Skip to main content

Tasmania Middle and East

There are train days and there are car days. Today was supposed to be a bit of both. The plan was to drive up to Devonport and the Don River Railway before arriving back in Hobart for the Festival of Voices bonfire, stopping at interesting small towns along the way. Travelling along the Midland Highway we got as far as Perth before Alex complained of feeling motion sick.

Realising how much further we still had to go we decided to return to Hobart, but via the East Coast route. It was a long, but spectacular ride. I'm too tired to write so I'll tell the story with photos.

Morning mists across the Derwent at Bridgewater

Winter trees along Highway 1.
Historic Oatlands houses the rebuilt Carrington Mill

Post Office at Ross, another historic town just off the Midland Highway

There were many sheep farms along the way. Ben Lomond is in the background.

River along the Lake Leake Highway (B34) as we head towards the East Coast.
The Ben Lomond National Park in the background, touched by snow.
The railway followed us as far as Fingal. It would make a very scenic trip, but sadly no commercial passenger services are operated in Tasmania, only tourist trains.
From St Marys it was a nerve wracking ride across the ranges and down to the coast
We followed the Tasman Highway (A3) southwards down the coast
Bicheno was a pleasant coastal town where we stopped to buy fresh fish and a snack of oysters and fish and chips.

The Blowhole at Bicheno. We'd love to do a slow trip down the coast.
Vineyards, Great Oyster Bay and the Freycinet Peninsula
Although we were in a hurry, we couldn't help pulling in at Swansea.

The smell of seaweed, waves gently lapping against the shore while strong surf was heard but unseen
The bare and lonely coastal landscape had a real beauty about it 

The road turns inland again at Orford

The Sun was setting and we were concerned about kangaroos on the road

We had seen these long causeways across the Coal River from the air yesterday

Finally, the Tasman Bridge into Hobart
We arrived at Salamanca Place just in time to watch the procession of singers with their torches.

The lighting of the bonfire

Showers of sparks rise into the air
We returned to the hotel where I prepared a dinner of fresh fish and pasta. Today underscored how beautiful this island state is and that this trip is just too short to take it all in.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first overseas trip: Singapore and Malaysia

I've always loved to travel. My first memory is of sitting in a an aircraft, aged 18 months or so. Yet I never believed that I could travel overseas. To me, it seemed like something you did when you retired, or if you were rich. That all changed when I met B. She had not only travelled overseas, she was from overseas . B was born in Malaysia and arrived in Australia, with her family, in 1988. She still had relatives and friends in Malaysia and Singapore and she, along with the remainder of her family, planned to return for a visit during the Australian summer of 1995. At the time I was staying in B's mother's house while we were studying at university. After B's father passed away the year before I was the nominal "man" of the house and its high maintenance garden; her brother Michael was studying up in Queensland. B and I were quite inseparable and her mother kindly offered to pay for me to join them on their vacation. So it was that I obtained my very firs
Post a Comment
Read more

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It'
Post a Comment
Read more