Sunday 4th April 2004

Today was that moving day that was mentioned yesterday, however as it was only about 50 kilometres to move, we decided we wouldn't leave the Richmond Caravan Park until at least 10am. Well that is our excuse and we actually deferred our departure until about 10:20am.

From Richmond we headed straight back toward Hobart via Cambridge and the Tasman Bridge before turning north through Glenorchy and Claremont then heading west to New Norfolk.

On arrival at New Norfolk we were surprised to find we were in the middle of a large community fair (Derwent Valley Autumn Festival) as we made our way down to the river foreshore where the caravan park was located. We finally managed to find our way through the crowd and into the caravan park then set up for the next couple of days.

Once we completed our setting up, which took a while due the number of other caravaners that passed by and wanted a chat, we walked the couple of hundred metres into the fair and had a look around. There was not anything that took our fancy there, however there was a display of Morris Minor vehicles which made us think of red wine... (There is some connection, Eddie has a Morris Minor and he likes red wine!)

After the fair we returned to the caravan park and made contact with a friend of ours, Ray Smith, who called in for a cup of coffee visit and a for a while and is returning for a roast dinner later tonight. We then drove up into the town centre to visit the Woolworths Store, the Post Office, Bank and more importantly the bottle shop. It is now safe for our Son-In-Law to visit us because he would have been pretty disgusted with us if there had not been a beer in the fridge when he gets here on Thursday.

Now it is time for 'one of us' to get that roast in the oven for tonight and 'the other one' to make sure the wine is breathing well. Tomorrow we will be walking around the town as the Patrol will be in for it's 60,000 km service most of the day.

New Norfolk Fair

Morris Minor display

Tuesday 6th April 2004

Today started a little earlier than usual, however as we were heading for the Gordon Dam we had a reasonable distance to travel to get there. After 'one of us' cooked up a batch of muffins while the 'other one' took a trip up the street to pick up a fresh loaf of bread for lunch, we managed to get everything prepared, packed up and away by about 9:30am.

We set off out through Plenty, Bushy Park, Glenora and then turned west at Westerway. This took us out through Fitzgerald and Maydena before the long and winding road that lead to Strathgordon and on to the Gordon Dam itself.

The trip out was made in overcast conditions that created a darker than usual atmosphere. Combine that with the mist or low clouds hanging through the mountains and trees and one could be excused for thinking it was a somewhat eerie experience.

There were numerous photograph opportunities along the way and the countryside kept changing, particularly with the rain and cloud covered mountains. Strathgordon was once the construction town in the days that the Gordon Dam was in it's construction stages but most of it was sold up when the dam was completed. Today there is a Chalet and very little else remaining of a once thriving construction town.

We continued on down the road a few more kilometres and then came to the Gordon Dam. The dam is situated in a very narrow ravine and is quite an impressive sight, even in the damp drizzling rains that were falling on our arrival. After a few photographs and a chat with the girl in the Information Centre we pulled the car over in a nearby car park and had morning muffins and lunch all at the same time.

Whilst having lunch the clouds lifted above the mountain tops and the sun started to peep out through the occasional break in the clouds. We then set of on our return journey which was the same road we had driven in on and much to our surprise, the journey ended up becoming a drive under a bright sunny sky and the road almost appeared to be a different place to that which we had traveled on the way out to the dam.

On our way passed Field National Park we called in but as the places to see were mainly located at the end of various walks, we decided that we didn't have time to visit these sites at this time. We continued back to New Norfolk and 'one of us' wanted to visit a shop in town so the 'other one ' had a stroll through the local Chicken Feed store and that was a mistake, it cost $25 to get out past the checkout. We did have a couple of bags full of goodies on the way though.

On return to the caravan it was then a rush to get the web site organised and the e-mails completed as we have been invited out to dinner at the home of Ray Smith, a friend from way back in the days of the WA Police Service and Crime Prevention Bureau.