Longford Tasmania

Alpine Flowers at Pine Lake

Without realiising it, we chose one of the best times of year to take a drive out to the Central Plateau Conservation Area. As we drove up Mt Blackwood we were suprised to see the number of wild flowers but discovered the plataue at just over 1200 metres has snow in winter, so summer is the best time to see the alpine plants.

Pine Lake

We actually drove up there to get away from the heat down here. It got to round 35c (which seems so hot in Tasmania) but up higher, it was about 10c cooler and really nice.We drove almost right round the Great Lake and stopped for a look at Arthur Lake and also took a beautiful walk out to Pine Lake through the alpine flowers, pencil and plum pines, mosses and ferns. We stopped at some great lookouts too for amazing views of the area.

Pine Lake


In Deloraine, we had a late lunch at the Golden Grain Bakery. I had a chicken, mushroom and cheese pasty that was chock-a-block full of chicken and delicious-any wonder they've won all the awards they display all over the place. Russ had a pie and then the yummisest cherry tart ever.

On the highway back to Longford, we passed what looked like a fatal accident. It's a horrible feeling and sight.

We called in to the local meat works butcher shop on our way home to pick up some meat for dinner. Russ backed into a 90 year old local lady parking her car. Poor old thing had never had an accident (I told her SHE still hasn't). She was so sweet about the dint in two doors. I was so worried about her but she promised me she'd be OK and I didn't need to call anyone for her.

Now we're home, it's hot and I'm so happy our aircon was fixed before we left!

The Ferry to Tasmania

The ferry ride last night was wonderful. We arrived bright and early (second in the queue actually but more soon arrived). It was really social waiting as they sent all vans into one line and that's how we boarded.

I went to Tassie by ferry many years ago. It was a rough crossing, I was seasick and being young and poor, we opted for seats for the night. This time it was so smooth apart from a bit of rolling around going through the heads and we had a cabin. A nice cabin with our own en-suite which was well worth the expense.

Loading was a slick operation. Russ only had to produce his licence to be given our boarding passes and room keys. The ferry is quite spacious with several bars, restaurants, a theatrette, gaming room and play room for kids. We had a reasonable buffet dinner, then headed down to the back of the boat and a bar with arm chairs and a pretty good guitarist/singer playing mostly 70s music. It was a lovely place to sit and see Melbourne disappear at sunset.

This morning we got a wake up call and an explanation of disembarking. We were able to take our time as our vehicle was on level 6 and would be last to be offloaded. We strolled down to a late breakfast (and hadn't finished it) when a call came over the intercom to say "could the driver of a silver Nissan Nivara TTJ129 come at once to their vehicle on LEVEL 5!!" We had to leave our breakfasts and run to the car-Ours was sitting in front of all those nice people we met last night and the rest of the level was completely empty. I could have died on the spot! Russ had guessed that because we only came up one level on the escalator to level seven with it's cabins and restaurants etc, that we were parked on level 6. I'd guess the escalator was two levels long! Anyhow I'll make sure I check the actual level number on the way home.

We drove the 110ks to Longford stopping at a bakery for breakfast no 2 and a new start to our holiday. It's 11.43 and we are completely set up in the very beautiful caravan park. It's on the banks of a river that we'll be able to travel about 10ks in in the boat one way, then get into the Esk river the other. We will be able to fish for trout which will be a first.

I'm surprised at the number of trucks on the roads-especially large ones hauling sea containers to and from the ferry. Luckily there are plenty of overtaking lanes as the hills make it slow going for us.

The New Villa

I finally got around to taking a few photos of our new villa. They are taken from the (never to be built on) crown land at the front. We drove by there today to check out the colour of the guttering and roof so we could match a garden shed to it.

7 weeks in Port Fairy

BBQ at Great Aunty Glenda's


I can't actually believe we've been here for almost 7 weeks-time seems to have flown by. Between visits to Traralgon (with Glenda, Pete, Dan, Verity and Kobie, to Melbourne to Blair and Leah's, and the buying of the villa, there's hardly been a quiet day.

After Joy's funeral in Geelong on Thursday 15Th, we went to Traralgon and stayed at G&P's whilst they stayed on with Peter's remaining sister Shirley. It was so nice to have the house to ourselves for a couple of nights, then good to see them home. Dan and Verity came over for a BBQ and lunch on a couple of the days we were there. We caught up with my long time friend Sheryl too, so it was a good visit.

On our way home Monday, we picked up our brand new air conditioner and finally had it fitted yesterday. The local fitter has been very hard to pin down (obviously too much work around for him) but did a fantastic job fitting his first ever unit in a van! Better still, he charges us a meagre $100 to do it with Russ's help-making it cheaper than the guy in Mildura quoted to replace a part! We've held on to the old one as it is a treasure trove of spare parts for the new according to Ron who fitted it.

We had our house valued last week as our tenants are keen to buy it. It was about $20,000 over our estimation, so a very pleasant surprise. I'm not sure how pleasant it will be for the tenants though!

It's off to Tasmania for us on Tuesday. We are looking forward to that. I think we need to get on the road so we can have some relaxation time. Let's hope the flatty's are biting! I'm thinking the trip to Tasmania will be the place to finish over three years of blogging-not much point to it all once we are shifted into our villa.

The villa should be settled while we are in Tasmania-around Russ's birthday at this stage. Kirstyn will take possession for us.

Portland and Deb and Pete's

Russ and I are just back from a night in Portland with friends Deb and Pete.

We arrived there yesterday and by 3pm, we were off in the car to pick boysenberries at a secret spot they've been going to for ages. So secret is it, we had to sign saying we'd tell no one, and submit to being blindfolded as we drove there.

Pete reckoned we'd missed the best fruit by about a week, but it took us no time to pick 3kgs of the lovely juicy, sweet things. We took them home and with Deb's mum Margaret's expert advice, had them turned into jam and bottled by 6.30pm. It is seriously delicious jam!

We then had a BBQ dinner and sat relaxing until just after midnight. After a late and leisurely breakfast of hot buttered toast and homemade boysenberry jam, we took a drive out to Bridgewater Bay (stopping to check out another secret blackberry location on the way). It was a gorgeous day on the bay with no wind and crystal blue water. We counted over 20 seals out sunning themselves just behind the swimmers and surfers. It was beautiful. We had lunch at the old kiosk, then drove home round 4pm stopping down in the Portland harbour to check the catches coming in in the boats. It seemed strange to see people cleaning 28cm snapper when we can't keep anything less than a 50cm one when we fish for them in WA!

I was just joking about the blindfolds!

Port Fairy

At the moment we are back in Port Fairy. Ryan and Kirstyn are booked solid in the restaurant and B&B for the next couple of weeks, so we are here trying to help by keeping up with laundry and a bit of house work for them. When we arrived home from Melbourne we could tell they'd had no time to do anything but get themselves to work every day.

It's two weeks on Tuesday until we head to Tasmania and I feel like there is so much needing doing. We have a new van air conditionor waiting to be picked up in Melbourne and I want to get to Traralgon to see Dan, Verity, Kobie, Glenda and Pete before we go.

We are right in the middle of solicitor, real estate agent and bank dealings over the purchase of the villa. I hate this sort of thing, so am feeling quite stressed over it all. We did have a major win yesterday though-the title to our home was somewhere amongst the furniture stored underneath it, so we donned our work clothes and proceded to pull out stuff to get to the back where we thought it was. I'm talking about the washing machine, dressing table, dining table, matresses etc. all needing to be moved! Anyhow, we moved a painting and a basket and spotted the document folder sitting on our left-I can't begin to tell you how that lifted my spirits!

Yesterday, during a two hour call to Telstra to sort my account out (yet again), my sister rang to tell me my BIL Peter's siter Joy had died. She had a very short, sharp battle with cancer that she lost yesterday. It's so very sad as she was a great friend to Russ and I. We can't quite come to terms with it right now.

A Broken Foot

Mick and Hayley


Mick and Hayley headed back to Melbourne around lunchtime Friday. She's a lovely girl who fitted in with the family really easily. By the sound of things, our families are quite similar in that we all love a drink.

The greyhounds were fun, then 20 of us went to the Warrnambool for dinner. It was lovely to see so many of Blair's mates and partners=some after many years. And as Blair and Chris have both worked at the pub, they were kind enough to leave us and a barman in the dining room after dinner instead of sending us back out amongst the hundred of people in the public bars.

On Saturday we drove to Portland to see Deb and Pete, Margaret and Deb's brother Murray who was on a quick visit from Brisbane. Lunch was a lovely (home made sausage rolls and a mango and avocado salad), then we headed back to Port Fairy and out to dinner at the Merrijig with Blair, Leah and another 3 couples. Dinner was pretty good too!

Sunday Russ and I spent a super lazy day doing nothing while those Ryan and Kirstyn worked and Blair and Leah went off to the races. We had planned to drive to Melbourne on the Sunday but were just too tired and changed the plan to Monday.

Leah suspected she had her foot broken by a friends wife pushing her into a pillar at "The Gal" one of Warrnambool's local nightclubs. As another friend commented "some people shouldn't drink on an empty head"!

Russ and I arrived home ahead of Blair and Leah and cooked a lovely steak topped with garlic prawns, baked potato and salad for us all.

Blair flew out on Tuesday morning, so Russ took Leah off to the doctor nd on to x-rays and yes, her foot is broken and may need a cast for 3 months. Her doctor is off until tomorrow and will decide then exactly what to do. Whatever he decides, it's difficult as their house is two stories with bedrooms and Leah's office up 17 extremely steep stairs!



Tuesday morning a Recipezaar friend Friedel and her husband Andrew arrived for the day. They are currently riding their pushbikes around the world with Australia and NZ the last legs of a journey that will take them almost three years. They have ridden 35,000 ks so far and are so happy and healthy looking. It's been an amazing trip so far and was great to get to meet them. I checked Friedel's recipes and reviews so knew she'd enjoy a dinner of prawns, chorizo and rice, a big salad and olive bread. They are very un-fussy, enthusiastic eaters (and have to be with all the ks they pedal every day). We sent them off to the Tassie ferry full of food and good wine-it was a wonderful day and reminds me yet again how good the recipe site has been to Russ and I over the 7 years I've been a member.



On Wednesday, we planned to drive on to Traralgon, but realised we couldn't go and leave Leah on her own with her broken foot-especially in the really painful early stages so we called Glenda and Dan and stayed on here and will get to Traralgon next week. Our change of plans meant we were able to have breakfast with Chief and Suz who headed home to London today, and dinner with Mick and Hayley before Hayley headed to work. We had a magnificent standing rib roast of beef, garlic chats, asparagus wrapped prosciutto, baked tomatoes and fennel and cumin carrots. What a feast for New Year's Eve. I did my most favourite dessert of fresh berries and cream to finish. I love the fact the berries are so cheap at the market-3 punnets of strawberries for $4, 2 punnets of blackberries for $4 and 2 punnets of raspberries at $3.49 each was more than enough for 5 greedy pigs.