Tasmania, Part II

September 26-29, 2012 – Tasmania Australia Part II

Wednesday morning, day #29 of Return 2 Oz 2012 and we enjoyed a sunny day in Hobart. We walked down to the wharf and caught a ferry up the Derwent River to the MONA Museum. Several people have told us not to miss this museum, so it was top of our list of things to see. Quite interesting the Museum of Old and New Arts, it markets itself as an kinky adult Disneyland, we found it to a bit “out there” bit of sex, death and a lot blood. The building itself was very interesting, perched up on a cliff above the river. None of the art (pictures, sculptures, videos, etc.) were titled, each visitor was given an O machine (like an I-pod) which told you what you were seeing, a bit about the work and some also had audio attached.  We spent the morning seeing the exhibits. When we returned to the city we spent some time walking around the Salamanca Market area (old warehouses built by the convict labor) – lots of browsing and a bit of shopping.  Dinner that night was at a fun pub, Jack Greens. Didn’t every find out who Jack was; but he had a very fine selection of spirits, even our beloved 4 Roses Bourbon.

Thursday morning saw us packing up the little MoHo and heading north out of town towards Launceston.  At least that was the plan, after fueling up the rig, it suddenly “took crook” it would not stay running and as the guy from the fuel station said “doesn’t sound good” – gotta love a good understatement. A call to Apollo brought out a local mechanic who attempted to get us going again, to no avail, Mike limped it to his garage a few miles away.  After sitting there was several hours he still couldn’t figure out was wrong. We started contacting Apollo and asking them for an exchange rig – that was not going to happen. The local distributor had several in his lot, but was not about to give us one.  A bit of panic set in, tomorrow is Friday, if they can’t fix it, we will miss our Saturday ferry back to Melbourne….. Oh the drama began to build. Of course one always imagines the worst at times like these.  We made several calls to both the local Apollo and corporate Apollo all of whom said they would “get back to us”….. Several hours and we still had heard nothing.  We got a room at a local hotel for the night and tried to think positive thoughts J.  After dinner we returned to our room and we sent an e-mail to CEO of Apollo up in Brisbane, describing our delemia and our worries. We went to bed hoping that Friday would be a better day.

Friday morning – good news Tony the “wonder mechanic” worked until late last night and finally figured out the cause our problem, and made the necessary repairs.  We were able to get back on the road and make up time. We did hear that the local dealer had heard from corporate about our “problems” and there was an attempt at “making nice” – a bit late as they hadn’t seemed to care about returning our calls yesterday.  Back on the road we headed north towards Launceston. Made a stop mid morning at the Red Bridge, cute little park with interesting tree sculptures, and café with freshly made scones and donuts (yummy). Launceston was our stop for evening; we took a nice walk around town and had a nice beer sampling at Boag’s Brewery (Tasi beer).

Saturday morning, we survived a night of HEAVY rain and wind and headed towards Devonport, Tasmania (where we catch the ferry back to the mainland). We made a stop at the Catarac Gorge for a nice walk around. We had been there on a school trip back in the early the 1970’s. -- Still a beautiful place, and we got our look at it with a bit of sun (rain as soon as we got back in the MoHo). 99 kilometers to go and we are back to the port; on the way we stopped in LaTrobe to try and catch a glimpse of the illusive platypuses, -- a couple of walks around the pond with binoculars in hand revealed no “duck bills” More precipitation (a bit of snow too)… we made our way to the port, got the little MoHo secure in the garage on the ferry and breathed a big sigh of relief, we were going to get back to Melbourne and see our friends.

Tasmania Part 1

September 22-25, 2012 – Tasmania Part I

Saturday morning we left the Grampian Region and headed towards Melbourne. Our destination was the port in South Melbourne where we would catch the ferry to take us to Tasmania.  Another driving day through pasturelands, sheep, cows and big gum trees. The weather got warmer and sunnier as we got closer to Melbourne. We arrived early afternoon and had an hour or so to kill, so we found a parking place for the Apollo and parked ourselves in the sun on the patio of a friendly pub and joined many others taking in the wonderful weather with a cold one.  The Spirit of Tasmania Ship was docked just across from our afternoon’s perch, so we made our way to the terminal and boarded with many other cars, utility vehicles, trucks, travel trailers and small motor homes; the choreography that the ferry had was amazing to watch, getting all of the vehicles inspected, parked and secured for the voyage efficiently. We were on ship by 6:00pm, found our recliners (a bit larger than airplane seats, but the same concept J) and made our way down to the lounge area to see the lights of Melbourne as we sailed south to Tasmania. We had a very nice dinner on board and were able to catch a few winks in our lounge chairs during 11hour crossing.

Sunday morning we docked in Devonport, Tasmania about 5:00am. We were a bit concerned about finding the MoHo amongst all of the vehicles in the garages, but Mike navigated us right to her.  A bit sleep deprived, but anxious to get on the road we headed east. Our first stop of the day was in Burnie, an interesting town, once big in paper production. We spend about an hour at an exhibit center that had booths of different crafts’ persons from doll makers, milliners, and hand made paper crafters, wood workers and many more. Our route along the northern coast took us along the Bass Straight through the colorful and intriguing towns of Wynyard and Stanley. On the itinerary was to visit the historic light house in Wynyard and see the tulip fields in bloom, lighthouse was there but we were too early to see the tulips; there were many beautiful blooming rhododendrons, camellias, and other colorful plantings We visited our first national park, “Rocky Cape”, enjoying lunch at a beautiful coastal sight.  Our next stop was a quick visit to the historical sight of Highfield, the 1^st residence of the English land developers – the Van Diemans’ Company. It represented a very sad story of how the foreigners took advantage of their wealth and strength to harm many of the local Aboriginal Tribes as well as the prisoners from their own country that were treated harshly as slaves. Our campground for the night was a small little RV park, but it was right on the coast, such a beautiful location.

Monday morning saw us heading south to visit Cradle Mountain National Park, a World Heritage Site, the route was many miles, very curvy and we had lots of rain and snow.  Mike, the consummate chauffer, just kept going with the flow. When we arrived at the park there was a shuttle van that took us to the top, we got out and walked up the path for a quick view of clouds where the mountain was supposed to be, and grabbed the next shuttle down to get out of the snow and wind. BRRRRRRR!!!  Bought a postcard at the gift shop to give us an idea of what the mountain does look like. Heading down the mountain we did enjoy the temperate rainforest growth along the roadside (fern trees, gum trees, pine trees, and grasses of many descriptions), through the wipers swiping the windshield most of the trip.

Tuesday morning we are singing the “Rain, Rain Go Away” song. Knew that Tasi might be cool and damp, but weren’t quite prepared for COLD and WET. Oh well, nothing can keep this duo down, another day of places to go and things to see. We went through Queenstown a copper mining town, then we stopped at the Franklin – Gordon Wild Rivers National Park where we took a nice walk down a well maintained path to the Franklin River, a wild and scenic water way.  We continued out pace south through the pleasant towns of Tarraleah, New Norfolk, and on into Hobart.  We decided we needed a bit of break from the “Camper” so we got a nice hotel about 3 blocks from the wharf. Tomorrow we set out to see the beautiful town of Hobart.

The Grampians National Park

September 20, 2012 – Victoria, Australia; The Grampians

Thursday Morning – we got up, packed up and said a bit of a sad “good bye” to our friends Kris and Bill from Ashland (Karen really misses her buddy Kris and is anxious for her to return to Ashland so they can carry on with their fun & games). Seemed like we had just been planning our visit to see them and suddenly we had been there and it was already time to move on. We have more places to visit on our 2012 trip (we’re on the 2^nd page of the itinerary, guess that means we are ½ way through this adventure?)  The little Apollo MoHo hit the road heading east, leaving the state of South Australia and into a mountainous region in the state of Victoria called the Grampians. After full day of beautiful views: pasture lands, fields and fields of brilliant yellow mustard, sheep, cows, goats and such we reached the small community of Halls Gap at the foot of mountains. The campground was almost overrun with roos at dawn and dusk.

Friday morning we started our tour with a stop at the Brambuk Cultural Center, there we picked up info on the area and map to guide us on our wonderings. We took most of the day to drive and see this beautiful national park. We made stops at many of the viewpoints, walking out to see the incredible scenery at the Boroka Lookout, The Balconies, Broken and Mac Kenzie Falls. This area could definitely take up to a week or more to do it justice, BUT our clocks were ticking; we do our quick visits with hopes that our photos, memories, and these notes will help us remember the great times we have had. Tomorrow we head to Melbourne where we will put the MoHo on the ferry for a trip to Tasi.

South Australia

September 14-19, 2012 – Our Awesome Adelaide Adventures

Friday we drove in from Port Augusta, S.A. to Adelaide and got the little Apollo Motor Home serviced, we were having some issues with the refrigerator and our horn was not working, thought maybe we should have that working if we were to be overtaken by a herd of kangaroos or some such.

Saturday, (Day #16 of Return 2 Oz 2012) we arrived at 406 Carrington St. Flat #2 Adelaide, South Australia, home of our friends, Kris and Bill from Ashland (Little Addie, the Springer Spaniel’s parents). So great to see their smiling faces – it has been about 16 months since they left Oregon.  After getting settled into our “guest room” we took a trip out to Port Adelaide region, a nice drive followed by an oyster and beer tasting. We sampled an interesting grouping of beers, including an alcoholic root beer (quite yummy).

Sunday morning we got up and went into Adelaide City proper to watch Bill run in the City to the Bay 12k Run.  We saw him sprinting by us at about the 2k mark, we then drove to the end of the race in the beach resort town of Glenelg to pick him up. The weather went from sunny and cool at the beginning of race time to drizzly and cooler at the end.  We later enjoyed a wonderful Indian Lunch with a great variety of interesting and tasty dishes.

Monday, Kris had organized our Adelaide Activities based on our itinerary notes. Bill had to work but the 3 of us set out on a highly organized plan of attack to see and do it all. We headed southeast of the City to a wine region called the Adelaide Hills. It was beautiful drive through a lot of gum trees, a real adventure of lost roads, confusing maps and missing signs. We arrived at Hahndorf Cellars in an idealic setting. We enjoyed a good tasting and snacked on a cheese platter, cake and coffee. We stopped at Nepanthe Vineyards # 2 winery of 45+ possible stops in this relatively small region.

Tuesday morning and the “fun just keeps on coming”. Our 1^st stop of the day was at the Tandanya Aboriginal Culture Institute. We saw a very interesting and bright display by the late artist Jimmy Pike. The title of the show was Desert Psychedelic – they were beautiful designs many of which were printed on fabric.  The Copper’s Brewery was our next stop, a highlight for Mike, (he loves Coopers Beer). We had a good tour of the brewery followed by an even better tasting. An important note: cans are really the superior vessel for keeping the beer fresh, (think beer keg), also did you know that you can freeze the cans will no ill effects to the product.

Wednesday morning saw the intrepid travelers and their favorite resident tour guide heading towards the Barossa Valley (South Australia’s Napa Valley). Our first stop was the Whispering Wall – an interesting phenomenon at the Barossa Reservoir, with its unique acoustic effects; words whispered at one end can be heard at the other over 100 yards away.  Back on the road we enjoyed the beautiful countryside of South Australia. The day’s stops also included the Lyndoch Lavender Fields, Maggie Beers Farm Store (an Australian celebrity cook a bit like Martha Stewart) and visits and tastes at 3 wineries: Jacob’s Creek, Rockford and Seppeltsfields.  This South Australia wine region has over 200 wineries.  The evening was capped off with a great Vietnamese dinner on Gouger Street at – a toast to our hosts: Kris and Bill. Thanks so much Guys for your hospitality and the great Adelaide visit.

Cobber Pedy

September 12-13, 2012 - Cobber Pedy and the end of Stuart Highway Drive

Wednesday – We checked into the Desert Cave Hotel, our room (dug into the sandstone ground) was a very well appointed and comfortable room, (but cool and dark (cave like?); a fun experience for one night. A nice package deal included dinner in their very nice restaurant, breakfast the next morning in the café, a nice bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

 We took an afternoon a cave tour with Gunther, our German guide, a retired miner, opal cutter and pretty much an expert on everything; who did give us a lot of interesting information. We went into a mock up of an old mine, dug-out home, and out to some working opal fields, marked by piles of dirt (looking like giant mole hills), next 100 foot deep holes. The little shuttle then headed out to the The Breakaways – a stunning group of sandstone outcroppings on the desert floor, we drove by a section of the “Dingo Fence” (5,300 K – 3575 miles long) running from Queensland in the east to South Australia on the west, keeping the wild Dingos to the north of the fence and the sheep and cattle safe to the south. Our last stop on the tour was a Serbian Church that was dugout of the ever-present sandstone – what an amazing structure.

We finished up the day with a very good meal in the hotel’s restaurant, using more restraint tonight than on the previous eve.

Thursday – Desert Driving Day #4

We left Cobber Pedy and headed south along the Stewart Highway for one last day of desert (deserted highway) driving. The amenities on this stretch of road were far and few between, we only had one fuel stop at about after about 175 miles.  Since Alice Springs we have covered over 1000 + miles and have witnessed the beauty and sameness of this highway. We are looking forward to get down towards the coast and seeing some more color.  One of the highlights of today’s drive was a flock of emus crossing the road in front of our van.

Port Augusta was our stop tonight, a pretty town on the Spencer Gulf, we got some of the dust washed off our selves and are beginning to feel re-energized by the ever increasing greenness of the environment.  Adelaide is our next big stop, we will be seeing our friends Kris and Bill (Adelaide the Springer Spaniels’ parents from Ashland, Oregon) – looking forward to catching up with them and spending some time sight seeing, wine tasting and enjoying their company.

The Red Center

September 9-11, 2012 – Desert Driving, Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjunta, Northern Territory

Sunday, 9/9/12 we are “on the road”; heading south to see the Red Centre. We had a lot of miles today on the Stuart Highway (the main N/S Hwy in central Australia). By mid-afternoon we had made it to King’s Canyon, an imposing red sandstone structure that provides such contrast to desert floor. The April rains were still visible in the green vegetation seen around and in the canyon. We took a great helicopter flight over and around this amazing landmark. A great experience!

Back in the MoHo, Mike (AKA Crazy-Man Wraight) says, “let’s see if we can get to Ayres Rock this evening”.  You guessed it, by 7:15p.m. we had made it into the camp ground, at the Ayres Rock Resort; very tired, but excited to be at one of our most desired sight seeing stops.

Monday morning we are up early – racing to see the sunrise on Uluru. We made it, with only minutes to spare; BEAUTIFUL!!!! Words really cannot explain the magnitude of this grand ROCK.  After viewing the color changes and getting thoroughly moved by the specialness of this sight, we toured the Anangu Aboriginal Cultural Center and then took a bush/trail walk to the base of the rock.  There were so few people were around, we felt like we had the walk to ourselves. We then spent some time walking around the “Resort” 4 different hotels, shops and restaurants. At a local art collaborative we bought ourselves a souvenir; beautiful original painting of the Aboriginal Story of the Seven Sisters and Karen got a beautiful natural seed necklace.  After a few hours of rest back at camp we took a sunset helicopter tour of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Oh my, it was such incredible scenery, Mike and I are certainly hooked on this way of sightseeing.

Tuesday morning we are chasing the sun again, wanted to see the sunrise on Kata Tjuta today, we were just a couple minutes late, but the view was still outstanding. The Red Center has certainly been everything we had hoped for and more. With many miles to burn we turned the MoHo south and set out for a LOOOOOONG Desert Drive towards Cobber Pedy, South Australia.  The Crazy Pilot was back in action, we reached our destination by 5:15pm. We snuck the MoHo into a secluded section of the parking lot of the Desert Caves Hotel (where we have reservations to stay tomorrow night J) The tired travelers made their way into the pub where they imbibed on a bit of liquid refreshment, followed by a marvelous dinner of fresh oysters, filet mignon and bottle of very good cab, cab-franc, merlot blend.  There are some rumors floating about that there might have been some dancing on or under tables, but this author will not confirm such.  This marks our 14^th day of our adventure – what fun we are having!

Alice Springs

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September 6-8, 2012 – Alice Springs, Northern Territory:

Friday Morning and we are up early to catch our shuttle to the Brisbane Airport, off to Alice Springs, via Darwin. All went well, a bit of a long day, but connections worked well, we got dropped off with all of our “STUFF” at the Aurora Hotel just in time for dinner. We enjoyed a nice “bush tucker” style dinner, prawns with wild seeds and a seasoning for appetizers (entrée in OZ) and the main dish was wild barramundi fish with wild bush rice and seasonings? YUM!

Saturday Morning we took off to pick up our MoHo, we had a nice little walking tour of the down town area, and eventually found the Apollo Shop and got checked out. Mike is a great Aussie driver, he just hopped right in, shifting the standard transmission, driving on the left side of the road, and taking all of the traffic circles and one-way streets in his stride. Spent the afternoon, getting 2 new tires for the rig (they looked a bit “tread- bare” to go all the way to Sydney), went shopping for provisions to stock the fridge, cupboard, etc. Spent the night at the local Big 4 Campground. Got all of our stuff stowed in the very small cupboards and shelves (boy are we spoiled with our Safari motor home!)

Sunday Morning we got up to do some more exploring around Alice Springs, only to have the little MoHo act up! Off to the dealer we went, after about 3 hours we had been given another one, we packed up # 1 and moved into # 2 and were off to explore the town by early afternoon. We drove up ANZAC Hill, visited the Royal Flying Doctor Services Center (what an interesting service, free medical service and transport to Australians living in the rural parts of their country), We shopped on the Todd Mall, seeing some very beautiful and interesting indigenous art. Back at camp we went to an excellent didgeridoo demonstration and by a local Australian named Marshall Whyley. He is not an Aboriginal, but plays an amazing didgeridoo. Mike is ready to try playing his when we get back home

Heron Island

September 2-5, 2012  -- The Heron Island Experience

Early Sunday morning the shuttle to the airport picked us up at 4:40am.  Glad they were driving; Brisbane continues to confuse us directionally.  After about a 2-hour flight to Gladstone and a 2 hour+ plus launch ride we arrived at the very scenic Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. We spent the afternoon orienting ourselves to the island and enjoying a beautiful ocean sunset.

Monday morning we took a ride on the semi-submersible sub (sort of like a glass bottom boat). It took us out to the reef where we cruised amongst a lot of coral, fish, turtles and rays. The area we were in was called a “bommie” sort of a depression in the bottom of the shallow reef area - just like being in an aquarium.  The boat captain spotted some whales, so we quickly scurried up the stairs and caught a couple glimpses of the majestic Humpback Whales in the distance. In the afternoon we took a walking tour of the Research Station on the island, it is running on-going studies through the University of Queensland on the increasing acidity of our oceans because of the increased CO-2 in our atmosphere. Looks like a rough place to have to “STUDY”.

Tuesday morning the old folks dipped their toes into the beautifully clear water for a couple of short snorkeling adventures. CHILLY water, but oh it was worth it! We saw “a turtle, fish and shark oh my!!” It was great snorkeling, and despite our old out of shape bodies we managed to paddle around quite a bit and enjoy the magnificent sights.  In the afternoon we joined a walking tour of the island.  We got a good idea of how this tropical paradise was formed, and the plants and animals that inhabit it.

Wednesday morning we packed up to get ready to make our way back to the mainland. We took one last walk through the Pissonia Forrest on the track down to Shark Bay, about a ½ mile walk to the most beautiful beach. We spotted at least 6 rays swimming with in 12-15 feet from the shore. Amazing sight! We then walked along the shore and spotted a lemon shark 5 feet or so in length swimming along with us as we walked the shore back to the resort.

Heron Island has been a wonderful place to visit.  We hare now rested up from the long journey to OZ and have had some “once in a lifetime experiences” on the Great Barrier Reef.

Brisbane, Queensland Australia

August 29, 2012 – Return 2 Oz - 2012 Begins:

We are off for another Aussie Adventure. Who would have guessed 4 years ago at the end of our 2008 trip that we would ever be back here? 

August 31, 2012 - (we lost 8/30 x-ing the International Dateline) After about 32 hours of waiting and flying (& flying, & flying….), we arrived safely in Brisbane Queensland, Australia, a bit tired and sore from a lot of SEAT time. We arrived with our 6 pieces of baggage/carry-ons, the only things we lost were a few snack items we hadn’t consumed and Customs Officials didn’t approve of us having.

After a quick shower and change of clothes we set off to explore a bit of the city. Our hotel the Mercure is ideally situated, right on the beautiful Brisbane River and close to the Central Business District (CBD).  We walked a few blocks, explored getting Mike’s phone converted for use in Oz, had a nice dinner and were back to our room and in bed before 6:00pm.  Brisbane (Brissy to the locals) is the 3^rd largest city/ and the fastest growing city in Australia, almost 2 million “Brisbanites”.

September 1, 2012 – Up early we found an open-air style pub for breakfast, a good night’s rest and a robust breakfast we were ready to SEE what there was to see. We got on a City Sightseeing tour. Great day to be out exploring: Chamber of Commerce perfect weather (sunny, temps in the low 20 degrees C or 70 + Fahrenheit). We enjoyed seeing Brisbane again, this time not fighting the confusing streets, the traffic, and having an interesting commentary as well. The view from Mt. Coot-tha was stunning.  After the bus trip we took a River Cat Boat ride down the gorgeous Brisbane River.  Our last stop was a ride on “The Wheel of Brisbane” a 180ft high Ferris wheel on the Brisbane River - another great vantage point of the city and river.  Going out tonight to find an authentic Australian pub for dinner. We found one that was serving a local specialty: Morton Bay Bugs – sort of small lobster type of seafood, interesting and a bit different.   Days 1, 2, 3, 4 have been fantastic!