Sunrise - around 7am - over the water to Bruny Island
Mist over Bruny Island - looking out across the water from Snug Caravan Park
Views across the lake - around 9.30am
A different aspect of the water - and look blue skies - the first we've seen
I touch base with Nola (a blogging buddy of mine who has recently moved from the top part of Tasmania - a place called Burnie - to further west to Strahan.) We hopefully plan on meeting with her and her husband Rick this Sunday. It will be the first time any of us have met.
Chris and I just soak up the ambiance of our first morning here on this beautiful island. I strike up a conversation with another lady called Claire and we meet her husband, Don. They are an older couple who live in Hobart but like to trundle around Tassie often staying here in this particular park in Snug. They are chatty and helpful, Claire even taking the trouble to find us a couple of maps from the caravan office.
I take a lot of pictures overlooking the river to Bruny Island then it's time to move. We pack up, say goodbye to Claire and Don and by about 10am (checkout time) we are ready to move off into the wild yonder to Cygnet and Huonville.
We leave Snug and drive through to Nicholls Rivulet. We see of the most forresty, hilly, incredibly beautiful country ever - and the roads are very windy. The rivulet is tiny yet spread out.
Driving into Cygnet feels like you are driving into a small European Village. There's a library, pharmacy and small friendly shops. There's also a lot of historic looking buildings with a hilly green pastured backdrop. We stop for a delightful lunch at 'The Red Velvet Lounge'. (If you're ever in Tassie - make sure you eat here... an unusual menu but really nice.) I order flapjacks with caramilised bacon. There's a little pot of ice cream to the side and the bacon and flapjacks are smothered in this sticky, gooey honey like concoction. Chris has a huge serving of bacon and eggs and mushrooms with all the trimmings. Another great selection.
Cygnet
After brunch we head straight to Huonville. To get there we pass through Cradoc - which is the midway point between Cygnet and Huonville. Again, its just lovely... spread out with lots of homes we can see dotted around the pasture-like land.
We reach Huonville and I can feel excitement building. This town above all others was the one I have spent months poring over on the net. It might the place of our future home! It's a lovely bustling township with both old and new buildings. There's a Mitre 10, a night owl takeaway, 2 dentists and a doctors office that we could see plus the usual bistros and restaurants. For now though, we blow straight through. We want to go straight to Knights Road, a place we remembered looking at online where there are blocks of land for sale.
The first block we looked at - and got bogged
We take the first half of the road up a steepish hill. Then the road turns to gravel. Tasmania has just had four months of almost solid rain and the tracks are a little soggy to say the least. We proceed carefully, mindful of our heavy load with the little van. We pull into a side road and ponder the large block of land before us. It's lovely but not quite what we want. When we try to back out, there's not quite enough room so we move forward to do a circle to get back to the road. Bad idea. I no sooner say, "Watch it here, it looks quite soft..." than we hear the wheels spin. Great! We are bogged.
We try shoving large rocks and branches under the back tires for traction but no go. Chris ends up trudging down the road to the next house. Lucky for us, they are building a new home there and there's a guy on hand who offers to help. We get winched out.
We park the newly unbogged Winnebago on the side of the wide road and decide to walk to the next block of land we want to see. It's further up the road and we walk quite a way to get to it. Doesn't matter though. Time is on our side and we have nothing else we would rather be doing. We find the land up the very end of the road and to the left. It's just beautiful. Quite steep and with a creek running through it. It has the most beautiful huge trees and large hills running along side it. Then comes the bad news. There's a massive power line overhead and all the greenery we think is grass is in fact a kind of moss. Turns out the reason the block is so cheap is because it rarely sees the sun. Hmmm. Maybe we need to really re-think this one.
The block at the end of the long road - the rushing creek is the section there between the two trees at the front of the picture and it's a lot wider and longer than it looks here
We head back down the road to the car and an older man who sees us walking down stops his car, gets out and engages us in chat. He's a friendly guy and he gives us a lot of information on the area. He should know about it, he's lived in Tassie for around 60 years.
The view from Knights Road over Hartz Mountain - look at those snowy peaks!
We say goodbye to our new acquaintance move back through Huonville and out the other side which takes us to Ranelagh (pronouced Ran-el-agh.) Ranelagh is just minutes away from Huonville and again it's so beautiful here. Chris and I keep driving and see these blocks of land we were eventually going to search for but have happened upon by accident. These blocks are really well priced. They are mostly pasture but the thing is, and it's a biggie, is that they all back onto the Huon River. Incredible.
We are just getting out of the car to have a look around when an agent pulls up beside us. He tells us he's on the way to a meeting with the owner and gives us a card to call him if we are interested. We are pretty sure this is karma.
We spend the next hour or so exploring the land and all the adjoining ones which are separated by an easy-to-hop-over wire fencing. We head down to check out the river, (a fairly steep 12 foot drop at the bottom of the block of land - so if you fall in, you better hope you can swim!) Chris gets a zap by the electric fence (put there to keep the cows away from the river) and I step into a massive cow poo. Tell me again why they want the cows NOT to fall into the river?? Thankfully I have my heavy hiking boots on, so I give a thorough wipe of the soles on the grass and off we go again. That is once the laughing stops.
As we head back up the incline after a thorough check of the river and bush leading down to it, Chris is lucky not to get zapped again but I manage to take a tumble down the hill (clumsy is my middle name). I end up muddy and grass stained... but it's all fun. Nothing can dampen my mood.
This is the view from the road where the river block is.. drive down your short driveway and there it is - Hartz Mountain which are part of the Hartz Mountain National Park
I quickly change my muddy pants and shirt in the comfort of the van and we check our map book again. It's getting onto 4pm and Dover (further south) is where we decide on staying tonight. As lovely as Huonville is, there seems to be a distinct lack of places to park a van or even rent a room. There's a spa of sorts and that's pretty much it. We don't care though. We are just moving on... where we go is pretty irrelevant.
To get to Dover we pass through a place called Franklin. Chris loves it. There are blocks for sale with lovely river frontages and loads of boats in the water. We will definetely pass through here again (which is a given because we have to head back this way to get to other places we want to see here in the South.)
Port Huon - just a few minutes out of Huonville - between Huonville and Franklin
Franklin
We find a great little caravan park in Dover, pretty much the only one I think. It's now getting dark but before we settle in for the night, we take a walk down to the water. The cold though stops us from being out too long. The temperature has plummeted considerably. We are looking forward to what tomorrow brings.
Arrive in Dover - parked and done for the day
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