Wednesday 26 February 2014
After a 5am wake up Jeanette, Graham and I piled luggage into our
5:30 taxi and headed for the airport, Jeanette and Graham to fly home
to Geraldton and me to fly to Hobart for my next adventure. This one
is a scientific expedition to survey vertebrates in north western
Tasmania.
Gail met me at the airport then I became part of the whirlwind of
preparations for the expedition that starts on Saturday. First a call
to Shiploads to buy food containers and a few other bits. Home then
to settle in, catch up and have a bit of lunch then off again to
Eumarrah (a fabulous “healthfood” shop) and Coles for some
grocery shopping.
Gail ran in and out to the school across the road and while she
and Ian were both at the parent/teacher interview for Amelia I rang
Julie to organise a get-together on Friday.
Late afternoon and evening was a frenzy of cooking (cauliflower
cheese, slice, beetroot, sausage rolls) and packaging (skroggin). All
this in preparation for the expedition.
After all that cooking we headed down to the waterfront for
delicious fish and chips at Mures. After our meal we went for a short
walk to the sculptures along the front which we could just see by the
light of a huge cruise ship that was in port.
Home to sleep in a most comfortable bed.
Thursday 27 February
Up at the leisurely hour of 7am this morning. Eggs and bacon for
breakfast followed by the greening of Amelia for her sports carnival.
I painted oak leaves all over her as her school house is Oak.
More cooking then the “big shop” at Coles and a few other
shops – Eumarrah and Salamanca Place. Home to lunch which I should
not have eaten because I'd only done 2500 steps (well under lunch
time target). Oh well!
Still more food preparation in the afternoon (sausage rolls,
slice, herb butter) then Ian and I were sent on the fruit and vegie
shop before Gail and Ian went to collect the first car. Gail will
leave with that car packed with all the food tomorrow morning. I am
nowhere near my step goal of 10000 today so I hope I can catch up
over the next few days.
Once the car arrived we had a great time tessellating all the
containers of food and utensils, eskys and drinks ready for Gail's
trip tomorrow, remembering to leave room for the local produce she
would be picking up along the way.
The weather has been fantastic so far and this evening I spent
time on the upstairs balcony with a sunset view over Hobart harbour
and a glass of wine while Gail and Ian caught up on a bit of office
work. Dinner tonight was at the Crumb Street Kitchen which served
fabulous smoked meat with sides – beef ribs, pulled pork, octapus,
coleslaw, potato salad, spiced beans, flatbread, rolls. We followed
this with a Portuguese custard tart each. Absolutely delicious.
Back home to finish the food preparation and for the family to
pack clothes for the trip. Bed at las after a full day but only 7000
steps.
Friday 28 February
Up at first light today, a cuppa and emails then ready for a day
with Julie. She picked me up around 8am and took me home for
breakfast under her delightful plum tree.
After a lazy morning
chatting we headed for Lindesfarne to collect Patsy for their
previously arranged lunch out. We decided to try the Botanical
Gardens but when we arrived we were told that the restaurant was
booked for a private function. We then headed back to Lindesfarne for
lunch at the Motor Yacht Club which Patsy assured us was worth a
visit. The fish we had was delicious so I enjoyed another fish meal
with views down the water to the Tasman Bridge and beyond.
When we dropped Patsy home Julie drove into town to collect her
uniform for a choir performance tonight only to find that it had not
even been cut out yet. She dropped me at Gail and Ian's and was
heading home to make some rather irrate phone calls about the uniform
issue.
The rest of the evening will be spent loading the minibus and
sorting ourselves ready for an early departure tomorrow morning in
time to collect the other volunteers from Launceston Airport.
Saturday 1 March
As arranged, we left home at 6am, collected Brian then headed
north to Launceston with a breakfast stop at Campbell Town. At
Launceston we collected Julie and Garry at the airport then Jimsy,
Matt and Lucinda at their respective accommodation.
We then headed west, stopping to collect our lunch from the bakery
in Wynyard and to eat it at Fossil Bluff. I even found a small rock
with shell fossils in it and at the lookout, a plant I thought I
should know. (I eventually found it to be Busaria spinosa.)
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| Amelia |
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| Busaria spinosa |
On west again then south to Arthur River where we will stay in a
very luxurious beachc house for the next five nights. After dumping
our things we went for a walk down to “The End of the World”
along the river then along the beach. The weather is beautiful and
only slightly windy. There were dozens of mammal tracks along the
beach and Amelia and I had a fabulous time photographing them with my
camera. They were later identified as pademelon, devil, wombat and
various unknown shore birds. The rocks were all fossilised ripples
and had a beautiful range of quite vivid orange-brown colours in the
evening sunlight. More plants to identify later as Poa poiformis,
Lagurus sp. And Leucophyta brownii. We also saw Pacific Gulls.
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| Tasmanian Devil |
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| Pademelon |
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| Pademelon |
We met the four scientists when they returned from setting the
first traps – Menna, Chris, Gini and Lilly. We all shared a
barbeque dinner of local steak (yum!) and after Menna's talk, had
some danish then dropped into bed by about 10:30.
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| Ian cooking the barbeque |
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| The view from our beach house |
