Leaving Tas

Leaving Tasmania

Travis and Ian feeding the alpaca

Well the time has flown by!! Tasmania has been beautiful and fun. We have climbed many a hill and seen some beautiful ocean front, slick rocks and white sand beaches. Lots of gum trees and rolling pastoral farm lands, some wildlife and some farm-life all in all pretty complete and definitely on the must return list as there are a few places we need to come back to.

It was really great to visit with Travis and Lelia in Fern Tree. They have a lovely property perched on the edge of one of the slopes around Hobart. It takes Lelia 18 minutes to get to work down the hill in Hobart and 45 to an hour to get back. Four wheel drive is recommended for the driveway too. It is a property Lelia’s family purchased years ago when they landed in the Hobart area to place some roots after sailing from France. The family has been off and on in the area for years, Lelia now owns the land and has built a house (actually two the first one was burned in a bush fire some years ago). Travis and Lelia have three Alpaca a half dozen chickens and a couple of ducks. There is a view of Mount Wellington from the property and a creek with reliable water which is a real bonus for a property in Australia.

Mount Wellington from Fern Tree

Travis has taken up spinning the alpaca fur. Diana got him started on knitting – a cottage industry is born! Travis is also guiding for a company that does hut to hut hiking from Cradle Mountain to Lake Saint Clare. Lelia has just completed a nursing degree and has landed her first job in the Emergency Department of the Hobart Hospital. She finished top of her class an intense three year program completed in two years!

Lelia at Bolton Beach

Hanging out on the property there was amazing birdlife. We got to see some smaller birds we had been moving too quickly to see when on the bikes. We went to an Anusara Yoga class with Clare Raffety, who Diana had met at the Grand Gathering at Estes Park a couple of years ago. She has a lovely studio in Hobart and a growing Anusara Kula. We stayed about a week in Fern Tree and then Lelia piled us into a van and we headed out of town up the east coast for a nice overnight on a beach. After some looking we found the Bolton Beach Conservation Area, seems the locals must have removed the road sign to increase their privacy. It was a beautiful spot less than an hour out of Hobart. We walked on the beach and cooked dinner and had a couple brew and crashed under a clear sky full of the southern constellations. In the morning Lelia and Diana went for a refreshing dip in a calm beautiful ocean. Then Lelia dropped us off on the highway where we said our ado’s till next time and we headed up the road. The east coast is really beautiful. Complete with lovely white sand beaches and granite rock out crops.

Coast and road

Eucalyptus stump!

We loved Bicheno and need to come back to explore the Coles Bay area as this was one of the places that we missed. The terrain is mostly rolling hills; very nice riding to Saint Helens. From Saint Helens we cut back inland towards Devonport and the Ferry back to the mainland. There were some big rides in there. One of those days being over 100 km with a couple of big climbs. We met some lovely people. Linda at the Bleu Berry Barn Cafe let us stay at her nice property on the Franklin Rivulet. Thanks Linda the little brown calf was a good companion and we were well set up to tackle the remaining 30km, mostly in the rain, to Devonport.

Brown calf

We got a trailer in the caravan park in Devonport and were able to catch up on some internet action and plan the next stage. We are going to land in Melbourne Monday evening, overnight there and then take the train to Adelaide where our friend Rob Mengler is going to meet us. Rob and Diana did the Tat in 2000 and Rob them was our first visitor in LaHave after we move there in 2000. We are looking forward to catching up and seeing his part of the world. After a bit of a visit with Rob we are going to hang out with the Australia Bike Friday Club in the Clare Valley for a few days before we fly from Adelaide back to Sydney to get ready for our flight on the 3rd of April back to San Francisco.

Till next adios from the Spirit of Tasmania

Diana and Ian