Heading inland

Our beach days are over are drawing to a close and as the weather was not looking great we decided to go for a drive inland, We were told by the owner at the Bicheno van park that we should vist the "Shop in Bush" and go for lunch at "The Pub in the Paddock"

The "Shop in the Bush" is a lovely old store that is full of antiques and collectables. Mark was very excited to find a copy of his family bible he has inherited and it was worth a lot more than he thought it would be.

Next stop was St Columba Falls. It was a bit of a trek down a windy road and not a lot of room for two long vans to park but we worked it out. The walk down to the falls was about 600m and was all downhill and all I could think about on the way down was that it was going to be a long way up.

While were heading down, we caught a glimpse of the falls and they looked impressive. The walk down was was through a lush tree fern forest with lots of moss growing on the fallen branches. It was quite beautiful.

As we got closer to the falls, we crossed  a bridge where the water was so clear you could see the fish trying to swim up against the current.

When we reached the falls, they were huge! The looked as high as a skyscraper (that may be a slight exaggeration) as cascaded down over the rocks in different directions forming waterfalls within the waterfall.

As beautiful as these falls were, we had to move on and make our back up the steep track but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Our trip back in the van to the main road was much worse. As we were coming to a bend, there was a cyclist coming up the hill and a car sped up behind him and overtook him on the bend just as we were driving around it. Luckily there was a wide verge on our side that Terry could swerve over to. When we reached the Pub in the Paddock we found out that there had been a motorbike fatality on the road we came up on and I can't help but wonder if it was the same idiot driver that caused the that accident. 

The Pub in the Paddock was a lovely old homestead of the families that settled the area. The story goes that the one of the sons wasn't interested in the farm and all he liked to do was drink. So, his parents thought it would be good to open up pub. it seems it was a success and over a century later it is still running. It serves lovely meals and has become a very popular place to eat.

We were in two minds as to whether we should continue heading north but after much discussion, we decided we would much prefer to head back to Cosy Corner and hopefully catch a beautiful sunrise that we had tried to capture earlier in the day.

Well, the sun did rise again the next day as you would expect but there was too much cloud cover and there was no way the sun was going to pop through, However, sitting on the beach with our toes in the sand and a nice cup of coffee, I think the only thing better would have been the perfect sunrise.

After returning to the van we packed up and headed back to Hobart down the centre. We stopped at Campbell Town for morning tea and pick up so more groceries for our last few days. The towns along our route all have a lot of history so, I'm sure I will enjoy it.

Campbell Town did not disappoint with the oldest brick bridge in Australia. It's close to the Book Cellar which is a bookshop set up in the cellar of one of the lovely old buildings alongside the river.

By the bridge there was a lovely park with a number of large wood sculptures that look like they were crafted from trees that looked to have been cut down. Down past the park there was a path that lea back to the vans,

Next stop was Ross. The is a beautiful history town with a lovely old sandstone building on each corner. We found the well known Ross Bridge (the third oldest bridge in Australia still in use). 

Ruth and I then walked up to the church then back down to the main cross-road. On the way we passed the Tasmanian Wool Centre and they had an exhibition called "Knit your Bits". Intrigued we went in to see what is was all about. Well, turns out it was an exhibition to promote women's health, so I'm sure you can guess what bits were being knitted. Some of them appeared to be very anatomically correct. There were some very clever creations.

Last stop for the day was Oatlands. This was our last free camp and when we looked it up it liked an ideal location. However when we arrived the lake was not quite what we were expecting. It was covered with reeds and weeds and you could hardly see the water, but it was a haven for birds, which I think is what was intended when it was made. And yes, I do know that's not a real cow in the water.

Oatlands is historical town with the main street lined with lovely old houses and shops. They also seem to have a bit of an obsession with topiary. 

Unfortunately, I think they were still operating in the early 20th century trading hours. It was rather wet and miserable so we decided to go out to find something for dinner rather than cook in the van. Apparently, only one place cooks on a Wednesday night but we got there just after five and they didn't start their dinner menu until six. As it was right up the other end of the town, we decided we didn't want to walk back later so we ordered some pizzas and then headed back to the van to play cards. We been playing cards most nights. Ruth and Mark have taught us a new card game called "Oh Hell" and we took one called "Exploding Kittens" We have so much fun with our "take no prisoner" approach.

Don't believe what you read on the pack, the were no kittens harmed during play, only pride.

Hopefully the weather is a bit better tomorrow and we can have a better look at some of the shops.