Category: Around Australia 2014

Farming Nomads

Published on by 8itchyfeet2 Comments

Tasmania is the Apple Isle, and the Huon Valley is the reason why. Apples spurt forth from the earth here like lava from Mt Vesuvius. So many apples in fact the farmers themselves don’t know what to do with them. As a result a whole stack of them seem to end up falling, not far from the tree, so to speak.

‘There’s only so many apples you can eat’, the farmer in charge of the van park we stayed at told me when asked why so many appeared to be going to waste. This farmer it would seem had decided about 15 months back to start farming nomads instead of apples. Or at least a bit of both. A goodly number of hectares of orchard have been pulled out to allow 4WD’s and caravans to sprout. I rather suspect the nomads to be the more lucrative enterprise. Especially when you know how to milk them.  Continue reading “Farming Nomads” →

In the year 1600 and something…

Published on by 8itchyfeet5 Comments

In the year 1600 and something… or was it 1700 and something… Bruni De’Encastreaux  explored the stretch of water that lay between Van Dieman’s Land and the island now known as Bruny. Bruni lent his first name to the island and his second to the water. What a generous chap. I’m sorry for the dodgy history lesson, but I’ve read so many interpretive signs of late my head is swimming and without research that I am currently unprepared to commit to (it’s late), that’s the best I can do.

In any case, Bruni was not the only European to drop by all those years ago. Captain Bligh dropped in, presumably before the mutiny, as did Captains Cook and Furneaux, Tasman and others. When they did, at least a few of them pulled up to fill their water barrels from the stream at Two Tree Point in Adventure Bay. Two Tree Point was named after the trees that stood at the mouth of the creek – and they’re still there albeit substantially larger today than in the painting by George Tobin, Lieutenant General no less, and chief expedition artist. I love that, to think those same said trees link such vastly different times. Continue reading “In the year 1600 and something…” →

Faster than Usain Bolt

Published on by 8itchyfeet1 Comment

Did you know that a wombat can outrun Usain Bolt? I know, who would have thought? It’s true though, the man at the Bonorong Wildlife Centre just outside of Hobart said so and he looked like he’d know. Apparently they can run at up to 40 km/hr.

What I am just now pondering however is how they work that out. I mean what could possibly stir a wombat to move that fast? We know traffic doesn’t do the job, more’s the pity. So how would you work that out? Continue reading “Faster than Usain Bolt” →