Well, as you can all see, my efforts to get up to date continue to fail dismally, but at least we and the blog are in the same State at last!
We have now been in Tasmania for just over five weeks and are having the time of our lives. Tassie to date has been all we hoped for and then some, in spades. In fact we have just decided to postpone our return date until late March. There is just so much to see and do.
My UN Reunion lived up to expectations, although I have to report that for the past four weeks I have been struggling with a wretched bout of viral bronchitis, something which the excellent GP I consulted a fortnight ago put down to the fact that we had come from the warmth of FNQ to the chill of Tassie. She also told me that I was not suffering as an orphan...a goodly percentage of the local population had been similarly afflicted, but obviously for different reasons.
I suspect that the passion with which I and my close mates (some of whom I had not seen since 2013) celebrated our coming together in Hobart may have contributed a tad, but hey, one has to make the most of grand occasions. But I have to admit we did leave it all on the field, as they say, and we are not getting any younger!
Once the gathered UN veterans winged or sailed their way back home, Liz and I left Hobart and spent a wonderful fortnight in the driveway of good friends who live south of the city at Margate. During this time we travelled collectively even further south for a few days to the town of Geeveston from where we sortied as far south as the road will take one in Australia, to Cockle Creek on the far south coast of the State.
This trip gave us to opportunity to recce the Huon Valley and beyond. We have just returned to Hobart (Airport Caravan Park again) after now having spent time at the most southerly pub in the country (at Southport), the most southerly RSL in the country (at Dover) and some grand nights in Franklin and Huonville on the Huon River.
Our temporary return to Hobart has been prompted by the fact that I must fly back to Adelaide for a Memorial Service to honour the memory of my step-father of over 30 years. Harry died a couple of weeks ago, a victim of thyroid cancer. His passing was neither unexpected nor anything but a blessed relief, for him in particular.
I'll not go into detail, but it was an utterly dreadful thing to see such a fine and active man as he was brought so low. The conversation Liz and I had with him in September whilst we were 'home' did nothing but reaffirm my strong support for legalised euthanasia. An end to it all was what he wanted. And if ever anyone deserved to die with complete dignity rather than be left to fade away as he did, it was Harry. We shall miss him.
Once I return to the waiting (not pining, believe me!) bride and cat, we are off to Bruny Island for a week or so, then back through Hobart and south again on the other side of the city to Port Arthur before we head north along the east coast. We plan to reach as far north as the Bay of Fires before the school holidays make life in the coastal parks impossible.
From there it is off to Rosevears (just north of Launceston) to take up a kind invitation to stay with another couple of 'met on the road' acquaintance. Beyond that.....no definitive plans other than a return to Hobart just after Christmas to roam around Constitution Dock in the New Year and fulfil a long held dream to watch a cricket match at Bellerive. As luck would have it, South Australia will be playing.....we are planning to be unpopular!
We have now divided the island into sectors in an attempt to ensure that we 'do everything worthwhile', including a pub crawl with a difference. We have been given a list of all the pubs in Tassie which invite travellers such as we to pull in for the night, take advantage of the free camping on offer, and of course, breast their bars. Southport is ticked off. There is much more to be done!
So, dear readers, your scribe will be taking a few days off from the keyboard but has plans to return with gusto shortly to share our Tassie adventures, which to date include having seen several platypus in the wild, in two separate locations....truly!
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