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| Historical 1836 Ross Bridge |
THIS IS OUR FINAL TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY!
On Sunday 2 January 2011 we departed our lovely Battery Point apartment in Hobart and drove to the picturesque town of Ross, camping near the river and the historical Ross Bridge - constructed by convicts in 1836. We had a stroll around the town with all its beautiful old buildings, and then saw that a Jazz band was playing at the Man O'Ross Hotel, so we settled into the garden dining area for a very enjoyable lunch and jazz session for the arvo.
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| Paper mache sculptures |
Our next stop was up on the north west coast at Wynyard (the town where I was born), staying with Jules and Kez and catching up with Anna, Bruce and baby Ruby as well. Next morning we drove to nearby Boat Harbour but the day was very overcast and windy so we made our way back along the coast stopping at the Makers' Workshop at Burnie. This interesting place showcases the work of local artists and tells of Burnie's history in paper making - there were many wonderful life-size paper mache sculptures plus several historical makers' displays of machinery, clocks, musical instruments, garments etc. They also run regular paper-making and craft workshops.
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| Sue,John,Lizzie,Trude at Devonport Cup |
We drove on to Ulverstone to meet up with Trude and Brendan, staying at a caravan park closeby for a couple of nights and then camping on their front lawn for several nights. Over the next five days we shared some great times between Ulverstone, Leith and Devonport with some of my old Devonport High School (DHS) friends and their partners - Trude and Brendan, Mike and Sue, Col and Jen. A great day was also had at the Devonport Cup raceday where we were very lucky to be included in a marquee situated right on the finish line belonging to John Dowling (another DHS attendee) - it was a very hot day but a fun time and we partied on afterwards at JD's beautiful home (otherwise known as "the party house")!
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| Paulie's first joy flight with Pilot Bruce |
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| Second joy flight in a homemade plane |
During the week, Paulie was spoilt with two joy flights - experiencing the great beauty of Tassie's north west coast by air. Our week was also filled with bike rides, delicious dining outings, live music, lots of red wines, bbqs, a visit to the Forth Hotel and one final visit to the Elimatta Hotel in Devonport on Monday 10 January before leaving our wonderful Tassie friends and boarding the Spirit of Tasmania back to Melbourne.
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| Our farewell brunch with Norm |
Arriving in Melbourne early the next morning, we stopped in Albert Park for a hot breakfast, a stroll around the shops and a long walk to the St Kilda Pier. After a nanna nap in the van, we drove to Camberwell in the afternoon to meet up with our friend Norm who was staying at David and Mary's beautiful home. We enjoyed drinks with them and their friends Antony and Gill, followed by a delicious Indonesian dinner. Up early next morning to watch the latest TV reports on the devastating Qld floods, then out for farewell brunch with Norm.
We decided then that we wanted to get home as soon as we could as floods were hitting Victoria and NSW, so we drove on to Orbost for the night (a lovely town but the flies were unbelievable)! Next day we drove 520kms to Nowra via several pretty coastal towns. We had one night at Nowra and after dinner we walked around to the soccer fields next door to watch some local soccer games - I managed to get hit in the leg by a rogue speeding soccer ball and it really stung!
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| Our last night in the van of our nine month journey! |
We drove over 700kms the next day having only two stops - fuel and lunch. Arrived at Emerald Beach in Coffs Harbour late afternoon, settled into caravan park near the beach, had a stroll along the beach, showers, drinks, dinner and crashed pretty early to bed. This was actually our last night in the van, as we drove the next day to Grafton and then had to detour inland via the Summerland Way because the coastal towns of Iluka and Yamba were flooded. At around 4pm we arrived on the Gold Coast and stayed with our friend Kaye for the night.
On Sunday 16 January 2011 we arrived home at our unit just after lunchtime - it was so good to be home - but what an amazing adventure we have had, and we will definitely do it again!
Our thanks to everyone who read and commented on our blog, for your emails and for keeping in touch while we were on the road, it meant a lot to us.
Here's some useless information from our trip:
- Towns we stayed in overnight = 110
- Accommodation costs = $12,045
- Kms we travelled = 27,000 kms
- Litres of fuel used = 3,640 litres
- Fuel costs = $5,235
- Amount of fun and laughs = priceless!
Of course there were also many many dollars spent on grog, food and a variety of sight-seeing activities and entertainment around Australia! That's all folks, lots of love, over and out.
LIZZIE and COXY xoxo
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