Day two Tassie:Road kill, acid rain and nylon nighties.

We were on a mission, a mission to circumnavigate Tassie in gut wrenching marathon drives. I found this lovely tea towel on the weekend, and it will give you an indication of the distances we travelled. Today's colour is purple. We expected a drive interspersed with pretty, quaint villages. It wasn't what we found.

We hit the road early after looking at these wee Scottish beasties. Och 'tis was a bonnie dawn and we dinna tary.

These are large enough for a man to stand upright in

Lordy, I didn’t realise the there would be so much infrastructure in Tassie! I photographed quite a bit, only because Sparky is an electrician  and because there was an abundance of it.  To overcome the monotony of trees and infrastructure I imagined that we were spies, operating behind enemy lines. My mission, photograph as much as possible without being seen. This meant stopping at weird  vantage points, darting out of the car, clicking the pic and jumping back in, shouting "Go, go, go!"

What lurks behind these curtains?

We did this until we took a turn onto a place called Bronte Park, sounds idyllic, eh? Instead of leaping out of the car, we ensured that all doors were locked and the foot was at all times on the accelerator! A seriously scary place. I think that at one time in its life it could have been a resort or camp of some kind, but it has degenerated. Here is a picture of some kind of dormitory complete with original disintegrating curtains. I couldn't take any more pictures,  eyes were watching, I could see shadows moving out of the corner of my eyes! We breathed a sigh of relief when we got out of there with all of our organs intact.

The only quaint village was this burnt out shell in Linda Valley. Continuing on our journey, the massive amounts of roadkill blew our minds. In all, on our journey, we saw a total of two dead Tassie Devils, two wombats and hundreds upon hundreds of kangaroos, possums, wallabies and other furry folk. Very sad. 

Anyhoo moving on...after leaving the forests of the Franklin Conservation Area and coming up to Queenstown, we came across the most bizarro thing we had ever seen. All of the hills as far as the eye could see were barren. No trees, nada.  It looked like a moonscape or Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Apparently the mines in the area had used all the trees for smelters, and with heavy rain fall and evaporation acid rain had eroded all of the soil and killed whatever was still living. The landscape was fascinating.


Op-shop stop at Queenstown and I am regretting not buying more. The oppy was actually the most expensive that I found in all of Tasmania, but what can you do?

There were three sets of these new vintage sheet sets, but they were $10 each. Should I have bought more? The purse has already been stolen by my daughter...I had to retrieve it from her car. Typical.

There was half a rack of these nighties in gelato colours, again brand new vintage. I only got this one, but should I have bought more? They ranged from $6-$10.

Teatowels, that I paid more than I should have. These are destined for cushions, Of course I left about four behind. Why did I do that? They weren't crash hot, but they were linen.

I think this oppy had a monopoly, because as pickings went, there wasn't much in the town. I asked if they had any more stuff out the back, stuff that may have come in the same box, of the nighties, sheets and teatowels. The lady got all cagey and shot me down in flames. I think she saw the gleam of greed in my eyes! Ah, you have to ask.  If any one wants to make a movie set in an old Aussie country town in 1975, I have found your place!


pic from here

Continued through the day to pretty fishing port Strahan where we were told that their seafood came from Thailand. The girl serving us went on the add, "It's really nice, I eat it all the time." (Well darlin' that is dandy, but we travelled across Tassie to sample some local fresh seafood!)


Continued our trip, trees, trees, trees, mine, trees, mine, trees, mine, mine, trees. Arrived at Cradle Mountain exhausted.