoyed the Amazing Platter, which featured Mt Gnomon's pork and beef, and cheeses from the Red Cow dairy. It was huge and yummy.
We had been planning to climb Mt Gnomon after lunch, and it was lucky that we asked Eliza for her advice on the best route, as she advised a nearby route which was shorter and quicker than the one we had in mind. We had been planning to approach Mt Gnomon via Mt Dial from the northern end, which would have been a much longer walk. A little bloated with good food and wine, we continued up Ironcliffe Rd and immediately entered the Mt Dial Nature Recreation Area.
Soon we were parking at the start of the walk to Mt Gnomon. There are several other options from here, including a Tall Trees walk. Our walk took about an hour and 10 minutes, described in my Walk a Month blog.
Next we needed to find somewhere to camp for the night. We were a bit torn - do we choose somewhere beautiful and quiet, or do we make sure we can watch the Socceroos play South Korea in the final of the Asia Pacific Cup tonight? As a possible solution, we checked out the caravan park in Penguin, but baulked at the sight of it (caravan city). We instantly turned around and headed south to Riana, to find the park which had been praised in our Free Camping book.
Pioneer Park was everything the book claimed for it, and we gratefully settled into a powered site on the grass in a pleasant park where there were more trees than caravans (yay!). However we soon discovered to our chagrin that not only was there no TV signal, there was also no radio and no phone/internet signal!
As the hours went by tension in Wanda rose as it also emerged that the state election in Queensland was turning out to be amazing. We were monitoring progress via occasional tweets that would squeeze through the ether at random intervals. It turned out that there were some signals at the other end of the park, and we watched others wandering over there with their phones through the evening, but there were no powered sites there. I guess we weren't that desperate (shameless) as to actually move house once we'd settled in. So it was another early night for us!
Early next morning our morning cup of tea was OFF when Robert discovered that the gas bottle was empty. And our backup gas bottle was in the boot, inaccessible right now as we had our bikes already loaded on the back ready to go. So it was an unexpectedly early departure, into the beautiful morning sun and the golden fields of Riana. We made a beeline for Devonport, where we were planning to ride (and there was a TV signal!).
We parked next to the Foreshore pathway, unloaded the bikes and bikerack, and retrieved the spare gas bottle. Hurrah! Breakfast in the sunshine and plenty of lowdown on the Queensland election, courtesy of ABC24 and The Insiders. The foreshore track was quite busy with walkers, riders, dog walkers and runners. Our bikes and the bikerack attracted a fair bit of interest from many of them.
Next on our agenda was a ride around the Don River rail trail. I tried out my new Rideye camera. The offroad shared pathway is lovely, with much of it filtering through teatree forest and including a lovely little bridge over the river. We rode the loop, which took us about an hour, stopping for the odd photo opportunity.
It was time to head for home. We drove south down the west bank of the Mersey River, watching the riverside bikepath until it disappeared. At Railton, we located the Seven Sheds brewery and had a little taste of their wares, buying some beers to take home.
At Deloraine, we parked on the east side of the river bank and had a picnic lunch - very nice. A quiet forty winks at the leafy park in Longford was a good idea, as we were both getting a bit sleepy. And then it was a simple drive down the A1 to home.
