Tasmania 2023 – Week 2 Strathgordon to Port Huon
On arising this morning it is miserable and overcast with drifting molecules of water. It is not raining but not dry, kind of in between but not mist. We start the day with a continental breakfast and a delightful fairy circle of fungi that was advanced and just starting on its path to being grown. The ground temperature is a balmy 9/10 degrees.
I find it interesting that you can travel a couple of hundred kilometres and it takes you 3-4 hours (today is 217km averaging 60kph) – the roads are windy and your speeds simply have to reduce. The weather is “mist with chunky bits” I decide this morning. It’s not really, that would be more like rain, which this wasn’t quite but it is enough to require the windscreen wipers but not all the time.
We spot a potter-roo type creature as we head back from Strathgordon to Westerway. On a side note, there is roadkill – a sad fact of life in Tasmania. We travel the B roads, snacking on some glorious raspberries that pop with flavour. We admire the changing leaves of the poplar trees which seem to be either green or yellowing and losing their yellow leaves leaving a blanket on the ground. Deciduous trees are quite something to we northerners – from Queensland where nothing deciduates.
We stop to admire the scenery and in the distance, there is the call of a kookaburra – truly beautiful sound breaking the absolute quiet. We travel alongside the River Derwent which seems to start small and becomes a mighty majestic river with a significant amount of power when upset and overloaded.
Our first main stop is Salmon Ponds. It was wonderfully entertaining hearing the children giggle as they threw the fish food into the ponds and the salmon and trout wrestled for the food, when they were not already too full to move to the surface and have a tussle. It is a lovely set out with a variety of salmon/trout over a number of ponds. It was definitely fun feeding the fishies.
On we travel to Derwent Estate, our first winery of the trip. We stay a while, having some “Fika time” or something similar with wine. The wine tasting is intimate and at The Shed where the restaurant is, we have some gorgeous food – we select the small plates and tasters rather than a meal. The flavours are something else. I find it interesting that people can speak so unguardedly in a situation like this – the table near us had 2 teachers and you couldn’t help but hear the conversation, which seemed quite one-sided with the vocal one seemingly saving the world. Nope, I am not a teacher; yes, I do take the p*ss out of them. Moving on….
The countryside we have travelled through the morning is the country you see in the promotions for this area. It is scenic, rolling hills, green, and all the colours of autumn.
Our plans change and evolve as we go. We had a rough idea of what we would see, some might call it an “itinerary”. It certainly got pared down today. It takes time to stop and look at things so one winery and Willie Smith’s Apple Shed where we had some pretty tasty vanilla bean ice-cream served with lots of layers of sliced apple in a pie. The filling itself was just cooked, so still firm, and not sweet. The pastry was not flaky, more shortcrust. The cider tasting paddle was pretty good too. Being a tourist can be quite hard work, I’ll have you know. The things you have to do. Just kidding. It is wonderful to be able to experience this part of the world and see things I haven’t seen before, go to places I’ve not been.
We embark on the Southern Edge Drive or something similar. This is the country of pine trees, hopefully we might see some of those glorious Huon pines for which the area is named and which were 1,000’s of years old. We see logging trucks. Hopefully those logs are from re-growth forests – which seem to cover a lot of this gorgeous state.
Tonight’s accommodation is Kermandie Hotel where we check in about 4.00pm feeling a little road weary even though we are not driving “big” days – they are still big enough navigating the roads and watching out for signs and doing the traveller thing. The Hotel is an older building which has adapted over time. It has a lovely charm in the bar. Tomorrow night we will have dinner here as tonight we are still a little full from the gorgeous food we have partaken of earlier in the day. Our room is simple but what we do have is a guest lounge which we ensconce ourselves in for a while this evening, with a glass of wine, me reading and my trusty fungi spotter watching a documentary. It is an early evening and a quiet evening in another beautiful location in this alluring state.
We have reviewed tomorrow’s plans, as with today they will be pared down taking into account the time that is required to travel to places. Tomorrow will be some caves and a modest amount of scouting about. Until then
