Saturday, Oct 10th, Derwent Bridge

Greetings!

If Tasmania is described as looking from space like a big heart, then we’re about center left (where the right atrium meets the right ventricle).  The town is called Derwent Bridge, and it’s famous for three things: the end of the 65-kilometer overland trail across Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park from Ronnie Creek (where we were yesterday); the home of Greg Duncan, whose “Wall” of sculpted wooden carvings is becoming a huge tourist attraction; and the site of Tasmania’s oldest rocks (1.45 billion years along Lyell Road). 

We’re spending the night at 14785 Lyell Road at the Derwent Bridge Cottages, earlier today met hikers finishing the trek while we had ice cream at the National Park headquarters, and just got back from Greg Duncan’s amazing studio. 

Building over a decade his 100-meter long, three-meter high, Huon pine tribute to the people and industries which contributed to the area’s history, Duncan has redefined wood-carving to present DaVinci-quality figures, tools, and materials. 

Here is a link to he photos we took today.
Saturday, Oct 10th, Derwent Bridge.

Thursday, Oct 8th, Deloraine

Greetings!

Tasmania takes much more than a week to see.  Nevertheless, our travel hopes were to see as much of the coast, mountains, and major tourist attractions as possible.  We've visited the area around Hobart, and the coast north of it.  As we head out to the rest, we've chosen to circle the major mountain range in the middle of the island.  The rest of the coast is probably beautiful, but the roads leading to them are  isolated and mostly long arteries.

Today, we followed the trail to the "cute" towns which were founded by sheep ranchers in the early 1800's.  We even drove over a bridge built by ten of them, and supervised by a robber sentenced to death, who became a successful businessman in the town.

The successful sheep ranchers came from England as free men, petitioned the government after a few years here to acquire huge tracts of land, and then contracted convict labor in the 1830's to build the structures.

One family, the Archers, has lived on the Woolmer and Brickendom estates for seven generations. Unlike other tourist destination historic estates, all of the furnishings within are original belonging to the family.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow photographs inside, because the tables, chairs, porcelin, and art rivals any great estate we have visited in England.  The buildings, however, are almost 200 years old, and are pretty good for unpaid day laborers.

Here is a link to the photos we took today.
Thursday, Oct 8th, Deloraine

Wednesday, Oct 7th, Port Arthur

Greetings!

Long before Britain deported 166,000 convicts to Australia, did you know that she sent 80,000 to America?   While visiting the Port Arthur Historic Site yesterday, where the first separate juvenile incarceration program was established, we learned that until the American Revolution, ships sailed with human cargo to her closest mercantile port.   We'll investigate more about how they were used, and what became of them.

At Port Arthur, British penal program design was developed from 1828 to 1853, and rehabilitation became the key component which began to dominate its future.  For the first time, children were housed and supervised on a small facility across the bay away from adults.  Deportees as young as nine (think Dicken's Artful Dodger) were held there.  Adults were classified, segregated, trained in skills, and employed in timber (boat-building) and mining projects.  The islands were full of some of the tallest trees in the world, first-growth mountain ash.

Today, we head north to Swansea in a four-day swing around this beautiful island.  Here are the photos we took at Port Arthur yesterday.
Wednesday, Oct 7th, Port Arthur

And the photos we took along the eastern coast today.
Wednesday, Oct 7th, Swansea

Tomorrow, we head inland, in search by Saturday, for the world's tallest tree.

Monday Night, Oct 5th, Hobart

Greetings!

“Nature, history, art, and culture – all in one day”, said Pat while we had dinner at a small café tonight.  We had been to the top of Mt Wellington in the morning, to the Cascade Female Factory around noon, and the Museum of Old and New Art in the late afternoon.  All of them the providing premier experiences in three-hour bites.  

Mt Wellington is one hell of a rock, towering above the landscape.  From its peak, you can see snow-capped peaks 150 kilometers away.  You can also be blown off your feet, and required to hold on tight to anything bolted down.  The 22-kilometer, narrow windy road which climbs up from town, gives no indication of either the power of the views or the strength of the winds.  Both leave you breathless.

The Cascade Female Factory Site in South Hobart helped 25,000 British women criminal deportees during the period from 1828 to 1853 become convinced they should work for Tasmanian farmers, merchants, and mine owners.  Today, we visited the facility in which they were imprisoned, and learned more about who they were, and how they were convinced.
Three cheers to Judith and Chris Cornish of Live History Productions, who played all of the characters in the re-enactment within the walls.  Their talents brought the whole thing to life. 

Finally, we descended three stories into a solid rock hill below a winery owned by a professional gambler who developed a system used to bet on horse-racing and other sports.  Sinking (literally) $75 million into one of Australia’s most popular tourist attraction, and the largest private museum in the country, he admits it was mostly to relieve his guilt for having done nothing he felt was valuable.  Located on the Berriedale peninsula in South Hobart, David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art(MONA) is full of the most surprising, and moderately outrageous, art I’ve ever seen.  Pat and I raised our eyebrows quite a few times as we moved throughout.  What we did like, however, was the information tool given to visitors to access content about each piece of art.  A modified cell phone using blue tooth, it not only brings all the relevant photos, video, and text about all art within your vicinity, but charts you access and movement in an online 3D schematic, providing data on all objects in the museum.    

Here is a link to the photos we took today.

Monday, Oct 5th, Hobart

Monday, Oct 5th, Hobart, Tasmania

Greetings!

I can't think of anytime in the last few years when someone said to me, "I'm going to Tasmania".   Now that we're here, I can't think of why a visit here shouldn't be seriously on our bucket lists.   And Australia next door isn't too bad either.

We flew in last night, picked up a little Hyundai, and are staying in the capital (Hobart) until tomorrow.  Our hotel is on the main Sandy Bay Road, and we'll use the bus to visit sights downtown today.  Tomorrow, we begin a five- day circle route around the island.  I'm hoping we can find this 327-foot Mountain Ash.

Here are a few photos we took on our way to dinner down by the wharf last night.  I had the restaurant's signature fish chowder, and Pat had scallops and fries.

Sunday, Oct 4th, Hobart

Friday, Oct 2nd, Geelong

Greetings!

Today, I think Pat really began to understand the beauty of surfing.  We stopped by several spots along the Great Ocean Highway, including world-famous Bell's Beach, and I heard her comment "Good ride!" as she watched through her binoculars as surfers tried to get the most out of a six-foot swell rolling into town on a beautiful day.   I've appreciated how much she cares about what surfing means to me, but today I think it started meaning something to her too.

Arriving early in Geelong, our last stop before we fly to Tasmania on Sunday, we drove to their Botanical Gardens while our hotel room was being cleaned.  One of the first trees we saw were their Dawn and Giant Redwoods.

Planted in 1873, the Giant Sequoia came from central California.  The Dawn is endemic, and Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve actually got ours from here.

I have probably over-used the word "great" in these posts, but it is never more appropriate than when used to describe the coastal highway we just completed.  Constructed by returning WWI vets in a major public works project, it was dedicated by them to their fallen comrades, and is called the largest military memorial in the world.  It's compares with California's Highway 1 along the coast near Big Sur.  Except it's got major surf spots that are accessible.  The county is even called Surf Coast Shire.  And koalas sit in the trees just above the road.  It's awesome.

Here is a link to the photos we took today.
Friday, Oct 2nd, Geelong.

Thursday, Oct 1st, Apollo Bay

Greetings!

Do you know what the tallest flowering plant, and hardwood tree, in the world is?  Or where it is?

Australian Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus Regnans), in Tasmania is 327 feet.  This one's a little shorter in Mait's Rest Rainforest, Victoria.

But, you say, this doesn't look like a rainforest?  Lower your gaze.  A remnant of Godwana, this stretch of Australian coast has the perfect conditions to also support Australian Tree Ferns. Pre-dating the dinosaurs, the variations of this early earth resident are the source of most of our present-day oil.

The Twelve Apostles are broken coastal limestone stacks (there is really only eight) nearby that must hold the record for most appearances in the background of selfies.

Finally, we found the elusive Echidna.  We were checking out a surf spot, and happened to look down on the cliff below us.  It gets my vote for the cutest Australian.

Here is a link to the photos taken today.
Thursday, Oct 1st, Apollo Bay.