Happy Australia Day

I just realised that yesterday was one year since I started this blog! So Happy Bloggavesary to me!
Of course today is Australia Day, so it is pouring rain due to a cyclone disassembling to the north of us. We didn't make it to the public celebrations, but invited A&P&Godzilla around for a BBQdinner. We had the special burgers. And Debs learned how to make Anzac biscuits.

So we didn't start running around the house with axes, we went for a drive in the rain. Lots of people were being patriotic with flags etc. Especially these guys.

Ahh, gotta love going to the beach in sunny Queensland...

" If I have to spend one more day shut up in the house with two women watching chick flicks....how far is that down to there do you reckon???"

The rain let up enough so we could use the deck without getting wet.

Good company.

Good cooks.

Quintesentially A!

Quintesentially P! Prizes will be awarded for the best thought bubble for Godzilla.

Pavlova and Anzac biscuits for pud...

Happy Australia Day everyone!

Wet and Windy

Well the cyclone season has started with two appearing in the last 3 days or so. Both are well north of here and pose no threat, but the first one, which has disintegrated into a rain depression, is crossing the coast between here and Townsville, which is making for some rainy weather with windy squalls.
Been quiet on the house selling front this weekend, so today I cooked Mulligatawny Soup for lunch and am currently baking a carrot cake. Debs hates carrots, so I thought I would try her on this cake. I reckon she will like that. I know she likes the frosting.
The soup was good so I posted it on the recipe blog here.

Well we arrived back here a week and three days ago and have been working like demons since to ready the house for sale. It went on the market on Sunday and so far have had two buyers through.

The house is spic and span and we have to keep it that way. I hope it sells fast as I am finding it hard to feel relaxed. After a mega clean yesterday it will be easier for a few days, but next weekend is an open house so will do more work then. A
Am over it already.

Tasmania Trip Day Eight

Today we flew home. But first we had to drive four and a half hours from Cradle Mountain to Hobart. I Know. Bad planning. Not helped by muscles so sore from the mega bushwalk yesterday that I could hardly move. And sunburn - times two.
We started early. It was a beautiful day however and a warm one. So it was doable. Wouldn't try that in winter though.
We stopped for breakfast at a truck stop near Campbell Town. Great coffee.
Once we got to Ross (see above) however, we had to go and see if they still did those amazing scallop pies. They did. More breakfast! Yummo.
Didn't need lunch! We arrived at Hobart airport, fuelled up, dropped the car off and went to the departure lounge to wait.
No real glitches flying home and arrived back here at 5pm. Son 18 picked us up and Debs had cooked a lasagne for tea. the house was still standing, in fact was tidier than when we left!
Now to just deal with the flat, "just come back from holiday" feeling.
And try not to think of the gazillion things we need to do in a few cdays to get ready to sell the house.

Tasmania Trip Day Seven

After a hearty buffet breakfast we made an early start to get our national park pass and catch the shuttle bus up to Cradle Mountain. we planned a days walking, up to Crater Lake, down to Dove Lake and around it. A solid 5 hours a lot uphill. As I am so unfit I found the uphill bits a stretch, but as I love walking and it was a glorious day we loved it. KISA even ran up a couple of hills just because he can. On our bus was a party heading off on the overland track to Lake St. Clair. I think that is 5 or 6ndays walking. Would love to do that one day. We made it to Crater Lake and it was just beautiful. The sun only shines about 30 days a year up here, so how lucky were we to have such perfect weather. It was quite warm too, apparantly Hobart had 38 today. I think it was mid twenties, but no humidity so it was lovely. We keep on going to the lookout at Wombat Peak. Could see three or four lakes from here.

You can just see the walking track heading down in this one. The soil is white, as it is very quartzite.

The flat bit here is I think Marion's Lookout. A few were heading up there, as it was such a lovely day, but we didn't have the time and I couldn't face the steps. I regret that now, as the chance of another day like today next time we are here would be unlikely. Serves me right for being unfit. This is wombat pool and just peeking up at the top is Cradle Mountain. We made it to Dove Lake, one of the most photographed spots in Australia. It is not quite still enough for the reflection thing to really get going but there is enough there to get the idea. The walk around the lake is 6km and pretty easy. A few climbs but nothing like we had done. Lots of spectacular views.

Some kind person took our picture near the end of our walks. We stopped here to finish our packed lunch. We caught the bus back to the lodge and collapsed in the bar with long pint glasses of soda water. Back to the room to shower and change then back to the bar to drink water/beer and read the papers. Then round to the pub bistro for pizza and fish and chips (KISA) then collapsed into bed. I am so going to be sore tomorrow. KISA has the worst sunburn on his arms.

Tasmania Trip Day Six

After a leisurely start, we stopped off to stock up on a real coffee to go from the Strahan Bakery, and headed off to Cradle Mountain, our next stop. We stopped at a look out for one last look at Ocean Beach, 38kms long and home to the giant waves. The highest wave recoded offshore here was 26 metres, at least that is when the wave bouy broke. Not this week though, they are about as ferocious as Mackay Harbour in November.

After a while we were looking for a break and coffee and followed a sign saying coffee and cake and just happened upon this spot. It is Lake Talleh and is was just gorgeous. There is a lodge just behind us, and it is a holiday spot. It looks geared up for winter with massive fires etc.

We arrived at Cradle Mountain Lodge and it was quite a warm day! We were shown our cabin and I looked out the window and look what I saw! The next day I saw a large wombat walk past as well, but the camera wasn't handy. We got some lunch then went for a couple of walks handy to the lodge. First we took a 45 minute walk called the King Billy walk. It was mostly uphill! We spotted these two locals just grazing by the path.

At the top of the walk is this huge King Billy pine. I think it was hundreds of years old. Then we came to a lookout that gave us our first glimpse of Cradle Mountain itself.

Aftera drink we went on the Enchanted walk which took us along this water course, lovely and shady and an easy stroll.

The walk ended at these waterfalls, which were really just outside the front gate to the Lodge.

Another couple of short walks took us to this waterfall. Strangely enough they were called the waterfall walks.

After that warm up, we treated ourselves to dinner in the restuarant. It was very nice, though tres posh. We will try the pub tomorrow.

Tasmania Trip Day Five

Another beautiful day dawned, very early. The sun goes down about 9:35pm and comes up about 5am. And thats with daylight saving. Seems they get more than us regardless! The lawn in front of our room gets these visitors at dawn and dusk. There are usually three or four of them. This is for Miss R. I did some washing, then we were picked up at 10am for our West Coast Wilderness Railway trip. We were going through the mountains to Queenstown on a steam trail with mountain climbing abilities. A Swiss gentleman (surprise, surprise!) named Abt invented a cog rail system. I had been on one before in Switzerland, but there are only two in Australia. The other one is in a steep paddock somewhere. Australia is pretty short on mountains.
We chose the first class option, so we got a carriage at the back, with a balcony. And champagne and nibblies.

The carriages are all restored beautifully and quite comfy.This one has windows in the roof too. It was a hottish day so we could have done without them, but the rest of the year they would be quite handy.

We were not allowed to lean out of the windows or the side of the carriage, lest we lose a limb, as the cuttings were quite narrow in parts. So we got lots of pics of the track behind us!

We stopped briefly at the first of two stations to rewater the engine. This little Huon Pine in a pot is 80 years old. Told you they grow slowly. A plant for the patient.

This rail line was built by hand through some really wild country. This is the remains of some old bridge washed away in a flood.

We followed the King River up into the hills. Due to pollution from the mining at Queenstown, this is a dead river. Nothing will live in it, not even bacteria. This picture is of a junction with a smaller stream, which is a healthy river, it has the tannin coloured water. You can see where they meet.

We stopped at the next station to swap engines and have lunch. Apart from the champagne and nibblies they plied us with on the way up here, the lunch consited of a pastie, a salad roll, biccies and cheese, fruit and some chocolates. We watched the train from Queenstown come in. This engine was having some issues, so we had to wait while another engine chugged up here.

The two engines, hooked up to our carriages, ready to take us up the mountains to Queenstown.It was interesting watching them turn the engines around. By hand.
Like in Thomas the Tank Engine.

Still following the King River we headed up.

And up.

And up.

As we neared the town of Queenstown, site of ecological disasters as mentioned a couple of days ago, we encountered the Queen River. This is what it looks like after NOT being polluted for the last 50 years. It will take hundreds of years for this river to heal.

Once we arrived in Queenstown, we were bussed back to Strahan. We headed back to the hotel for a bit, then into Strahan for dinner before heading out to Ocean Beach to catch a sunset. My first ever sunset over the sea.

It didn't dissapoint.

And you know how much I love sunsets.

We could have stayed on to watch the mutton birds flying into the sanddunes to their chicks. But it was nearly 10pm and we were tired. So we headed back to Strahan. Once back at the hotel, KISA played with the night setting on the camera to get this shot of Strahan at night.