Monday 22nd March 2004

Woke up to another one of those 'Great Day To Be Alive' mornings with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. We could go anywhere and see anything on a day like this - But it was also a good day to do the washing and domestic chores don't do themselves so that was the first task for the day.

As the caravan park laundry was full and being used by the caravan park cleaning ladies, 'One of us' kept their eye out for a machine to become free while the 'Other on' took a load of washing into the Laundromat in St Helens and hob knobbed with the washer ladies whilst ensuring our 'frilly's were washed bright and clean.

After all the domestic duties had been completed and Judy had strolled up to join us, we had lunch then set of for a short drive. This took us out of St Helens through some farmlands around Goshen (didn't see a town, only the name), past Gould Country and then off the highway to the 'Holy Cow Cafe' and Pyengana Cheese Factory. Yes, your right, the vote was that we try some of the cheeses and then we had to sit out in the sun looking over the valley and mountains while we sampled some of the cheesecakes and tarts on display, along with a tea or milkshake. We purchases some of the cheese before we left as it apparently goes really well with wine in the evening (not that I would know!).

We then headed back toward St Helens, first stopping in at the Georges Bay Trading Company 'Shop In The Bush' which they promote as 'Tasmania's Top Bric-a-Brac Shop'. This interesting little shop is set in the bush on the side of the road and contains a huge range of old books, china, glassware, medals and the list goes on. They also had souvenirs such as tee shirts, wood turned bowls and numerous other trinkets and items, old and new, useful and useless. We were fortunate to get out without too many purchases, but it was interesting to browse through it all.

After this visit it was on to St Helens where 'One of us' and Judy visited the History Room at the Information Centre, the 'Other one' attempted to use the Internet at the same location, however after ten minutes gave up as the connection speed was even slower than the operator.

By this time we had to get back to the caravan park to remove the last of the cloths from the washing line and prepare all the requirements (cut up the cheese) for tonight's pre dinner planning session.

Gosh an' it is pretty around here -
Is that why they called it Goshen?

"I wonder what's on the menu?" - at the 'Holy Cow Cafe' and Pyengana Cheese Factory

Tuesday 23rd March 2004

An earlier start today with lunch's packed, Judy picked up and on our way by 9:30am The idea was we would be back mid afternoon and an easy evening - WRONG AGAIN!

First we took a tour of the 'Bay of Fires' drive which travels up the coast from St Helens to 'Binalong Bay' where there were sandy beaches between rocky outcrops and the water was crystal clear. From here we didn't want to back track so we took a dirt track that took us through a lot of bush country and finally ended up emerging at a little town called Pioneer. We then headed north through South Mt Cameron and came to 'Little Blue Lake', which is an abandoned tin mine that has filled with water and under the bright blue sky the water appears to be a bright turquoise colour. Photographs were taken and the one on the right shows a good example of the lake.

From the Blue Lake we continued north through Gladstone then on to Tomahawk which appears to be a holiday village on the North Coast and resembles many Western Australian coastal towns in a lot of ways, particularly the flora around the town. We parked near the beach and looked out over the water while we consumed the lunch one of us had brought with us. (Most peaceful)

Time to return to St Helens, however decided to go that little bit further and headed off west along the coast up to Bridport, a larger town with a rather interesting dock in the river which has to be negotiated via several bends in what appears to be a deep channel in a shallow river. From here we traveled south to Scotsdale where we took a drive around the centre of this large rural town and filled up with fuel.

Then it was down to Braxholm where the vote was for an ice cream at the local shop before heading south again through Legerwood and Ringarooma before heading east again on a one lane dirt road (or track) up Mt Victoria and down the other side until we came to St Columba Falls. We stopped at the falls and took the thirty minute return walk to the base of the falls and took numerous more photographs.

After the falls walk it was back in the vehicle and continue our return to St Helens via 'The Pub In The Paddock', passed the Pyengana Cheese Factory and on to the Tasman Highway, arriving at the caravan park at about 5:30 pm after traveling 325 kilometres for the day. Now comes the rush to get the web site completed and e-mails prepared before the 7:pm upload time frame.

Tomorrow will see us move from St Helens to Legana which is only about fifteen minutes north of Launceston.

Blue Lake - Near Mt Cameron

St Columbia Falls - Pyengana

Wednesday 24th March 2004

This morning we woke to overcast sky and a rather dull morning in St Helens, however it was a moving day so the fact that it wasn't raining was a bonus. After packing up most of the caravan and getting it ready to move, the Patrol needed a wash so an attempt was made to do so at the $@ pressure spray unit supplied by the caravan park, however it didn't seem to work and only gave us about two minutes of spray, nevertheless it did wash a bit of dust off the vehicle before we picked Judy up from her cabin.

We were eventually hooked up and on our way out of St Helens by about 9:45am en- route to Legana, which was only about 170 kilometres away. Just prior to reaching Pyengana we met some four legged traffic coming our way at a leisurely pace. There would have been about one hundred head of cattle walking down the road, preceded by a vehicle with flashing lights and followed by the farmer and another vehicle with lights flashing, I guess we are in Tasmania aren't we!

The drive was undulating and interesting through to Weldborough, but then wound up over the mountains and then back down again before coming to Moorina, Branxholm and Tulendeena. It was then back into the mountains again, winding around some tight turns whilst climbing further up, almost into the clouds before coasting back down the other side through Tonganah (although it is on the map, we are not sure we saw it?) to Scotsdale.

Scotsdale is a larger town and is set in some very pretty surrounds, in fact 'one of us' said they wouldn't mind living there if the weather was better and her family was here as well, however there is not a lot of chance of that happening. After we left Scotsdale the weather was improving and we found ourselves starting up into another range of mountains, winding our way up until we came to a lookout that provided sweeping views back over Scotsdale, the surrounding farmlands and on as far as Flinders Island, however it was very hazy our that far. Photographs were taken from this lookout, including one of Pam and Judy without the sweeping views behind them, but the trees looked ok as well.

When we left the lookout we still wound up the mountain a bit further before the old proverb came into play, what goes up must come down', so down the other side we wound our way back down to the undulating plains and on through Nunamara before reaching Waverley, which is a suburb of Launceston. We drove into Launceston looking for signs to lead us to Lagana or other towns in that direction, however we didn't see any directional signs and found ourselves in the city centre, facing the mall and road works on the only road we could take, all this with a 25 foot caravan on the back of the Patrol - but it fitted through the gap they left us and we even went around the same block again as we were in the wrong lane and missed the turn we should have taken. We wondered what the workers thought the second time we drove through their road works with the caravan??? Better luck the second time around and we managed to be in the right lane and found our way onto the correct road out to Lagana, some 15 minutes north of Launceston.

At last we managed to arrive at the caravan park at 1:45pm after going passed it once and not being sure if it was the right one. The fact that the 170 kilometres took us four hours, with only one stop, gives some indication as to why most of the Tasmanian travel brochures indicate travel time in many cases, not kilometres between towns.

However we finally settled in before doing a little food shopping and filling the Patrol up with fuel in readiness for some more sight seeing tomorrow.

Four legged traffic claims right of way


Lookout for the girls at the lookout!