Tassie Road Trip

After a week and a bit at the marina in Lonnie we packed up Kitty, picked up a campervan rental and hit the road. We've never been to Tassie before so we wanted to make the most of our time here and see some of the spots we wont be able to reach by boat.

First stop was the iconic Cradle Mountain. We'd seen photos of the mountain before but nothing can do justice to the incredible grandeur of this place. And it wasn't just the mountain - the whole park was absolutely spectacular. There are so many walks to do, ideally we would have liked a minimum of three days to do it justice.

We chose to do the three hour hike to Marion's Lookout, sooooo worth the steep scramble!

Boathouse on Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain in the distance

View to Marion's Lookout

Next we crossed to the West Coast of Tassie, Macquarie Harbour, the Gordon River and the town of Strahan. We had seriously considered sailing to Strahan from Three Hummock Island, but because of our fuel tank issues decided to head straight to Launceston for repairs. We compromised and agreed to visit Macquarie Harbour overland. To get a taste of the Gordon River we bit the bullet and hitched a ride on one of the commercial vessels that takes tourists out into the harbour and up the river. We had a fantastic day, despite wishing it was just the two of us on our own boat. The weather was perfect, and the crew were fantastic. When the Captain Andy learned we were sailors he insisted on pulling up his charts of Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour, pointing out the best anchorages, where to get water etc and telling us how fantastic and unique it is. It was not the first time we'd heard about this amazing place, and it really was the clincher in making the decision to extend our time in Tassie and visit.

But back to the Gorden River and Macquarie Harbour! Here are a few photos.

This is the entrance to Macquarie Harbour - called Hell's Gate. A very narrow and dangerous entry - remember this was a perfect weather day!

Michael and Andy the Captain on the bridge

Ruins on Sarah Island - site of an early 19th century penal colony and setting for the classic Australian novel "For the Term of His Natural Life"

The spectacular Gordon River - Commercial vessels are (thankfully) only permitted to go 12 miles up the river, so we cant wait to come back here on our own boat and explore further. Thank goodness for the activists in the 80's who saved this river from being dammed.

The next few days we explored through the Wild Rivers National Park, Mt Field National Park and parts of the South West National Park. So many waterfalls, so little time!

Rainforest walk

Huon Campground in the South West National Park - yes, campfires allowed, and wood provided!

Russell Falls, Mt Field National Park

Horseshoe Falls, Mt Field National Park

Finally we headed back to Launceston via the Derwent Valley and the midland highway, making a detour to visit the Jansz winery in the North Tamar.

The mill in Oatlands

The bridge at Ross

It was a great trip that really just scraped the surface for us. It was strange though - we were both so happy to get back to Bass Voyager and our own beds. It was the longest time we've been away from her since we moved aboard in April last year. I'm sure you can relate to that feeling of relief when returning home after a holiday - it really brought home to us how much Bass Voyager has become our home!

So what next? Well, as I said we have decided to extend our time in Tassie and make the most of our time here. We are currently sitting at George Town near the mouth of the Tamar waiting for the weather to settle before we head around the corner and sail South.We cant wait to explore down the East coast, and to the wilderness of Bathurst Harbour and Port Davey. Eeep!

More from Hobart...

Caitlin and Michael

Tamar River - Launceston

Hi everyone!

We're winding up our little sojourn in the Tamar River, and we have a lot of catching up to do, so we'll  fill you in over two posts - one about our time in the river and Launceston, and the other about the road trip we took over the last week.

We entered the Tamar River excited and with some trepidation as we'd been regaled by friends with stories of whirlpools and ripping currents! The Tamar is wide, incredibly deep (50 metres in parts!) and has huge 3 metre tides which makes for very strong currents. We timed our entrance so that we didn't have too much current behind us, but even so we flew through the heads at over 8 knots! Fortunately the entrance is very wide and well marked, so it was really fun.

This photo gives a bit of an idea of the currents and whirlpools that are typical along the lower part of the river. Click on the image for a closer look.

3 metre tides!

We stopped at George Town on the eastern side of the river, and then tucked into West Arm on the western side for a few days of relaxation and fishing. Our anchorage was called "Dark Hollow" - very Lord of the Rings!

River sailing is awesome. Flat water! No swell! No rolling anchorages! No worries about wind direction and speed (well, too a point.) Kitty was particularly pleased about the new environment - we hadn't seen her this relaxed since we left the marina at North Haven!

We then spent a couple of days at Beauty Point which is quite pretty, but apparently named after a cow, not its aesthetics. hehe

One thing that surprised us about the Tamar (or perhaps shows how little we knew about it) is the amount of heavy industry along the river, particularly the first third or so. Aluminium, hydro electric ...

... but there were also some really pretty parts too ...

Church at Windermere

Riverside property

Next we travelled under the Batman Bridge and stayed overnight at the pontoon at the Rosevears Hotel - the oldest continuously licensed pub in Australia, apparently. The food was good!

We then headed into Launceston and pulled in to the Seaport Marina where we stayed for two weeks. The marina was excellent - walking distance from the CBD and the best chandlery we've been to since Adelaide, plus - did I mention the tapas bar on the dock?? The marina manager Callum was terrific and gave us heaps of local advice.

The marina is lovely, although as you'll see from the photos below because of the huge tides half of the pontoons dry out for a couple of hours on low tide. It was a pretty amazing sight.  Now, the philosophy we've adopted in Tassie is don't talk environmental politics! Everyone has such a strong opinions and as outsiders, who are we to judge (at least publicly)? We heard three different stories about why the marina is silted out. One person blamed the farmers - too much land clearing and run-off from the farmland. Another blamed the greenies for insisting that a bunch of non-native trees be removed up-river. The third (and I suspect most likely, but who knows) suggested it was the hydroelectric dam on the South Esk river which had stopped the river flooding, leaving nothing to counteract the huge tides bringing the silt in. Not to matter, the local businesses have embraced it with restaurants with names like "Mud" and "Silt" and for yachties its not an issue because Callum gives visiting yachts berths with plenty of water under them.

Now for the coolest part of our time in Lonnie. Within three hours of our arrival word had spread (i.e. the manager Callum had made a phone call) and we were visited by Arnold - the man who built Bass Voyager! It was such a thrill to meet him, and I think he got a kick out of seeing the boat and checking out what had changed. Better yet, the next day Arnold came back with a CD of photos of BV when she was first built!  And it gets better ... a few days later he returned with Bass Voyager's original plans. Such a precious and unique gift! Arnold built BV in Invermay, just a mile or so north of the Launceston marina. How cool is that??!

Anyway, here are couple of fabulous photos from Arnold's collection, during and just after BV's construction, circa 1989.

Most steel boats start out upsidedown...

Look! No rust stains!

OK, so this is a very long post! Sorry!

So we spent the next week exploring Lonnie, and Michael did some great work on the boat, including fixing some issues with the fuel tanks and installing a TV aerial so that we can continue to watch hardly any TV!

Here are a few shots from our time in pretty Launceston.

Beautiful Cataract Gorge - can you believe this is a 10 minute walk from the city??

Monkeys!!! (Japanese Macaques actually, in the City Park!)

OK, well that's pretty much it! Next up, our fantastic road trip around Tassie, checking out some of the amazing inland areas.

Stay tuned sports fans!