Bay of Fires - Launceston

Apparently over 700ml of rain fell our second night at Swansea. I think I was awake for about 600ml of it, checking for leaks, adjusting the guy ropes and trying to calculate how long it would take to dry the bed ends so we could move in the morning. The good news is that the Jayco is still watertight.

By 5:30 am however, it was clear that we should not pack up. If the bed ends are wet when you wind down, then the mattresses get wet.  It threw a bit of a spanner into the works as we had hoped to continue up the east coast and then turn inland toward our final destination, Launceston and the Tamar valley. Not to be deterred, we decided to explore the east coast sans the Jayco and simply double back to spend a further night at Swansea. Extra mileage, but we have lost count as it is.

Even though the rain was still hammering down, the forecast was hopeful.  By the time we reached St Helens, things had brightened and we ventured into the Bay of Fires. I really liked that area. The kids had a grand time climbing about on the orange lichen covered  granite rocks. When the sun eventually broke through, the water sparkled a clear icy blue. The gusts left over from the previous evening threw up impressive waves that trailed dense sea mist and then curled onto the rocks. The granite has very high quartzite content, resulting in brilliant white sand. The colour of the the rocks, water and sand cut a very striking scene. 

Not content with a simple seaside jaunt, we pushed inland to St Columbia falls. Given the rain, we hoped for a thunderous response.  St Columbia obliged in spades; one could hardly approach the viewing platform without getting hosed down. Apparently it was not much more that a dribble a few weeks back. 

  Further inland is the Weldborough forest walk. It is just off the main road and takes about 15 minutes to walk a circuit track surrounded by huge tree ferns and Myrtle trees.  These trees are ancient – estimates vary, but they are measured in hundreds or sometimes thousands of years.

After the forest walk, we turned around and made the long journey back to where we started the day, via Bicheno for a really well earned pizza.  One of the best seafood pizzas I've had, largely because it was covered knee high in prawns, oysters, scallops and calamari.  Nothing more annoying than a seafood pizza having three prawns and a dusting a seafood extender thrown at it.

The day was not over yet. Swansea had mustered up cyclonic winds in our absence. Fortunately, a fellow camper had kindly re-pegged our flys lest they escaped. So Rod and I ended our day double roping everything and then putting dirty great boulders on the pegs to ensure we didn’t whirl off during the night.

Tasmania has tried to freeze us, drown us and now it wants to blow us back to the mainland.  Do your worst Tassie, we are not finished with you yet !

The next day dawned bright and clear, so we packed and escaped as quickly as humanly possible.  The plan was to head to Launceston, but we had a choice of routes, both of which we had travelled at least part of previously. We chose the one less travelled, via Ledgerwood, on the advice of a couple of fellow travellers. This small town surrendered half a dozen of their finest men to World War 1 and in memory  the township planted a row of trees in 1915 or so.  The trees were deteriorating by the early part of this century and the decision was made to use them for carvings. The result is a moving reminder of one towns reverence for their sacrifice.

A liitle further down the road we stopped for lunch at Scottsdale. How were we to know that our local cafe in Beecroft has a franchise there ??

Our plan was to camp at a free rest area outside a little place called Lilydale. We arrived but didn’t feel quite right about it. It is always best to trust one’s instincts in this matter, so we ended up at a van park near Launceston. The weather was holding, so after setting up (team Burton is getting rather efficient at the whole process) we turned about to discover Cataract Gorge. 

The Gorge is the local natural wonder and is a stunning piece of riverscape close to a major centre. The gorge was dammed upstream in the 1950’s and so the water level is lower than it once was. Mother Nature has the last laugh of course, and floods the basin with fond regularity, at times rather severely.  When the basin is not in deluge, it proves a beautiful tranquil reserve for the locals and tourists. It is also home to peacocks (descendants of a pair shipped in to make the place more “exotic”), wallaby, potoroo and at least one big fat seal. The seal seemed rather out of place, but there it lay sunning itself on a rock ledge.

That night we enjoyed the luxury of a camp kitchen, so treated ourselves to… a BBQ and salad.  We ate alfresco and enjoyed a gorgeous summer evening, knowing that the weather could turn any minute.......