Esperance

25th- 28th Feb, 10.
WOW! What magnificent beaches?!?!?!
So many white sandy beaches with aqua water and gentle waves.
Salmon Beach, Twilight Beach and West Beach...



We went for a drive to Cape Le Grand National Park and found more gorgeous beaches.
Our car was christened on the beach for the first time at Lucky Bay (and no it didn't get wet).



We went for an extraordinary hike up Frenchman's Cape, a mountain with an apparent 'gentle slope'????



But we really enjoyed the challenge and the view from the top (but not nessarily the wind!). I just love this photo of Daniel, sitting at the top, deep in thought...



Below the wharf in Esperance lives a resident sea lion named Sammy, who waits around to be fed fish by the fisherman and eagerly poses for photos everyday. Sometimes there are other sea lions also. They were amazing!

The Nullabor

23rd-25th Feb, 10.
We left Adelaide and headed up the coast towards Port Augusta. We stopped in at Port Germein and walked along the longest jetty in South Australia (possibly Australia), over 1.5km long...



Once we hit Port Augusta we travelled west along the Eyre Highway and that night we stopped in near Streaky Bay for a sleep. The next morning the kids sat beside the bay for a couple of hours and completed some school work. Then we hit the road for the rest of the day. We stopped at the 'Head of The Great Australian Bight'...



The water was so blue and the sand dunes were massive and white as snow to the east of the head and then there were cliffs up to 90m high to the west of the head of the bight.




I always thought the Nullabor was further inland, however since planning this trip I discovered that most of the way you are driving parallel to the coast only several km away. At one point the cliffs in S.A., near the W.A. border, are within 100m from the highway.

The kids got out of the car at the Quarantine Inspection Station on the S.A./W.A. border and jumped from S.A. into W.A. and back again over and over...



The landscape was barren and harsh, mostly with small dry shrubs along a flat plain. At times there were a few trees but it went back to the shrub plains, for hours and hours....



Finally on the third day we hit Norseman, the end of the Eyre Highway and we travelled south to Esperance.

Border to Adelaide

20-22 Feb, 2010
We well and truely knew it when we crossed the border... although there was no obvious sign, the landscape changed dramatically. We went from the winding mountainous roads of Victoria's south coast to the flat open plains, where to the left you could see 25km to the sand dunes on the coast and to the right you could see as far as the eyes could see!


We camped overnight at 'The Granites' on the beach near Kingston SE. We had a gorgeous view of the calm beach and made it in time to have a drink and watch the sun go down...


We went for an afternoon drive into the heart of Adelaide and have spent some time completing school work, buying groceries and doing odd jobs - we are now ready for the next part of the adventure... Bring it on!

The Great Ocean Road

18th - 20th Feb, 2010.
Well this is a pic of our rig on the Great Ocean Road...



The drive along this stretch of road was beautiful. We found a lovely free camp spot at Johanna Beach, where we stayed for two nights.
We went to the Otway Fly in the Cape Otway National Park, where you get to walk in the canopy of the rainforest...



We also went for a bush walk to Triplet Falls. We completed some school work and rewarded ourselves with a play on the beach.

When we left our campsite, we completed the rest of the Great Ocean Road, stopping at many famous sites along the way. This is us at 'The 12 Apostles'...



This is 'London Bridge'...



And this is the kids at 'The Grotto'.


We really enjoyed the drive and the sights!

Sorrento to Torquay

15th Feb, 2010.
We caught 'The Spirit of Tasmania' back to the mainland. We did the day trip back and spent a good chunk of the day completing some of the kids school work.

16th and 17th Feb, 2010.
Drove to Sorrento and caught the ferry across to Queesncliff. We drove from there to Torquay Foreshore Caravan Park. The Back Beach at Torquay was beautiful with a red headland. We were laying in the sun while the kids played in the sand.... in the background for the shooting of a scene for Summer Bay Heights????



Then the Bells went to Bells Beach.

Cradle Mountain

11th - 14th Feb, 10.
We left Strahan and we drove to our new "free" campground near Cradle Mountain - Lake Gairdner.

We went to Mole Creek Caves and again checked out the lovely decorations and the glow worms - which actually aren't worms at all but insects and it is their poo which glows in the dark!?!?! So we went and checked out their poo!

That evening we went to "Devils @ Cradle" - a privately owned business which informs small groups about the threat to Tasmanian Devils which has contributed to a 70% decline in their numbers in the past 12 years and their 'endangered' status - this is Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), which is a contagious fatal mutation. We managed to pat a devil, watch them interact with each other, watch them react to a live wallaby nearby (potentially dinner) and being fed.

The biggest highlight about Tassie has always been that ellusive "Cradle Mountain Summit Hike" and finally the day arrived.... and it was raining... so off to the rangers office we went. The ranger brought up the local weather forecast on the internet and told us the weather was going to clear and all would be fine!
So off on the hike we went...

We walked through a rainforest and beside "Crater Falls"..


We continued down the track to Crater Lake...

This shows how miserable the weather was, but we continued.

We climber higher...


And higher...


Then the summit was near...


The climb to the top was very difficult...


We got to a stage where the boulders were larger than us so the kids and I decided that we had gone as far as we could, but Rod continued on... he stood at the top and admired the 20metres of thick cloud. It's not the destination - (as they say on Biggest Loser)it's the journey!

Oh well - we have to go back and do it again on a fine day - anyone want to join us?

Gordon River - Strahan

10th Feb, 10.

This morning we boarded the "World Heritage Cruise" catamaran at 9am and intially we headed through the Macquarie Heads (aptly named Hell's Gates" - by the convicts in the early 1800's) into the Southern Ocean.



We then head back through the heads and cruised down the Gordon River and stopped at Sarah Island where we joined a tour. We were informed about the convict penal colony there between 1822 and 1833, which was "turned from hell on earth into one of the largest ship building yards in Australia".

We were then offered a scrumptious buffet lunch containing fresh salads, cold meats and of course locally grown smoked salmon, mmmmm!


After an informative cruise further along the Gordon River we stopped for a boardwalk stroll through "Heritage Landing", a part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which contains some Huon Pine trees which are over 2000 years old - older than Christianity itself!!!


When we disembarked from the boat we looked through a local saw mill, where some local huon pine was being sawn and you could purchase some samples to take home.
An informative day which left you with great respect for the importance of World Heritage Areas to share with our future generations.

Lake St Clair

6th - 9th Feb, 10.
We spent the past few days at Cynthia Bay Campground, which is in the south of the Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park.

We went on our most difficult hike yet - to the summit of Mt Rufus. Although it was a 15km hike, it took us 5.5 hours not including the 30 mins we spent admiring the view from the top. It was a very steep climb, partly on the open ridge of the mountain - the view was amazing...



The kids bounced back with no worries... but once Rod and I took our boots and socks off we were ready to go to sleep!

The next day we all slept in until about 10am and rewarded ourselves with bacon and eggs for brekky. We spent the day catching up on the kids school work, we set up a work station by Lake St Clair and once again was visited by Australian wildlife...



That evening we walked 2km to Platypus Bay and we watched and waited very quietly for a very long time and managed to see a platypus swimming near the shore - although you couldn't see very much of it, you could see it's bill gliding along the top of the water as it swam around. We hope to get a closer look some day, so we can post a beaut pic on our blog.

We then travelled through the wild west - "Queenstown" and found our next base at Strahan, on Tassie's west coast.

Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs

5th Feb, 10.
Today we went for a tour through a cave at Hastings, it was beautifully decorated with heaps of stalictites and staligmites...


We then went swimming in the thermal springs water which is collected in a pool and is a constant 28c. Today is the coolest day we have had in Tassie yet, so a quick swim was had and then a warm shower before dressing back into our warm clothes!!!

We ate lunch and then went for a bush walk beside a creek in search for the local platypuses, but didn't find any.

Bruny Island

1st Feb, 10.
We travelled by Ferry from Kettering to Bruny Island and found ourselves a lovely free camp at the Neck Campground, right on the beach.


2nd Feb, 10.
Today we went on an unforgettable Bruny Island Cruise, leaving from Adventure Bay and travelling south to The Friars.

This is called The Monument...


We saw several amazing sea caves...


This bunch of small islands are called The Friars and is where the Australian Fur Seals call home...


Strike a pose...


I'd rather be this one...


We stopped to watch an albatross, they walk on the water before flying away gracefully...
>

We also had Bottlenose Dolphins chasing the waves of our boat.

That night we walked up the beach a few km to the Penguin Rookery, where we watched the Little Penguins (also known as Fairy Penguins)retreat into the dunes after a busy day chasing their feed.


Undoubtedly one of the best days ever!

3rd Feb, 10.
We were so exhausted from one busy day after another, that we decided to spend the day hanging out at camp... doing very little.

4th Feb, 10.
We went for a bushwalk at the southern area of Bruny Island and then drove to Cape Bruny Lighthouse which was Australia's second lighthouse ever built.


Then we headed back to the main island of Tas and drove south to Dover.

Port Arthur

31st Jan, 10.
We took a trip to Port Arthur which holds some early history of the Australian Convict Story.
In 1833 Port Arthur became a punishment station for convicts that were repeat offenders from all Australian colonies. By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived there. Transportation to Van Diemen's Land ended in 1853 and eventually the penal settlement closed in 1877.

This is a photo of the penitentiary - which was formerly the flourmill and granary.
It was converted to have 136 separate cells on the bottom two floors. This building and many others were gutted by fires in 1897.


This photo was taken from the harbour cruise in Carnarvon Bay. In the centre of the photo is the hospital - it contained wards for 80 convict patients.


This is the church, the grounds look so peaceful during the day....


But at night, it looks very eerie...

We attended the Historic Ghost Tour after dark. It began at 9pm and we were led by lanterns. The setting was perfect... as we began our tour, thunder could be heard!!! The kids found the stories somewhat frightening, but they enjoyed the experience.

Hobart

29th Jan, 10.
We arrived in Hobart and our very first trip was to the Cadbury Factory...Yummy!


30th Jan, 10.
We went to the famous Salamanca Markets, the vibe was great! We had a nice relaxing day shopping and walking around the wharf.