Cygnet Oyster FUN

So after the thrills of Pt Arthur, we said our goodbyes and Nick and i headed down towards Cygnet way. We stopped at this lovely shot tower which was the tallest building of its kind back in 1870 or something, but felt a bit too tight to sit down and have a $16 devonshire tea, had an ultra friendly helpful dude give us some books and sort our "farm trail" out ( we had just found out that our first much anticipated WWOOFing gig was cancelled because the dude broke his ribs).( think some other sus stuff was going on there but wont go into it) so off we headed stopped at a sheep cheese farm, the lady was a full snob and her cheese was way overpriced!! but did get a cool sticker that says honk if you love cheese.... bahaha! its in the post eleanore!! found a great apple farm got some A grade juice, also stopped and picked some amazing blackberries off the side of the road ( lucky they hadnt been sprayed because that is just how our luck was going... read on)

this was the amazing beach at the centre of the oyster scandal

When the WWOOFing guy bailed on us he gave us some insider info on a "great" spot to camp. so off we go bout 6 kms outta Cygnet and find this amazing beach front spot. spent the night and the whole day and when we were out walking we spotted heaps of oysters. so of course nick picks some.... after the initial 4 or 5 he goes back for more and grabs another 20 or so,, couple for the dogs!  cooks em up munches em down (im on the spaghetti) and we settle down to watch the Rum Diary with good Ol Johnny Depp. we get half way thru it and it cuts out, only had the first half on the hard drive :( but nick is itchin like mad. he says my head feels like its on fire. turn on the light and his face is beet red and lift up his top and he is breaking out in a crazy rash ( nearly called u Dr Karl)Nick popped a couple of alergy tabs and we madly started packing up.

As Eleanore and Luke can Testify it takes us a hell of a while to sort our crap out and get on the road, nothing like a husband who is beet red, covered in bumps, itching like crazy and starting to tingle and swell up to get a girl motivated!!! i reckon we had it roughy chucked in the back of the ol snail in like 10 mins tops.then off we went towards Cygnet in hopes of finding some reception and answers.

 

 

we land in Cygnet boot up the internet which said to down Yakult etc for bad oysters i head into the IGA and after hastily grabbing a few things i headed up to the counter and asked if they knew anything bout te local oysters as my husband had eaten some and wasnt too well. she said have a look over there on the public notice board

 

this is what i found...........................

 

panic mode sets in, call the loccum Dr!!!

well as the DR said because Nick hadnt (basically) died yet not to really worry unless his face started swelling and to have a cool shower eat lots of probiotics and that he would be right!!

 

so we parked a couple of minutes out of town (full range of mobile reception) and camped the night. by the morning nick was much better and we decided to get the hell outta Cygnet!

 

Pt Arthur Pix and DO Town

 

How could i forget to mention the Lovely Do Town (yes there really is such a Town). on your way in to Pt Arthur. The story goes that a fella named his house I Do after he bought in Do Town, then every other pps decided to jump on the band wagon, here is the post card proof!!

 

 

Now Onto Pt Arthur

the ruins of Pt Arthur from the sea

 

this is part of the seperate prison and this was the church, made so that you couldn't see the people next to you by having your own private pew!!

 Guard Towers

 The Church Ruins

Ha.... well really you should lock the door

Port Arthur

so Port Arthur was an amazing experience! we had the best weather to be walking around this historic site and we were also lucky to have nan and poppa looking after the girls so we could spend enough time exploring. thanks mum and dad!

have tried to get some pics on here but i think nick and i need to visit a M D's or something. what a great day we had, had to discreetly  ask about the 1996 events.... that is how they prefer you ask, and not to even ask staff (which i understand) but to ask at the info counter and they give you a brouchure.

got heaps of cool pics and spent the whole day wondering around, but the whole place has a very "dark" feel to it. apparently alot of the "convicts" had great oppertunities once they left, but many came back.

the most bizzare place i found was the silent/ seperate prison. this is where they kept prisoners seperate (solitary confinement) and deprived them of contact with others, etc. i remember going there with my old's in 1998 and it was just a pile of stones and bricks but they had done it up and each cell had a story. there was a big sign up saying to be quiet and it was kind of spolit by some loud yanks walking around chatting away, but you still got the feel for how erie it was and had been.

to get to and from Pt Arthur we had to drive thru some of the worst effected parts of the bushfires over here. we just felt sickened at the absolute loss and devestation that some people have had come their way. fire is so fickle and does not discriminate.

so back to the accom that we were bludging off my Folks for a shower and a game of sequence!! what a great game that one is, we have convinced Barb and Jim also.

the next day we went into Hobart again, and thankyou Mum and Dad again for looking after the girls we visited the Salamanka markets (again) and then spent the whole day wandering around the wooden boat festival! how so many people are into wooden boats is beyond me...

 these crazy cats are out in a wood powered wooden boat??

but we did have a great time wandering around, looking at these beautiful works of art. we spotted a russian viking ship, and a remake of a 15th century pirate ship that had been made in Victoria and it was called Notorious! nick even had a look around inside and said that it was amazing, well built!

 

 notorious

once we had enough of wooden boats and all things marine, we found a little pub that sold coopers, then once we had spent more than enough on a couple of brews we wandered back to our snail parked at the top of the hill, we had a night off from the dogs very rare, so thought we'd make the most of it. stopped in at the pub which was on the corner and bugger me dead the " XXXX gold angels" arrived soon after, so its a shite beer, but it was free, so could you blame us? we had a really nice chick grab us as many pots as we wanted in the time they were there( bout 45 mins,) and had a chat to her. whatta job, getting flown all ova OZ to give away free 4X. now thats a promo gig, there was 1 male angel, so good for the limited ladies in the pub we were in, and good for me, but our angel was great!!

this place was massive

once we arrived back to South Arm, we spent the last nite with the olds, who were bragging about an amazing seafood buffet they munched on at the RSL, was great to have them visit us and spend some time together on the start of our trip. was an even bigger bonus to spend a couple of nights away from our much loved girls. thankyou so much for your help and for your baby sitting!! much appreciated


signing out for now

what we have been up to lately

So what have we been doin you may ask....   well, let me see.... how can i forget.. i lost my Camera, sorry all those at Kazbo's 30th, all the photographic evidence is still contained?? but the benefit is that at least i t got lost in Tasmania, so hopefully the shame will be buried over here...

but back to the start, since i last was on here, which im sure you can see will be sporadically..

Nick and i did a bit of a tourist trip and checked out the Junee Caves, which is the largest underground cave system in Australia, goin for somethin like 30 kms underground, (we wernt feeling that adventurous to jump the barrier and check it out our selves, so we are just going to have to believe the sign.)
 We navigated our way to the big tree reserve. which holds some of the largest trees that nick and i had ever seen. Was absolutely amazing well worth the visit, surprising that we didnt run into any tourists there, but on the otherhand we got some great shots with the professional Camera,( first time its been bought out so far.... but i cant quite figure out how to get those pictures off the memory card, which is massive, not the normal SD size.) and got to relax and enjoy the sounds and the feeling of being alone in this very old special place.

we then cruised, on our way to discover Lake Pedder and lake Gordon. We came across the Florentine Base camp, and decided to stop and have a look at where all the protests are going on to stop the logging in the Florentine. im sure you have seen the news stories of people camping in the trees and fighting for this rainforest, starting back in 2005/6 well now i know why... 

we pulled up there bout 4:30pm and decided to take the dogs and ourselves to Churchhills Hut. this was the last known place that a Tasmanian Tiger was held after capture in the wild. i felt the need to go to this place
http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/upper-florentine-self-drive-guide
the above link is a map with all the beautiful rainforest walks available. why would you log this area??? its got such an amazing vibe to it, we have fallen in love.

it was about a 15km (3- 4hr)walk and we were racing the sun which sets round 8:30-9pm. so we checked our watches (round 5pm) packed up our torches, peanuts (thanks kaz and vik) water and laced up the boots and set off for one of the most demanding walks i have ever been on thru some some challanging terrain. climbing over multiple fallen trees, some were bigger than small cars. walking on old planks that had mossed over, and sometimes broke when you stepped on them, river crossings on old mossy trees, up and down mountains, walking thru bog and navigating on little coloured strips of plastic tied to random, occasional trees, no real map, just a picture that we had taken on the camera (which is on the link above) to give us the general direction and there were a few moments when we thought we were utterly lost, as there wasnt much of a track to follow. we passed through many different terrains also,there was rainforest with the moss and ferns. Arid sections and then full water bogged rainforest right next to rivers and creeks, even with all this it was an amazing journey, that we both thoroughly enjoyed. even though we kept wondering if we would actually make it and if we were on the right track??

We arrived.... thank god... at Churchhills hut. very picturesque in the middle of butt .... no-where, but i felt ... connected. And quietly said my appologies to the spirits of the Thylacine and felt ... better for it... not that it did much, but you know, it helped me.
there was a newspaper in there from 1956, and a few momentos. if we had bought sleeping gear we both would have considered sleeping there,( even with all the scary arse spiders) and it had been partially restored, so was in much better shape than we both expected.

we munched on some nuts and both contemplated how we were ever going to make it back, as it was nearly 7pm.? gave the dogs a massive drink of water then started the journey back. Much the same as the the way down, 'cept we were both pretty tired and not keeping up the stella pace like we had on the way down.

the trouble came on my first "stack" where i caught my foot not only on but in the gap on a piece of rotted wood and fell, lucky i fell the right way otherwise i would have snapped my knee. picked myself up then; not 10 mins further on, stacked it again but twisted/ sprained the ol ankle. still had 3/4 to go so tightened up the laces on my boots and carried on, nick holding both leashes.
i dont really think nick knew how much of an absolute klutz i am but he sure learned fast when i kept stackin it... i totally blame the fading light and the fact that i was on panadine forte (for my back) but still...
all went well i felt my left ankle swelling up as i continued to walk but had to toughen up (princess). we actually made good time on the way back, i think this was because we wernt searching for a track or a way to go.
we got back round 8:45 pm, as the sun was setting and nick heated up soup and we pretty much passed out.

woke up to an amazing bruise ( if you thought painball bruises were bad shouldve seen this one( and on that i still have dis-coloured skin on my thighs where the paintballs hit) covered my ankle and up my leg. THANK GOD i still had plenty of Panadine forte. this was Funny,took some of the pain away; Nick took shovel and crossed road to make his peace with nature and the dogs followed. (we were on the main road towards lake Pedder) next thing i hear a car coming, call the girls and delts comes, but cant see Sahara, as i hear the car get closer i look out the window and Sahara is standing on the side of the road next to where nick is just in a bit and doing his thing. this car slows right down, obviously wondering what a wild looking dog is doin standing on the road, cops a look-see then boots off.

made our way to the big in land dams and had a look. we arnt really to sure where we stand on this issue. it certainly has changed the landscape, messed with the animals and their habitats.... produces clean energy??

really not too sure...


anyways we kinda laid low for the next few days...

next we headed down to South Arm, what a lovely spot..... way away from all the fires. we pulled up at the RSL and immediatly had some heaps cool French travellers come ov, they had a dog Honey, who looked like Saharas sister. they got along, and we had some great company. sharing stories etc. picked honey up in a pound in WA and they have taken her around Australia with them abd have been on the rd for over 2 yrs, they want to take her home, so have to stay over here to save up enough for the 3 grand air fare to get her back. thats  puppy love!!!

 

 

 

 

Chillin (with Coopers pale ales) on this wicked beach clled Roaring beach  watching the wooden boats sail in the distance for the wooden boat festival

 the blow hole, on the way to Pt Arthur

hey, so after many questions i will further explain what WWOOFING is. basically its an exchange. so you sign up, buy a book which has heaps and heaps of pople in it whio need a bit of extra help on their Organic farm. so you find one that suits or interestes you, or maybe in the location that you are heading. contact them have a yarn and sort out some dates etc. then when you get there you exchange 4-6 hrs work what ever they may need done for food and accomodation. i am sure we are going to meet some cool (and maybe not so cool) pps this way, but we will be gettin of the tourist trap and maating some locals and getting some inside knowledge on the areas we are travelling through.
the place we just got in at in a cert organic farm who does Permaculture and has vegie garden, sustainable /alternative living sounds kinda cool, not too sure what we are up for but will keep you posted.!!