Category: Travel

Sorry I dropped off the airwaves there!!
Jeff just got about a years worth of ‘husband points’ by sneakily sorting out accommodation up in Cradle Mt NP!
I thought I was going hiking for the day!! He pulls into the car park of one of the fancy lodges and says.. ‘We’d better book in first’ !!

Two nights in a spa cabin for my birthday and late 10th anniversary!!
Bliss!!!

Followed by a moment of panic wondering what clothes I would be forced to wear for two days since Jeff (of course) packed.
Then there was the realisation that I suck at fashion sense and I don’t actually care, so anything he brought was bound to be better than my choices!

He did pretty well – although in the ‘crisp’ mountain air, the three quartre pants were a bit breezy!

It was all so posh!! There was a complimentary bottle of champagne and a chocolate platter left for us with a congratulations on our anniversary card! How special!
Then one of the staff knocked on the door to ask if we wanted him to… and I can’t remember what he exactly said… something about getting the room ready for the evening.
So ‘not used to posh hotels me’ asks “What does that entail?” and apparently he closes all the blinds and turns down the bed covers!!

I was totally amused/impressed but said no thank-you that we would manage. He asked if I would like the chocolates anyway??
Silly question!
Yes please!!!

There was a spa bath and a lovely little fireplace that had been set ready to simply put a match to it! None of our usual lugging firewood around in this establishment!

Because 1000 photos of this area isn’t enough, I have now added to my post processing problems with a whole swag more images to get through!
And I KNOW I have to finish the final day of the Overland Hike story!

And I have totally lost the plot in the garden – no pun intended. I am hoping for a fine day tomorrow to put out the stall and try to sell some of the 10kgs of tomatoes sitting out there – not to mention corn and zucchinis!!

Surprisingly deep mud puddle found

Anyway, we did a short walk on the day we got in (about 2 hours) which was really lovely, even if we did get a little lost at the end!

Wombats start appearing at about 4pm and totally do not care about humans. They care about breakfast (they, like most Australian animals, are nocturnal)

The next day we did about 6 hours hiking – back up to the base of Cradle and across the Face Track.
I will get some photos of the map when I do a proper post on this, but in the meantime here are some of the spectacular sights we were lucky enough to see.
Best birthday EVER!

Often the track was barely a track – on several occasions I had to put the camera away to be able to use both hands as well as feet to safely get down or up some sections.

The big difference this time to the Overland was being able to come back to a warm fire, spa, someone else cooking dinner and a soft bed!

Back to reality – home again and I need to write a comprehensive list of things to achieve before Texas. So much is running about in my head and I have been enjoying life so much I feel like I might explode!!
Time to get all my ducks in a row!
By the way – today I got my Visa Waiver approved, so I am one step closer to the USA!!
Excited!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!

Cheers

 

In the interests completely over doing things in 2017, I just booked our flights back to Japan for November. They had some really good prices and we had been discussing with my parents for a while about taking them over and showing them about!

Now as well as topping up the Texas Fund, I also need to super-budget for our actual spending money while in Japan.
I am not daunted – I am excellent at saving. (Just a moment of self-praise there 🙂 )

It would be mega-helpful if summer would put in an appearance and sort my vegetables out so I have something to sell. It rained all day but at least it wasn’t cold.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you would know I am very fond of Japan. I am really excited to go back for a whole swag of reasons.

It will be wonderful to catch up with friends. We will be (hopefully) staying in Kyoto for most of the time with my parents and doing day trips. Most of our friends are within easy reach.

Food – oh the food.
Looking forward to grazing our way around the Kansai Prefecture!

So many amazing temples and shrines to see

I am so looking forward to getting back into the humdrum of the Osaka Streets!

Its loud, crazy, busy and a whole lot of fun

But as crazy busy as the cities are, you can always find some peace close by.

Anyway, I am excited to be taking my parents around, and with luck, maybe Jeff’s parents can come over from Canada and meet us for the last two weeks we are in Japan so we can take them on a tour as well!! (Told you – not doing things by halves this year!!)(My parents are staying two weeks and we are staying one month)
My head is spinning… perhaps its time for me to get a book to write in all my ‘to do’ stuff.

Cheers!

 

Hello! I got a good nights sleep and woke up feeling not stiff and sore like I suspected I would! Winning!
To continue…
It was time to tackle one of the harder parts of the days trek – Up!!

Then we got to the really fun bit – rocks with chain railings to help you haul yourself up! This part will be more of a challenge with a full pack!

Time for a breather and a selfie – the wind makes for an awesome hairdo!

We were still not quite at the top, but the view was just getting better and better

Figured this was the perfect spot for lunch! We had worked up an appetite and it was gorgeous sitting there in the sunshine taking in the breathtaking views

Dove Lake is where we have often gone to take visitors for a walk. If you missed my post about Cradle Mt click here to take a peek.
It was fantastic to see it from a whole new angle!

Once lunch was done, we decided we had time to walk on a bit further to see what was over the next rise.

It was very regretfully at this point that we decided to turn around and start to make the trek back.

Beside the track there were countless areas of mosses and tiny flowers, small bushes and other interesting bits of nature to admire.

The boardwalks in a lot of areas over yesterdays walk are a really good thing. People are not encouraged to leave the paths and trample over everything in sight. Its a way of helping us leave less of a footprint. Its such a popular place for hikers, that this really makes a difference to the vegetation up there

Naturally going back was a lot speedier than the trip up… gravity was more on our side! Seemed in no time we were back on the grassy plains

And to round off a fabulous day, we met a wombat!

Just ambling at the side of the track with not a care in the world!
Even better, although quite tragically I have no photo, on the drive out we saw a mother wombat crossing the road and trundling up the hill followed closely by her fat roly-poly baby and it was the cutest thing we had ever seen!!! Note to self… don’t put the camera away when driving… haha

Hope you have enjoyed the views! We certainly did!

Cheers

Hello! We have had the best day – and I am preeeeetty tired now. Thought it best to break this up into parts.
We drove down to Cradle Mt National Park today to try out a new hike. I mentioned in a recent post about our plan to hike the Overland Track, which is a 6 day affair – carry in all food and camping stuff etc.
The first day is billed as the toughest so we thought we would walk part of the way to see what the fuss was about

Well of course the boardwalks at the beginning are a doddle.

Tiny streams wend their way all over.

Despite driving through lots of rain squalls and fog to get here, the weather today was just divine!

Lots of tiny flowers were out in bloom on the bushes

We came to a lake about halfway up, complete with old boatshed!

After a lot of ‘up’ we reached a spot where we saw a lot of ‘straight up’ !!

Just before I retire for the night… here is a shot looking back down from halfway up this section –

This was reasonably testing – will be more of a challenge with a full pack!
But the views at the top were worth every drop of sweat!
I must say it was a wrench to turn back today. Cannot wait to do the full walk!
Will be back tomorrow to finish the story!

Cheers!

I found out that the Royal Hotel at Linda is for sale! Cafe and magnificent ruins in the ghost town of Linda could be yours for $155,000!!
Not bad eh?
I looked up the real estate listing and to be honest… it was a little boring.
This is what I would do:

For Sale – Magnificent turn of the century hotel for sale, in need of a bit of TLC
Indoor water feature –

 

Double storey solid concrete structure with plenty of cosy fireplaces for those winter evenings

Oodles of natural light with big airy rooms

Multiple bedrooms – perfect for that quaint B&B you were always dreaming of running

 

Absolutely magnificent gardens (on the inside)

Long spacious hallways

The plumbing needs a bit of work, but its all still there

Picture perfect views from every window!

Sometimes multiple windows at once…

And even through windows in creative places!

Lovely old-worldly places to park your horse

The lovable local larrikin’s have extensively added their artwork to the walls

Surrounding views of the local mining area are just divine

All in all, a bargain you just cannot pass up!

🙂

The hotel was built in the early 1900’s, and burned down twice before it was eventually abandoned in the 1950’s.
The area really was a booming town, with at least 4 hotels, boarding houses, a hall and shops.

Now its just a blip on the map, as people drive through on their way to somewhere else!

Cheers

 

Hello!!

I am a bit deliriously tired, so I am going to give you a sneak peak at the trip I did today with my friend, Marsha. We did a 5 hour return drive to go and photograph this abandoned hotel.  We had an excellent day!

This old pub/hotel is at Linda, past the mining town of Queenstown – quite a way south from us. (Map and details tomorrow)
It was abandoned in the 1950’s but still stands pretty sturdily.

I love the way nature has happily moved in.

I bet these crumbling old walls could tell some stories!

Cheers!

Jeff wanted to drive out to whoop-whoop today (long way out in country) to see about joining a lapidary club.

Anyway, we pretty much drove past the road to Guide Falls so we thought we would stop by to see what it looked like with a ton of water flowing over it…

Some photos from our half hour stop.

Cheers!

Lovely to be back home again. I managed to catch Mum’s cold… or someone elses – who knows!! At least I am just snuffly not particularly sick and pathetic, so that’s good. Poor Dad has come down with it too!!

We really enjoyed our few days away – Its pretty rare for us to do that, so a change is good fun!

Anyway – here is the fancy-pants B&B that we weren’t staying in! 😀

I quite liked our wonky funny place we stayed tho…

To be honest, it was a bit tired and the rooms should have been cleaner for the price, hotter coffee and perhaps fresher bread at breakfast… 😀

I spent some time here one afternoon crocheting waiting for Jeff to get back from his conference.

It was kinda weird at first getting used to not having to do anything! There is always a task lurking in my brain to attend to – wood, chickens, cat, dinner, garden etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed wandering the streets admiring the buildings, homes  & Churches in Launceston.

Magnolias were out in full bloom everywhere, which was a total delight!

I was quite taken with this scruffy church – it had been de`consecrated  a while back and some design company now inhabits it.

Everywhere I wandered I came across beautiful old buildings

At night – no cooking for me!! We wandered the streets until we found a restaurant that took our fancy. Then walked back up the hill to our B&B which I am sure was very healthy of us! It was nice seeing the buildings at night too – and it wasn’t even too cold!

Each day, part of my walk would include a walk through this small park, Princes’ Square.

There is a statue in the park of Dr William Russ Pugh. Dr Pugh is acclaimed as being the first in Australia to etherise patients for surgical operations in 1847, in Launceston, Tasmania.

We really enjoyed our time in this very pretty city.

Cheers!

Hello and welcome to Monday!

I am glad I had part two of our walk up my sleeve for tonight! Today I did a lot of sitting about in front of the fire with my crochet!

Jeff and I have not walked to Doone Falls before… mostly when we do the Rocky Cape to Sisters Beach walk, we go the coastal route because we are nerds and love to fossick for shells and rocks!

Jeff spotted the rather run down sign and on a whim we thought, what the heck?? We had no appointments and its only half an hour….

The weather cleared somewhat and the views became nicer as we got higher

And up…

I swear it must have been half an hour later when we finally came across this sign – that said we had 15 minutes to go!

Our suspicions were aroused when we noticed that someone had ‘amended’ the time to 45 minutes

Still… we had come this far…

And then we were standing at the top of a path that went dooooown!

And got a bit narrow

It continued down… and into a switchback. And the thing about going steeply down is thinking about having to come all the way back up!!

We reached this little running stream and bridge and I will admit to being momentarily disappointed!!

Finally we could hear proper falling water and started seeing more of a waterway rushing down below us (I might add that by this stage we were very much over the 15 minute mark!)

I don’t think I have ever come across a waterfall that has created so many bubbles before!

It was a soup of froth!!

I couldn’t help it… I had to scoop some up and see what it felt like! Actually it was soft, foamy and slippery. If it had of been a summers day I totally would have jumped right on in!!

It was a funny little waterfall tucked in the rocks with essentially a waterslide down

The water was the usual stained colour

Well, the day wasn’t getting any younger & neither were we, so we started the haul back uphill

One useful thing about having the camera is a fabulous excuse to stop whenever you like to take photos (pant pant, gasp, wheeze)

Oh look! A weird tree!! Let me just lean against it and get a photo for my blog (wheeze, gasp, pant)

It was lovely getting to the top of that section and coming back out into the beautiful warm winter light

I am thinking whoever does these signs is a super fit sprinter – We are not THAT slow really, but the timings on most of these was rather optimistic!

We had never gone this way and were hoping that it was going to be less work than going all the way back to the beach and up that killer hill!

Oh – and one other minor detail – we forgot to bring water bottles.

Let me amend that.

I just didn’t bother.

Wow – our tongues were hanging out by this stage so after going up another incline…

I heard some running water by the path and plunged into the bush to get to it – lapped up a few handfuls then found a ziplock bag to give to Jeff to collect more

I am trying to work out how many of you are freaking out right now about the colour of this water and wondering did we really drink that???

It was cold and tasted so good!! 🙂

Most of Tasmania’s natural waterways are quite drinkable – but I know you are all asking to yourselves how many days I will be absent from my blog with a tummy bug. hee hee

Well… this was Saturday and I am happy to report that all gastrointestinal areas are just fine!! (So far!)

So after the refreshments, we really had to get a wriggle on as twilight was setting in

Well.. It was a grand little adventure and we thoroughly enjoyed getting back out in the great outdoors for some fresh air and exercise! Glad we did too as it really hasn’t stopped raining since!

Cheers!

Hello! Thursday is at an end for me. Jeff had finished a few nightshifts, so today we thought we should get out of the house and far away – just for a change!

The weather was having a Tasmanian Hissy Fit for about half the day, changing from blinding rain to blinding sun every 20 minutes or so.

We headed on out to Dip Falls to see how it was looking after all the rain

(You can see some comparison photos from this Friday’s Footprint story)

The pathway down to the bottom of Dip Falls was its own little waterfall and river course!

The falls were impressive today. We could see where the water rose to, and it has stripped all the lovely man ferns that grew around the viewing area

The river is rushing wildly

I haven’t seen the view from the top covered in so much water before

Of course, for me no walking through the bush is complete without looking for some fungi

After saying goodbye to Dip Falls, we headed on into Stanley to visit our favourite shop, “Sticks, Stones, Shells & Bones” As you may guess from the name, its full of wonderful rocks, fossils, sea glass jewellery and many other attractive things.

Because I make friends wherever I go, it was great to go into the shop (it had been a while since we were there) and have the owner so happy to see us, she comes out to give us a hug of welcome! 🙂 Awesome!

After a long browse and chat, Jeff and I treated ourselves to a coffee and a hot chocolate at a new shop in town “The Chocolate Gallery & Café”

FREE chocolate samples! All so divine! We also splurged on a fresh baked muffin which I can’t show you because we ate it before I could think about photography.

The sun was fast going down, but we couldn’t resist going in to Black River Beach to have a bit of a walk and see what the aftermath of the rains had done to the area.

Lots of wood and hay washed up on the beach… all a bit messy!

The afternoon sun was beautiful

I am hoping the colours in the sky tonight means a nice day tomorrow!

That was a day well spent! We enjoyed getting out into the fresh air and walking about & meeting people.

Hope your day is fantastic too

Cheers