I left Hobart on Wednesday morning and headed north-east towards Swansea. After much deliberation, I decided to follow the interior convict highway – The Heritage Highway mainly because of the bridges that were highlighted, built by convict labour. I have seen many seascapes and forests…so thought this would be different.

Took the road through Richmond and passed through the Coal River valley, mostly famous for wineries along the the way. Along the way I passed through Tunbridge, which has the old coaching inn, now a stately private residence. Crossing the river at Tunbridge, is the convict-built Blackman’s River Bridge. Dating back to 1848, it’s the oldest wooden span bridge in Australia. From there I headed north again to Oatlands which is  little town is filled with sandstone buildings -apparently the largest collection of colonial sandstone buildings, mainly built by convict labour, the town also boasts Callington Mill. The mill is Australia’s third oldest windmill, built in 1837 and restored to working order in 2010. It is actually still functional and I chatted to the miller on site. Another landmark, St Pauls’ Catholic Church, was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, the father of Gothic Revival architecture. Quaint inside too.

The next stop was the timeless village of Ross with huge English elms lining the main street and the famous Ross Bridge (1836), built by convict labour and featuring 186 intricate colonial carvings. The town also has the ruins of a female factory prison site and original burial ground on the hill. Ross plays an important role with sheep grazing in the area at the Tasmanian Wool Centre. After that it was onto Campbell Town which is very close to Ross. This is a popular stopping point for travellers between Launceston and Hobart and the historic heart of Tasmania with more than a 100 houses over 100 years old. I walked around along the banks of the Elizabeth River and its Red Bridge, built in 1838 by convict labour using over one million convict-made bricks. I bought a cornish pasty (pronounced pahhsty) …..because these Aussies make up their own words, own pronunciations and seem to add extra vowels into many words….to drawl them out. For example the word queen…or in Aussie speak…Quoiin…like coin. Or a pro-ject or making his debooo.   But I digress….

At this point I turned off the Heritage highway and headed east to Swansea. Driving through the Lake Leake area and then through the Wye River State Sanctuary. Again very pretty scenery, but very dry and arid in places. I finally arrived in Swansea just after 6pm. I stayed at a period house called Schouten house. Slept in a quaint 4 poster bed, lovely place, but bed and breakfasts just too intimate for me. In the evening I had a fantastic linguine with scallops, muscles and prawns. Then I went for a drive through the nearby farmlands, saw parakeets and some other interesting birdlife. Then went for a stroll on the nearby beach and then ai headed home for a sleep, long days driving all day, does take it out of one. Wednesday had a serious day lined up too….many mile to drive.

My plan had been to drive to the Freycinet peninsular for the morning, and as time was tight I had planned a flight over the peninsular to see wineglass bay and the surrounds. But the wind was howling so badly, that the flight was cancelled. So I missed out on that one for this trip sadly. But I had plan b. I drove along the East Ocean Road and enjoyed the scenery from Swansea to St Helens via Bicheno. I really saw some stunning sea vies, azure waters, turquoise waters, muddy river waters.. but the wind continued to blow gales. After the very beautiful Bicheno area I went on towards St Helens. At the last minute I did a detour across Mount Elephant through the pass….it was special, rain forests, giant blue gums and then pancakes at the Elephant pancake shop. From there I drove to St Helens and then I headed Northwest to the Bridestowe lavender estate. By now the wind gods had calmed down somewhat….and this was one of my highlights of my week. Beautiful rows and rows of various lavender varieties. Walking through them and smelling the potent fragrance, you could hear the cacophony of 🐝 bees 🐝 in and out of the plants, doing their job. I just walked and walk and took a gazillion pics.

Then I had a very funny interaction with a young chinese lady. She asked me to take a pic of her in the lavender fields, which I duly did. So she posed and pranced and I clicked. Took all my restraint not to laugh at her poses! But I did take some awesome pics when I managed to get her to stand where I thought it would be good. She was hopping around she was so happy! So then she asked me if I wanted a pic…..all with handsignals because she spoke NO english, which is a fraction more than the mandarin I speak. So I said sure, and went and stood in my own inimical gloompy no pose way. She was horrified and tried her best to give me instruction on how to pose. She would show, I would laugh and say hell no! She started getting grumpy with me…so I have one or two concessions….and then one where I simply dropped to my knees in the dirt and that was the perfect pic in the lavender field.

Eventually I dragged myself away from the farm and started the next one hour drive into Launceston -pronounced Lahnceston. I finally go into town and to my hotel at around 7.30pm. Pretty damn exhausted from four days driving driving driving. I was also filthy dirty from the farm. So I ordered room service- a yummy gnocchi and roast lamb dish! Was excellent. I then did the clothes washing and had my own shower and got ready for bed. Way too tired for blogging last night. So now I am only 1 day behind and ai will catch up at the airport tomorrow on my flight to Sydney.

So goodnight for now and enjoy the readings!

Fields of poppies being farmed

Poppy fields

Poppy fields

Old fuel station

Had a scone here

The mill

The windmill

The miller at work

Sandton with the convict signatures in

The windmill again

A bird

The bridge at Oatlands

Bird and reflection

Stunning convict built sandstone

St Pauls Cathedral

Inside the church

Wood sculpture using a chainsaw

Plaque

Red Bridhe

The red bridge at Ross

Bridestowe Lavender estate

Lavender ice cream

My favourite pic

My best pose

Lavender shadows

Bee doing its this

Labender ahadow