The Spirit of Tasmania

Our destination from Strahan was to get to Upper Natone where we had booked a place for the night called "Natone Lodge." We were planning to get there in time to unload, eat dinner, and then go straight to Devonport to watch the ship come in that travels between Melbourne, Victoria (mainland Austrailia) and Tasmania. This ship, the Spirit of Tasmania, is one of the main passages for folks and vehicles traveling back and forth across the Bass Strait.

 Natone Lodge was not at all what we expected. This was one of our least expensive stays during the entire trip and it was the most luxurious

That Day In Tas When Jul Spied Upon A Miner

On our way out of Strahan (which you can read about here), we stopped to dip our toes in the ocean.

I don't know if this would be considered the part of the Great Australian Bight,

Strahan, TAS: Home of World Record Waterskiing!

(The prequel to this post can be found here.)
Welcome to Strahan, a little town on the west coast of Tasmania. Population: 636

Our little cabin at the YHA hostel.

Queenstown, Tasmania

Coming down the west side of Cradle Mountain into Queenstown, there was an old Iron Blow.

This was an open cut copper ore mine, if I understand correctly.

Along the Roads of Tasmania...

...you may find...

an Echidna. He was burrowing into his hole, so we couldn't see his face.

Tassie's East Coast...

Picking up where I left off in my first post on Tasmania, please keep in mind that Linden was on this trip to see as much agriculture as possible. Thus this first photo.

Cows. A road trip is not complete without stopping to look at some Jersey cows.

Well, Hello Tasmania!

Quite a while back, I finished up Jul, Linden, and my tour of the South Coast of Australia in Touring Melbourne. The next part of our journey was to Tasmania. We got a flight out of Melbourne into Launceston, where we had a hire car waiting for us.

Leaving Melbourn, Victoria, and flying across the Bass Strait.

Touring Melbourne

Just a side note, I find it hard to believe that it has been over a year since I lived in Australia! These photos are from January of 2012.

   Driving back into Melbourne after being out in the open country for a week was a bit of a culture shock. I believe Linden was driving and I was giving the directions that we had gotten from some guy at a food shop. We were trying our hardest to avoid the toll roads which pretty much surround the city. It was an adventure, but we finally made it to our hostel in the CBD.

 Just a small glimpse into the lovely traffic we encountered along the way.

In-land and Eastward Bound

   After leaving Umpherston Sinkhole in Continuing the Australian Holiday, we journeyed eastward back to Melbourne, Victoria. Instead of following the route we had just come, we took the in-land route to hopefully fulfill someone's wish to see all the farmland possible.

That person with the farmland wish is in this photo...

Continuing the Australian Holiday

   This post is quite out-dated, but I will be picking up where we left off in Touring Mt. Gambier, in which we were driving around the countryside searching out farms to tour. The second farm we happened upon was a dairy farm. We spent quite a while here looking at their herds and talking about farming techniques. We didn't get any photos at this visit, but we were invited back for the 5:00am milking to see their 60-cow rotary milking parlor. As the evening got late, we finally headed back to our little bungalow for supper.

 We had a lovely supper of kangaroo steak, baked potatoes, frozen veggies, and chocolate cake.

Touring Mt. Gambier

In the last post, Welcome to South Australia, we had just made it to the top of a hill to check out this castle.

I think it cost us each a gold coin to see the inside and hear about it's history.

Welcome to South Australia!

This post is going back in time a little bit to continue the Australian Holiday of Linden, Jul, and myself back in January 2012. (The post preceding this one is The Next Few Days.) In the last post about our holiday, we were finishing up our coastal drive in Victoria and heading North-West into South Australia.

We arrived in Mt. Gambier and stayed in this cute little cabin at the Blue Lake Holiday Park.

The Next Few Days

One of the days that we were in Apollo Bay, we took a day trip to Maits Rest Rainforest, which is part of the Great Otway National Park.

Jul loved the huge ferns that grow there.

A Real Holiday

After spending two weeks in Merimbula, I took the 7 hour bus ride down the coast to Melbourne, Victoria. There, I met my sister, Jul, and her husband, Linden, who had just flown for 20+ hours from the States. We were taking a 3-week holiday and touring the southern part of Oz.

Here we are at Anglesea, our first stop after leaving the Melbourne airport. We stopped and stocked up on groceries for the first leg of our trip.

Our route took us on the Great Ocean Road which was built by the soldiers returning from World War I. It is also a memorial to the soldiers that did

My Merimbula

 

 There is a river flowing from Merimbula Lake to the ocean, separating the town of Merimbula from the actual coast. This view from the bridge (looking east) shows all of the boats floating in water. At low tide, however, all of those boats are sitting on a bed of sand, looking like they ran aground. (Sadly, I can't find a picture of that!)

The First Try...The First of the Year

I rang in the New Year at this little, tiny coastal town called Merimbula, which is located on the South-East Coast of Australia.