Binalong Bay, Bay of FiresDay 6- Thursday 22 January
Chelsie, Diva, and Kate got up for what Diva called “The most underwhelming sunrise ever,” and then went back to sleep. I opted out as I’d already seen 2 sunrises this year (New Year’s Day and Sky Diving day). So around 9 we got up for real and had breaky and took down the tent and then went to clean ourselves in the ocean. I got slammed by a wave and ended up with a suit full of sand, it was pretty hilarious. We exfoliated with the coarse sand though and it felt great on the mozzy bites. When we were getting ready to leave it started to pour but didn’t last long. We headed back to the main highway through Binalong Bay (I washed my face at the public toilet sink there, not potable water and smelt like sulphur, and I’m pretty sure my face smelt like garbage for a few hours after that) and St Helen’s.
Chelsie, Diva, and Kate got up for what Diva called “The most underwhelming sunrise ever,” and then went back to sleep. I opted out as I’d already seen 2 sunrises this year (New Year’s Day and Sky Diving day). So around 9 we got up for real and had breaky and took down the tent and then went to clean ourselves in the ocean. I got slammed by a wave and ended up with a suit full of sand, it was pretty hilarious. We exfoliated with the coarse sand though and it felt great on the mozzy bites. When we were getting ready to leave it started to pour but didn’t last long. We headed back to the main highway through Binalong Bay (I washed my face at the public toilet sink there, not potable water and smelt like sulphur, and I’m pretty sure my face smelt like garbage for a few hours after that) and St Helen’s.
The windy roads continued and the road took us through a constantly changing landscape- flat farm lands, huge hilly gum tree and eucalyptus forests (you could smell the eucalyptus inside the car, sometimes it was almost suffocating it was so strong), lush pre-historic fern forests, exposed outcroppings of rock. Incredible! Or “Unreal” as Kate would say... often. Haha. We stopped for lunch at Pyengana Dairy Company and their Holy Cow Café where we did a cheese tasting and I had some amazing cheddar and chive scones. Then we went down the road and saw Princess Priscilla the beer drinking pig. Crazy. Then we stopped in Scottsdale for a bakery break and the Bridestow Estate Lavendar Farm. Acres upon acres of lavender, a show-off guinea fowl and a taste of lavender ice cream (soapy!). Next up was Launceston, Lausington to Diva, for the night. It’d been windy and rainy all day so we decided to go big and get a hotel room. It’d also been 5 days since my last shower and I got to charge my camera battery! Of course, like the rest of Tassie, everything closed at 5pm so it was an early night after dinner at half-decent Mexican place.
Day 7- Friday 23 January
We got up early because we had to get Chelsie back to Hobart for her 1:40pm flight back to New Zealand. We stopped only in Historic Ross along the Midland Highway to see the Four Corners of Ross, the main intersection in town: Temptation (Man O’Ross Hotel), Salvation (the Catholic church), Recreation (Community Hall), and Damnation (the old gaol). There was also an old bridge in Ross that was hand carved by convicts in the mid 1800s. Very quaint town.
We passed through a section of highway where a bushfire was being extinguished and kms of trees and fields and telephone poles had burned- we learned later that winds had reached 157km/h during the night, causing the poles to falldown and spark from the electrical wires they supported to start the fires. Crazy shit!
Day 7- Friday 23 January
We got up early because we had to get Chelsie back to Hobart for her 1:40pm flight back to New Zealand. We stopped only in Historic Ross along the Midland Highway to see the Four Corners of Ross, the main intersection in town: Temptation (Man O’Ross Hotel), Salvation (the Catholic church), Recreation (Community Hall), and Damnation (the old gaol). There was also an old bridge in Ross that was hand carved by convicts in the mid 1800s. Very quaint town.
We passed through a section of highway where a bushfire was being extinguished and kms of trees and fields and telephone poles had burned- we learned later that winds had reached 157km/h during the night, causing the poles to falldown and spark from the electrical wires they supported to start the fires. Crazy shit!
Bushfire damage from the highway
Once we got back to Hobart we returned the camping gear and car and said Goodbye to Chelsie (Kate and I will see her again in about 3 weeks in New Zealand!). Then we found a hostel and shopped old Hobart town for a few hours. We stopped in at the Lark Distillery and I tasted some Pepper Berry Bush liqueur, very good, but choked on the 2nd sip and made a bit of a scene in the nearly empty room. After a nap at the hostel we were getting ready to go to the hostel bar for $3.60 bottles of Cascade Green (carbon neutral, low carb, Tassie-made beer, complete with a sexy Tasmanian Tiger stripe bottle), when one of our dorm mates (8 share room) came in from his shower and proceeded to drop his towel in front of us and get dressed. Um, did that just happen? Yes. Yes it did.
After some beers we walked back down to the harbor for fish and chips at Flippers- a floating take-a-way place shaped like a fish, roughly. Then we headed over to Knoppy’s Retreat, a bar, where one of Kate’s Byron co-workers’s friend worked. He had a sweet moustache- fitting, as it was moustache day after all- and hooked us up with some free beer. The place had a good vibe until we went inside and sat down. We were instantly joined by a very short man named Lin? Len? And he said “Let’s get a bottle of wine!” Uh, okay. We’d been drinking vodka-sodas and rum and cokes, but he did offer, so we picked a wine and then he asked for $5 from each of us for it! WHAT! We end up giving him $10 between the 3 of us and he ended up being very lame. We thought that maybe based on his size he’d be at least funny, but we were sadly mistaken- he sucked. And his friend looked like Paul “Shit Break” Finch from American Pie and sucked also. Around midnight we finally left lame Lin and hit up the 24hour bake house. Once back at our hostel, we quietly walked into our room only to have naked guy sit up in bed and say “Sorry? Sorry? Sorry?” Kate replied with: “Oh sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you up.” Then he says, “You’re in my car. Get out of my car. It’s my car. I asked you to get out. Look. Just get out of my car!” I was laughing quietly to myself and Diva says “Uh, okay, we’ll get out of your car.” Or something like that. Naked guy’s phone rang a few times during the night and he failed to answer it or turn it off. Thanks naked guy.
Day 8- Saturday 23 January
After some beers we walked back down to the harbor for fish and chips at Flippers- a floating take-a-way place shaped like a fish, roughly. Then we headed over to Knoppy’s Retreat, a bar, where one of Kate’s Byron co-workers’s friend worked. He had a sweet moustache- fitting, as it was moustache day after all- and hooked us up with some free beer. The place had a good vibe until we went inside and sat down. We were instantly joined by a very short man named Lin? Len? And he said “Let’s get a bottle of wine!” Uh, okay. We’d been drinking vodka-sodas and rum and cokes, but he did offer, so we picked a wine and then he asked for $5 from each of us for it! WHAT! We end up giving him $10 between the 3 of us and he ended up being very lame. We thought that maybe based on his size he’d be at least funny, but we were sadly mistaken- he sucked. And his friend looked like Paul “Shit Break” Finch from American Pie and sucked also. Around midnight we finally left lame Lin and hit up the 24hour bake house. Once back at our hostel, we quietly walked into our room only to have naked guy sit up in bed and say “Sorry? Sorry? Sorry?” Kate replied with: “Oh sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you up.” Then he says, “You’re in my car. Get out of my car. It’s my car. I asked you to get out. Look. Just get out of my car!” I was laughing quietly to myself and Diva says “Uh, okay, we’ll get out of your car.” Or something like that. Naked guy’s phone rang a few times during the night and he failed to answer it or turn it off. Thanks naked guy.
Day 8- Saturday 23 January
Two-headed Devils at Salamanca Market
Got up, checked out, hit the famous Salamanca Market down by the harbor. Sampled about a dozen flavors of fudge and several types of goats, sheep, and cows cheese. I had the second best muffin of my life. It was a cool market, but a little pricey and full of Bric-a-Brac.
Back at the hostel, we waited for a cheap airport shuttle that never showed and ended up taking a taxi. Back in the Melbourne airport I found out my jeans can write! And then the flight from Mel to Gold Coast was long as the plane was full of families with young children who can’t deal with the landing pressure and are generally undisciplined and loud.
But we made it back to Byron Bay and our hell hole and it is nice to be home, but DAMN was Tasmania wicked!
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