Off the Island

Well I was off the island for three weeks, but back home on another island. I've been home for nearly four weeks now, so it's about time I put some pics up here.

In brief, I had a fantastic trip. I caught up with lots of people and really enjoyed myself.

First up was a weekend in London, catching up with friends, such as Alec, who had just become an Ironman:


We had fun in Richmond and went to Notting Hill Carnival - which was a first time for me:


I then travelled up for a few days with Kim and the boys in Kettering. This was great - it was good to see them all healthy and happy, and fun to take them to adventure playgrounds.


Next up was a weekend in Louth at Dad and Joan's and Chris & Sarah's places. I got to see all the usual suspects, of course, such as:

The Worksalike

Paddy, Chris and Jody

Aidan and Jenny (quite pregnant!)

... and Molly (Chris and Sarah's daughter)


Once again, it was very relaxing and I got to spend a decent amount of time with everyone, catch up on my English beer, etc.

Then I headed down to Devon to stay with Mum and Julian for a few days. On the way I had breakfast with Owen at Paddington Station:


We had time for a good walk in the sunshine


I swung by Andy and Charlotte Pearce's house on Charlotte's birthday and had dinner with them and saw their kids (including new arrival Olivia).

And I even met up with Carl halfway between Exeter and London (Salisbury. He's now off travelling in Asia.


Mum and Jules took me to Leatherhead where I met friends (Martin and Bryce) in a Triumph Toledo and headed off to the south of France and back via the Alps and 8 other countries. That was an adventure-packed few days! We were joined by Andy and Sarah in their Triumph Stag.





My mates dropped me at Nana and Pete's on the way back. So I finished off my trip home to England with an enjoyable few days with them. We visited Greenwich on a glorious day


We also went to Burnham Beeches.

Then it was back on the plane. I managed to pack a fair bit into three weeks, but it was well worth it - I enjoyed every minute, even if I was away from Ella a long time.

Island of Peninsulas/Peninsulae/Peninsula(?)

I'm sitting at work, looking at a map of Tasmania and it certainly looks to me like there are a fair few peninsula. They make good National Parks, too, apparently. For a start there's Tasman Peninsula which we visited way back last year. But last weekend we took a trip to the world famous Freycinet Peninsula. I took Monday from work so that we could head up on Saturday and get a decent walk in on Sunday.

It was a two and a half hour drive up the east coast to Freycinet (named after a French explorer I think). We booked into a decent Youth Hostel in Coles Bay and headed down to the beach to try and catch the sunset whilst I called Nana to wish her a happy birthday.


In the winter it's fairly quiet in Coles Bay (population:not much) so the Hostel wasn't too busy. Saturday morning we headed over to the car park that marks the start of the walk that all the visitors do - over the 'saddle' to Wineglass Bay. At the top of the saddle there was a nice seat:


There's also a lookout so you can see the splendour of Wineglass Bay before you get there:


Then it's downhill to the beach, which is quite stunning. We were very lucky with the weather as you can see... especially as parts of Tassie were flooding the day before!


We were enjoying the walk and it had been easy going so we extended things a bit and started some of the Freycinet Circuit, walking on and up to Mount Graham ... the most tastefully named summit ever :-)

From here we had great views back to Wineglass Bay:




And also, Schouten Island at the end of the peninsula:


After a little lunch we turned back the way we came to head back across Wineglass Bay and up over the saddle. By this point we were getting a bit more weary, so you can't blame Ella for having a rest:


After a second relaxing night in the YHA we took a short trip up the coast to Cape Tourville to the lighthouse which had a nice view south to the peninsula:


Freycinet rated highly in my opinion, although I'm glad we went in the off-season because it was fairly busy and it looks like the paths suffer from over-use. Here's a map of the area so you can see where we went.

So next up is my trip home to England. This time I'm coming without Ella, as she's staying for work and a trip to the Northern Territory with her folks. It will be strange being apart for nearly four weeks, but we have the rest of our lives to spend together so it's not the end of the world.

Island of lazy bloggers

I can't believe it's nearly August already. I haven't "blogged" since March. To be honest it's a combination of being a lazy blogger and the fact that I have had a decent amount of work to be getting on with...

Anyway, a quick round up and photos:

Uncle Karen visited and amongst other things we went to Bruny Island:


Ella and I had a fabulous Easter weekend driving around the south-west of Tasmania:




At the end of May we went up to Queensland and saw Ella's family (including Ingrid and Phil back from Germany briefly)



Then we had a visit from Ella's family and we climbed some of Mt Wellington in the rain and cold:


At some point I started playing football again, for local team Newtown Eagles ... and they put a picture featuring me (!) in the local daily paper:


Recently it's been quite cold and we've done a little less walking, but we have been up to the mountains to see the snow. A work mate of mine and his wife moved to Hobart a little after we did, from Townsville, in tropical North Queensland - so snow to them is a real novelty! Juan took these photos of us at Mount Field:







Last week we moved house ... but you'll have to wait for me to tell you more about that (hopefully not 5 months though).

I'll be over to England at the end of August, so maybe I'll see you then.

Tasmania - Islands of Sun!

I say Islands because Tassie is actually made up of a huge number of islands, the main one being where we live of course. A few weeks back we took Ella's friend Anita (visiting from Queensland) to Maria Island to enjoy a very sunny couple of days in Darlington! The easiest way to get to the island is by ferry from Triabunna, an hour or so East of Hobart.

There are no cars on the island, bar the Rangers vehicles, and the whole place is a National Park... my words don't really do it justice, though, just look at the photos Ella and I took!

This is a view looking back at Darlington on the way to the Painted Cliffs. You can see the former concrete works (c.1920s) and the old Commissariat Store from the 1830s when the island was a convict station.


The Commissariat Store is now used as the visitor centre - first port of call when we arrived.


The accomodation options are either a campsite or the old penitentiary ... built by the convicts themselves. At $22 for a 6 bed room it was as cheap as chips!


We did a short walk on the evening we got there to the Painted Cliffs and back:




We walked back along the beach.


Then the next day we did a good long walk along a cliff to a high peak (Bishop and Clerk). From here you could see the famous Freycinet Peninsula and Schouten Island - they looked like they were floating in the sky.




What a great weekend it was!

My Uncle Karen is staying with us now, and we'll be off this weekend for a little trip together ... perhaps Bruny Island this time.

Tasmania ... Island of Spectacular Views!

Just when we were getting used to things, summer arrived. It's been pretty good weather just recently, and we've taken advantage of it, getting away two weekends in a row.

The weekend before last (10th-12th February) was a long weekend so on the Sunday we headed out of Hobart to Mount Field National Park. We visited this Park briefly with Alec and Dave back in December and knew there were some good walks to do, so back we came for a weekend. It's only an hour or so north of Hobart, so we got up to the start of our walk (about 15km down a dirt road within the Park) at a reasonably early hour. From here we walked to the peak of Mount Field West. This area is used for skiing when the snow falls deeply enough, and the views were stunning as you can see:



As was the company :-)

Up here there were lots and lots of cushion plants ... incredible!
They're not easy to take photos of though:



After a fairly lengthy walk, with a reasonable amount of rocks (as mentioned in my previous post, this is normal in Tassie) we headed back to camp in the Park campsite for the night ... near some very tall trees!

Some of the rocks:


Tall trees!


After our first night camping in quite some time, we went back for another decent walk ... this time Mt Field East. Being slightly further down the range it was somewhat less 'alpine', although still quite stunning, and fortunately more sheltered ... having received a good dose of sunburn on our necks on the Sunday we were a bit more careful.

Ella's friend, Anita, arrived here on the Tuesday, and so we went to Maria Island the weekend of 17-18th February. That was great, but it can wait for another blog entry ... coming just as soon as I get around to it!

Bye for now.

Tasmania ... Island of Rocks

Well, I did say I'd try and keep up the "Island of..." theme didn't' I?

January has disappeared like a Goanna up a gum tree, and summer has made minimal impact on Hobart. I'm not really complaining, but the changeability of the weather is quite astonishing - especially living up the hill as we do. The view from our kitchen continues to astound me, though, it changes each time I look out. An added bonus has been the arrival, twice so far this year, of a cruise ship! The first time I was so excited I ran out and snapped this photo:


The Reeks Australian contingent have been busying themselves at weekends with drives and walks. We've done a few walks in Mount Wellington Park (on our doorstep pretty much). Firstly we did a loop around the northern side of the mountain, towards Collins Bonnet - a fairly long and rocky walk:




Then just last weekend we did a quite gruelling but fairly short walk on the southern side. This was the really rocky but! The hard work was afforded not so much by the slope, but by the lack of signage (so lots of map/guess work instead) and the tendency of the track to cross scree slopes full of precarious boulders. It was also very exposed, very windy, and there was a short burst of hail to top things off! Progress ended up being less than 3km per hour we reckoned.

Otherwise, we've done a couple of car drives with car clubs, trying to gauge what club to join (if any). The first attempt was a bit boring to be frank, rather slow, so much so that we disappeared off on our own for the 1.5 hour lunch break and checked out some dirt roads up to a great spot called Interlaken. Ella got this photo of an Echidna on the way - they're a shy creature that you don't get to see very often, and this one was shuffling away as fast as it could:

The other run - with the local Triumph club - was a lot more successful, so we're joining that club instead.