We arrived in Devonport, Tasmania on the 3rd of December on the Spirit of Tasmania and instead of taking the Moke on the trailer behind the bus we decided to drive both vehicles. This meant a considerable saving on the fares and we will use the bus as base camp and do lots of exploring in the Moke.
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| St Patrick's River |
We started our explorations in the Devonport area with visits to the surrounding towns, driving through the lush green countryside where the roads are lined with fields of potatoes, onions and other crops including pale pink fields of poppies. We have been buying cherries and raspberries at the farm gate and enjoying other fresh Tassie produce. At Sheffield any bare side of the buildings is decorated with murals of pioneer scenes of life in the district and Railton township has made topiary it’s specialty with bushes trimmed to many animal shapes and even a big hedge trimmed to be an almost life size engine and carriages.
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| Zig-zag road to the top of Mt. Barrow |
We moved on to stay at a reserve about 30km past Launceston and once again parked the bus to use as a base for local exploration. Myrtle Park reserve is a huge area by the St. Patrick River in a valley in the mountains and the camp fee is only $3 per night. We have driven up and down mountain roads where the panoramic views are amazing even if the wind is freezing. The beautiful old buildings in Launceston are still in use, the city being small enough to avoid replacing them with modern high-rises. We also spent a day driving up the east side of the Tamar River to Low Head at the mouth of the river where we visited the Pilot House Museum were pilots used to row out to sailing ships in all weathers to guide them past reefs and safely into the river, then up stream to the port at Launceston. On this day we saw three other Mokes on the road!
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| 11 Santas manning the ship |
We are presently at Scottsdale in the north east having driven the bus up and over the mountains and we will tackle another pass to get to St. Helens on the east coast for Christmas. Meanwhile we are finding more mountains and country roads to explore in Scruffy.
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| WW 1 memorial carved from trees at Lederwood near Scottsdale |
I'm glad we have a run around vehicle as there are plenty of roads unsuitable for an RV and the best scenery is up those roads.
