Canada - Part 2



View from cottage at sunset

 Our plans for our visit to Canada were always flexible and so we stayed in Ontario quite a bit longer than originally intended.  This gave us the opportunity to spend more time with our son and new daughter and more time enjoying the “cottage lifestyle” and doing a few jobs about the place. New friends we made invited us to stay a few days and took us to a classic car show at Orillia and to a local market which featured sculpture, art, food and clothing, much of it quite different from items seen at Australian markets. 

 



Montreal old district





Street theatre in Montreal



  We spent a few days in Montreal wandering the cobblestone streets of the old part of the city while struggling with everything being in French but we got by with some very rusty school French, luck and help from friendly locals – most signage was in English as well, but often that was in small print.

 When we finally left Ontario in early September we flew west to Calgary in Alberta then took a four day bus trip up into the Rockies visiting all the famous spots like Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefields – so many mountains towering over us and lovely blue-green lakes fed by glaciers – we lost count of the glaciers!

Lake Louise

The bright lake colours and cloudy white or blue rivers are coloured by rock flour ground up by the glaciers and so fine it stays suspended in the water. The amazing scenery is all around you all the time – photos can’t do justice to the awesome 360^o spectacle. The bus trip took us through Rogers Pass on the last day and on to Vancouver.

We wandered the city for a day then picked up a rental motorhome for a 7 day trip north in British Columbia through Whistler, which is a pretty tourist village which hosted events for the 2010 Winter Olympics, to Lillooet, a small country township beside the Frazer River, a complete contrast to Whistler.

Camp spot at Lillooet on 3 levels by the Fraser River

Lillooet has a surprisingly warm climate in a sheltered gorge which channels the warm southerly breezes and provides excellent crop growing conditions. It is also famous as a jumping off point for the trek north to the goldfields, and for the fishing in the river including salmon and white sturgeon, a recent catch measured a record four metres and weighed half a tonne. From there we turned south again on roads featuring plenty of rock fall and avalanche warming signs and tunnels through the sides of mountains till we got back to Vancouver.

Before leaving to head home, we spent two days with friends at Victoria on Vancouver Island which is reached by a 1 ½ hour ferry trip through surrounding islands. They took us to the beautiful Butchart Gardens and for a tour of the city and surrounds which was a lovely end to our Canadian Summer.



We were lucky to see some of this beautiful country during one of the best summers – in 3 months I think it only rained on us about 8 days. The people were all friendly, polite and helpful, and the towns and cities were full of bright flower gardens and hanging baskets. There is so much more to see so with luck we’ll get back before too long and reconnect with all the new friends we made.



Ontario Canada



Casa Loma



Here we are - Niagara Falls!

We are having a wonderful time in Ontario, Canada. We have been spending our time seeing the sights of Toronto where it has been so hot! Apparently this is a hot dry summer for them, but the humidity is very high compared to most of Australia, so when it is 32deg. it feels about 38. We have done the usual tourist stuff – the Art Gallery, Museum, markets etc. plus a private castle/mansion called Casa Loma which overlooks the city. It has only rained about 4 days since we’ve been here. Ontario is so green and of course in autumn when the leaves fall it is a blaze of colour. We hope to see some of that as we travel across the country to Vancouver before we come home.

Of course we did a trip to Niagara Falls and the nearby picturesque town of Niagara-on-the lake and did the “Maid of the Mist” boat ride (the mist is a torrential downpour).



Peter & Annette Whatmore



The main reason for our visit was our son Peter’s wedding to a lovely Canadian girl, Annette, but before that there was a couple of weeks work getting their old lakeside cottage into suitable condition to be used as the wedding venue, so we have spent quite a bit of time in the beautiful cottage country north of Toronto. Everything for the wedding had to be brought in by boat as there is no road access. That meant a marquee, food & drinks, tables and chairs, light and sound equipment and of course all the guests, many of whom stayed several nights camping in the woods.

The cottage on wedding day



Wedding on the dock



It all went off perfectly with fine warm weather and a wonderful group of friendly family and friends. Special thanks to all the people who volunteered their time and hours of labour to make the day a success, not only on the actual wedding day but in the days preceding doing jobs like building the new deck, painting, repairing rock walls, building stairs, gardening, racking and moving stuff around.

We are so happy that Peter and Annette have so many good friends and family around them.

Paradise on the lake in cottage country north of Toronto

Upper Spencer Gulf and Quorn

We have decided to put the Eyre Peninsula on hold as the weather is getting quite cold so we headed north to Port Pirie and then Port Augusta for a few days in each. These ports are different to the little places we’d passed through before as they are important shipping ports with Pt. Pirie having a big lead and zinc smelter as well as grain shipping and Pt. Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf is also an important freight terminal.

We explored Pt. Pirie town where the railway ran down the middle of the main street until the 1970’s and visited some of the small towns in the surrounding area like Gladstone which has a large gaol which was used until the ‘70s and is open to the public to stay overnight in the cells – popular with car club groups etc.

We drove through the hills south east of Pt.Augusta in the Mt Remarkable area which is very popular for mountain biking and there are lots of trails around Melrose township. At their museum we learned about Goyder’s Line, a line which was defined in the 1860’s which designated areas suitable for farming and outside which it was said to be too arid and only suitable for grazing. It is still used as a pretty accurate guide today.



Warren Gorge



This Yellow footed rock wallaby
had never seen a Moke before at
at Warren Gorge





Kanyaka ruins - even big properties were abandoned.
Kanyaka station was 360 sq. miles



We moved on up to Quorn and had a great day on the back roads between there and Hawker visiting Warren Gorge which would be a wonderful quiet bush camp spot with plenty of birds and wildlife and we stopped at several lots of ruins which are typical of the mid north of South Australia which is dotted with the ruins of broken dreams. Little cottages and towns which did not survive the hard drought years and changes of fortune on the land can be seen along every road.

Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas

Crossing the Murray River by ferry at Wellington

We have been slowly exploring the Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas in South Australia for the last month or so and have got as far as Port Pirie.

There were some really picturesque little coastal townships, all with a history as ports when the sailing ships loaded tons of bagged wheat and barley from local areas for shipment to England. What surprised us was that the sailing ships still operated in considerable numbers up until around 1950. The other thing we hadn’t realised was how big they were! The Pamir was 3000 tons and loaded 4000 tons of wheat and none of the models and picture give you a true idea of how tall the tall ships were. At Port Vincent you can get some idea as they have compared the Pamir to the town for example the masts were twice the height of the Norfolk pines in the main street; the spars were the width of the street and the deck the width of the median strip on which the pines are planted. The ships raced to England to get the best prices for the wheat crop – the record was 83 days.



Old horse drawn double decker trams still run on a bridge to this
island at Victor Harbour 



The Fleurieu Peninsula is quite hilly with some dairy farming but the Yorke Peninsula is much flatter with miles and miles of farms growing wheat and barley. The coastal towns are all within reasonable distance of Adelaide nowadays and so they are all growing rows of big holiday homes near the beaches, but the old parts of the towns are full of beautiful old buildings ranging from the old civic buildings to old mansions with tower rooms and verandas all round, to quaint little stone cottages.

We decided not to visit Kangaroo Island as the ferry pricing is too high for a day trip and there would be no question of taking the bus over unless we had a Lotto win!

Copper Mines ruin at Moonta

As we headed north on the Yorke Peninsula we found more mining activity with copper being a big early industry round the Moonta area known as the copper triangle. This lead to the strong Cornish heritage in the area.  Further north at Port Pirie is the biggest lead smelter in the southern hemisphere also producing zinc and some gold and silver. The ore processed here comes from mines further north.



Decorative detail above an old shop in Port Pirie



Limestone Coast, South Australia

We’re back on the road again after four weeks at home doing all the usual stuff – bus service, paperwork etc.

Mokes at Straun House

We got away just before Easter heading for South Australia and luckily we were able to join Moke owners from South Australia and Victoria gathering at a bush camp outside Naracoorte. Thanks to a local Moke owner we were given access to the Naracoorte Historic Vehicle Club display rooms and also to an historic house which is not normally open to the public at weekends as it is the local Dept of Primary Industries Office.

Giant wombat - imagine hitting that
 with your car!

Once the other Moke owners went home we went to the Naracoorte Caves, an area of over 400 caves formed by erosion of layers of the limestone causing cavern formation. There are several cave tours and we chose the fossil cave where skeletons of ancient marsupial mega-fauna have been found – giant tree eating kangaroos and carnivorous “lions” which preyed on them although the lions seem more like giant muscular Tasmanian Devils.

Garden in a sink hole (collapsed cavern)
within Mt Gambier township 

Our next stop was a free camp at Mt Schank, a small volcanic cone and we used this as a base to look around nearby Mt Gambier and Port McDonnell on the coast then on to Beachport for a few days. From there we moved to Wright Beach half way between Robe & Kingston and spent a couple of days exploring Robe and enjoying another relaxed bush camp.

 





The Obilisk at Robe, with coastal erosion
 it will eventually fall into the sea

This whole area is known as the Limestone Coast and due to the nature of the stone it is easily eroded by wind and water so that the coastline is sculpted into dangerous undercut cliffs and crazy shaped islands, headlands and offshore reefs which have claimed many shipwrecks and lives.

Last bit of Tassie



The Nut & Stanley from Highfields

 

We moved on to the north-west with a visit to Circular Head best known as “The Nut”. This is the core of an ancient volcano and stands alone at the end of a spit of land with the town of Stanley huddled in its shelter. We decided not to stay overnight as once again the wind was blowing strongly off Bass Strait but we did visit Highfield House on the hill above the town. Originally the administration centre for the Van Diemens Land Co. it had fallen into serious disrepair until taken over by the Tasmanian Govt in 1990. Restoration work has saved a beautiful historic home and still continues.

A young Echidna near Dip Falls

Our next stop-over was at Smithton, the most westerly town of any size. Not really a tourist town but a good base for local exploring and the Bridge Hotel has great meals – local scallops and chips plus desert of apple pie and cream - all for $12.00.  


Guide Falls near Burnie





As we headed back eastwards we stopped off at a great caravan park at Crayfish Creek where the sites are all in bush settings with birds hopping round everywhere during the day and wallabies hopping round the grassy areas all night. A few more windy days at Cooee Point, Burnie while we explored further inland then gradually headed east to spend a few days at Sheffield.

Mt Roland & Lake Barrington



Letterbox near Wilmot



Sheffield area is dominated by Mt Roland which provides spectacular views of the surrounding country as well as providing a backdrop for many scenic photos. Lake Barrington sits below the mountain and has good camp sites and spectacular scenery. A drive round the lake took us through the little town of Wilmot where many locals have built novelty letterboxes – everything from Daleks to Angels to motorbikes.

Reliquaire window (no photos inside)

In the town of Latrobe there is the most amazing shop called Reliquaire. There are 20 rooms stuffed full of toys, costumes, figures in full period costume, fairies, ghouls and fantasy. It’s like stepping into the toymakers workshop and you really would have to be an awful grouch not to enjoy several hours there.

We have a few more days to fill then it’s back on the boat and back to Melbourne.

North West

Stalagtites in Marakoopa Cave

Mole Creek was our next stop for a few days, an area surrounded by high ranges known as the Western Tiers as the mountains are flat topped but step up steeply to a new level then gently sloping down only to step up steeply again before the next gentle down-slope. The area has over 450 caves and caverns with stalagmites and other amazing formations. Two of the more accessible caves are open for tours and we visited them both on different days getting maximum enjoyment from the experience. The area is famous for honey production so we stocked up on Leatherwood honey and ate honey ice-cream.

Sculpture of a Fishermans Tale

Deloraine was next where we stayed by the Meander River and had to avoid the ducks every time we stepped out the door. The main street has small sculptures with local themes at regular intervals on both sides of the street. They are all about 18 inches tall and are mounted at waist height on top of used oxy-cylinders.

Up to the north coast again and heading west we stopped at many of the coastal towns, free camping in most spots. At Burnie we parked at Cooee Point, a popular but exposed stopover for caravans & motorhomes and for two days it blew a gale, first from the north-east, then from the south-west. The bus rocked and rolled all night in the wind and we heard later it got to 90kph, and even stronger further west. At Devonport the Spirit of Tasmania was unable to dock for over an hour due to the rough seas and driving rain.

Model A Ford

Because of our interest in old cars etc. we spent some time at the information centre at Wynyard where a local vintage car restorer has a collection of very early Fords and other cars on public display. Most of the Fords are pre-Model T, the oldest being a 1903 Model A, the 31^st Ford vehicle produced. It was found in the U.S. only a short distance from the workshop where it was built and still has most of its original parts – including the muffler!

Hobart and up the middle

View of Hobart from Mt.Wellington

We spent a week in Hobart looking at beautiful early settler homes and historic buildings and also the surrounding area visiting beaches, wild coastlines and tiny villages. The weather was good but it wasn’t until the last day that we got a hot and cloudless day to go up to the top of Mt. Wellington which towers over the city to a height of 1270 metres so even on the best of days it’s cool up there. The views are spectacular!

Oatlands, Tasmania



Carrington Mill, Oatlands 1837



There are so many townships with old sandstone houses, old pubs and buildings you just can’t stop at them all so our next camp spot was at Oatlands, typical of the area and by-passed by the highway so it has kept much of its character. The town is dominated by a stone windmill tower, the mill has been restored and produces flour once again.

The next stop was Ross, another historic town by a river with a beautiful old bridge with intricate stone carving built by convict masons in 1856.

Part of Pearn's traction engine collection, Westbury

On to Westbury to camp behind the bakery this time. As well as the old buildings, this town has an excellent steam museum. The Pearn family owned and used many of the steam engines and collected others from the area as they went out of use by the 1950’s and saved them from becoming useless rusty relics. It is the biggest collection of operational steam traction engines in the southern hemisphere.

Swansea to Port Arthur



Dawn over Freycinet Peninsula (from Swansea)

 
We worked our way down the east coast stopping at Swansea where there is a restored bark mill set up as if it is still operational with the steam power plant running all the belts to drive all the equipment. Black Wattle bark is high in tannin and was crushed and bagged for use in the tanneries.

Triabunna

The next stop was Triabunna, a small sheltered fishing village where you can camp behind the pub for a donation to the local fire or ambulance service and from there it was on to Dunalley where once again it was camping behind the pub.

Convict built bridge with spikey top made of local stone

All these stops and the communities in between are linked by winding coastal or hill country roads – great to drive in the Moke. Of particular interest were two hills called “Break-my-neck” and “Bust-my-gall”, they must have been a real challenge in the early days of horses and wagon transport.

We used Dunalley as a base to visit the historic penal settlement of Port Arthur. The introductory talk was very enlightening as we learned that the reforming ideals were quite advanced and the convicts who accepted the system had the opportunity to learn trades, learn to read and write and get a basic education (the library had 13,000 books!). An attempt was made to keep young prisoners separated from the older men and the old, infirm and insane were provided with care so that in the last few years before Port Arthur closed a large percentage of the inmates fell into this category. Punishments were severe however and flogging or working in heavy leg irons were common punishments, also solitary confinement and periods of sensory deprivation.

Main penetentiary building and hospital ruin behind

The area now looks like parkland with magnificent sandstone ruins but it was once a busy industrial township with brick-making, timber cutting and woodworking, a four mill, smithing, and many other trades. All the timber buildings have now gone, leaving the convict built stone structures. There was so much to see we went back for a second day

A boat trip out into the bay was part of the entry price and to our delight our trip included an impromptu dolphin viewing as we caught up with a large pod of dolphins, including young, who kept pace just under bow of the boat.

EAST COAST, TASMANIA

Swimcart Beach, Bay of Fires

For Christmas and New Year we settled into Swimcart Beach on the east coast in the Bay of Fires area near St Helens. We arrived on the 22^nd to try and beat the holiday rush but we found quite a few camps set up but not occupied and people drifted in to take up residency over the next few days.

Blue Wren (a regular visitor)

Our camp was behind the beach in the ti-tree scrub which offered some shelter from the strong wind off the Tasman Sea. The area is a State Nature Reserve and the birdlife was quite unafraid of the campers with tiny birds invading our camp morning and evening looking for insects. There were Yellow-tail Black Cockatoos hanging round feeding on the banksia seed heads, Kookaburras and Boobook owls to be heard in the evenings.



The coast scenery is beautiful with curved white beaches separated by rocky promontories consisting of rounded pale grey, cream or white boulders worn by the wind and water and split by straight cracks as if sliced by a huge knife. Above high water line some of the boulders are covered in bright orange lichen which contrasts with the bright blue waters. Some beaches are better protected from the ocean swells, but others are open to the wild surf creating spectacular displays as the ocean smashes onto the rocks. Many of the beaches have lagoons behind which make sheltered swimming holes popular with holiday makers. Behind the beaches are towering forest covered hillsides.

Christmas campsite

George was sitting out the front and all the kids stopped by to look him over. When he “talked back” to one of them the kid took off to tell his mum that the skeleton “telled me his name!” (I was sitting just round the corner)