Ever since watching The Man From Snowy River as a kid I’ve wanted to see the mighty Snowy in the flesh (for you northerners, the Man from Snowy River is kind of like your Paul Bunyan, put the movie on your Netflix queue if you haven’t seen it).  After we’d driven almost an hour along the dirt road skirting the eastern side of the National Park we came across a road block: the road was closed for construction.  After some sweet talking on my part and the fact that everyone in the road work crew also drove Toyota Troop Carriers, the graders and bulldozers parted for us and we were able to continue on to McKillops Bridge (lucky because driving around would have meant an extra couple of hours of driving on back country dirt roads!).  The road crew was sure to let us know that they were only letting us through as a favour and not to tell any of our mates!

McKillops Bridge is a historical monument at the northern edge of Snowy River National Park, where Snowy River National Park ends and Alpine National Park begins.  McKillops bridge was originally constructed in the 1930s and just days before its official opening in 1934 was destroyed by flood waters!  The bridge that extends over the mighty Snowy River today is the second attempt at the bridge, a wooden contraption that made both of us a little nervous driving over.  A huge amount of water was flowing when we crossed, even at the end of summer, no wonder the Snowy is part of Australia’s biggest (I believe…) hydroelectric power scheme.  At McKillops Bridge the rain that was to plague us for the next few days really set in.  We extracted The Tank’s awning for lunch, one of the few times we’ve had to do so, and made sandwiches in the shelter away from the rain.  On our way west we stopped off at Little Rover Gorge, Victoria’s deepest gorge, on the eastern border of the National Park.  Quite an impressive gouge in the earth, multiple waterfalls were visible in the distance from the gorge’s lookout, it would have been nice to take the hike down a portion of the gorge to Little River Falls if not for the rain…

Another slight map mix-up led us to believe that the technical 4WD track cutting through from Snowy River to Omeo was a dirt road.  The fact that it was raining heavily and given our previous experience with 4WD tracks in the Victorian High Country, we weren’t too keen on tackling the traverse by ourselves so spent a couple of hours driving down the mountains all the way to Bruthen and then a portion of the way back up the Great Alpine Highway to Swifts Creek (S37°15.629’ E147°43.361’).  Swifts Creek is a tiny farming settlement a short drive down the mountains from Omeo, we spent the evening at the Albion Hotel with the locals enjoying a few brews and avoiding the rain.  A short walk from the town centre we found a great spot beside a creek to setup for the night, rare Gang Gang Cockatoos noisily ate in the Eucalypts above The Blue Room into the evening and acted as our alarm clock again in the morning.

From Swifts Creek we continued up into the mountains, through the quaint historic town of Omeo where we caught a brilliant sunrise over the main street before heading toward Mount Hotham and Dinner Plain.  The Tank wasn’t too keen on climbing through 3000 and then 4000 feet on the way up the mountains, the thin air causing her to chug a little black smoke out the rear, even requiring us to climb up some of the steeper highway inclines in second gear.  It was a beautiful drive, the high mountain pastoral country eventually giving way to Alpine National Park, the clouds and rain finally subsided and we were rewarded with some brilliant views of the Victorian Alps stretching into the distance.  I basically learned to ski at Mount Hotham (S36°58.500’ E147°08.291’), spending at least a week there during most winters ever since I was 13 or so.  I also took Lisa skiing there for a week when we were both 21 when she was studying at the University of Adelaide.  For all the times I’ve been to Mount Hotham I’d never visited during summer so it was interesting to see the ski resort devoid of people and snow.  Mount Hotham is a launching point for the popular Razorback Ridge walk to sky-reaching Mount Feathertop, and while we didn’t arrive early enough in the day to attempt the 20+ kilometer hike we did enjoy some fantastic hiking through Alpine National Park.  As with our Crater Lake hike in Tasmania recently, when we set off toward Mount Loch we were rugged up in beanies and Gore-Tex jackets, hiking through the dense fog with no idea of our surrounds.  When we reached Mount Loch the clouds parted for striking views of Razorback Ridge and Mount Feathertop in the distance, later clearing even more for a view of Victoria’s highest peak – Mount Bogong – in the distance.  From Mount Loch we continued on to one of the many alpine huts dotted through the area, finishing up the afternoon with all our cold weather gear on our backs and pants rolled up in the heat! 

With some sore feet and Lisa a bit of sunburn around her neck from the mountain sun we chugged down the northern side of the Great Dividing Range into Harrietville.  Some absolutely beautiful properties around Harrietville, green pastures and bubbling creeks everywhere, such a quaint little spot nestled between the alps.  We finished our day in Bright (S36°43.725’ E146°57.869’), the gateway to the ski resorts of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek, making sure to stop off at the Bright Brewery to sample their fare.

The final stop on our tour of the Victorian Alps was Mount Buffalo National Park.  Mount Buffalo is one of the original Victorian ski resorts, although I’m not sure it still operates these days – even though the chairlifts are still in place – with the much larger and higher Hotham and Falls Creek resorts only a stone’s throw away.  We actually went to Buffalo twice: on Sunday morning when we ventured in, the rain kept us in the car the whole time so we were unable to explore some of the myriad of hiking trails the National Park has to offer.  We returned on Monday between the downpours to explore Eurobin Falls, Rollasons Falls as well as the amazing rock formations of the Buffalo plateau along a walk through the Old Galleries.  With the amount of rain the high country had received in days prior, the creeks and falls were absolutely charging with water.  So much that I couldn’t get a photo of Eurobin Falls without water from the torrent covering the lens!  We drove all the way to the top of Mount Buffalo, the peak is called The Horn and at 1723 meters (5652 feet) above sea level provides unparalleled 360° views of the surrounding mountains and plains.  Glad we returned between the rains, Mount Buffalo is an awesome spot, one could spend days exploring all the hiking trails the place has to offer…

Street View: S37°52.641’ E147°59.627’

From our spot on the side of the river at Toora we continued east, through more of South Gippsland’s extensive dairy country to the vacation hotspot of Lakes Entrance.  Lakes Entrance is a small tourist-centric town on the coast, set amongst a myriad of brackish lakes that stretch almost 150 kilometers (90 miles or so) west to the small seaside settlement of Seaspray.  It was time for some clothes washing, it’d been a few weeks since William Frost’s house in Hobart, so we checked into the Silver Sands Tourist Park in central Lakes Entrance for access to some washing machines.  During our walk along the esplanade we came across a couple of commercial fishing boats selling their catch, we bought a kilogram of bugs (they’re the same as Moreton Bay Bugs but I don’t know what they’re called if they’re not from Moreton Bay!) for an entree, such succulent flesh…  I think I maybe even prefer bugs to crayfish!

After our chores were done and we’d spent a bit of time on Lakes Entrance’s East Beach we packed up again to check out some of the coastline further east toward Croajingalong National Park.  We didn’t actually make it as far as Croajingalong, instead cruising along the edge of the Snowy River from Orbost to Marlo and eventually into Cape Conran Coastal Park.  The beaches around Cape Conran were magic, endless stretches of superb white sand with turquoise water that reminded us of southwestern Western Australia.  I threw a line in hoping to catch some salmon but only a few little tackers and no fish dinner for Lisa, unfortunately.

Street View: S39°01.778’ E146°19.037’

Just the two of us once again, when we were leaving Melbourne a couple of days ago we realized it’s been since the beginning of December since we haven’t had company on the road.  First we had Chris and Gina travel through southern South Australia, the Great Ocean Road, Otway Ranges and the Victorian High Country with us.  Then a week or so in Melbourne with Ben and Bronte Kennare.  And for the past five weeks Lisa’s parents have been with us.  A strange feeling being solo again after so long, but a lot to explore until we meet Abi and Will in Thredbo in a couple of weeks…

After arriving back in Melbourne last Friday on the Spirit of Tasmania Jarrod and Stacey McCabe welcomed us into their quaint Clifton Hill home for the weekend.  My dad had arranged for us to pick up some wine in Deer Park, so on Saturday morning Jarrod taxied us out to Deer Park to make the collection.  We thought we were getting a case, his usual delivery to us at certain points along the trip, but waiting for us were no less than seven six-packs of the best of Dad’s cellar!  We won’t be buying wine for a while…  There’s only so much room in The Tank, so to help us out with fitting everything in we invited Greg Halls, Ben and Bronte Kennare, and one of Ben’s best mates Tom over to Jarrod and Stacey’s on Saturday night to sample a few bottles of our new-found wine collection.  The standout: a bottle of 1994 E&E Black Pepper Shiraz.  One to note: a 1969 bottle of Kaiser Stuhl Spaetlese Bin B22, amazing to taste a white wine with so much character after more than 40 years being cooped up.  It was a great night had by all, it’s always the way with good friends, you pick up right where you left off…

At my mum’s suggestion we toured the Strzelecki Ranges via Grand Ridge Road on our way south to Wilson Promontory.  It was a fantastic drive, through the rolling hills of the surrounding pastoral country and pockets of untouched temperate rainforest around Mount Worth.  We found a spot beside a creek near Mount Worth State Park (S38°19.017’ E146°00.573’), where we enjoyed a roaring fire and caught up on some rest after a couple of big nights in Melbourne over the previous weekend.  The Tank was due for a bit of TLC and we happened upon possibly the nicest mechanics on the planet at Leongatha’s South Gippsland Cars and Off-Road, who took care of an oil change, tightening the front drag links as well as some new rear suspension bushings. 

Wilsons Promontory is a spit of land stretching roughly 40 kilometers out into the ocean just south of the small settlement of Yanakie.  A National Park as well as a Marine National Park, the area is home to some striking mountains, pristine beaches and no shortage of wildlife.  The unique landscape of the promontory made it an ideal training ground for the military before it was a National Park, the most elite Australian commandos (today called the SAS) had the entire promontory as their training ground during WWII, where they trained to combat Japanese in the Asian countries just north of Australia.  We stayed at Wilsons Promontory’s only road-accessible campsite at Tidal River (S39°01.778’ E146°19.037’), a behemoth of a camping area next to beautiful Normans Beach.  While the campground is huge (in excess of 400 sites), the Victorian government has done a fantastic job with the place: walking distance to the beach, hot showers, running water and a bunch of great walks in the area.  We explored Pillar Point on our first afternoon in Tidal River, where after a couple of kilometers of walking we were rewarded with brilliant views of Normans Bay and adjacent Squeaky Beach to the north.  We sure weren’t left wanting for wildlife when in the National Park: the Crimson Rosellas and Hairy-Nosed Wombat pictured above were quite happy with our presence and let us get close enough for some great photos.  We also ran into an extremely venomous Tiger Snake (pictured down lower) and wallaby on the hike to Sealers Cove.  For those northerners reading this, wombats are amazingly stocky little things.  The one pictured above would probably be around 30 inches long and weigh roughly 70 pounds.

Wilson Promontory is known for its array of challenging hiking trails.  We chose a 20 kilometer (12.4 mile) round-trip hike to Sealers Cove for our punishment during our full day in the National Park.  Well, I say 20 kilometer trek but at the outset we thought it was only 10 kilometers, not realizing that the 10 kilometer distance designation was the one way length of the walk!  It was a long but not overly strenuous hike through charred Eucalypt forests (from a big bushfire a few years ago), fern-filled temperate rainforests, and boggy marshes before reaching the beautiful beach of Sealers Cove.  I took a quick swim in the crystal clear water before we trudged back to Tidal River for a much needed hot shower.

Tonight we’re camped alongside the Franklin River just outside of the small farming town of Toora.  Toora’s a great little town, a bakery and pub as well as a post office make up the main establishments in the town’s centre.  And what a good value pub it is!  Not many places you can get a $12 chicken parmigiania these days and walk away almost in a food coma.  In fact, I might just move to South Gippsland one of these days: I was looking at the real estate agent’s window today in Foster and found a nice little parcel of 100 acres of land with a mix of cattle paddocks, temperate rainforests, an on-property creek as well as a few hiking trails for $300K.  $300K for a piece of paradise and $3.25 beers at the pub, how can you go wrong?  In Marin County $300K might buy you a bathroom and $3.25 at the pub a diet coke!

Street View: S43°17.495’ E147°19.716’

We finished up our tour of Tasmania with a few days on Bruny Island, just south of Hobart.  To access Bruny a ferry departs the small harbour town of Kettering every hour or so for the 25-minute ride across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to North Bruny Island.  Bruny is split into two portions – north and south – separated by a thin stretch of soil known as The Neck.  Similar to Tasman National Park, Bruny National Park is one of Tasmania’s newer National Parks and covers most of the coastal area of South Bruny Island.  After disembarking the ferry we took some time to explore Adventure Bay, the main settlement on the island, where I threw in a line for a few mullet and some Australian Herring while Lisa took a jog along the beautiful white sand of the bay’s beach.  The bloke next to whom Carol was sitting at the Twenty20 in Hobart recommended we stay at Cloudy Bay at the very southern end of the island, so we ventured down through the towering Eucalypt forests to Cloudy Bay during our first afternoon.  The Cloudy Bay campsite (S43°27.859’ E147°15.215’) is accessed by traversing a few kilometers of beach, after which it’s a short but steep jump-up into the beautiful campground.  We shared the spot with another family or two, the large area in the Eucalypt forest was a beautiful spot with a fabulous beach a short walk through the scrub and a couple of lauded hiking trails beginning next to the campground.  I even ran into a few Echidnas whilst searching for firewood.  We unfortunately weathered quite a fierce storm, with hail and some crazy winds, during our night at Cloudy Bay so didn’t really get to appreciate the area as much as we could have in nice weather, but it’s definitely a spot not to miss. 

For Lisa’s birthday present my grandmother shouted Lisa (and me) to a trip on a Bruny Island Cruises tour of South Bruny Island.  We were due to take the tour on our second day on the island, but in the face of the horrendous storm the night before the skipper of the cruise company detailed that the cruise would likely only cover a small portion of its regular route and those with flexibility should return the next day.  Flexibility, that’s us!  So I went and found a campsite on The Neck while Carol, Greg and Lisa explored some of the Fluted Cape hiking trail to the top of the striking dolerite cliffs that stretch along South Bruny’s east coast.

We were very thankful for the honesty of the Bruny Island Cruises owner when we woke for our third day on the island: no wind and glassy seas.  Now if you think of a honking steamship with a casino and bars when you hear the word ‘cruise’ that’s not how Bruny Island Cruises operates.  Forty-nine passengers are loaded in a military-inspired, aluminium-hulled speedboat, which has almost 800 horsepower of propellers jetting it through the water.  Passengers in the front half of the boat are required to be strapped down (tight) to their seats while the boat’s in motion and everyone’s provided with waterproof slickers for the hair-raising ride.  Lisa and I managed to secure the two seats at the very front of the boat, and while this did mean we felt the worst of the bumps and rolls of the ocean we were afforded the best views throughout the tour.  The three-hour trip took in no shortage of the striking dolerite cliffs of South Bruny’s eastern shores, beautiful rock formations and some extremely powerful blowholes.  The wildlife was brilliant, with a range of seabirds including albatross and petrels up from Antarctica for summer as well as a colony of Australian Fur Seals amongst The Friars at the very southern tip of Bruny Island.   The crew on our boat were fantastic, they were a wealth of knowledge on the surrounding environment and always made sure every one of their passengers was enjoying the trip (the Tim Tams they fed us sure kept us all Happy!).  Everyone had some serious adrenaline pumping as the boats are piloted through gaps in the cliffs and into caves, one gap we shot through at full speed would have only been a metre-or-so wider then the boat!  It was awesome, just awesome!  Lisa said it was better than any theme park ride she’d ever been on.  If you find yourself in Tasmania, make a point of trying to get on a tour with Bruny Island Cruises.

Street View: S42°46.459’ E147°16.570’

William Frost and his Staffordshire Terrier, Blue, welcomed the four of us into their fantastic house in Old Beach for our time in Hobart.  William grew up in Burnie in Tasmania’s north and is a friend of mine from when we were both youngsters, he now lives in Hobart and runs a gourmet food and wine website called Field Blend.  On Friday afternoon while I caught up on the plethora of photos we’d taken over the pervious couple of weeks, Lisa, Carol and Greg spent the afternoon exploring the Hobart waterfront and city centre.  At William’s suggestion they lunched at Fish Frenzy on the Elizabeth Street Pier, as well as taking in some of the beautiful boats moored in Sullivans Cove.  William has a background in hospitality and guided us to the best of Hobart cuisine whilst we were in Tasmania’s capital: our Friday night BBQ at William’s comprised some fabulous wines as well as a selection of brilliant sausages from a gourmet butcher in Hobart called Wursthaus. 

It was Lisa’s birthday on Saturday so before taking her out for a brilliant Italian dinner at Ciuccio we spent the morning and early afternoon at one of Hobart’s absolute must-dos: Salamanca Markets.  Salamanca Markets are the southern hemisphere’s largest open-air street markets, a fantastic place to find anything and everything Tasmanian as well as a dizzying array of great food.  There was also a brilliant assortment of street performers, from hacky-sack buskers raising money to get to the world championships to the fantastic Celtic trio of two brothers and sister pictured to the right.  A bit of an eye-opener at the markets was the Moon Pad stall: an elderly woman who makes and sells recyclable feminine hygiene products (below left)!

Between the markets and dinner we had time for a scenic drive up to the peak of towering Mount Wellington, the striking monolith that overlooks the city of Hobart.  It was a beautifully clear day and we were rewarded with brilliant views from the lookout, from Old Beach all the way south to Bruny Island.  We also stopped off for a beer (or two) at the Cascade Brewery just west of Hobart’s city centre.  Our dinner at Ciuccio was divine and another reminder of just how small a world it is: our waitress and waiter for the evening were a French couple whom we camped next to in the Tarangau Caravan Park in Broome way back in August, 2009!

On Sunday we had tickets to the Twenty20 cricket at Bellerive Oval, but before the game we decided to breakfast at Hobart’s lauded Jackman and McRoss bakery in historic Battery Point.  Recommended by both William and my mum (thanks Mum), the offerings were very unique but oh so tasty!  Lisa and I shared a ‘spiced goat and lentil pie’ and ‘lamb shank and rosemary pie’ between us, both put Jackman and McRoss firmly on my list of Australia’s Best Bakeries (so much so that we had breakfast at Jackman again the next morning on our way to Bruny Island!).  Our tickets to the cricket indicated a start time of 1:00PM, but upon arriving at Bellerive we realized that the women’s cricket was due to start at 2:15PM with the men’s Australia versus West Indies game not starting until 6:15PM!  Not to worry, it gave us time to explore the nearby historic town of Richmond as well as picturesque Seven Mile Beach before returning to catch the bulk of the women’s game and secure a spot on The Hill for the men’s game.  For those of you without some form of Commonwealth upbringing, The Hill at a cricket ground is a general admission area to which the Australian Cricket Association usually sells enough tickets to make any health and safety inspector shudder.  By the time the Australia versus West Indies game started The Hill at Bellerive was absolutely jam packed, we luckily secured ourselves a patch of grass on which to lay our blanket in the seating area, but plenty of latecomers were left to stand amongst the drunken mobs at the rear of The Hill.  The men’s game started with some of the most entertaining batting I’ve ever seen, Warner and Watson tag-teaming for six after six (a six in cricket is like a home run in baseball) and sending the crowd into a frenzy.  The West Indies didn’t even come close to matching the Australians’ score, but The Hill crowd kept things interesting with everything from beach balls bouncing through the crowd to stadium-wide Mexican waves.  The sunset over the stadium was one of the most electric I’ve ever seen, striking red skies with a beautiful view of Mount Wellington in the distance.  An awesome day and what a way for Greg and Carol to be baptized into the world of cricket!

We noticed another one of our articles on the shelves yesterday morning, this one in Australian 4WD Action issue 145.  I hadn’t seen the photos above of Edith Falls in the flesh, looks great all blown up in hard copy.  A couple of cameos from my cousins Margot and Sophie in this article, they met us in Litchfield National Park (the subject of the article) for a night of camping way back in July.

Anyway, Mount Field National Park was great.  Russell Falls were just as beautiful as they’re cracked-up to be, although there wasn’t much water flowing when we visited (I think winter’s a better time to see them in full flow).  More fresh blackberries at our campsite on the side of the river near the National Park, under Greg’s direction we cooked them down into a compote for breakfast, Lisa having hers over yoghurt and me drowning a crumpet. 

Street View: S43°08.571’ E147°57.692’

After our adventures in the northeastern rainforests we high-tailed it down the east coast (with another stop at the brilliant Blue Edge Bakery in Bicheno) to the Tasman Peninsula and Tasman National Park.  Tasman is one of Tasmania’s newest National Parks, it incorporates some beautiful stretches of coastline from Eaglehawk Neck all the way south to Tasman Island and around to one of Tasmania’s most famous historic landmarks: Port Arthur.  We stopped off for lunch with a majestic view over Pirates Bay at Eaglehawk Neck before heading to the south of the Tasman Peninsula to find a campsite at Fortescue Bay (S43°08.571’ E147°57.692’).  Fortescue was one of my favourite campsites in Tasmania, sites located within a few metres of the beautiful beach, hot rainwater showers available for a couple of bucks and some arborists happened to be trimming the Eucalypts when we were there so there was plenty of free firewood on offer.  Lisa and I went for a bit of a snorkel over some of Fortescue Bay’s reef early in the afternoon, unfortunately it was a little choppy so not great visibility for spearing dinner, but a beautiful spot for a swim all the same.  I threw a line in the surf and found some big schools of Australian Salmon in the waves, the ferocity with which they were biting was amazing, some of the bigger fish put some serious bend in my 10-foot surf rod!  We were again inundated by wildlife as the sun retreated over the hills behind Fortescue Bay, one Brushtail Possum found a nice seat by the fire between Lisa and me.  When Lisa realized the critter was only a few inches from her feet she spilled her nightcap of Muscat all over her clothes and hair in fright!  The photo below was Greg’s last wood chopping experience of the trip, the next morning it took him five minutes to get out of bed with a bad back, which unfortunately lasted him the rest of his time in Tasmania!

A trip to Tasmania probably isn’t complete without a visit to Port Arthur.  One of Australia’s most important historic landmarks, Port Arthur showcases the ruins of one of Australia’s most well preserved convict settlements.  Unfortunately the site is also famous for the tragic Port Arthur massacre in 1996, which resulted in Australia’s controversial gun buyback scheme.  The Port Arthur grounds are complete with beautiful gardens, creepy prison ruins and majestic views over the bay of Port Arthur.  It’s a good spot to visit for anyone with even an inkling of interest in Australia’s convict beginnings (please note that South Australia, where I grew up, was Australia’s only state that was not founded as a convict settlement).  The Port Arthur settlement began its life as a timber operation in 1830, it was also a popular ship building yard and later a flour mill before the prison buildings were constructed in 1848.  The main prison building has the majority of its facade still in tact, the prison hospital and guard station are also still standing on the expansive grounds.  Some of the houses of the prison employees were great to see, their interiors have been painstakingly restored to their original condition with furniture and linens to boot.  The prison handled a staggering number of prisoners in its day, I think I recall reading that an in-house tannery was required to keep up with the number of leather shoes required for the inmates, the boot makers turning out in excess of 200 pairs each day in peak times.  Touring the beautiful grounds was like taking a trip back in time…  Our entrance to the Port Arthur grounds included a boat tour around Port Arthur’s waters, which enabled us to get a close-up look at the tiny Isle of the Dead – where all Port Arthur prisoners were buried – as well as the ruins of the boys’ prison at Point Puer.  Port Arthur was abandoned as a prison during the 1880s and renamed Carnarvon in attempt to shed its association with the convict era.  These days the site is vying for World Heritage Listing and remains one of Tasmania’s most popular tourist attractions.