well some of the more astute amongst you may have noticed that we are indeed back from a refreshing and most enjoyable 2 weeks in Tassie, however it almost ended before it started not having the foresight to carry a spare set of alternator brushes amongst my spares, yep the alternater died going through the grampians at ten o'clock on a friday night

interesting drive through tight turns loaded with kangaroos in the dark but even more interesting trying to get the thing repaired saturday morning in hicksville (arrarat) (due to sail out at 8 o'clock that night and still a fair way out of melbourne but John the local racv rep made some calls and we were rescued by scotty in stawell great old feller and dirt cheap, so after the dragon ceased her nagging about " see told you that should have got travel insurance" we were off

battled the heat and the idiot victorian drivers to finally get on the spirit, arriving in devonport we immediately took off to launceston for the tour through cataract gorge, free camp and off the next day to strahan via the western teirs, 2 days in strahan doing the gordon river cruise and the abt rail, free camp and off to the salmon farms, if you havent been there GET GOING!!, 

down to Hobart for the salamaca market, wooden boat show and cmca gathering plus a couple other events on at the same time, standing room only, as for the market dont bother!!

headed down to Geeveston and out to the airwalk, absolutely magical did the swinging bridges, dodging idiot pushbike riders who happened to have a race on the same weekend, bought the biggest cherries that god ever placed on this earth and loved every one of them, shot up mount wellington and had a nose around, very impressive!!

did a heap of walks all through this area waterfalls everywhere, shot down to port arthur for two days, bit of a tip if you stay in the port arthur c/park and take the walk to the port arthur ruins you will not be asked for an entrance ticket

shot up the lake highway (dont bother) then back to cradle mountain stayed at the camp, $30 a night no power and no water but the showers were grouse, back up through a couple little towns and back on the spirit for a no sleep night and a 13 hour drive home on friday

as for towing vans around tassie, dont do it on the western teirs road three tried, (1) FADED AND BURNT OUT BRAKES, (2) BURNT OUT CLUTCH (3)  MISSED A TURN AND ENDED UP IN THE SHRUBBERY

if you tow on the upper north western gravel roads caution is advised, we found a pair of lovely elderly ladies who had been walking for 5 hours after rolling their motorhome, and also helped a couple out who had underestimated a corner on a gravel road and steered straight in to the little trees

towing can be done on the highways and freeways but just watch the locals, they dont use blinkers and sit in the middle of the road. dont do it on the western teirs!! my advice, dont tow, park it and explore

if you live on gunns island and havent had a look around yet then you are an idiot, it can all be done easily as everything is relatively close to hand, you had better hurry up because it is being ripped up for chips at a rapid rate of knots and wont be there long, construction and housing developments are everywhere

heres a couple of photos for you to nose through
http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/DayOneAtPortArthur?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/PortArthurTasmania?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/MountWellingtonRichmondBridgeOnTheWayToPortArthur?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/SalmonPonds?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/TahuneAirWalk?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/CradleMountainSecondAttempt?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/FreeCampLakeStClair?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/AbtRailwayStrahanToQueenstown?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/GordonRiverCruiseStrahanPeoplesPark?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/davedavey06/LauncestonCataractGorge?feat=directlink

feel free to contact me if you want any of these photos in original 9 megapixel, hope I havent bored you too much!!!!!!!!!!!!!    

G'day Dave,

Thanks for posting your report, it is absolutely fantastic and the pics are great also, I was jealous when you left and am more so now. My turn coming end of May.

Best Regards and Safe Travelling.

John

Dave,
Tassie's a great place isn't it.
We drove and motelled a few years ago now that was BC ( before caravan).
You may remember Judy & I were to take on the GOR commencing today for 3 weeks, but we decided because of so much devastation in and around VIC, we would postpone until October/November.
....So we decided to go up the north coast of NSW...and guess what....severe storm warnings over next few days..several of the rivers up that way have flash flood warnings..
We have postponed this for a couple of days and hope to leave now Monday or Tuesday.
They say good things come to those who wait??????

Pete I do remember that you were going to do the gor but mate the devastation in Victoria is confined mainly to the north above Melbourne I think, an area that I am not familiar with but I assume it is in some high country, the great ocean road is, as far as I know, not affected, I would still choof along there and maybe do the nsw coast when it dies down a little the G.O.R. is, as far as I am concerned, one of the great ones to do and it is very good even in the heat as it follows the coast, as for Tassie, I would buy the place if I could and chuck everyone out, its a glorious little piece of paradise but the locals don't give a damn about the wildlife or the trees, I have never in all my years of traveling seen so much road kill and devastation, made me sick the way the locals drive at high speed everywhere with total disregard for animals I wouldn't wait if I was you, just do it, you wont regret it, life is too damn short to sit and wait out the what if's

Dave,
We certainly didn't make the decision not to go lightly. I spoke with one of my workmates from Melbourne who is also in the CFA and discussed it at length with him. He also thought we would be better to put it off for a while. Besides that we were going to have to cut it short by about 5 days anyway because other circumstances require us to come back early.
We will get there..we have some deposit paid sitting at a couple of cp's we had prebooked.

Good to see you back online Dave.. good to hear you had a great break. Love the pics, are you a photographer? What type of camera do you use? Morag

hah! hah! me a photographer hell far from it morag, I like travelling and I like taking photos but thats it, my camera is an slr fuji s9500 with 9 magapixels I have a 4 gig microdrive installed which will give me about 1600 photos at the full 9 megapixels, I'm thinking of following my son's example, he is a dead keen semi professional wedding and landscape photographer, he uses a canon eos300d with all lenses, takes mind numbingly beautifull pictures, but thanks for the welcome back I am actually glad to be back but that will change when I front up for the old tedium on monday Pete I dont know what circumstances are holding you back but as I stated before life is a fleeting thing, the dragon and I nearly lost ours on three occasions on the drive back from melbourne by fools overtaking in the wrong spots and by one bloke crossing the line and coming straight at us for no apparent reason on a straight section of road and no other traffic, I think he was using us to try and top himself, that was the closest we have ever come I had little blue sideways on the shoulder and if the tyres had bit in we would have been gone but luckily the shoulders had just been graded and it enabled a slide albeit at 100kph, we also had a near miss with a fairly big roo coming out of halls gap on the way through as well we have at least 3 hols on plan at any one time and I wouldnt cancel any of them even if a cyclone was imminent, I've had a couple of warnings with the old pump and I'm not putting off going for nothing, you're dead a bloody long time live life while you can!!!!!!!!!!

good to hear you enjoyed the break, good lot of pics also, did you get as much exercise as the shutter on your camera exercise, good tucker, and loving relations, is the key to a long life, so reckon you got a lot of miles in you yet

Hey Dave
Great report
Great photo's
Great time.

Another destination for Annie and me to plan for

John

-- Edited by jandas fun at 17:39, 2009-02-14

Great to have you back safe and well Sir Dave. Is the '06' a digital code for Bailey by any chance? 'cos those photos are awesome!

Dave great report and photos what can i say maybe a job change or were they margaret great work , who ever great eye for framing Terry

thanks Terry, john, Mike and Max, I must say that the church at port arthur really fascinated me as far as from a photographic point of view, so many different angles and every light change on the stone work, just magnificent,
 
the dragon got a bit grumpy 'cos I kept wanting to go back to it, I must have about 50 just of the church, just awesome, must have really been something before the fire and the steeple blowing down,
 
but wherever one look's in Tassie it just screams out "PHOTOGRAPH ME", 

as I stated if any of you wish to have any of the shots, send me an email and I will send the original out to you in full 9 meg, they would look fantastic blown up and framed, 

there would be no charge of course

if you wish a little more detail on the trip, it can be found on our blogspot,

-- Edited by dave06 at 15:29, 2009-02-15

Awesome, enthralling, superb....
Ever thought of getting Job Dave? I feel your effort is far superior to the "where the bloody hell are Ya" campaign....

If I had an offer of photographing nifty looking sheilas on a beach, you wouldnt be able to hold me back!!! I know where the bloody hell I'd be, just check in at the doghouse down the back, move over you hairy little mongrel and give me that bone, don't you growl at me!!! damn thinks he owns the place!!!

Thanks Davo and welcome back. I actually missed your daily blurbs. I don't have to go there now, your pics have filled in all the blanks I had about Tassie. You went at the time of the year I plan to go, whenever. What was the weather like? It looks ok in the pics, but really, what was it like. eg average temp, windy/not windy, variation from coast to coast. Thanks for the great pics. Cheers Granny

well granny, the weather, we enjoyed immensely, not very much wind to speak of and an average temperature of between 16 and 18 degrees, now I hear you saying "holy snapping handbags, thats bloody cold" but it was very pleasant indeed, I am actually windburnt from our gordon river cruise we had jumpers on for most of the time but they were only light, we struck a couple of days of light drizzle but that didnt stop us from grabbing disposable raincoats ($4.80) at the tahune airwalk and continued on, all photo's from that section were taken in a mild drizzle the nights at port arthur and cradle mountain were very cold, I heard 2 degree's being spoken of but honestly we closed the vents and pulled the doona up and we didnt notice it we were in bed by 8pm most nights, as no fires were allowed (even though they were at port arthur) no telly or wireless (no reception most times) and we were up and around by 7 am keen to continue on our travels the mist on the lakes I will never forget, bradys lake will forever hold a special place in my heart, the mist in the morning covered 90% of the water and gradually lifting as the morning rolled on, truly magical stuff, tottaly enthralling to sit with a cuppa and a couple of good freinds we met over there as a bit more is exposed we sustained 2 weeks of above 40 degs at home and we travelled with no air con in 43 deg temp so the cool of tassie was a very welcome relief and I must say I loved every second of it granny dont let the cool put you off, take the trip as soon as the quacks let you go, you wont regret it, the whole of Tassie will forever hold a special place in my heart!! and I am sure it will latch on to you as well!!!