Tassie Tour Sept 2008 Day 5

Sam’s 4th birthday & Oscar joined us.
I started the day with a trip to Hobart Airport to pick-up Oscar – I had to sign for him as he was an unaccompanied minor.

Tom was meant to come too but had come down with Scarlet fever and missed the last 2 weeks of school. It was thought best he not travel.

On the return trip we picked up a cake for Sam’s birthday.

In the afternoon we decided to walk down to the Federation Chocolate Factory as Nick had placed an order with us for a block Rum & Raisin. Naturally it rained on us forcing a stop off for Hot Chocolates (it stop rain just after we placed the order).

The Horses in the back paddock are still ignoring Linda & Sam’s best attempts to feed and pat them.

Tassie Tour Sept 2008 Day 4

Linda had a look through the information booklet in Forget-me-not cottage and decided she wanted to find the tartan shop that was mentioned in it – so we started the day walking though the town looking for the place only to find it had closed 2 years before. So we ended up in a café at the end of town to keep Sam happy before I walked back to finish packing the car.

The drive today was Oatlands to Taranna and was pretty straight forward with just a stop for supplies in Sorell.

In Taranna we stayed at Taranna House – owned by Linda’s Mum & Dad – Nice place now fully renovated down stairs and upstairs is not bad – just the stairs going up are very narrow.

I should also add that Sam had asked before the trip if there were any Toilets in Tasmania and I had told her “No, you will just have to hang on for two weeks”, after which she had wanted to check with Grandma & Pa about Taranna House to be assured there were loos. However, Sam seemed to what check out all the loos around Tassie and seemed to want to go far more often than at home.

Tassie Tour Sept 2008 Day 3

Leaving Cradle Mountain we set out for the Oatlands. We backtracked via King Solomon Cave in Mole Creek – it’s a nice walk through but given the rain a few days before the cave was a bit drippy which Lachlan was not happy about and Sam was initially a little uncertain about the whole thing.

Linda was finding the windy roads a bit hard going and ended up driving after the cave for the rest of the day.
Out accommodation was a little cottage in – Forget-me-not cottage, which was a quaint mix as you can see from the photos - Sam loved it. It had a little pot belly stove which was great – but needs to be re-sealed so it can be damped down to slow burn overnight. Also need a major upgrade of the Kitchen equipment but I managed to do a basic dinner.

Tassie Tour Sept 2008 Day 2

Today we set out, rather ambitiously, to walk around Dove Lake with Sam – Lachlan was always going to be carried.

6.6 Km did not sound that far –it’s what Max & I do on a long walk.

We started well and Sam coped well with the snow making part slippery and Lachlan fell asleep in the backpack quickly but a bit over half way round Sam gave up and need to be carried – So Linda took Lachlan from me and Sam and I started off – while we made it round the 1-2 hours suggested was more like 3 and we kept our ambitions more realistic after that but it is a beautiful walk and all the prettier for the snow even if it did make the ground wet, slippery and in places more like a creek that a walking track.

A lovely walk and scenery - and not to many people at this time of year.

Tassie Tour Sept 2008 Day 1

Well the idea was I’d take the car over on the ferry and meet Linda, Sam and Lachlan at Launceston Airport.

I thought the Oceanview Recliner could not be that bad the site says - ‘Each seat reclines [Yes but not that far and the seat in front reclines in to you!] for comfort [I have been more uncomfortable] - and features an individual reading light.’ Perhaps the fact the night turn out to be fairly rough did not help but if you are going across – pay for the cabin (then you can have a shower too before getting off).

The next part of the plan worked fine – pick them up no problems and then drove to Cradle Mountain via Liffey Falls as well as stopping in Mole Creek to visit the Tasmanian Honey factory – if you want to buy some honey or taste Leatherwood honey it might be worth it otherwise just dive on for lunch at the Mole Creek Guest House which was good.

Our first two nights were in Cradle Mountain staying at the Cradle Mountain Chateau- very nice and we were greeted by snow which Sam thought was wonderful.