To Tassie, a cruise across the creek.

Our 2 week course on Milkwood Farm has ended, we say goodbye to our hosts and depart at 9.30am Sunday 7th March, hoping to get back to bitumen roads before the rain sets in.
We need to get to Melbourne to catch the early morning ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, on Thursday 11th March.
It rained all day, heavily at times, as we drove first north, then west to Wellington from where we headed south through Canowindra and Cowra. We found a rest stop beside the Olympic Highway to camp the night, and the rain kept falling.

Monday morning, and everthing around is very wet. We stopped in Young for supplies; should have been through here early summer as this is the cherry capital of Australia.
Through Cootamundra to Junee, where we stopped at the licorice factory. Yum! As well as organic licorice, they make chocolate coated cherries, ginger, almonds, coffee beans and other goodies. The free samples were most welcome, and we left there with several bags of treats we purchased.

We located the rest stop in Wagga Wagga, by the Murrumbidgee River, which was flowing much higher than we saw it 10 months ago at Narrandera.
Speaking to a local, rains such as recently haven't been seen in these parts for 30 years!

Tuesday 9th March we headed off at 10am, planning to follow the Olympic Highway to Albury. The Highway was closed, perhaps due to flooding, and traffic was diverted to Holbrook, which was a nice drive.
We were now on the Hume Highway, the main route between Sydney and Melbourne, heading south west. The highway bypassed the towns enroute to Melbourne, which made the drive quicker.
We did stop at one small town however; Glenrowan is famous for Ned Kelly, an Aussie bushranger.

Next stop Seymour, where we stayed the night at the same caravan park we stopped at 10 months ago after leaving Melbourne in our brand new Winny.

Wednesday 10th March, cold and cloudy this morning for the 90km drive to Melbourne. As there are no rest stops or freedom camping areas in the city area, we decided to stop at a caravan park in suburban Coburg so we could make a very early start to the port. The ferry leaves at 9am, all travellers are asked to be dockside by 8.15am.

Thursday 11th March we woke at 5am, quick coffee, then off just after 5.30am to navigate our way through the city to Station Pier at Port Melbourne. Fortunately the traffic was light at that early hour, and we found our way relatively easily.
Then we wait, and wait............
I was amazed at the amount of vehicles they squeeze onto Spirit Of Tasmania!

We pulled away from the wharf half an hour late; docked in Devonport, Tasmania at 7pm. Bass Strait was calm; it was sunny but cold out on deck. It wasn't like a normal cruise ship; there was one deck dedicated to passenger services with bars, restaurants, shop, small cinema. Another 2 decks had cabins, the rest of the decks take vehicles.

Halfway across "The Creek" we passed the other ferry.

As we slowed down into Devonport, we were told to go to our vehicles, so we missed seeing the docking procedure. This photo is just as we entered the river.

So, here we are, across the creek in Tassie. We are camped behind a shopping centre in a small town, Latrobe. There are quite a few travellers parked here; some are attending the large Motorhome Rally next week, as we are.

When the rally is over, Rick and I plan to tour around Tasmania for a few weeks.

Cheers.  :D

Down on the Farm.................

On Wednesday 17th February, after getting a camber kit fitted to Winny the previous day, we left my brother's place to do a 2 week Permaculture Design Cerificate course (starting 21st Feb) near Mudgee, N.S.W., around 1500 kms away.

We headed north east through the Barossa Valley, then east along the Sturt Highway through the Riverland to Renmark, across the border to Mildura, Victoria, then very shortly across the border into New South Wales, now heading south east. We camped by the edge of Lake Benanee, not far from Euston. It was quite hot, and the tiny flying bugs were out in force! Winny was full of them. Rick attacked them with spray (cough, cough, yuk) and next morning we had to sweep all the little blighters out.

18th Feb, heading east, we set off to cross the Hay Plain towards Hay. I drove the easy part, along the nice flat and relatively straight road into Hay. Rick took the wheel next, and we drove approximately 280kms to West Wyalong, before turning north east to Forbes, another 100km and our next camp site.
There had been a lot of rain through this area recently, and there was evidence of flooding; small lakes in paddocks, roadside ditches looked like creeks.........
The Lachlan River in Forbes, where we camped the night, looked very high.

Next morning, 19th Feb, we drove through picturesque and wet countryside towards Orange. Along the way we had to stop and watch as an 82 year old bloke ploughed his paddock with an old fashioned horse drawn machine. We chatted with him awhile, and he said people often stopped to watch him work. Below are a couple of pics.

On towards Orange, the hills were getting bigger, then to Bathurst it was like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down.............  LOL

Just before Lithgow (and the Blue Mountains) we turned north on the Castlereigh Highway to find our next camp for the night. This was another hilly winding road. We stopped at a lookout and what magnificent views! 2 photos below.

We camped beside an old hall in the tiny village of Ilford, very quiet here, nice view of 2 big rocky hills jutting out of the green paddocks in which sheep were grazing in the early evening sunshine.  Life is good.

                           

Saturday dawned nice and warm and sunny. We set the GPS to help us find Milkwood Farm, and it directed us to a narrow, winding, bumpy dirt road on top of a ridge; this looked a bit scary, but we decided to trust the GPS. Took an hour to travel the 20 kms to the farm, the road was so bad. We were told later that was the quick way in! 4WD vehicles handle the road much better than our motorhome.

For the next 2 weeks we had classes in the wool shed and outside; worked on projects and absorbed as much information as our old brains could manage. We were fed delicious farm fresh food, enjoyed the company of the other 6 students and our hosts and their families.

Below are links to Milkwood Farm's websites.

http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au/milkwood-farm

http://www.milkwood.net/