February 15th to 19th.

Monday 15^th February.

            The weather has turned quite nasty with high winds and rain so we decided to stay put at our overnight camp spot until lunch time. We then packed up and proceeded to Peter & Keri’s place which was only about 20 km’s away.

We located their house without any trouble and parked the motor-home in their backyard. Their house in on 2 acres but they also lease an adjoining paddock of similar size for extra space for their 4 miniature horses and a donkey.   

They also have a pig, a dozen or so ducks and two young boxer dogs.

Our arrival there was greeted with great excitement by the boxers as apparently they do not have a lot of exposure to visitors. They jumped all over Gail & I in sheer delight for at least ½ an hour. We had a walk around the property when it was time to feed all the animals. Ironically they have not had rain for months consequently everything is bone dry and their paddocks are looking very sad. However shortly after we arrived so did the rain, so we are now considered to be a good omen.

We had a very nice dinner with them and their daughter Sara who by now had arrived home. Roast Tasmanian lamb and a Greek salad went down very well with a nice glass of red wine.

We sat around the dinner table chatting for ages until it was time to retire to the motorhome for the night. It rained almost all through the night much to Peter’s delight who advised us that they had received 18 mm in the last 14 hours.

Tuesday 16^th February.

            We departed Adventure Bay around 10:00 am and drove directly to the Ferry on the north Island, a distance of around 35 km. The ferry takes 20 minutes to make the crossing to Kettering. We joined the Southern Outlet freeway at Kingston which made for a much quicker trip into Hobart.

A brief stop at the Showgrounds to refill water tanks, use the dump point for our grey and black water as well as depositing our accumulated rubbish in a bin. Note that there is no garbage collection on Bruny Island. An hotel employee at Alonnah had previously told us that they have to pay per bag to have their garbage picked up by a contractor and transported by ferry across to Kettering.

Our departure from Hobart was via the Bowen bridge at Glenorchy then via Risdon Vale, to Richmond where we stopped for lunch. Continuing on via Campania we joined Highway 1, the Midland Highway to Oatlands.

After parking the motor-home in the free camping area we walked around the small town of Oatlands. A combined Bakery, Café and Hotel lured us in for a coffee.

This establishment is quite unique in that it has a theme of old Errol Flynn and Marilyn Munro movies throughout. Every room (including the ladies and gent’s toilets) within the building is lined with memorabilia relating to all the films that these two Hollywood actors ever made.

Errol Flynn was born in Tasmania at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Hobart, the very same hospital as our own Rodney James was born. Flynn made a total of 53 movies in his acting career.

It is still quite windy and cold so we made a hasty retreat to the comfort of the motor-home.

Wednesday 17^th February.

            Prior to departure from our overnight camp I went for a walk to the adjoining flour mill complex and information centre. The very large windmill was and still is there for the sole purpose of providing the motive force to grind grain into flour production. The Callington Flour Mill was built in 1837 and today forms part of a cottage industry providing specialty flour to bakeries in Hobart and Launceston.

They also package by hand small quantities in 1 kg brown paper bags for retail sales through the adjoining information centre.

The lake where we were camped beside known as Lake Dulverton extends for about 1.75 km’s to the east and is largely covered by weeds. Interesting to note that over 100 years ago a local farmer devised a “Hydro glider” with a two blade propeller and armed with cutting blades enabled him to cut the masses of “weeds” in the lake.

The prevailing winds then deposited them on his property to the east, where they were used as fodder for fattening cattle. It is claimed they resulted in a 50% increase in milk supply.

We then moved on along the Midland highway to Ross where we walked around the town. Ross founded as a garrison in 1812, is a picturesque Georgian village with a wealth of convict associations and a rich pastoral and military history. The unique convict built Ross Bridge with its intriguing carvings is a must visit feature for photos.

A further 12 km to the north is the town of Campbell Town where we are staying in the free camping area beside a quaint little creek and dam.

Tasmania are certainly catering for the self-contained touring vehicles by providing a great number of RV friendly towns and locations.

Due to our relatively early arrival in Campbell Town we took the opportunity to set up our clothes line and catch up with some washing.

Blackberry bushes line the creek so we picked a large bowl full which Gail then stewed. For dinner we simply had a big bowl of these delicious blackberries combined with stewed apples (which we had picked a day or so back in the parking area in Richmond) and Greek yoghurt. There is nothing as enjoyable as fruit which has been hand-picked from beside the roadway, then cooked and eaten fresh, which was certainly the case here.

The last few days it has been quite windy, consequently our washing dried very quickly.

Thursday 18^th February.

            Today we travelled from Campbell Town to Launceston via the Symmons Plains car racing circuit which is where the V8 Supercars race in Tasmania.

The total distance from Campbell Town to Launceston is only 66 km’s. We are continually amazed how small Tasmania really is compared to travelling in say Queensland. Because of these relatively short travel days we find we arrive at our destination by mid-afternoon or earlier even taking time to do sight-seeing excursions along the way.

Upon reaching Launceston we first located our overnight camp area, “Old Mac’s Farm” in the suburb of Norwood. Although quite close to the CBD it is far enough away to have to drive the motor-home into the city. “Old Mac’s Farm” is an interesting location with fresh water lakes surrounding the camping areas and plenty of level grassed sites available. We discovered at least 100 other caravans and motor-homes upon our arrival. We selected a site which gave us easy access in and out as we plan to now drive to Aurora Stadium. The couple parked next to us advised that the caretaker generally came around each afternoon to collect the camping fee of $10.

This couple, Bob & Denise we found in conversation are very good friends of Don & Jan from the Shores. It certainly is a small world.

We placed our “Site Occupied” sign in the middle of our campsite and proceeded to Aurora Stadium which is adjacent to the CBD.

Why are we going to Aurora Stadium you may well ask?

Well, tonight Carlton are playing Hawthorn in the first round of the NAB Cup, so this visit was a definite must as far as we were concerned.

After parking early afternoon in the Aurora Stadium parking area we walked the short distance to the Launceston Showgrounds first so we have our bearings for the Ulysses AGM which is being held there from February 29^th.

We then walked into town, located the Esk (Boag’s) Brewery which we plan to visit for the factory tour in a week or so while we are at the Ulysses AGM.

Then back to the Stadium, purchased our reserved seating ticks ($25 each) and entered the stadium 2 hours before start of play. Considering that Carlton finished at the bottom of the table last footy season and Hawthorn were Premiers, Carlton acquitted themselves very well in a low scoring game. The final margin was only 23 points in Hawthorn’s favour. Gail thoroughly enjoyed the night game.

Another coincidence; the couple sitting next to us from Victoria are very close friends of Claire’s sister Marg’s daughter Pauline who live in Koondarook.

At the conclusion of the game we returned to the motor-home in the car-park and waited patiently for the bulk of the traffic to disperse before we drove back to “Old Mac’s Farm” for the night.

Friday 19^th February.

            As we now have 8 days before we need to be back in Launceston for the Ulysses AGM we decided to drive direct from Launceston to Stanley on the far north west coast, and from there slowly work our way the 220 km’s back to Launceston, camping along the way at interesting locations.

A bit of shopping at Woolworths, top up with diesel and we were on our way.

Upon arrival at Stanley (and The Nut) we discovered that the camping area on the recreational ground was temporarily closed to the public and fully occupied with tents for the fire fighters who are still battling with the fires in the north west of Tasmania.

Stanley is really a satellite of nearby Smithton and therefore devoid of shops apart from a small general store. We saw a few caravans and a motor-home parked towards the end the Esplanade right on the rocky shoreline so figured it would be alright for us to also prop there for the night.

Being Friday, we had our own Happy Hour of Mersey cheese, biscuits, red wine and a beer or two.