Planes, boats, oh no, the thread name has been stolen!! Instead I’ll call it ‘The trip that nearly wasn’t.’

[RooFlyer]

Just caught up - exhausting!

The only thing that was missing was the pate, that neither of us is a huge fan of so no loss.

By the look of the size of that platter, they may have taken pity on you.

First we drove across the Tasman Bridge (?)

Batman bridge. John Batman, founder of Melbourne, was a Tassie lad (convict).

We then went across the road to look at the gardens of the quite spectacular daily home [Brickendon].

I've been inside. It's exquisite and furnished much like you saw in the earlier 'museum homes'.

 

[bPeteb]

It is literally in the middle of nowhere. The road continues past it across the top of the dam of Lake Augusta and out to Ada lagoon and lake.

It was originally built to train Australian Antarctic expeditioners but was abandoned in 1999. A group that includes Marcus Ambrose, the now retired car racing driver, took it over and reopened it as a luxury wilderness lodge in 2017.

It’s sure not cheap but it was fantastic and we will definitely go back. We booked a Hearty Explorer Package — Thousand Lakes Wilderness Lodge | accommodation in Tasmania and it was just under $1200 for two nights.

There are two beautiful living spaces, one includes the dining room and the fully stocked and reasonably priced honesty bar



There are only nine rooms with all but the accessible room on the upper level. With windchill it was below zero when we arrived.

Martha showed us around. Explained the gear in the mud room at the lodge entrance that was all available to use - jackets, pants, gaiters, gumboots, walking poles, packs.






The main lounge had a record player and a collection of interesting records. Lots of country and Australiana but also ELO, ABBA, Fleetwood Mac and Perry Como and other weird and wonderful stuff. Bec said there’s ‘some of the little records’ in the cupboard. We said they’re singles but you are clearly way too young to know about them

We checked our room out and when we came back downstairs there was a little cheese board and two glasses of sparkling with the menus for dinner and breakfast plus paperwork for the use of the e-bikes included in our package.

 

[bPeteb]

Just caught up - exhausting!


By the look of the size of that platter, they may have taken pity on you.



Batman bridge. John Batman, founder of Melbourne, was a Tassie lad (convict).



I've been inside. It's exquisite and furnished much like you saw in the earlier 'museum homes'.

I knew I had that bridge name wrong. What a gorgeous house. Very envious.

 

[bPeteb]

Then we went off for our first walk. Geez it was cold!!! Lucky they had jackets we could borrow because I was seriously underprepared. bAl had packed much better but even he borrowed one.



Lots of wallabies everywhere









bAl spotted an echidna waddling off the path then we saw another right near the lodge as we returned.



Fantastic!!

 

[bPeteb]

Dinner is not gourmet and isn’t sold as such. The same menu for our two nights. Possibly it changes weekly but I didn’t ask.




Honesty bar is open! I meant to take pictures of the bar stock but forgot, just like neither of us took pictures of the beautiful main lounge complete with lounges, bean bags, mountains of games and even two telescopes



a pretty decent beef bourguignon pie and a mountain of salad. We both had a nice pumpkin soup to start. Our package inlcuded two courses. Third course (either entree or dessert) was an addtional $15pp



The lovely Lal, a young guy from Nepal is the cook and host.There are usually just two people running the lodge. Martha and her partner Seb are there while the host/manager Bec is on leave. Seb is slowly removing the burnt out brushland around the lodge that is the result of a burn off that got out of control in 2020.

After dinner the four couples hung out in the two lounges wildlife spotting. An early devil and wombat sighting from the open lounge were followed by a couple of spotted quolls from the more intimate lounge where they had lit the fire. Then we had the joy of a devil running across the clearing outside the windows.

Very blurry pictures of quoll and devil. Luckily our videos were much better!




When everyone else had gone to bed we decided to go outside to look at the stars. I went out but when bAl got to the door he was greeted with a small devil standing outside the door looking in!!!

An amazing first few hours indeed!

 

[bPeteb]

Day 11 Thousand Lakes Lodge

Woke up to a clear and near calm morning. The other three couples were checking out so the lodge was ours from 10 to 2.








I forgot to mention the story of one of the couples who had been there the first night. They had been at the lodge for three nights and had come to fish, well, one of them had . Mr Fisher was a very serious fisher, Mrs liked fishing but had not ever flyfished. They hired a guide from Lonnie who came down and took them out for the day, for $800. On Mrs Fisher’s sixth cast she hooked a 4lb 7oz trout. The guide said it was the biggest he’d seen taken from the lake and kept asking for just one more picture before they let it go. It was the only fish caught on their expensive adventure

 

[bPeteb]

After breakfast we took the fat wheel e-bikes out to Ada Lagoon, about 14 km. They were great fun and so easy to use. The road out to Ada passes other lakes and is used by fisherpeople and walkers/trackers/campers. Only one car came up behind us and passed us.









We walked to the lagoon and then rode back to Ibbott’s Hut for our smoko





We’d originally been going to take our picnic lunch with us but just decided on coffee out there. Martha gave us a pack with a thermos, mugs, tea, coffee and milk. It also had a snake bite kit, sunscreen, bug repellant and other stuff

 

[bPeteb]

The living room and everything in it is for the use of the lodge’s guests. It’s accessed with a coded padlock. Marcus Ambrose uses the hut and his half of it is locked off.





We pulled some bean bags out onto the grass and layed out in the sun looking across the lake. It was warm enough to even get our shirts off.

 

[bPeteb]

Didn’t pass another vehicle travelling in either direction on the way back.

We had a bit of a break then took our picnic pack out to the ‘rocky outcrop’



Lal came with us and showed us the way to the loop track. They are all marked by pink ribbons that might need a bit of a re-tie.



The picnic lunch was cheese, pate, fig paste, a little salad, dried and fresh fruit, crackers and muesli bars. We declined another thermos for coffee (still got the milk) and instead took a couple of beers. We should have taken more!









The next three couples arrived while we sat up on the outcrop.

 

[bPeteb]

We walked back via the small dams across from the lodge and found a dead devil beside the dried up dam. We didn’t get close enough to check it’s face but when I let Martha know she said there was a young male in the area with facial tumours and it could have been this poor little fellow. They’d bagged him up for further investigation when we went back the next morning.

We settled back in the lounge with more beers and maybe a cider or two



I got the turntable spinning with some 70s hits



bAl had me pretend to knit for one of our friends



I discovered bAl is a jigsaw savant. He pulled apart quite a bit of what had been done of a scene of Wilpena Pound and raced through a good half of it.

For dinner - arancini me and rosti bAl, we both had the very delicious lamb shank and then shared a crumble with a very nice pinot.




The clouds were coming in so the sunset was not so great.

 

[bPeteb]

No devil appeared but the spotted quolls were back






visiting multiple times. Everyone headed off to bed but we hung around, ever hopeful. I’d given up and said oh well, nothing to see and bAl said except for that huge wombat!




Gee they can run fast. It was gone in the blink of an eye as soon as bAl opened the door to go out to photograph it.

 

[bPeteb]

Some of the info provided by the lodge





Day 12 Thousand Lakes Lodge - Richmond

A wet, windy and dreary morning greeted us when we pulled the curtains back



Al tried the Kwee-know-ah porridge (aka quinoa aka yukkoa). I settled on fruit salad and toast.






We’d been going to go for a decent last walk but gave it a miss and just wandered down to the trickle of the Ouse let out of the dam. There were clearly some fish of some sort in the shallow pools



As the others wandered out into the misty morning we loaded up the car and headed off down the less dusty road





with destination Waddamana Power Station Waddamana Heritage Site.

 

[bPeteb]

Yet another gravel road (that we of course didn’t drive down) to get to Tassie’s first hydro power station



We stopped at the original holding lake for the station at Penstock that had a quite a crack in it





If we'd known we could have seen the second of the three dam walls at Miena we would definitely have stopped there. We spent quite a while working our way through the displays in and around the turbine hall. We then stood and talked to the guy who looks after the museum for a good hour. Super interesting guy with an encyclopaedic knowledge of electricity generation in Tasmania.

no dirts were driven on to cover the back of this car with dust





another amazing time capsule

 

[bPeteb]

We definitely should have driven back out the way we came. Instead we drove out through the village



towards Bothwell. It was not a great road. I’m just glad we only crossed three other vehicles on the way out to the highway.

Jericho seemed an interesting diversion and it was. Some really old houses and agricultural buildings

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I had looked that that place for one of Rons weekends off, but I thought it was just too rustic for me !! Glad you enjoyed it !!

 

[bPeteb]

and the remnants of the mud walls used to build the probation road station






Had a very late lunch at Oatlands. A really beautiful little town.





Sadly the distillery was closed

This place looked very nice.

 

[bPeteb]

It was nearly 4 by the time we pulled up beside our wonderful little cottage in Richmond - Mill House Cottage The Mill House Cottage, Richmond, Australia

What a find. Run by Rob and Susan, Rob was out watering the garden as we arrived. He let us in and showed us through the cottage.



We’d just called into the IGA to get brekkie supplies but we needn’t have bothered. A freshly baked loaf of bread on the breadboard. Eggs, ham, salmon, spreads, milk and juice in the fridge. Cereals, fresh fruit, chocolates beside the bed. We were completely floored.











If that wasn’t enough the Mill House itself is right next to the historic Richmond Bridge. The house dates to 1853, the cottage a much more recent addition. We chilled some wine and sat out in the garden by the river with Boston the cat. It was literally unbelievable.

 

[bPeteb]

view from the garden!





the Mill House c. 1853





Dinner at the pub. A lamb pizza and roast of the day for me, pork. Washed down with a few milk chocolate stouts and a lager or two.

 

[bPeteb]

Day 13 Richmond - Hobart

Well of course we made use of the supplies provided by our hosts. Instead of another bowl of muesli and yoghurt we had scrambled eggs and ham on lovely crusty bread. We could have gone all out and eaten the salmon as well but there’s only so much you need for breakfast.



pear tree hanging over the driveway


We called in to see the Richmond Gaol Richmond Gaol, Experience Historic Tasmania On Our Gaol Tour. and we both thought it was the best convict era place we visited. Compact, but so much interesting information.

 

[bPeteb]

Very short drive down the Coal Valley to Hobart. So many more wineries along the road in the five years since we’ve been to Richmond. Fueled up out by the airport and then drove in the city to our Hobart hotel - Salamanca Wharf Hotel - Boutique apartment accommodation in Hobart



We were way early but I hoped we could park the car and leave it there and that’s what we did. The hotel has Hobart’s first car stacker and it was an interesting experience getting it into the car space. The receptioist guided me in. The instructions



We have been to Mona once before and really enjoyed it so that’s where we went. Posh pit tickets. The sparkling riesling flowed the whole way there and the tiny food was a single meatball.




Spent a great couple of hours at the museum. What an amazing asset to Hobart and Tassie.




a pool of crude (bunker?) oil