The Wild Wild West

 After meeting up with Tom and Amy at Hamilton, Dave and I set off in the morning towards the west coast which has been described to us as very windy with horrible roads and constantly wet. Honestly we weren't looking forward to it. Travelling along the highway we pasted many of National Parks with amazing walk usually ending in a water fall and lookout galore. One exciting thing we saw was a town distant marker. Later down the track...we came across one that was 'weak'.....I won’t say the rest.

Queenstown is historically known as the mining town with a big arse steep decline into the town, troopy was in 2^nd gear going very, very slow. This was the gateway town to the westerly town of Strahan where the famous Gordon River Cruise left from. Thinking we were lucky to have contacts with the local caravan park in Strahan, thinking we would get a night uber cheap it still costs us $20. Sigh, it wasn’t really worth the money and to add to the ‘sigh’ there was a free RV site in town for FREE.  On our budget any money saved gives us more time on the road.

The next morning the Gordon River Cruise left at 9am where we would have a full day on the river getting off at Sarah Island which is known for its harsh convict settlement/penitentiary. The guided tour lady chose Dave to be an actor and told a story of a popular convict who was found with cigars and port. The convict wanted the attention from others when he was punished so he streaked around the whole settlement. After that he was declared to be the first streaker in Australia. Remind you much of Dave and the South East Cape. The cruise also stopped at the world heritage forest where the longest living tree in Australia is. I guess 3,000 years is pretty old. Along with that we also gorged ourselves on the full buffet lunch (including Tasmanian Salmon) to the point of being sick. The fuller we are the less likely we’d be needing dinner. That night we moved onto Rosebury because of the shit weather but moving north didn’t do much at all. We ended up staying at dodgevile caravan park for $15. I still can’t understand why we did that.  

This is me beyond full walking through the world heritage forest. Felt like a stitch in the stomach and the only way I could deal with it was for me to bend over like an old lady. The other one shows that I am normal.

Constantly checking the weather, Saturday was expected to be a nice day so we drove onto Cradle Mountain hoping to see it without cloud. Apparently it’s covered over 70% of time. We drove into the visitor centre which was 10km from the actual mountain to check up on some things and found out that we HAD to get a shuttle to and from. Despite the advice we quickly drove down towards the mountain but stopped short by a car getting confused by a boom gate. We saw 1 car coming through so I was pushing Dave to overtake the confused car so we could get though the boom gate. In the rear mirror that car other wasn’t allowed through. There is a system, as one car comes out another one can go through. Oh yeah, being an arsehole pays off. We ended up having lunch with the WHOLE view of Cradle Mountain which is very rare... in the car park. Walking around Lake Dove allowed us to take up all the views of the lake and the surrounding mountains which were absolutely beautiful.

We cheated the system again that night, arriving late at Black River Campground and leaving early. All that to save $5, sometimes I don’t think it’s worth it.

All better - back to normal

During the few days spare while the troopy was getting fixed Dave and I decided to take advantage of the V6 magna to go up Mt Wellington. Instead of taking an hour in the 3.5t vehicle in 2^nd gear it only took 15minutes in an automatic...we forget what ‘power’ feels like. On a clear day the mountain looks out to the whole of Hobart, Bruny Island, and the far ranges and luckily that afternoon we were spoilt with a beautiful day, rainbow, and snow on the very top. It was extremely windy but hey...snow fights were still a must in the middle of summer.

Finally our car had been fixed with complete success. It was the starter motor that was the issue and thankfully now we can call her ‘reliable’ again. After $400 we set off towards the western side of Tassie heading firstly to Mt field National Park which is known as the oldest NP and having some of the tallest trees in Tasmania.

That night we stayed at Hamilton Common and amazingly bumped into Tom and Amy on their way to Launceston to meet up with Amy’s mum. Whenever we magically meet up it’s always a recipe for good food and good company. I should mention more of Amy’s amazing cooking including chocolate mud pudding, dumplings, and last night apple and black berry crumble (apples were free from the tree near the campground and the blue berry’s are free everywhere in Tas – there like a weed). This is all cooked using a Cob which is a small oven that heats up by coals. This girl should be rewarded with a medal, the amount of great cooking she does with limited equipment in the fricken bush. 

Troopy brokdead down

Major problem early in the morning; the ‘reliable’ troopy took 3 attempts to start when we were leaving the south east cape campground. Both Dave and I looked at each other and said “oh shit”. A major recalculation on our travels made us take refuge in Hobart waiting until Monday for a mechanic to be open. To add to the frustration, once we arrived at the caravan park we ended up having the worst sites choosing either a site with low lying trees (our roof top tent wouldn’t fit) or one with a torrent of water....hmm which one. Lucky one level caravan site freed up but as we started setting up it started pissing down with rain. They say everything comes in 3’s. There was a silver lining... Amy and Tom changed their plans to surprise us and put a  great big smile on our faces and mainly making us get out of bed. We strolled down to the pub to have a few drinks mainly get out of the gusting wind, freezing rain, and for Dave to cheer on the Brisbane ROAR. That night the wind reached 70km gusts which makes sleeping impossible when you’re on top of an already high vehicle in a tent! It was a horrible night; it would be absolute silent then a roar from the wind far in distance. The wind would come past like a freight train hitting the side of the car rocking it and blowing the tent like nothing before.

The next morning was similar to the night, knowing that we just couldn’t sit in the tent all day we drove into town with Tom and Amy finding something to do. We found Mona Museum of Old and New Art that had free admission. Dave and I are still finding words to describe what we saw for example: there were collections on beastality, male and female genitalia, Egyptian relics, and mechanical light things. Anyway, that consumed most of the day. The wind and rain kept up again all night along with a chilli 7 degrees.

Monday morning was a drastic change from the weekend waking up to SNOW on top of Mt Wellington with perfect skys. 

Back to life...the car took 4 attempts to start. We ‘broke’ down just 200m from the best diesel mechanic in Hobart (what a coincidence J) from there they  suggested many problems but thanks to our friend Colin and my dad many of the possible problems were eliminated. So after a few hours we found out it was the started motor which would take a full day to fix so Dave being ‘the man’ organised with RACT a hire car and accommodation for 2 days. Being under 25ys we would have to pay an age excess of $30 per day for a new Toyota Corolla so we declined and went for Bretts car rental..hmmm ended up with a 1998 Mitsubishi Magna. Our accommodation was a standard budget room as anyone would expect but it does have an unlimited hot shower without a water saving device, a heater, and a TV we can watch from our bed! Couldn’t really complain. 

First white pointer

We met this lovely couple Tim and Nat from Canberra and their troopy who are touring around Australia. Dave and I find it’s a lot nicer travelling with others, not to say that we are getting sick of each other but more for the extra company and if we do go 4wd we’ve always got someone else for help. We organised to camp together at the southermost point of Australia (go figure) mainly so we could get a photo with the most ‘southern’ everything ranging from the pub, roads, and walks. The pub was pretty basic which was to be expected considering the 50km drive away from nothing, the road was gravel considering the 50km drive away from nothing, and the walk..well was about 4 hours through nothing. But at the end of the walk the view was spectacular..............

Yes, yes, David was so keen on creating a first he went starkus on the southernmost beach in Australia. So he is now officially the first person to be nude on the most southern point of our continent. After some crowning photo opportunities through the cold windy rain from Antarctica unbeknown to us there was a young group of female adventures who came over the cliff hills just as Dave had finished putting on this leg thermals.  What a sight that would have been for them! OMG! (Tim also did it as well – not gay)

Main land Tassie to Bruny Island

Today was dedicated to the Salamanca Markets in Hobart CBD. Think of the west end markets except ten times bigger and less of the fruit and vegie part... i guess. Dave and I gorged ourselves on free tastings including wine, cheese, and fudge but the best part was the variety of fresh sea food and different cuisines. Our lunch menu was tempura mushrooms with soy and sweet chilli sauce, passionfruit fudge, and a mix basket of sea food baked and fried. It was a lovely day in the park with so much food. We may have spent over our budget today but it was worth it!

On the other side of the pier there was the annual wooden boat festival which was quite interesting including ships from the main land like the young endeavour, Melbourne Enterprise, few war ships, and hundreds of small wooden boats. We saw a multi-million dollar boat that was for sale with a sign “ask for tour”, I moved on and with my back turned and Dave was already on the boat getting a tour from the skipper. Again, you never know until you ask. That boat had 8 beds, 2 toilets, a massive lounge room with TV plasmas everywhere, the best kitchen ever, and a massive lounge/sun baking bed out the front. We were so amazed by the sheer volume of the boat we forgot to take photos. We stayed at Treasure Island Caravan Park for another night.

Bruny Island was our next destination which is located just south of Hobart which has about the same land mass size as Singapore but only has a few permanent people living on the island. The island reminds me of the Whitsundays; the water is crystal clear and extremely calm, the sand is white and squeaky, and plus it has a gorgeous mountain range around the bays. The only thing that gives it away is the fog in between the mountains. We arrived into the town of Ketting to get the barge over to Bruny around 12:03pm, I wasn’t sure of schedule so i looked it up and saw the ferry left at 12:05pm. I don’t think the troopy has worked so hard in its life. We were going crazy around the corners trying not to run anything over and made it within a minute of leaving; last one on. 15 minutes later we arrive on the banks of Bruny. We wondered the island for a while looking at set up near the south tip of the island. There was one problem though; in the process of finding a site to pull up in Dave may have made a mistake.  The video will tell the story.

Haha troppy’s first (possibly second) accident and it wasn’t my fault...all Davids! (I have to add before we left I did drive backwards into a roof gutter, oops) But to put the focus back onto Dave, that night he also broke our 1^st plate with a can of diced Tomatoes. Apparently the plates we bought are supposed to be unbreakable but it didn’t say invincible to tomatoes.

Valentine’s Day today! Dave had organised the Pennicott Wilderness Journey of Bruny Island for us which was a small 40 passenger speed boat with a massive 900 horse power that takes you on a 3 hour journey around the eastern southern end of the island. We left the jetty around 11am with 30 others in the boat and cruised out to the middle of the bay. We were given full length completely waterproof red jackets for the wet/cold winds, Blackmores grounded up ginger root tablets for travel sickness, and sunscreen (the little touches). We travelled through caves, saw 200 meter sheer cliff faces, passed through a fricken small gap between the cliffs, and got soaking wet by the Breathing Rock. The best bit was near the southern tip of the island where we got real close to the Australian Fur Seal. Some were in the water with one fin out of the water almost waving hello, others were fighting over the best lying position, but mostly they were sleeping. It was an amazing experience. Because Dave and I were sitting right at the front by ourselves we were able to get extremely close to some of them, it felt like an arms length. On our way back to the bay we came across a pod of dolphins. We spun around and followed them along the shore. To show how close we were Dave and I were leaning over the bow of the boat to see them swimming in front and got sprayed with water from there blow hole. By the end my cheeks were so sore from the constant smiling.  I could not have thought of a more beautiful, amazing day in my life. I know mum was up there smiling too.

After that exhausting day, we roamed the country side looking for something to do. We found it. The funniest number plate I’ll ever find yet. All I’ll say is: It’s the Tasmanians embracing THEIR local culture.

 I couldn’t stop laughing.

We cheated the rangers again for a night in a National Park on the south end of Bruny Island. The bay where we stayed was calm and very relaxing. One hard thing I’m finding with Tasmania is the sun is very ‘sharp’ as you only need to out there for 5 minutes and you start feeling the burning sensation, it’s got something to do with our location to the ozone layer. My tan is no longer L as I’m always rugged up to the T. That night Dave caught a massive Flathead around midnight, and had home made pizza's for dinner which were epic awesome!

From the Beginning

Here we are again. So far so good. We start the journey from the blog at a place called Freycinet National Park.  National Parks in Tasmania are worth while to anyone travelling down here, they are full of long walks, scenery thats to die for, and wildlife galore. Oh, and for the men out there...the fishing is pretty good too!
Here is a photo of Dave and Tom with there catch of the day; 5 estuary cod's. He was so excited! I could see it in his face once i saw him coming over the hill. Apparently they are really good fighting fish; even as they were filleting them they were still jumping around. This is the life.... fresh fish for dinner, a cold beer in hand, and a beautiful sunset over the bay. We have been so lucky here with the weather as everyone on the main land said it's be raining 4 out of the 5 weeks. On days of no rain you can appreciate everything your doing and the places you go.


 I'll also add a little video of our day to day driving experiences. It isn't much but it shows our life ha.

Tom and Amy are great travelling buddies if I can call them that. Their got all the gadgets that show them every road possible, so most of our drives involve some sort of 4WD'ing (shortcutting I guess). Only annoying bit is we end up getting all the mud and dirt from theirs onto ours. 

The biggest highlight of the day was me having a shower. Finally, a caravan park with power and a clean hot shower. It has been 5 days without a shower and after that long its starting to affect how I hug Dave :P I had a 20 minute shower and it was fricken GOLD!

Today was all about history. Port Arthur Historical Site and the Convict era in Tas. We had a full day of walking tours, a boat cruise etc. Mucking around was a definate too, we were all trying to scare each other in the haunted houses. We were debating whether or not to go on the ghost tour of the jail but decided other wise when we saw photos of (apparent) ghosts. That night we stayed in the local national park but didn't want to pay the $13 for the night, so for anyone who wants to get around it; arrive late and leave early! If a ranger did come our excuse was "we only have a $50 note" hehe. 

The next day was full of general site seeing. The best place we found was 'Doo Town' where every house had a 'Doo' sign. It took us a while to stop and take all the photos but it was worth it. After all that excitement we stop for the night behind Dunnally Hotel which was a perfect site when its wet and cold, the hot cheap dinners and the fire place put us in a happy place. 

Hobart was the next stop. Both Dave and I thought it was at least a few hours drive from the peninsular but we still haven't adjusted to the fact that Tasmania is so fricken small. It took us 45 mins instead. We ended up driving past Bellerive Oval where Dave was eager to go see. Knowing that we couldn't get in because of a shield cup match on soon I was pushing Dave along; I turn away for one minute and he's in the oval. he chatted up a staff/security officer and got in. There we were able to get photos with Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and the other team players. Amazing what happens when you just ask. Ohhh, the best part of the day, the Cadbury factory. CHOCOLATE!!!YUMMY!!! The only bad thing is they don't do tours through the factory instead they put you in a room and put a DVD on. But at least they gave us plently of free chocolates and taste testings. 

The start of something BIG

Hi to all those who are interested in the where abouts of Dave and Jess. Yes, we are travelling around Australia and are currently in Tasmania on the east coast.
Again, so sorry to all those who said: "you should start a blog" or "go on Facebook more". Things happen, mainly a lot of fun. So its taken a few months for me to realise that. I'll try to update it every few days (primarily in campgrounds where I have power and the time).


Thanks to Amy and Tom for there advice on blog spot, appreciate it! This is us together on Cape Tourville in Freycinet National Park in Tasmanian East Coast.


I will start the regular blog from tomorrow onwards. I have my own diary events of the adventures leading up to now so I'll always remember them. So my sincere apologies to everyone for not starting this earlier.