One aspect of Tassie touring we had come to really appreciate was the distance from point to point, or more to the point, the lack thereof.
Admittedly, despite the limited distances, the challenges of many of the island's highway hills which are traversed by disturbingly narrow and winding roads did provide its own unique version of 'there's no such thing as a free (touring) lunch', but today we were to be free of such challenges in our 160 kms trip from Campbell Town to Margate.
The Midlands Highway is far from entirely flat as you will see, but it is wide and well sealed, and in many spots provides a dual carriageway. Bliss!
Not far out of Campbell Town the lack of summer rain was obvious. Hills which in October had delighted us with their green expanses were now brown and bare of all but the most stunted grasses. The locals were not happy!
Every so often distant slopes, where the irrigation sprinklers had been hard at work in the orchards and on the pastures, provided a welcome patch of green through the morning haze, but these were few and far between.
Our journey took us past some typically Tasmanian old farm properties
and the occasional inviting looking wayside inn such as this cracker at Melton Mowbray (which we did plan to visit but just didn't quite make it).
Roadside screenings varied from isolated stands of poplar
to stretches were the verge was a crowded thicket of large and leafy trees.
A few rocky cuttings took us down off the top of the last mountain ridge
before we found ourselves back in the familiar territory around the Brighton Industrial Estate
and on the approach to the first of our two Derwent River crossings for the day. This one was planned, the other not so!
Here at Bridgewater we again cowered under the imposing and slightly intimidating jumble of steel spans and girders
as we gazed out over the mirrored surface of the wide spread of the upper Derwent as it stretched away downstream towards the distant hills of Hobart.
Within less than another 30 minutes these distant city hills had become a reality as we made our past the northern suburbs of the capital and it was shortly hereafter that I made a blue.
The Brooker Highway provides a pretty straightforward route into Hobart but never having come in from this direction before I fell for a serious trap for young players. As we approached the entrance to the city proper, I had not realised that the lane in which we were travelling would take us out over the Tasman Bridge....the wrong way! By the time this had dawned on me it was too late to do anything other than plod on.
So after an unplanned and unwelcome jaunt through parts of Rosny Park (which at least we did know a bit about) I finally managed to again hit the bridge for our second river crossing of the morning (this time the correct way). At least this blunder gave us the opportunity for a great view through the rails over the Derwent which included the cruise liner docks of Hobart with the tower of Wrest Point in the distance.
Now at least I was back on very familiar ground as we joined the city traffic and edged our way along Davey Street,
where the post Xmas clutter in the docks and marinas was clearly obvious. Most of the Sydney-Hobart fleet was in, and on the morrow I shall tick off another bucket list item.
I'll not bother you with repetitive photos of the trail from here to Margate along the Southern Outlet....I've aired that often enough already. Suffice it to say that the holiday period had rendered it far less busy than we had previously experienced, and we dropped anchor Chez Vicki and Andy with a minimum of fuss and no more lane errors
After all the usual rigging of power, water, sullage and setting the van up for habitation, what better way could there be to spend an hour or so than downing a few black beers with a good mate in his very well set up shed. "Welcome back Liz and Pete!" "Delighted to be here, Andy....cheers!"
The days of this return visit were to be strictly numbered. As I mentioned previously, the mission before us was to roam around the Hobart docks and salivate over yachts, large and small (well one of us at least!) and spend another day testing out the Taste Tasmania festival in the same area.
But for now, "another beer would be lovely.....thank you mine host!"
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