Week 8 Sun 8 Apr - Sat 14 Apr

Week 8 Sun 8 April – Sat 14 Apr

Oatlands  8–9 April

We said goodbye to the far South and started heading east, stopping off in Geeveston for quick shopping detour and then again in Huonville for some supplies before heading back through Hobart and across the bridge to the East.  We decided to take the inland route rather than the coast road and drive via Richmond to Oatlands. Stopped in Richmond for a really nice coffee (too windy to be outside – now officially over the wind and the cold) and then headed for the free camp in Oatlands on the lake. We arrived fairly late around 5.00 pm and it was pretty busy with about 8 other vans already in for the night.  We are going to stay here for 2 nights and then head to the East coast to Freycinet National Park.

Monday morning brrrr!!! The temperature has dropped – and it is cold!  It is about 10 degrees but the wind chill makes it feel around 7 degrees.  I have three layers on this morning before we took off for our walk of Oatlands town and the Mill.   We walked all through town (not a big town and being Easter Monday still a few shops shut) but we ended up at the wool store and bought ourselves some woolen gloves (which we have had on most of the day).  There is some really nice jumpers, jackets etc in this shop if you are willing to part with a few hundred dollars.  A few showers are making it cooler and tonight the skies are overcast but clearing.  We have hibernated to our van to keep warm – but the night air is seeping in and it feels colder. 

Bicheno  10 –12 April

We got off to an earlish start and headed for Bicheno.  We had originally intended to stay at Coles Bay near Freycinet National Park, but with Easter holidays were still book and also we didn’t want to stay at the Big 4 caravan park.

On route we detoured via Ross, a lovely little town, very picturesque and like most in Tasmania, very historic.  We strolled up the street and did some of the shops over and then headed out of town on our way East.  We arrived in Bicheno about 2.00pm and leisurely enjoyed the remainder of the day.  The park was busy but not full – but still lots of kids around.  The day was turning out to be lovely and this sunshine is supposed to last until after the weekend. We walked down to the beach just before sunset and took more of our happy snaps.  I had forgotten how much I liked this little town.  It has a lot of things to offer, the beach, a lovely coastal walk, a blowhole, a national park only 8kms up the road, and close to Freycinet National Park. 

Both Tony & I have been suffering from head colds, but Tony is still just in the midst of his and feeling pretty horrible, so we decided to go for a nice small walk (or so we thought) at the Douglas Apsley National Park – the Apsley gorge circuit – a mere 3 hour return.  To our initial shock, the walk was straight up – so with our colds it was a hard slog.  We continued on and when it flattened out it wasn’t so bad.  The gorge walk was a really nice walk and worth the effort in the end.

We returned to camp and then went out for lunch – deciding to do the coastal foreshore walk around the point ending up at the blowhole.  This walk has a little of everything, a bit of forest, beach and rock hopping – it is a really nice coastal walk and the benefit at the end is the blowhole. 

When we were at the old jetty I overheard a woman talking to a guy in a boat who was throwing wood off his boat.  Apparently a boat had run aground and was breaking up, which we discovered just before the blowhole.  It was not a massive boat, but big enough, just rocking back and forth in the wake of the waves occasionally hitting the rocks with the incoming tide. There were bits of wood and boat breaking away around the bay, an eerie feeling to see a boat just floating aimlessly with the tide and with every wave eventually knowing it will sink.  

We continued onto the blowhole, lucky that the tide was still coming in.  It is a very spectacular sight and great to watch with every wave as it streams up into the air.  After numerous photos we continued to walk up to Whalers Lookout, a hill overlooking the town.  You get a great view of the town of Bicheno, the mountains and the coastline to St Helens.  It is a very nice part of the world.

Thursday with the weather still holding, we drove down to Coles Bay to do the Hazards circuit walk in Freycinet National Park.  The walk takes you around a number of bays on the mountain onto Hazards beach then across to the lovely and picturesque Wineglass Bay and back up to the Lookout.  It was worth the effort, sweat and tired legs at the end, particularly after our walk yesterday.

After the walk, we drove to Cape Tourville to view the Lighthouse and take in the great views of the Hazards, Freycinet and Mt Amos.  There is a small 600 metre boardwalk around the Lighthouse that gives great views back to Wineglass Bay.

Our visit to the East coast all but finished, we checked out and then did a bit of shopping and had morning tea at the local bakery before heading west to Launceston.  Not wanting to stay right in Launceston, we found a lovely caravan park on the river at Longford, about 22kms south of Launceston.

Longford (Launceston)  13 –14 April

 Longford is a lovely town and a great place to stay over for a few days to visit Launceston only 20 mins away.  The caravan park is set on the banks of the South Esk River which has the most unusual flow for a river I have ever seen, one side flows upstream and the other downstream and the middle is just eddies and whirlpools were the two currents meet.  Bizzare. Even the ducks struggle with the currents as they paddle furiously to get to one side.

Saturday we drove into Launceston taking the back road from Longford.  We found a place to park along the park (as now every space is a pay and display) about 10 mins from the city centre (we didn’t mind walking) and proceeded to do the shops over.  We both commented that Launceston is a much bigger town than Hobart with lots more shops and seemingly more old buildings.  

We walked up the mall and up to City Park to see the monkeys in the park and back into town for lunch.  We walked around much of the city centre then up to Kings Park on the river before driving up to Cataract Gorge.  This is such a lovely park and has many walks for you to enjoy.  As the day was fast dwindling we wandered around for an hour enjoying the views both up and down the gorge, walking back across the swinging bridge before saying goodbye to the Gorge and Launceston and heading back to Longford.