2025 Big Trip

The wind dropped a little overnight, so we were able to eat breakfast in the great outdoors without the cereal blowing out of the bowls.

Executed a quick tidy up and pack up before heading out.

Popped in to say hi to Larry the giant Lobster, an Aussie icon, we love our “Big Things”!

It was right next door to Kev’s Kollection an old tractor museum, we were very upset that it was not open! Not really, as our favourite Narridy relations have a tractor museum that we love!

Cape Jaffa

We drove to Cape Jaffa and wandered the scrub track to the old lighthouse cottages and peered out at the ocean, where the original lighthouse platform is just visible on the horizon. The onshore keepers had to watch the lighthouse during the day as the main communication method was semaphore flags from the light house to the shore. They had telescopes! Eventually morse code was used to signal at night and then radio communication came in. Apparently, Cape Jaffa was a bit of a trial run lighthouse as it was regarded as one of the less isolated ones in Australia, to see if you were cut out for the life of a keeper. I definitely would not have passed the test!

Robe

Onto Robe where we had a quick look at the lighthouse that came on board in 1972(a mighty fine year). It is a modern structure that was fully automated at installation and nowhere near as exciting as Cape Jaffa, but it completed the story for us.

Beachport

A quick detour into Beachport, which is a very pretty little town, did the tourist drive and saw all the beautiful limestone cliffs, sandy beaches, wild waves and such from the comfort of the car. The people out walking did not appear to be enjoying themselves at all.

Millicent

We stopped at the mega playground at Millicent for lunch. We had to tear Mia away, as there were so many things she didn’t get a chance to go on! Lots of fun equipment. I had a few rides on the flying fox as I waited for Mia to have a race with me, but she was too busy. That is a good playground, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone coming this way!

Portland

We arrived and were pleasantly surprised to find that although it was still very blowy, our site at the caravan park is very sheltered and we were able to put up the annex. We set off to catch up with Des and Nicki Hein, who are friends of friends of ours (the Kerrigans). They live about 3 doors away from the caravan park and welcomed us in and we spent a couple of hours chatting and planning the next day’s adventure. We felt special already!

The caravan is packed and ready to roll. We are ready for Victoria. The real question is: is Victoria ready for us???

Point Malcolm

Our first stop was Point Malcolm lighthouse. It is famous for being the only inland lighthouse in Australia. It is between Lake Alexandrina and Lake albert. It is also the shortest lighthouse in Australia at just 7 metres tall. It was quite interesting, and we happened to be there at the same time as a local lady who was there with a visiting friend, so she could tell us some other interesting bits and pieces.

Meningie

We took the ferry across to Narrung, because we could. Then around Lake Albert to Meningie for lunch. We learnt about the bushranger who was famous mostly for the fact that his mode of transport was riding an ostrich!!

KIngston

Onto Kingston, where we booked into the caravan park and due to the wind, didn’t bother with the awning. Set up was pretty quick, so we set off to see the sights. The Café Jaffa lighthouse is next door to the caravan park.

Obviously as this is not Café Jaffa, it has been decommissioned and relocated. It was previously 8km offshore., where it was manned for 101 years. We managed to be standing at the gate reading the signs when a lady walked up and unlocked the gates. She said, “I’m doing a tour in a minute if you’d like to join us?” As we had nothing else planned and we are all about making the most experiences available as we travel around, we said yes. Sutts was very brave and came along even though he does not like heights. We nearly lost him climbing the first set of steps being buffeted about in the wind, but once we got inside it was not so bad. The lighthouse was manned by three families in a two months on and one month off rotation, with two keepers on duty at a time and one onshore. The lighthouse is not especially big, and I would have hated to live out there! Imagine trying to raise a bunch of children in a tiny house miles offshore, surrounded by ocean in every direction, and sharing that space with another family, no privacy whatsoever. The children would go stir crazy cooped up day and night. The fresh supplies (food and water etc) would be brought out once a week, provided the weather was favourable! And it often wasn’t! Once arriving at the lighthouse in a boat, passengers had to grab out at the 6m ladder and climb up as quick as they could to avoid being squished against the boat as it rose and fell with the waves! Boy, they were tough in those days! The tour guide told us about the ruins of the original light house cottages at Cape Jaffa. So, we added that to tomorrow’s list.

Still very windy, so we cooked in the camp kitchen, along with a social group of 17 – they are a friendly bunch, but it’s a lot of people in a little spot, so after tea, we faffed about and discovered that we could squeeze our little camp table and one chair into our caravan for a few rounds of cards. Early to bed for everyone.

Port Arthur

We were up bright and early and some of the first through the doors of Port Arthur Historic Site. We wandered along through the old buildings, soaking up the history. There are little plaques throughout the site that tell the stories of various inhabitants. Mia was particularly taken with the story of “Lizzie” the wife of the commandant – legend has it that she was so beautiful that people woud come just to gaze upon her beauty. However, the man that did most of the portrait paintings at that stage also had a very pretty wife, who was quite jealous of Lizzie, so being a good and sensible husband, the portrait of Lizzie is not so beautiful as the one of his own wife!

We ate our lunch sitting up at the scorpion tail lookout. There is a park bench up there almost big enough for our four petite little bottoms. So, we squeezed in and ate all the odds and ends that needed to go before we flew out.

We finished up at the gallery, where Mia and I tried the leg irons. Those things are heavy! There would be no running, and it is very obvious why anyone that fell in the water in leg irons drowned. Even if not in leg irons, most people in that time could not swim so their chances weren’t that great anyway!

We stopped at Sorrell to give the hire car a quick once over at the carwash, because we had gotten it filthy and didn’t want to be landed with an extra cleaning fee.

Seven Mile Beach

With a bit of time to kill, we popped into Seven Mile Beach which is right next door to the Hobart airport. It is a beautiful beach, and we were very impressed at the beautiful shells we found. We also played beach shenanigans, such as who could jump highest (making them tallest?), who could go the furtherest in 20 steps, and bullseye on the sand with rocks. Just some general running and moving about before having to sit on the plane for a couple of hours.

Goodbye Hobart and Tasmania, it has been beautiful! Time to go home and unpack, wash, reorganise and pack for our next adventure.

Coles Bay to Pt Arthur

Another day of hills and bendy road driving. Headed to the Tasman Peninsula, stopping at Eaglehawk Neck for lunch.
Loved the Tessellated Pavement. This incredible natural rock formation looks like pavers with its very straight lines and flat surfaces. We spent a lot of time looking at the incredible life in the tiny rock pools and watery crevices. The dark cherry shaped “squishy things” were a mystery to us, so I reached out to the travellers in Tas FB group I joined, and discovered that they are in fact beautiful anemones that were shut up tight, waiting for the tide to come back in.
Wandered along to Tasman’s Arch and Devils kitchen rock formations which are very tall and dramatic, with fabulous colours in the rocks and all the while the waves keep on pounding far below.

Port Arthur

We arrived just in time to join the 3pm cruise, which is a great way to start exploring as it gives a recorded commentary of various aspects of the convict days. We looked at Port Puer, which was basically a very early children’s prison, with kids as young as 9 having been transported to Australia, often for pickpocketing charges. They were put to work as stone masons among other things. Mia was quite horrified that kids were convicts. She does not think she would have been a very good convict as she does not like to be told what to do!
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the penitentiary, the convict church and the guard towers, when they closed for the afternoon, we got kicked out.
As it was our last night in Tassie, we lashed out and had tea at the Port Arthur Motor Inn restaurant which overlooks the convict settlement. Stunning backdrop.

White Beach

We stayed in an Airbnb at White Beach, which is about 10minutes away. This little cottage was cute and quirky. Lots of weird and wonderful things like an umbrella cupboard – about 20cm wide and a metre tall – stuffed full of umbrellas. The kitchen floor was painted magenta, and the fridge was bright red! The ceiling in some places barely high enough for Sutts to stand tall. However, it was cosy and had everything we needed and the kids were pleased to have a room each.

We went for a walk to see White Beach and there was an old bloke on the jetty, he says “I’ve got a tuna in my boat if you want to see”, as he headed off to collect his vehicle and boat trailer. So, we had a look and there was a huge tuna in the boat! He was an older gentleman, probably in his 70s. We got chatting to him, he said he had gone out a couple hours earlier, had hooked the tuna almost immediately, then spent 1.5 hours fighting it before finally managing to get it in the boat. Mia was fascinated at the whole loading a boat onto a trailer manoeuvre, apparently, we had skipped this part of her life education, so we hung about and watched him load his boat full of tuna.

Launceston

A quiet day to unwind after a lot of busy days and days full of driving. The girls went and got their nails painted and the boys went shopping for a few bits.

James Boag Brewery

Another afternoon, another brewery tour. Sam and Sutts bravely ventured forth to learn about James Boag’s beer making stuff. In Sam’s words: (best read in the style of a 6 year old asked to tell a story about what he did on the weekend!) We went to the place. Walked up some stairs. Dad and I got snazzy Hi-Viz vests. We got some safety specs. Then the lady said some boring safety things which we pretended to listen to. Then we went back down the steps. We walked outside. Then we sat at a picnic table. There was discussion about the ingredients of beer – mostly the lady talking but others added their two bits worth. Then we walked across the road and up and down the street, the lady talked about the history of Boags and all the buildings. There used to be 100 breweries in Launceston in 1890s, by 1927 there was only one. James Boag was the only one that used the fresh water from higher up in the Esk River. Other breweries used the water that ran through town, which is also where the tanneries and other industries along the river were dumping their waste. We looked at all their shiny new equipment. Then we looked at all the equipment that fills the bottles and packs them, watched a video about this too. And then, walked back across the road. And back up the stairs. Took off our safety vests and goggles. And then we tasted 3 different beers. A goldy coloured one, a different goldy coloured one and a brown one. ***Cross checked this with Sutts – XXX ale, St George lager, Wizard Smith ale. Then we went downstairs and had another beer and then we went home.

A quick drive after tea to look at the sunset from a lookout that was built in the 1970s and now has so many trees that you can’t see much at all!

Launceston to Coles Bay

Today was another day in the car, more windy roads, but nowhere as bad as the western side of the island!

We drove through to St Helens and the Bay Of Fires. This is a spectacular piece of coastline, perfect turquoise waters and magnificent rocks covered in orange lichen. The place is very popular for free camping and we struggled to find a spot for lunch. Ended up eating out of the boot of the car, then tearing down to the superfine white sandy beach, with sand that squeaks! This was a lot of fun, we hopped about on those rocks like the crazy, carefree souls that we are. There were a few sites with the best one being The Garden, and the end of the road. We spent a bit of time here, having a chat to a lovely couple from Newcastle.

Onward to Bicheno, which has a rocky blowhole. The blowhole was not very awe inspiring due to the tide not being quite right , but we got to see a little bit of spouting. Also lots more rocks, cue more frolicking about on the rocks like new spring lambs full of joy.

We dragged ourselves away from this rocky playground and onto Coles Bay, to find our accommodation for the next 2 nights. Our airbnb was literally a shack in the back corner of someone’s garden. They had an enormous block with a very impressive garden, lots of fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, chooks and lots more. We were walking distance from the jetty and more importantly, the icecreamery/fish and chip shop.

**photos to come

Freycinet Peninsula

Today we tackled the iconic Wineglass Bay Lookout. It is a 2.6km walk, grade 3. It is mostly steep hill and steps all the way up and then down again. We are certainly getting plenty of exercise. Handy, as some members of the party need a fair amount of lolly snakes to get around these longer and harder walks, so that sugar is getting burnt up pretty quickly. Sutts, Mia and I managed this walk while Sam set off to climb the mountain next door – Mt Amos. Our lookout has an elevation of about 200m above sea-level and Sam’s mountain, as it shall be known from now on, has an elevation of 454m, and a walk distance of 4.1km return but a grade 4, and involved some serious rock climbing scrabbles. Not for the fainthearted! It was no competition though!

While we waited for Sam to finish his mountain, the rest of the crew went to Honeymoon Bay which is as idyllic as it sounds. More rocks, more sand, more amazingly clear turquoise waters. Obviously, this called for more gallivanting about on rocks, exploring the rock pools, finding all kinds of interesting critters. We found some shell art that someone had made and were inspired to try one of our own. Actually, I found the shells and Mia was the artist, she was wholly invested in her project for quite a while.

After collecting Sam, we headed to the Cape Tourville Lighthouse and had lunch, accompanied by a very friendly wallaby, who was determined to eat any crumbs that we dropped. Mia was delighted with our new friend. Wandered around the boardwalk which to our surprise did not actually lead to the lighthouse at all, but rather just around it. We were blessed with another perfect sunshine filled day and the sea literally glittered, incredible views.

Sleepy Bay was the next stop, and we wandered down another gazillion steps, only 500m return, but it was well worth the burning pain in my legs. The beach had no sand as such just very fine gravel/stones, but you guessed it – more rocks! Suddenly our tired legs had more energy to go jumping about on these pretty lichen rocks. Sam had plenty to tell us about the proper way to make fences and he did not approve of the sloppy job done at Sleepy Bay, too slack, wrong kind of joins and just not right.

The seaweed here is next level, I’ve never seen anything like it. Absolutely massive – the stalks can be as thick as your arm and the “leaves” 25cm wide and at least 3m long! It is amazing and feels like silicone or rubber.

After a busy day of hiking, exploring and rock hopping, we arrived back at Coles Bay at exactly ice cream o’clock, and the ice creamery was on our way, so a perfect way to finish off a glorious day.

A quiet evening of resting, games, puzzles and a whole lot of not too much. We were pleased to find this house has a selection of games, notably Scrabble, which made a change from the games we have been playing on repeat: Mantis, Flip7, golf and coon can.

**photos to come

Launceston

City Park in Launceston is home to a troupe of Japanese Macaque (monkeys) which are free to visit. We enjoyed watching them as they chased each other around at a great rate of knots, picked at each other’s fur looking for fleas(?), there was also several mothers and babies which were so cute and human like in so many ways.

Saturdays are market days here in Launceston, so along we went. This was very much a fresh produce market, lots of fruit, vegetables, mushrooms in all shapes and sizes, coffee, seafood, cakes, breads and ice-cream. We restocked our berry supplies and apple pile, then treated ourselves to hot coffee, ice-cream, gluten-free brownie (as suited to each of us).

So many varieties of heritage apples grown here.

Launceston is blessed to have Cataract Gorge right in the centre of the city. It is absolutely stunning and so accessible. We wandered across the causeway and up to the various walkways. Unfortunately, the suspension bridge is undergoing major renovations and is closed. The view and walks were very different to what we have seen but beautiful. We saw many peahens and chicks in the park, Mia was disappointed not to see a peacock doing his display.

And of course, time and place for a bit of silliness

After lunch we headed to the Queen Victoria Museum. They are currently hosting a Questacon display, which had lots of hands-on science. Lots of fun!

Cradle Mountain to Launceston

Tazmazia and the Village of Lower Crackpot

This morning we had a bit of fun. No waterfalls in sight. Apparently some travellers have seen enough of them for now! We arrived at Tazmazia where we spent the next 2.5 hours wandering around the numerous mazes, no, of course we weren’t lost, we just wanted to see everything there was to see! Around each corner was another Dad joke on a sign, which was handy for keeping track of if you were going around in circles! We also had a checklist of things to find as we explored the 8 mazes.

The village of Lower Crackpot is a series of buildings and structures in 1/5 scale. So much detail, lots to see. A reasonable amount of craziness in it all!

The Embassy Gardens are politically incorrect but funny! For example the embassy of Poland is a collection of poles, the Cuban embassy is a cube, etc

Some words of wisdom, sprinkled among the Dad jokes

Sheffield

This little town is known for its murals, on just about every building. It is very pretty and some of the scenes are very thought provoking.

So many to look at, they even have a park full of boards of murals, back and front. A great place to have lunch!

Made it to Launceston mid afternoon, checked into our Airbnb which is beautiful, sussed out the shopping and settled in.

Cradle Mountain

Started off with a shuttle ride to the Ranger’s Station/Interpretive Centre, where we walked to Pencil Pine Falls and thought we were following the path to Knyvet Falls but due to a navigation error ended up on the Enchanted Walk! Oops.

Caught the shuttle down to Dove Lake and set off around the lake. It is a 6km walk. Luckily some didn’t know how far that was or we would never have convinced her to start! It was a beautiful walk but about a third of the way around we had to get out the lolly snakes to keep up enthusiasm levels. Absolutely stunning day, sunshine for the first time in days. The locals thought it was a scorcher as forecast for 17 degrees! We made it around in just over two hours as we had a very special treat booked for the afternoon and no time to spare.

The water is brown (stained by tannins but crystal clear)

Devils@Cradle

We booked in for a keeper’s tour and a joey encounter. The keeper was very passionate about the Tasmanian devils and the challenges facing them in the wild, particularly Devil Facial Tumour Disease which is a type of cancer spread by chewing on prey that has been chewed on by an affected devil or biting each other. It was really interesting. We learned all about devils and spotted tail quolls. These are both carnivorous marsupials which horrified Mia at first, these cute little creatures can kill other animals! We saw lots of devils including Sabrina, a hand raised devil who is due to give birth to her first joeys in the next week, which is super exciting for the keepers!

After the keeper tour, we had the joey encounter, which was just the four of us and a keeper. We met Chip, a spotted tail quoll, about 8m old. Garry, a bare nosed wombat about 10m old. Luana, a 9m old Tassie devil. Chip and Luana had been hand raised onsite, while Garry was a rescue, who we couldn’t pat as he is being rehabilitated for release in the wild when he is old enough. This keeper answered all our questions and told us all about caring for these babies, it’s not that different to fostering to be honest! Lots of waking during the nights for feeding, love and care and then seeing them move on – in this case they might go to other wildlife breeding centres or back to the wild. Mia was enthralled and has decided that this is what she wants to do when she grows up, study wildlife conservation and work with Tassie devils etc.

Chip – spotted tail quoll

Garry the wombat

Luana – devil joey – likes to suck the keeper’s finger like a dummy, but could actually bite it right off, if it was that way inclined!

We had a bit of time after just to wander around and look at all the animals. So many devils, quolls and wombats to see, and unlike at the zoo, where animals are often asleep or out of sight, these guys were out and about, often appeared to be putting on a show for us.