Firstly, Merry Christmas to all our followers. We hope that you had a great day yesterday with family and friends. We spent the day and night with our friends Wayne and Helen at their home in White Beach near Port Arthur.
After our last post we left the Tasman Peninsula on Tuesday 4 December and headed north towards the Freycinet Peninsula. As usual, we took the road less travelled, this time along the Wietangta Forest Drive with great mountain lookouts and views to Maria Island. Though only a short drive to Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula, we took our time, staying overnight at a freedom camp at Mayfield Bay before spending four nights at a free camp just out of Coles Bay on the Swan River. Wineglass Bay on the Peninsula holds a special interest to me. Be sure to read the Wineglass Bay caption to find out why.
We then journeyed a little further north to St Marys before turning southwest towards Hobart for our 3-week house sit in the northern suburb of Brighton. It’s lovely four bedroom house on 2.5 acres (1 Ha) with a 6-year old Dalmatian, one guinea pig and five chickens. Just 22 kms north of Hobart, it’s an easy drive into town to experience some of the attractions (MONA, Salamanca, Battery Point, Sandy Bay, Museum and Art Gallery), an easy drive to some iconic regional towns (Richmond) and a great place to get some chores done on Henry and Blake. We’ve been at the house-sit for 12 days, and have just 12 more days to go before we get back on the road.
“View from the balcony” at Mayfield Bay, looking east over Great Oyster Bay to the Freycinet Peninsula.A few km north of Mayfield Bay is the Spiky Bridge. Originally called Lafarelle’s Bridge, it was constructed in the 1840s as part of the convict built road joining Swansea with Little Swanport.River and Rocks free camp near Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula. Several of the sites and connecting tracks were soft sand. Henry had to pull one motorhome out when it got itself bogged.Swan River at River and Rocks with (L to R) Mt Parsons, Mt Baudin, Mt Dove, Mt Amos and Mt Mayson in the background.Wineglass Bay, the most photographed natural feature in Tasmania. Whilst on their honeymoon in November in the early 1950s, my parents set out from Swansea with another honeymoon couple in a single-cylinder inboard motored “putt-putt” boat. The weather turned and the motor failed. They landed on Schouten Island and I think they stayed overnight. They managed to re-start the motor, only for it to fail again, and they were swept north on the eastern side of the peninsula. They managed to beach the little boat in Wineglass Bay and were able to attract the attention of a passing search plane leading to their rescue.Hazards Beach on Promise Bay on the western side of Freycinet.Fleurieu Point at the north end of Hazards Beach.Interesting rock formations at Sleepy Bay.Our campsite at Lagoons Beach near St Marys. Wind and rain on most of the three days we were there kept us out of the water“View from the balcony” at Lagoons BeachLagoons Beach.Southwest of St Marys is the little town of Fingal. There’s very few residents and businesses in Fingal, so it was a surprise to find this quaint little Post Office still in operation.St Peter’s Anglican Church, FingalTaking another road less travelled, we detoured through Mangana and Rossarden following the southern edge of the Ben Lomomd NP, where we passed the German inspired Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic ChurchOur camp at the free camp in Campbell Town in Tasmania’s Midlands.One of three spectacularly detailed tree carvings in Campbell TownThe iconic Ross bridge with the Ross Uniting Church in the background.The interior of the Ross Uniting ChurchCallington Mill, a Lincolnshire tower mill built in 1837 in Oatlands. It has recently been restored so that it is now in full working order and is the only operating mill of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the third oldest windmill in Australia. Unfortunately it and the Visitor’s Centre have been closed to the public.In 1825, William Ellis was sentenced to transportation to Van Diemans Land for 14 years after embezzling a considerable amount of money in the UK. Receiving a pardon after just 5 years, Ellis became so successful as a store keeper that he was able to commission the construction of this handsome Inn on the Midlands Highway in Kempton in 1842. Not bad for an ex-convict!!Built in 1825, the Richmond bridge is Australia’s oldest stone span bridge, just 20 km from our house sit.Nestled in the heart of the Coal River Valley, Richmond was established as an important military staging post and convict station linking Hobart with Port Arthur. The village is famous for its elegant Georgian architecture, with beautiful heritage buildings dating back as early as the 1820’sRichmondView from the upper floor of the gaoler’s residence (1833) looking down on the courtyard with the original goal building (1825) in the background. (Richmond Gaol Historic Site)Our house-sit at Brighton, north of HobartDay 3 of our house sit, and Blake receives a massage from a hail storm. Fortunately only small hail, so no damage to Blake, Henry, the house or the pets.Jack Daniels, Jack to his friends, our responsibility for 3 weeks. He’s a very friendly excitable dogCruise ships dump hundreds of tourists onto Hobart’s dockside in one hit causing some discontent with locals, and flooding the local attractions.Hampton Road, Battery Point, lined with cute colonial cottages makes it a very popular region of HobartWall art in North Hobart portrays local resident, artist and street character Cameron WilliamsMONA (Museum of Old and New Art). A private collection across 3 levels of a very modern building showcasing a strange array of sometimes enormous art installations owned by local David Walsh.One of the more smelly installations, Cloaca, in which the machine consumes a meal at one end that is processed over time as it passes through a series of tubes and flasks. The temperature-controlled machine incorporates specific digestive enzymes, added with scientific accuracy at the appropriate points throughout the process with the resulting product being faeces, discharged exactly the advertised time.We found the raw sandstone and concrete of the underground floors to be more interesting than some of the artMONAOne of the outdoor installations (MONA)
One thought on “Let’s just sit for a while”
Hi Graham & Carol,
Merry Christmas to both. I am writing this on my new computer Chris bought me for Christmas. Its a HP 14inch screen lap top.
My other present is a kitten named Picnic. That was his name so have kept it. He is 3 months old. Jasper is good with him but Sylvester isn’t.
The boys came for lunch on Sunday so we did presents then.
Had Christmas lunch at a local club with Chris’s family & then had friends over for dinner.
Damien went home this morning.
Photos are awesome as usual.
Hi Graham & Carol,
Merry Christmas to both. I am writing this on my new computer Chris bought me for Christmas. Its a HP 14inch screen lap top.
My other present is a kitten named Picnic. That was his name so have kept it. He is 3 months old. Jasper is good with him but Sylvester isn’t.
The boys came for lunch on Sunday so we did presents then.
Had Christmas lunch at a local club with Chris’s family & then had friends over for dinner.
Damien went home this morning.
Photos are awesome as usual.