Tassie NE to SW

Long drive yesterday heading south from Cradle Mountain through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers area, across the the southern savannas of Tasmania to Hobart.

Another beautiful day.

Stopped for to stretch my legs on some brief bush walks; one at Nelson Falls, and another at Doneghy's Hill.

[At left: the view from Doneghy's Hill.]

Crossed a lot of country, from the rugged hills around cradle mountain into the rain forests full of giant ferns, across broad grassy plains bounded by stands of eucalyptus.

More photos will come later, over at my home page. For now, here are a few glimpses.

[Below right: a stand of eucalyptus trees.]

The road was narrow with no shoulder in most places, but in really good condition. And almost no traffic - every few minutes I would pass a vehicle going the other way, and once or twice I passed or allowed to pass another vehicle going my way.

Got into Hobart at about 7:30 PM - turned what would have been a 5-hour drive into a 9-hour trip, but the stops and detours were worth it.

Up early this morning to shoot some photos around the harbor at sunrise.

Onboard "Spirit of Tasmania", Melbourne to Devonport

Above: "Spirit of Tasmania II" alongside Melbourne's Station Pier.

"Spirit of Tasmaina I and II" run between the port of Melbourne on the south coast of the Australian mainland, across the Bass Strait, to Devonport, on the north coast of the island of Tasmania. They run every evening all year round, but during the peak Summer months also do day runs several days a week.

Check-in starts at 6:30 AM, and I arrived at Melbourne's Station Pier just before 7:30 to see the ship already taking on cars and passengers. After an inspection for compressed gases, jerry cans of fuel, and other items that might represent a danger on board, the line of cars snake around the pier and climb a ramp towards the bow of the ship, then drop down into its gaping maw to parking belowdecks.

Lock the car, grab my camera bag, and then climb up to the passenger decks to watch the cast-off.

We depart Melbourne on time at 9 AM, and the Captain announces that we'll make Devonport at around 6:40 PM with an average cruising speed of 27 knots. It will be more than 2 hours before we even clear the mouth of Port Phillip, Melbourne's huge harbor. Once we do, 20-25 knot winds are expected for our crossing of Bass Strait, a famously treacherous 240 km-wide and 50-meter deep slot of water between the mainland and Tasmania. The number of ships wrecked along the Strait number in the hundreds and the Strait is said to be twice as rough as the English Channel.

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11:40 AM: We sail beyond the headlands of Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale into Bass Strait. The seas are not rough, but there are some white caps, and the ship is shuddering and rolling a good bit more than in the protected waters of Port Phillip.

1:50 PM: We pass "Spirit of Tasmania I" heading in the opposite direction, back to Melbourne from Devonport, about a mile west of our track. The wind on deck is very stiff, but it is a clear sunny day with scattered clouds.

5:00 PM: We are advised over the ship's intercom that our arrival time in Devonport will be 7:00 PM. I am glad we will still have a couple hours of daylight after we arrive.

6:15 PM: Disembarkation procedures are announced.

7:00 PM: We tie up alongside the pier at Devonport, and after an hour waiting in line to drive off the ship and get through Tasmania's quarantine inspection, I make for the motel, drop my bags and rush "downtown".

At Sharky's restaurant, they were closing the kitchen, but the Mom/waitress out front gets an approving nod from the Dad/chef back in the kitchen - and I'm able to get a late dinner.

Happy New Year from Melbourne!

Melbourne is a really pretty city, with some great gardens, old buildings, bars and restaurants, and more - with the Yarra River flowing through the center. Great fireworks shows tonight. An "early-bird" family episode at 9:15 - about half an hour after sundown, and then the midnight shows for the adults.

Here are a couple of shots from the late show, with fireworks going off from the tops of many of the buildings around town.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

Oysters and "r" months

above: the skyline of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Where I grew up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland, I was taught only to eat oysters in months whose name had the letter "r" in it. The reason being that the local oysters were growing in pretty warm water during the "non-r" months - May/June/July/August - and warm-water diseases and spoilage would be more likely to be a problem.

I was thinking that maybe the rule still works here in Australia because there is no "r" in "DEE-SEM-BAH". And that I shouldn't eat oysters because it is the middle of summer here - the highs today are supposed to reach almost 40° C!

However, I still think there is an audible "r" in January - even if it gets pronounced "JAN-YER-REE" around here. So - I gotta wait a couple more days?

But yesterday, as I was trying to decide whether to chow down on a half-dozen here in Melbourne, a little further consideration convinced me that "Chesapeake rules " shouldn't apply here. The temperature of the waters these oysters are coming from is a lot colder - at around 20° C - than the Chesapeake, which hits 30° C in Summer.

And the oysters were from Tasmania anyway - a bit cooler still - only 1600 miles from Antarctica.

So I enjoyed some mid-Summer December oysters along with a glass of "Moo Pale Ale", also from Tasmania, which the brewer calls an "American style Pale Ale" and "a quintessential microbrewery beer". Very nice - just no comparison to the dilute pee that the biggest breweries in America call beer: "We start with pure mountain water - then we take the purity out!"

Know why they spend millions on sponsorships and ad campaigns? Because nobody in their right mind would drink the stuff unless it was hammered into them that it would make them cool.

Thank God for microbreweries everywhere.