Hit the road, Jack!

The day of departure finally arrived. But before we left we had a breakfast engagement at Jackman & McRoss in New Town with our friends David and Margot. Once back home we methodically packed up the camper trailer and headed north towards Devonport. Did we forget anything? Time will tell! Here's our route:

(Isn't it terrific how the mainland doesn't look that much bigger than Tassie in this image?)

As it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to take the Lake Highway so we could enjoy the walk at Pine Lake atop the plateau. This is one of Tasmania’s Great Short Walks and we love stopping by here from time to time. In a broken landscape the lake and its communities of Pencil Pines are a glittering jewel. The pines struggle on: the elder trees - some of them a thousand years old - providing shelter for the younger ones. The thickset trunks of the veterans are testament to the short growing season and harshness of the environment here. But on this beautiful autumn day we stroll in t-shirts and shorts.

Here's a sign to tell you about this cool (pun intended) little place...

... and one of Di on the boardwalk to protect the fragile plants and make walking easier on this river of rocks, a legacy of the last ice age ...

It's called Pine Lake, and the Pencil Pines are truly the attraction. Here's a photo of one of the older survivors:

Another sign, to better tell you about these beauties than I can:

The occasional show of Mountain Rocket adds a splash of colour to this otherwise fairly muted landscape:

Glaciation has really smashed the dolerite cap on this part of the Central Plateau, but the pines find their niche where there is water ...

... and there are lovely, intimate little windows into the landscape ...

... and hills - though broken - seem to beckon one to explore:

But we have a different destination today, and stroll back along the boardwalk ...

... past Cushion Plants and Scoparia to the car and the continuation of our drive to Devonport:

The passage across Bass Strait hardly warrants a mention.  With the calm weather we’d had for the past couple of days, and especially as we were at Pine Lake, we thought the ride would be a smoothy. Once we’d cast off and the captain got on the blower to tell us that he expected swells of half a metre we knew we’d sleep well. Here’s a photo of Di settled into her bunk playing Sudoko on her iPad:

Disembarking and driving out the Western Highway into the Wimmera has become a enjoyable ritual as we know that with every kilometre behind us we are getting closer to Natimuk and Mt Arapiles. We love being in this part of the world, different as it is from our wonderful Tasmania. We’ve been coming here off and on for thirty years, with yearly visits for about the past ten or so years, sometimes in Spring, sometimes Autumn. It’s hard to explain why exactly, apart from the obvious reason that we like to climb and Mt Arapiles is one of the World’s best crags. There are much more beautiful and exotic places to visit, but somehow being here has become part of the rhythm of our lives.

It's wheat farming country and here's a typical view from just across the road from where we're camped:

For the past few visits we’ve camped at the Natimuk Lake Caravan Park. The lake is slowly drying up with the lack of rain, but there is still plenty of bird life around. At the moment we are seeing  galahs, lorikeets, rosellas, white cockatoos, crested pigeons, shovellers and other ducky sorts of birds, black swans, magpies, fairy wrens and mobs swamp hens. Kookaburras wake us up in the morning and laugh us to sleep at night.

Here's what the lake is looking like currently. As you can see, it's much receded but you might be able to see some of the waterfowl that's still about:

If not, this snap takes you a bit closer:

While we were climbing - in the shade as it was twenty-nine degrees - we had a visit from a couple of Scarlet Rosellas.

Here's one of Di's photos ...

... and another, this time of the pair:

We’ve been here for a few days now and will stay on until late in April, hopefully to do a bit of climbing most days. We’ve been on rock each of the three days so far, albeit at a relaxed pace. We'll probably do a walk or two in the Grampians and maybe some climbing there as well.

We've got a great campsite here under the pepper trees. It's pretty dry, but nice and cosy:

Di is playing her tin whistle as a scattering of fairy wrens dance about our campsite looking for tidbits. I’m looking across at a couple of rosellas pecking at grubs under a tree near by. It’s all good. 

Itching to go!

Why the title "Of Cockatoos and Kangaroos"? Well, after our nature theme for the trip to North America last year it seemed like an appropriate concept to play with again.  And, although we're not rapt with white cockatoos infiltrating southern Tasmania in increasing numbers as climate change progresses, we just adore our native Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo. Its idiosyncratic call always gladdens our hearts whether we're exploring Tasmania's wilderness or just pottering around in our own backyard. 

This Youtube video was recorded in Knocklofty Reserve just out behind our place. Although it doesn't rise to cinematic heights, I include it because it captures really well the call of this, our favourite bird:

Also, after seeing a few beautiful kangaroos and their smaller wallaby cousins on our last mainland trip, we hope we'll be as lucky again this time. Although other specimens will hopefully present themselves , we may not see one of these again for a while, as they are apparently very hard to spot:

Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby

We've been anticipating this trip for a long time. Now, suddenly, the time for our departure looms large. 

As Di dozes on this windy Good Friday afternoon and I try to conjure up something worthwhile to share, the realisation dawns that it's only nine days before we board the Spirit of Tasmania for our crossing to the big island. Let's hope we get a crossing like this one!

Just now, after a great summer and an excellent start to autumn down home in Hobart, the growing season is drawing to a close. With the amazing weather things have been coming on like mad.

We actually had our first ever good crop of carrots. Two different varieties went into the ground and they both did well. Our friend Brigitte in Toulouse sent us a packet of seeds for some lovely little round French carrots, which were particularly nice roasted. This is what they looked like when they came out of the ground:

les carottes de la belle France

 The tomatoes in particular went crazy. Just check out this fairly typical little sample of beans and tomatoes:

In fact, the tomatoes grew so well we decided to order some preserving jars as we just couldn't keep up.  So now we've got plenty of jars of pasta sauce waiting to be opened.

As usual, one thing led to another and we bottled up a bunch of different things. Our neighbours Sam and Leonie had a couple of prolific pear trees. We couldn't eat all the pears they gave us so some of those went into bottles too. After always struggling to grow chilli peppers, this year we had an amazing plant that grew so much that it brought to mind the story of Jack and the beanstalk. So much in fact that we made some Green Chilli Jam:

So much so that Di has been drying chillies in the spare bedroom:

Di got so enthusiastic about preserving she even made some Strawberry Jam, and some Lime and Ginger Marmalade - although neither the strawberries, limes or ginger came from the garden... 

Anyway, here's some of our little treasure trove awaiting our return in July:

It probably sounds like we've spent all summer in the garden but that's not quite true. We had a short bushwalk of three days into the Western Arthurs in January after the grandchildren departed for home. The track from the road head across the creeks and button grass then on up Moraine A had deteriorated a lot since the last time we were in there. But it was great to get up into the mountains. Here are a few photos from the trip:

an interesting bit of quartzite

mist clearing

duckboards protect fragile vegetation

Western Arthurs from below on the buttongrass

We also had a few day walks to some of our favourite places in southern Tassie, including a stellar trip to Hartz Mountains National Park which, situated as it is right on the edge of the southwest, is just a gem of a place. We visit here at least once - but usually twice or more - each year. Rarely do we experience the sort of day we had this summer, as it usually at least windy. Here are some photos so you can see just how beautiful it was:

Hartz Peak ahead

Hartz Lake with Mt Anne in the distance

Federation Peak

Precipitous Bluff

Incidentally, if you're coming to Tasmania and are up for it, a trip to Federation Peak is one of the iconic Australian bushwalks, as this Youtube video from Dave Noble demonstrates:

Well, back on track. I did do a little bit of climbing on Mt Wellington this summer. Di spent a lot of time at Barrecode, getting fit for climbing - or so she reckons. I guess we'll see how we're both going when we arrive at Mt Arapiles on the 8th of April to begin our mainland odyssey.

In any case, we're really looking forward to the trip. Here is a map of the general route we expect to take:

You might wonder why we're doubling back to Melbourne after a dogleg out in western Victoria. The truth is we've just got to catch a bit of genuine Aussie culture: a day at the footy to watch Essendon play St Kilda. We tried to get tickets for the classic Anzac Day matchup between the Bombers and the Magpies, but they were already sold out! I'll surely try to catch that match on the tele, and will be hoping for a result like this one (in all honesty, you've got to click on the "Watch in Youtube" button and then select the full screen option for the full experience!):

We'll keep you posted!