Gordon ... it's SNOWING!!!

(Record of activities on 13^th September, 2010 but posted on above date)


That was the excited call from Barbara at 7am as she pulled back the curtains and looked out the caravan window from her sick bed.

All the previous day she had had a fierce headache and finally at 7pm she called urgently for a plastic wash basin and was violently ill. Not the sort of thing you want when you are 10 days into a 14 week tour of Tasmania.

But is there any prettier sight in Nature’s elements than snowflakes drifting and swirling to the ground and laying a blanket of purest white on anything that is exposed? It’s magic! I had seen snow on the ground before, but in all my 73 years I had never seen it falling, and it was such a thrill.

Despite Barbara still not feeling well at 9am, and really needing to spend the day in bed, we decided we did not want to spend another $35 (plus $2 for showers remember) at Lake St Clair so I went through to painfully cold process of hitching “Ranndy” to “Canndy” in the snow fall.

The moment I stepped outside the van, a cheeky currawong rushed up to me looking for a feed (he was probably a cousin of the one we met yesterday at Lake Burbury). I know you are not supposed to feed the bird life in National Parks, and I could probably be sent in chains back to Sarah Island if caught, but I could not resist the photo opportunity. For all the Tasmania NP people reading this … and I know some of them do and I appreciate that … honest guys, I only gave him two small crusts of bread!

Once hitched up we left Lake St Clair with the snow still falling. It was such a beautiful experience to see the branches of the trees frosted over as on English Christmas cards.

Our next intended stop just a few kilometers down the road was “The Wall”.  We had heard so much about this tourist attraction that we were  full of anticipation. What we hadn’t been told was that you pay your $8.50 admission and leave your cameras outside!
To hell with that! If I am going to part with my hard earned dollars as a tourist in Tasmania, I am going to damned-well have some photographic record of it … MY photos … not crappy post cards of some wombats, or a book costing $22 with pictures of “The Wall” taken by a professional cameraman. I can’t put that on my framed slide show when I get home!

I have included a link to the web page of the creator of the “The Wall” and I invite you read what he has to say . Notice that nowhere on any of the site’s five or more pages are you advised that you cannot take photos. Sorry Greg and Tourism Tasmania … just not good enough!
Very angry and disappointed we drove on towards Hobart and discovered, what I consider, to be the real gem in the crown that is the Tasmanian Southern Highlands ... TARRALEAH
Let me make a general observation here. The drive from Strahan via Queenstown to New Newfolk may not look all that hard when you examine a map. Under normal driving conditions, 255k in a day would be “a piece of cake” for most drivers towing a caravan. But hey, these are NOT NORMAL driving conditions. This is a very tough drag. If you leave Strahan around 9.30am and do all the usual touristy things along the way, by the time you get to the signpost that indicates you need to take a bypass road to Tarraleah, most people are pretty tired (and I know for a fact this includes our new found friends, Peter and Colleen Eathers) and are likely to say "Let's give Tarraleah a miss and press on for New Norfolk"
BIG MISTAKE!

The hamlet of Tarraleah is without doubt the prettiest place we have seen so far in Tasmania. I am not going to fill up this blog page with my words trying to do justice to it. I have linked to the web page of this 300 acre privately owned village which will tell the Tarraleah story so much better than I could. Take a really good look at the site if you are contemplating a visit to this part of Tasmania. Especially check the page "Cottages at Tarraleah" and see pictures of the homes that line the main street.  They are adorable. And keep this in mind ... Tarraleah has a magnificent caravan park. On the web site home page click on the "Accommodation" link and when that page appears again click on "Accommodation" and a drop down menu will appear.  On the drop down click "Highland Caravan Park" and there you will see a great summary of the caravan park facilities ... and note the cost ... $26 for a powered site.  Why would any caravanner stay at Lake St Clair, when this beautiful place, with magnificent facilities, is available for $11 a day less???

And you see those beautiful jonquils which grow in the front gardens of many of the Tarraleah homes? You know what I reckon they are fertilised with? The dung from these blokes:

or maybe they collect this pooh: 

It is to be found everywhere on the town green and comes apparently from the dozens of wallabies and wombats that can be seen there any evening.

Reluctantly we drove away from this delightful place wishing we had stayed overnight here instead of Lake St Clair. Later that afternoon there was a very clear promise in the sky of good things to come:

You know the old saying "A rainbow in the morning, a shepherd's warning. A rainbow at night, a shepherds delight".
Tomorrow ... a new day dawns!