Snowy Mountains - Tasmania - Charleville Floods

After an enjoyable five days in Canberra we left a little after 9 a.m. Monday morning in pouring rain and, lo and behold, peak hour traffic that we thought we would have avoided. With our destination of the day being Cabramurra in the Snowy Mountains, we decided on taking the scenic route travelling via Yass, Gundagai, Adelong, Batlow, Tumbarumba, and then up into the Snowy Mountains. After missing the turn-off to Cabramurra (how the heck me managed to do that is beyond both of us as the sign was HUGE), we didn’t realizing our mistake until we reached the locality of Tooma after earlier viewing the Southern Cloud memorial, the site of Australia’s first major air disaster in 1931 and commenting on how neither of us remember seeing it previously.

Backtracking twenty kilometres to the intersection we continued on our merry way eventually arriving Cabramurra mid afternoon. Of course not being “the brightest stars in the universe” it never dawned on us that as Cabramurra is Australia’s highest town at 1488 metres (or just shy of 5000 feet) it might be a little cooler than normal which we soon discovered as we got out of the car to a cool twelve degrees; that about when we made a mad scramble to get our Driza-bone jackets out of the van.

At Cabramurra we stayed with a friend who is on the staff of the Snowy Mountains Authority and is one of two dam inspectors. After a night of catching up with all the news, having dinner that night in staff restaurant, we awoke the next morning to a brisk eight degrees, however being a pair of “softies” we slept with the heater on all night. Following breakfast in the village cafeteria we left Cabramurra around 10’ist with our plan being to make it to Melbourne the following afternoon since we were starting to run short of clean cloths.
Travelled via the Snowy Mountains Highway we had a brief detour into Old Adaminaby viewing the huge Lake Eucumbene and the remnants of the old town before continuing towards Cooma while enjoying the beautiful alpine scenery. Stopping briefly at Cooma to refuel we commenced the long downhill run towards the Victorian coastline and Cann River where we would make a decision about where we would be staying.

Crossing the state border into Victoria the road conditions remained very good however there was one thing we both noticed and commented on, and that was the decided lack of speed advisory signs on the various corners, something that made driving down the ranges quite stressful. Eventually arriving at Cann River mid afternoon after enjoying more beautiful scenery, we found ourselves a pretty little park, parked the rig, and then enjoyed a cup of coffee while watching a Police Breathalyser Unit at work.

Leaving Cann River (and avoiding the Breathalyser Unit, not that there would have been a positive reading) we joined the Princes Highway and started heading west towards Melbourne. After only travelling some thirty odd kilometres we happened upon a pretty little camping area next to the Bemm River, and that was home for the night.

Following a peaceful nights sleep and following a failed attempted to obtain accommodation at our desired location in Melbourne, we opted to only travel as far as Sale as we had previously organized for our mail to be available for collected from the post office, hence booked ourselves into a van park where we could attack the laundry plus the opportunity to carry out any other mundane tasks that needed be addressed..

With there now being no longer a great urgency to get to Melbourne we departed at a civilized hour thus ensuring peak hour was well and truly over eventually arriving at our location early afternoon. And once again as a result of not paying attention, we ended up taking the wrong option on the freeway and found ourselves heading towards Ballarat, away from our destination - so much for paying attention to the GPS.

As Friday was now a free day, it was Mita’s day for some retain therapy. Boarding a bus we headed into Melbourne’s CBD. After a suitable period of time, it was a tram ride to Bridge Street where we (well I did) thoroughly investigated every shop, and with that task completed back into the Melbourne CBD for some more shopping; needless to say Leigh looked like a pack mule laden to the hilt with our purchases, well mainly my purchases.

Eventually returning to the van park late afternoon, we headed over to the local pub for dinner as there was no rush in getting to the ferry terminal for the four hundred twenty kilometre journey to Tasmania since we had been advised that boarding had been delayed until 7.00 p.m. With dinner done and peak hour traffic having now subsided, we headed back into Melbourne with the Bushtracker to board the Tasmanian Ferry arriving around 7.30 p.m., and after going through security and quarantine, sat their until we eventually boarded at 9.30 p.m. with the ship eventually sailing at 10.30 p.m., 1 ½ hours late.

By the time we boarded and being grateful that we’d eaten prior, we headed for our cabin, had a shower, and “crashed”. Fortunately the trip across the notorious Bass Strait was fairly smooth however sleeping in a strange bed didn’t equate to a good nights sleep.

As a result of the relatively calm conditions we arrived in Devonport at 7.30 a.m. the following morning. Disembarking from the ship and being fortunate in that we were the 4th vehicle to exit, we were once again subjected to a quarantine inspection to ensure we weren’t carrying any fruit, vegetables, honey, or fish produces, we made tracks to Deloraine located 50 kilometres away, a location we decided would be a great place to restocked our supply of fruit and veggies since we figured the rest of the new arrivals who probably had never been to Tasmania previously would probably be doing the same in Devonport.

With restocking done we headed inland in search of the Liffey Falls camping area located at the base of the Western Tiers and the gateway to the lakes region. Finding Liffey Falls was no great drama however locating the camping area was a totally different matter. After spending nearly two hours on forestry trails and logging tracks that had few provisions for turning around, we gave up and continued on up into the lakes region.

The drive up the Western Tiers was steep however the scenery was sensational and of course being good tourists we had to make several stops to admire the panorama. Eventually cresting the summit we continued around the foreshore of The Great Lake finally locating a camping spot at Boundary Bay within metres of the foreshore near the locality of Liawenee.

We were, to say the least dog tired after the ferry ride, the drama of trying to locate the Liffey Falls camping area, and then the subsequent drive to our current location that we decided to stay put for twenty four hours. That evening, we soon realized that we were in “cold country” with the temperature dropping into the single figures – thank heavens we had a heater fitted to the Bushtracker.

Following a relaxing day on Sunday we awoke Monday morning to 4C degrees and a glorious sunrise across the lake. Having had breakfast, tidied up, it was time to move on to our next destination, that being Lagoon of Islands forty kilometres away that we would use as a stepping off point to visit Lake Sorrell, revisit Arthurs Lake, plus do a few side trips.

Unfortunately Lagoon of Islands camping area didn’t quite match the image portrayed in the tourism brochure or the accompanying photo that we had, however we opted to remain. Finding a level spot not far from the waters edge and clear of any tree’s we unhitched the van and headed off to Lake Sorrell.

The drive out to Lake Sorrell was quite pretty with the bush track winding through the alpine forests however unfortunately the road was littered with quite a few “road kill” carcasses that included Wombats and Tasmanian Devils. While Lake Sorrell is quite a distance in off the main road it was worth the effort to visit it with the lake surrounds dotted with camping facilities, holiday shacks, boat ramps, playgrounds for the kids, and BBQ facilities. The lake is also a breeding area for Black Swans and several other rare duck species.

From Lake Sorrell we backtracked to the Lake Highway stopping en-route to watch an Echidna foraging and taking the opportunity to feel its coat while it was preoccupied; it was totally unperturbed by our presence. One thing for sure, I don’t think I would like to run over one, the spikes were sharp and quite rigid and would no doubt destroy a vehicles tyre.

Rejoining the Highway we headed north around the foreshore of Arthur’s Lake towards the eastern escarpment before doing a runner back to our camp since the weather was becoming threatening. As it transpired we only just made it back in time before the heavens open up and the temperature plummeted. And once again the heater was turned on.

After a night of storms accompanied by strong winds we eventually awoke to a glorious sunrise and surrounded by a herd of sheep. Our next stop was Bothwell, established in circa 1820 and now listed on the National Estate Register as a Historic Town.

Arriving in the old town late morning after quite a pleasant drive and for a change it was mostly downhill albeit windy, we parked behind golf museum that also acted as the local tourist information office, and where we planned on staying the night. Armed with a tourist map of the town listing all the historic buildings together with the relevant historical information we set out on foot eventually returning to our start point some time later after thoroughly exploring the town, walking up to the local lookout (yes, Mita once again found a hill and we just had to climb the damned thing), plus imbibing in coffee and cake at a quaint little 180 year old coffee shop.

Bothwell is also home to the oldest golf links in the southern hemisphere with golf being first played here in 1839 by Scotsman Alexander Reid who brought out from Scotland several wooden clubs and Featheries (feather stuffed balls). The golf club was officially formed in 1902.

That night we adjourned to the local pub for a meal you couldn’t jump over, it was that large we left over half of it on the plate. And to compliment the meal we had a bottle of Pinot Noir; for those who enjoy a wine, Tasmania together with New Zealand probably definitely produce the best Pinot’s in Australia and possibly the world.

Next stop was Hobart. Leaving Bothwell at a civilized hour we wound our way down the ranges eventually arriving at the outskirts of Hobart and after merging into the heavy traffic created by road works on the main arterial road we eventually located the showgrounds that for all intent and purposed was bursting at the seams with motor homes and caravans.

After locating a nice grassy spot, we parked the Bushtracker then headed into Hobart to retrieve our mail and Leigh’s repaired hearing aids – yeah, no more yelling. Of course the day we happened into the Hobart CBD is also the day a super liner with its thousands of passengers docked only two hundred metres from the downtown precinct so you can imagine the chaos. After eventually locating the post office followed by a quick visit to the tourist information office we got to heck out of there, returning to the showgrounds via roads unknown.

The next five days were spent catching up on our chores, going to the Salamanca Markets, sightseeing and generally bumming around.

We left Hobart Monday morning after peak hour and made our way south for our next destination of Bruny Island located just off the coast at Kettering. The island isn’t all that large, in fact it’s only about sixty kilometres long and is divided into two distinct sections, North and South Bruny; the two sections are joined by a narrow isthmus however the majority of attractions and scenery are located on the south island. After a short nine kilometre vehicular trip from Kettering we disembarked and made our way down to the Cloudy Bay camping within the South Bruny National Park, an area that we decided would be a nice quite location away from the hoards with the added bonus of being within striking distance of all the main attractions.

Tuesday morning, following a light breakfast we headed for Adventure Bay travelling via various forestry trails where we boarded one of four semi-rigid 12.5 metre boats for a wilderness cruise alone the rugged southern coastline of the island. Returning three hours later encrusted with salt spray and frozen stiff we made a bee line back to the van, turned on the hot water system, and had beautiful hot shower

As for the wilderness cruise, well albeit the rough seas, huge swells and howling winds it was well worth it. We were privy to some wonderful scenery including an up close look at a fur seal colony while at the same time being given a running commentary on the geology, ecology and general history of the region.

Wednesday started out overcast however as the day progressed so did the weather. The day was generally spent sightseeing, visiting a cheese factory, trying to locate a winery (unsuccessfully) and generally admiring the scenery.

Departing Bruny Island Thursday morning we made our way over to South Arm opposite Hobart where we overnighting. Friday morning Mita caught an aircraft out of Hobart for Charleville via Melbourne and Brisbane to assist our daughter whose home was inundated by the massive floods that have affected 75% of that state.

I on the other hand eventually boarded the “Spirit of Tasmania” back to the mainland on Sunday following a cancellation and after a good nights sleep in Melbourne headed for Charleville via home, eventually arriving Charleville late Friday afternoon much to Mita's delight as she had been sleeping on a wooden floor as most of daughters furniture and possessions had been ruined in the two floods that had innundated the town.