19th October 2009

I am now 50 years & 1 day old. This morning we went into Burnie and checked out the Pioneer Museum, this turned out to be very disappointing as they were moving and had everything packed away. Gave up there and went to the library which wasn't any better, I actually got the old "I don't usually work in this department" excuse. After I took a picture of the monument to the Van Diemen Land Company we decided to give Burnie the flick and head up to Wynyard. The people at the Wynyard visitors centre were terrific, they couldn't do enough to help me with my family tree research.

Whilst we were there we checked out the veteran car museum. My favourites were the 1905 Model F Ford and the 1913 Indian, Glenn just loved them all. If you are ever in Wynyard and you like old cars and bikes, don't miss this exhibition, it is well worth a look.

1899 De Dion Bouton Tricycle

2.25 HP / 300cc.
1 forward gear,
no clutch, pedal start.




1903 Model A Ford




2 cylinder horizontally opposed
8 horsepower engine with
chain drive to rear wheels.




1904 Cadillac




8.25 horsepower,
single cylinder engine.





1904 Darracq



Cruise control system,
steering column gearshift,
and a multi-speed gearbox.





1905 'Flying 15' Darracq



3 litre engine, can
travel at a speed of
50 miles per hour.





1905 Model F Ford




Flat twin engine, the last
of Ford's 2 cylinder cars.





1906 Model N Ford



15 - 18 horsepower.
The first of Ford's
4 cylinder cars.





1907 Model K Ford




40 horsepower.






1908 International Harvester
Motor Buggy




Twin cylinder 5" (127mm)
bore and stroke.
Designed to fit into the ruts
made by horse buggies.



1908 Model S Ford




Mechanically the same
as the Model N Ford.





1911 Brush



Single cylinder
8 horsepower
engine which ran
anti clockwise.




1913 Indian



The Indian weighs only
100 lb's, and is the first
motorcycle to have electric
start and electric lights.




1915 Cadillac




V8.






1915 Ford Model T Roadster



4 cylinder, 20 horsepower,
top speed 40 mph.






1916 Model T Ford




4 cylinder, 20 horsepower.






1917 Oldsmobile




V8.






1922 Raleigh





2 cylinder.





1928 Model A Ford




4 cylinder, 40 horsepower,
3 speed gearbox,
4 wheel brakes.




1938 Brough Superior 11-50 Special



1100cc
Original & unrestored.
Hand made in
Nottingham England,
1 of only 23 made in 1938.




After lunch we headed for Circular Head.


We arrived in Stanley at about 4pm, took a couple of pictures from the lookout and went to the pioneer settlement called Highfield House.


We were too late to go in and see everything so we just took some pictures of Highfield House,

it's out buildings and the ruins of the convict barracks.

We then went to find the caravan park. Stanley caravan park was great, modern, clean and situated right on Tatlow beach.





In the camp kitchen we met lots of people from all over the country who were happy to tell of their adventures and give us some tips of where to go and what to see. It was here that we learnt that Dismal Swamp, the place we were going to tomorrow was closed because of storm damage and wouldn't be opened for at least another week :-(

We went to watch the penguins come in but we must have been too late because the only penguin we saw was walking up the road on our way back to the caravan park.

18th October 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
We paid our $22 to get into the World Heritage Listed Cradle Mountain Nation Park and drove down to Dove Lake.


The weather was crap, light misty rain all day and we couldn't see much of the Cradle, but we didn't mind because it was so great. We took what was meant to be a 2 hour walk around Dove Lake, but with my sore feet and wonky knee's it took 3 hours. After only walking unaided in September for the first time in 22 months I was stoked to finish the 6.6 kilometre walk.

The first part of the walk was pretty easy going, nice boardwalks to walk on but the last part of the walk was tough going, even a mountain goat would have had trouble with the rocky gravel climb.

Cradle Mountain still had snow on it, we got a great view of the lake from the top of glacier rock. There's a bit of everything from forest to beaches to waterfalls. The Honeymoon Islands are in the middle of the lake. A beautiful place and a must to see. I would love to go back again on a sunny day. We had lunch at the Cradle Mountain Cafe, here I paid for internet access but it was dial up crap and wouldn't move off the homepage grrr! Glenn fed the raven twisties.....bad boy! Cradle Mountain was a great place to spend my birthday. We left for Burnie at 3.30pm. When we got about 2 kilometres from Burnie my phone started going off with birthday messages, it was great!

If you don't have Telstra in Tassie then you only have reception in the major cities. By this time we'd had enough of paying $4.50 every time we wanted a cuppa, so we went to Woolies and bought a camp stove, canisters of gas, a pot, coffee, tea, milk and sugar. It only cost $36 and the way Glenn drinks coffee it paid for itself in 2 days. We lashed out on a cabin at the very nice Burnie caravan park, watched some tele (choice of 2 very blurry channels), spoke to Rachel on the net, took a shower and slept like a log, well worth $95!