Cold weather in Tasmanian summer

After our stint at the north-east corner of Tasmania, we headed south along the east coast, again by back roads, and prowled around an area north of St Helens, where we found a great little beach camping area.

This is part of the Bay of Fires conservation area. The bay is so called because red algae has stained the rocks at each headland and the sand is absolutely snow white. Unfortunately it rained quite a lot for the night we were there so we set off the next day for the relatively civilized centre of St Helens, a nice little coastal town where we bought coral prawns from a roadside vendor who catches them on his father’s trawler . . . out from Mackay!

Then we headed inland, stopping first at the famous Pyengana cheese factory for a tasting and some purchases, then heading into the mountains to see Tasmania’s tallest (90 metres) waterfall, St Columba’s.

It WAS dramatic, particularly standing at the viewing platform, right under the falls, after a walk through almost tropical rainforest, particularly what are called manferns, taller than most men.



Wild foxgloves and blue gum forests, high in the mountains.



We actually headed further into the mountains to see another waterfall, but as we drove higher and higher through the blue gum forests, the fog . . . or low cloud . . .intensified, so we turned back, but not before reaching a sign showing where the West Pyengana School had stood from 1927 to 1942. It had been a little timber village, but is now taken over by the wild foxgloves found in a lot of Tassie’s forest areas.

The story is that they were introduced by Chinese miners in the 19^th century, who extracted the digitalis, but they are now gloriously found all over the place. If the birds carry the seed, then there must be a lot of Tasmanian birds without heart problems!



The town hall, scene of an excellent Saturday market.



We ended that day camped at the back of the Weldborough pub, once the heart of a thriving tin-mining village in the forest, with lots of Chinese there. The hotel has existed, in one incarnation or another, since 1886, and now boasts the distinction of being the only pub in Tasmania to stock every one of the beers produced by the state’s micro breweries. It also stocks a lot of ciders so we gave them a taste test while having a hu-u-u-ge meal that night.



On we went the next day to Derby, the centre of major tin-mining for many years. The Saturday market was being held in the town hall, so we found some bits and pieces for Christmas with the family, and met some of the locals. There were more at the excellent Tin Dragon Centre, which told the story of tin-mining; and at the old schoolhouse museum next door, manned that morning by a volunteer who was highly informative and most interesting.



Just one of the old trees at Legerwood.



We found we’d spent the whole morning in Derby, so after visiting Legerwood, where some WWI memorial trees which had become unsafe were chainsaw-sculpted to remain as memorials, found a great little camping ground at Myrtle Park, right next to the St Patrick’s River. It also had been the centre of a community called Targa, this time based on timber, and the camping ground includes a hall that used to be the school as well as a cricket pitch and wonderful picnic grounds.



Jacobs Ladder, on the way to the ski village.



We awoke the next morning to a frost outside (and this was Dec 17!) and only 8C inside, but once our diesel heater had been switched on, we didn’t get out of bed until it was a civilized 19C. We continued with the cold weather as we ascended that morning to the Ben Lomond National Park, including a ski village at the top of an horrendous ascent called Jacobs Ladder. Not much happening in summer, and still horribly cold, but we pulled up and had lunch there while surveying the bleak landscape.

It seemed like a different world to enter Launceston about 50km later, admiring the peacocks at Cataract Gorge and finding a place to stay just outside, so I could at last get some laundry done.

Tomorrow: Main mission, to find some more raspberries and start exploring the towns and villages west of Launceston.