Down the Huon, Tasmania

At the caravan park in Huonville there are a few cows in the paddock adjacent to it.

The children wanted to see the cows close up - young Z aged 6 whispered in my ear, "Nanny I've never seen a cow close up and I'm frightened".  I had a nice chat with him and all was ok.  His sister E aged 8 blurted out, "Nanny, I'm frightened of cows and I've never seen one up close before", so I had a talk to her too and all was well.

It's amazing when you come to think of it that children have only seen pictures of cows or seen them in a movie or from a distance.  

I recall when I lived in Queenstown, Tasmania for 4 years when a child there were so many people that hadn't seen a live animal at all other than a dog or cat.

Cows love to eat Willow leaves.

The above two photos are of a platypus, the first one is borrowed and second one is mine, the platypus is hard to see.  There are a few of them in the river in the early evening .  

A little about the platypus - sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, in a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.  The platypus is the sole living representative of it's family and genus, though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.

 Many people especially visitors are intrigued by the platypus.

The backyard in Huonville Caravan Park.

There is a washing machine and clothesline provided but my myself and my daughter in law like to use our own. K's washing machine is a portable handy one where as mine is built in in the caravan.

I have one of these portable clotheslines too but don't often use it as we string a line underneath the awning, K found our awing clothes line handy when the weather wasn't favorable.

The drum is for the fire in the very late afternoon and we didn't always light one.

Two of our grandchildren with their bikes which they rode on the road around the caravan park.

Sparklers are great for making circles in the dark and are much fun for the children as well as the camera person, in this case me.

It was very pleasant sitting outside in the evening by the campfire listening to the kookaburras the birds, and of course occasionally we would hear the Tasmanian Devils screeching and fighting.  Tasmanian nature at it's best.

 

 

 Where that X is that's our caravan.

 The dogs name is Summer and belongs to the children.

Below are Tasmanian Oysters from Bruny Island which were lovely. A friend phoned and asked if we would like some Bruny Island fresh Oysters, of course our son said yes. They were a little expensive, but that didn't matter. Our son and myself were the only ones to eat a dozen each :) for lunch -

Natural of course.

The View

This was our view when we arrived at the Caravan Park from our caravan site.  The tidal river called Mountain River which runs off the Huon River.

The Christmas tree for Santa to sit under and bring the children gifts, the sand which was carted to the side of the river, every one called it 'the beach'. 

We missed Santa arriving this year as we went on our drive.

2nd photo was to the left of the caravan and the last photo is of a tent where people pay to stay for $AUD250.00 a night!  It's called 'Glamping'.  I certainly wouldn't pay that amount for a night to sleep in that tent, you have to supply your own food all that is in there is a jug/kettle, bed and pillows along with a cupboard.

Huon River, Huonville, Tasmania.

The Huonville River is 174km long.  Looking on the map of Tasmania the river doesn't look long at all.

The mouth of the river is the Tasman Sea and I traced the Huon River to Lake Pedder in the South Western area of Tasmania. 

A post last March with photos of Lake Pedder is [here] 

 

So the day after we arrived in Huonville we headed off following a road we had never been on along the Huon River.  We didn't finished the drive because it was too late in the afternoon - a map below shows the 'teadrop' road we didn't finish.   

The photos were taken not far from the town of Huonville.

 

Suffolk Sheep.

Suffolk Sheep down at Huonville, Tasmania.

Some of you made have heard of the Suffolk Sheep - these sheep were imported from England to Australia in the very early 1900's. The midland of Tasmania is well known for sheep particularly Merino sheep.

Our first full day at Huonville was a drive down along the Huon River the opposite way than we went the year before, however, we were on a road that took us a very long way round for a short cut and being late in the afternoon we decided to head back to the Caravan Park and not continue.

 

Ross, Tasmania

After Campbell Town we travelled to Ross, Tasmania on the same day.

Ross is a historic town in thee Midland of Tasmania and the Macquarie River flows through the town.

The bridge was built of sandstone by the convicts. Completed in 1836.  Ross has much history.

A small house is the 2nd photo and the Post Office which opened in 1832. 

We had lunch at Ross, Scallop Pie and Vanilla Slice - just so tasty.

Campbell Town, Tasmania

A short time in Campbell Town taking photos of the river and bridge as we journey our way down to Huonville, down south of the Island.  The Foxhunters Return in photo below is a place to stay at Campbell Town and has much history.  It's believed that convicts stayed underneath the Inn back in the day whilst they built the Red Bridge. There are more photos of the Inn and a bit more history [ here ]

Back home.

I do hope you are well whilst I've been gone on holiday.  So lovely to be back home but was great to have a holiday away from home in the south of the Island of Tasmania, Australia.  In a few weeks time we will be off again all being well.

We as in my husband and myself left in the caravan Christmas week returning Saturday January 9, 2021.  Our eldest son his wife and their two little ones came just after Christmas and came home same day as we did.  Youngest son stayed home and had his children come to stay for Christmas in our house.

Extremely lucky on this Island as there is no Covid-19 and hasn't been for awhile now but we all know not to take things for granted, so always distance and so on.

On the way to Huonville down south we went through Campbell Town in the Midlands of Tasmania and of course it was rest time so out came the camera for some photos. These sculptures depict the history of Tasmania.  A post of Campbell Town not long before we left is [ here ]