Tuesday February 14th, 2017 - What Does a UNESCO Wilderness World Heritage Area Look Like?

My father was a bushwalker. In Australia, that means the same thing as being a hiker/backpacker. He told tales of having taken the train from Hobart during university years toward Fitzgerald, shelling the peas on the train as they went. For their 1943 trip, Dad and his friend ended up with six pounds of shelled peas which would last them three weeks! The most desired area in his mind was the Port Davey Track, a challenging, barely established route to the most remote area of south-west Tasmania. It was a rugged and perilous journey in the 1930's and 40's, so on the couple of occasions he completed the full track, he was very pleased with himself. (We had trip notes from a journey he completed in 1943 while home from the war at Christmas.) 

Here's a picture of Dad at Damper Inn, the only hut on the Port Davey Track. In Aussie lingo, 'damper' is a type of bread cooked over a fire, but the joke about Damper Inn was that it was always 'damper in than out'! He said in his notes - 'Poor old Damper - every year a bit more falls off.' It is now a pile of rubble.

Well, as two women in our 60's, Nadine and I knew that the time had passed for us to make the same rigorous walking trek - so we took the 'glamping' approach and signed up to fly into the area with a company that has a permanent camp down there. Although we had canvas roofs - there was nothing shabby about these tents! Unlike Damper Inn - they were very dry and cozy.

The cabin had a wooden floor and two very comfortable beds with sheets. It was very sturdy we discovered on one of the nights when a very strong wind was blowing along with some rain.

The 'bathroom' included a hot shower and was accessed through a wooden walkway - several hundred yards from our cabin.

And this was the solar powered kitchen where our guides prepared very excellent meals with gas stove and oven. There were pademelons that hung out here, but I didn't manage to get good photos of them.

So we had three amazing days and two nights in one of the most remote corners of the world - just an hour flight from Hobart. I will tell you about the first day here and then combine the next two days together. The blogs will be a little longer. Many of you will probably just want to scan the photos - some of the more hardy folks might actually desire to read - but may want to take a break somewhere!

In the top right of this photo, you can see some of the last glimpses of our industrial world - the motorboats and the round rings of salmon fish farms.

The vegetation down here does not recover after being burned, so the 'velvety' looking areas have burned, while the trees around the coast did not. The burning probably occurred during pre-European times.

The coastline is rocky and was very hazardous for the tall sailing ships from the past, as the winds from the south drove them directly into the rocky shoreline. There are many wrecks along this coast -particularly west of this flight.

There are also occasional beaches which drew surfers willing to trek with their boards for many hours. One of our guides, Mick, was a pioneer surfer in this area and tells of carrying his board 2 1/2 hours to access the waves. His son still surfs on remote beaches like this.

First stop was Melaleuca, where the Port Davey Track ended. Here you can see another track back to the east called the South Coast Track, another challenging bush walk.

The airport landing strip was built by Deny King, a tin miner, who scrubbed a living from dredging the sand for cassiterite - an ore that produces tin. I don't think anyone got rich off this, but some lives were supported here by this activity. 

Melaleuca is also famed as the breeding ground for the orange bellied parrot - a very critically endangered population of birds that migrates here from mainland Australia. They are not strong flyers and are known to perish during their crossing of the Bass Strait, in its strong winds. Habitat degradation on the mainland also leads to the decline of this pretty, rare bird.

One of the other people on our tour had known Deny King as a young girl, as her father had been a crayfish fisherman who visited this area. She sometimes traveled with her Dad and played with the King children. As a result of this connection, we visited the King Quonset hut. Here you can see a pademelon grazing in the backyard.

Photographing this home through the front door felt a bit cheeky, but it gives you an idea how people live in remote areas like this.

I liked the solitude of the boat shed. The fellow in the picture is another person from our group.

Deny King was a well respected and creative man, in addition to being a strong tin-miner. He had a small shed that was his art studio. In addition to landscapes from this area, I really liked these abstracts that had been created from gaskets from various engines!

So, off we headed, down the Melaleuca Inlet to our camp on Bathurst Harbor.

The area of our camp was dominated by views of Mt. Rugby, yet capturing it effectively with my camera was one of my greatest challenges during the trip.

The Western Arthurs Mountain Range was also in view frequently. It was a mountain range that Dad had walked. His notes say that he crossed the Arthur Saddle and said 'to walk from a land of tangled growth and silly little hills on to a broad winding path leading always on into the rays of the setting sun was enough to inspire Horatio.'  I think he liked these broad open plains!

We visited another pioneer homestead called Clayton's Corner. This was interesting with the story of a piano that was shipped here. It came ashore straddled across two dinghy's (you can see its arrival from the picture on the top right below) and was saved from a bush-fire by being buried under a lot of soil! No doubt it was a highly prized instrument in this neighborhood.

I was also intrigued by another prized possession in this remote part of the world. It seems that Clyde Clayton had liked the TV when he saw it in Hobart, so brought one home. I understand that the directing of the antenna on a hill behind the home (now called TV Hill) was quite a challenge, but once established it became quite a popular meeting place for all and sundry when football games were on!

The late afternoon sky around Mt. Rugby presented another opportunity to 'capture' it - but still doesn't quite get there!

Saturday, February 11th and Sunday February 12th, 2017 - A Closer Look at Some Wooden Boats and the Stone World They Float Near.

Before we move on from the seafaring world on display in Hobart, I wanted to tell you about a couple of further visits that Toni and I enjoyed to several other sailing vessels on display.

The first was the 'James Craig', which was first constructed in 1874 in England. She is a barque (you can google that, if you want to know what it means - as I did) with a steel hull, and only one of four barques in the world that still regularly goes to sea. Originally she was called the 'Clan McLeod' and her first trip to Australia was to Brisbane in August 1879. She brought Scotch whisky, beer and other assorted general cargo.  This link http://www.afloat.com.au/afloat-magazine/2011/january-2011/James_Craig tells more about her if you are interested in seeing her condition when she was rescued.

The remarkable thing was that she was sunk and abandoned in Recherche Bay, not far from here. The restoration project was lengthy (40 years) and expensive (AUD $30 million), but the end result is stunning. She looked fabulous under sail yesterday in the Parade of Sail.

Toni is glad she doesn't have to figure out which rope goes with what sail! it all looks VERY complicated!

One amusing story we were told was the greeting they received in 2005 when the James Craig first returned to Hobart in all her restored splendor. The mayor of Hobart was also in all his splendid mayoral robes. After he had greeted the ship he declared that  this vessel was illegally removed from its previous resting place in Tasmanian waters and the vessel would be impounded unless they paid the the outstanding fee of Five Guineas and associated costs and interest, amounting to Thirty-Seven Pounds, fourteen shillings and five pence ha’penny, has been paid. The mayor then announced that a female crew member would have to be held in jail as collateral! Finally, he relented and said that if the public could come and inspect the ship for a fee, they would waive the outstanding debt! If the captain of the James Craig had no warning of this 'surprise' he/she must have been quite taken aback!

The rooms that look like wooden boxes behind the man in the red t-shirt are mock ups of the economy passenger cabins.

This is what they look like on the inside - pretty basic for a loooong journey to Australia!

By contrast - this is the officers quarters! Much nicer!

Including a lace antimacassar!

Toni and I would make a pretty good-looking crew, too.

The second ship we visited was the 'Tenacious' - aptly named as she is designed to allow people of all physical abilities to sail - anyone over 16 with a physical disability can serve as crew. They showed us accommodations for the blind and wheelchair bound in particular. It is the largest wooden ship built in England in the last 100 years and very impressive for the thought that has gone into so many accommodations to provide the widest possible range of people the opportunity to participate in sailing.

Carrie was a paraplegic who had joined the crew just 11-days ago. She had never sailed before and was absolutely thrilled to be part of this adventure.

These raised guides on the ship's deck were in place to allow blind people to navigate the deck. There were also braille markings for all the ropes and other instructions, along with raised arrows along the hand rail to help them determine the front of the ship.

This is a wheelchair lift to allow people in wheelchairs to go from deck to deck. They also had rope systems set up to allow able-bodied crew to move wheelchair-bound sailors from one deck to the next in case of power outages. They also had systems for getting the wheelchairs up into the rigging! The bunks also had hoists to assist paraplegics transfer to their bunks independently.



These little devices in the floor allowed wheelchair anchors to provide stability during rough seas.

There are also able-bodied crew on the Tenacious.

I put this photo in just because I like the colors of the safety harnesses all hanging up together.


The setting for these magnificent boats was in Constitution Dock in Hobart, immediately adjacent to the famed Salamanca Place.

The third warehouse on the right was once a fertilizer factory which was owned jointly by an uncle and my father. I am sad to say it was sold in the early 70's because taxes were getting too costly. These buildings are now worth substantial amounts of money! SAD FACE :(!

To get to Salamanca Place from our hostel in Battery Point, we went down a set of old steps called the Kelly Steps.

  It's hard to tell which side is straight - so I left it all crooked for you. I sort of like it that way!

Finally, I want to show you the type of structure that is typical of this area in Hobart - Battery Point. It has many charming buildings like this - some small, some large. It is a beautiful area.

Friday, February 10th, 2017 - Pinch Me - What Century Am I in Now? (Or How On Earth Do I Choose Only a Few Photos from the Hundreds!)

The reunion was scheduled to coincide with a biennial event in Hobart called the Wooden Boat Festival. This draws the largest crowd of wooden boat fans in the Southern Hemisphere. It opens with an event called the Parade of Sail, in which many boats sail up the Derwent River and into Constitution Dock.

Following Bob Chesterman's recommendation, Toni and I decided to book a ride on the 'Lady Nelson' one of the tall ships that would be part of this event. Oh, my, what a wonderful experience it was.

I have spent little time around yachts and become quite nervous when the little ones lean over sideways. Being on this ship however, was a whole different experience which stirred the nautical blood in my bones!

Mind you, the day was relatively calm and in fact, we didn't actually have enough wind to sail completely on our own without the motor.

We began with a bus ride down to Woodbridge, about an hour south of Hobart. There we were met by two tall ships - Windeward Bound and the Lady Nelson. 

Ours was the smaller of the two ships, for which we were glad, as the folks on the other boat looked like a very large crowd!

And so began a day of magic!

The other ships we started with were Windeward Bound on the right and The Enterprize on the left.

When it came time to drop the sails, it was pretty exciting to see the all volunteer crew climb up into the rigging! It was just like the movies!

There were men and women alike, and of all ages - many as old or older than me. So when I saw that they were offering the experience of climbing the rigging to passengers, I was 'in'!

So they 'geared me up' to climb the rigging to a platform admidships. I've done some adventurous things in my life, so happily I didn't feel too nervous about it. I was actually surprised by how easy it was to climb. In fact, as soon as I left the deck, the sway of the ship disappeared. The biggest challenge was getting around and onto the platform - an overhang. With the help of the staff placing my feet - it worked fine!

(But, do notice that I'm clipped in tightly AND my hand is holding tight, too!)

The view of the deck was pretty nice, especially that lovely morning tea waiting for me.
I was very pleased with myself and my knees!

It was fun to have people coming alongside to take photos. It felt like the battle of the megapixel!

By the afternoon, we'd had some marvelous morning tea, and lunch and the crowd of ships became more intense and crowded..........

.........even Angus and another cousin, David, were out in their little sailboat - the little one with the red sails right of center is them courageously claiming their place in this marvelous parade!

We were greeted by crowds at the dock. 

Definitely a day that will go down in my memory as one of the best!