Touring Tasmania - On The Road

HOBART — Tuesday 14th Nov.   It’s been another busy day.  It’s late now—nearly 10:00pm, and I’m probably too tired to attempt the task of recollecting my thoughts, but I have to keep going.

It’s been raining on and off since we arrived yesterday, and the forecast for tomorrow is 10c with rain, thunderstorms and snow at higher levels.  Hobart had bushfires three weeks ago!  Despite the cold snap, we’re determined not to let the inclement weather stop of from doing the things we wanted to do and to see what we had planned.

We drove the Huon trail today, around a 200km round trip from where we are staying.  It doesn’t sound a long way, but the roads are steep and over the mountain range out of Hobart twist and turn through the valley. The old cliché about the roads in Tasmania being windy is certainly close to the mark.  The roads are pretty good though.  They are sealed and quite wide.  Perfect for holiday cruising.

Just outside of Huonville, the funniest thing happened.  Donna and I were travelling in front in our red Mitsubishi Lancer hire car, and Donna’s sister and her family following in a grey Nissan X-trail.  We were travelling in a convoy, as you usually do when you tour with others, keeping an eye on the car behind and in-front.  At some point, we must have both taken our eyes of each other.  I assumed that they were behind us, because there was a grey 4wd in the rear vision mirror.  As it turns out, it was not them, it was a Toyota Hilux, who overtook me a couple of km’s down the road.

Meanwhile, Donna’s sister has turned off following a red Lancer and pulled over to a stop.  Wondering, “what are they doing?” she got out of her car and heads for the Lancer to enquire what the problem is.  Imagine the surprise on the face of the unsuspecting woman driving the red Lancer when Donna’s sister flings open the door to ask!   Donna and I laughed so hard when we received a phone call a couple of minutes afterwards, explaining the incident to us, whilst trying to establish exactly where we were.

We spent a couple of hours at the Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs.  The cave tour was really interesting and the stalagtite and stalagmite formations are just amazing.  Despite the temperature being 9c and pouring with rain, the crazy kids wanted to swim.  So who are we to say no?  They spent about an hour in the pool, which was heated naturally by the spring to 28c.  They were freezing cold when they got finally got out – surfacing only to have lunch.  Kids are funny like that.  They always come around when there’s food, just like seagulls. Guaranteed.

Heading back to the house, we made the final turn left into the road that leads to the front door, and were stopped in our tracks by a fallen tree.  After a quick inspection, we realised that we were not going to be able to get the cars past – even a hire car wouldn’t go there.  So, after going to the local General Store and trying to move some branches by hand, the neighbours cottoned on and within minutes it was all hands on deck.  I think that before long the entire population of South Arm had showed up, lead by the Fire Brigade, minus their truck.  They had apparently been assembled at the station in a meeting and were watching a video.  A chainsaw made light work of the clean-up effort and we were soon past the temporary roadblock.

Another great day, everyone is tired and heading off to bed early, ready for another big one.  Tomorrow we are heading up the east coast to Bicheno and Coles Bay area.  Apparently the beaches are absolutely spectacular.  The region is also famous for the seafood and gourmet produce.  Hopefully, there is also some vegetarian food (other than veggie burgers) that I can sample along the way.  I’m not holding my breath.

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