Day 27 Queenstown to Devonport 06-03-16

Today we are going to head further north and head for Devonport on the north coast. First we had planned to take a train trip then drive up later. Owing to the fact that the owners of the B & B, that we were staying in, had a number of guests to get through we had to be in the dining room for 7:40.. If we were going to get the train we would have to be at the station ready for the 09:00 departure. We got up early and they cooked us a wonderful breakfast and also offered to organise the tickets for the steam train ride which would take us half way to a place called Strahan and back.. The whole trip on the train was due to take about 4 hours but when he called they did not enough tickets for 6 people so we made another plan.. We decided to drive to Strahan, stop for a walk round and a cuppa tea etc.. and then drive on towards Devonport possibly via 'Sheffield'.. This meant we had no rush from breakfast and the husband and wife team sat with us with their breakfast and had a chat.. They told us about the history of the house, the previous owners, the ghosts, the stories behind the town and how they came to take the B & B on.. They showed us some old photographs of how the 'house' used to look from the very beginning in 1891 !! They were really enthusiastic about the adventure they had started with the house and could probably have gone on all day !! We, however, had to leave to get on the road so we said our goodbyes, packed the van again and set off.. We did not take long before we stopped (about 500 yds) and Trev & Paul were out with the cameras taking picture of the stream/creek that ran through the town.. It was bright orange with the deposits of copper, from the mines, that were washed out of the surrounding rocks.

Fortunately Strahan was not too far away so a short delay made no difference and we got there quite quickly.. In the middle of the town, at the end of the main road, was a small roundabout. We turned left initially, saw a few shops, the council building, a car park and that was the end of town this way.. We turned around, went back towards the roundabout and headed in the opposite direction. Across the roundabout we saw a coffee café, a boat ride office, a small nautical museum and……. That was it, again… We turned round 180⁰ and headed back, this time to park outside the bakery/cake shop to have our snacks !! We had some wonderful pastries once again and got ourselves ready to drive on !! As it was only a fairly small town and being Sunday everything was closed, we decided not to stay too long !! We got back on the road and headed towards our final destination of Devonport (Tasmania), the plan was to stay on the C132 all the way, go past certain towns and have a quick in 'Sheffield' .. It was a great plan but the C132 proved to be a very twisty and winding road that climbed up steeply and dropped sharply at nearly every turn. At times we were down to about 25kph (15 mph) and crawling around turns in order to get round. Tight turns were everywhere so the progress was slow.. Eventually it did straightn out for a while and we spotted a 'lookout point' that should offer good photo opportunities.. We parked up and had a 'short walk' according to Lis to the crest.. This turned out to be about 300 mtrs of uphill slog on scree and loose stones in general.. However once at the top the views really were quite stunning. All along the road so far we had mentioned that, apart from 'road kill' we had not seen any wildlife. So it was quite a moment when we spotted a blackbird/crow sitting on a rock a little distance from us….

After this brief stop, as we continued we saw a sign that suggested we turn right for 'Sheffield' but this was no longer the C132.. It was the C136.. We stayed on the C132 as this had been mentioned earlier that we did not need to turn off just follow the road all the way to 'Devonport'. About 20 mins later thought Dee, head still buried in a map, could not find any of the village names that we were going through, on the map !! It was at this point we realised that we should really have turned off onto the C136.. No worries, we can just carry on this road, it will get us to the same place, we will have to visit 'Sheffield' on another day !! So we continued on our way and very soon came across 'Devonport'.. We soon found the next "house", reversed down a tight 'driveway' and all jumped out, unloaded the van ready to enter.. ooppps !! The keycode we had been given did not work !! Lis tried to ring the lady who we had hired the house from, but could only get answer fone.. She tried a txt message, but no immediate reply. After about 20 mins of deciding what we could do in the interim, some shopping, maybe go for our evening meal, just drive around, the lady rang back and rattled off about 5 different codes . One of which eventually worked and we were able to enter and get ourselves sorted.. It again proved to be a very pleasant house with all the facilities we needed including 'oven gloves' (this had been the only problem so far, whenever we did home cooking Dee had nothing to get hot items out of the oven !) We had them this time but made the decision not to cook but to 'order out'. We rang a local pizza/curry house to placed an order for collection. This done it was also necessary to find a 'fish & chip shop' for some chips (yep, the pizza house did not do fries ?) and suddenly we also needed some wine.. Trev and Paul were dispatched to find/collect/buy the required items. With the 'kitty' in hand they drove off into the sunset.. First they found the curry shop but were far too early, so they went off in search of the wine. After asking a guy for directions they drove off getting ever further away from the curry house, but fortunately found a 'drive thru' beer, wines & spirits shop !! Excellent, got the last bottle, of wine that we wanted, that they had on the shelves and headed back to the curry house. The take out was ready, paid for, and we were off in search of the 'chip shop' ! We found it but had to park in the car park next door (a church car park) we knew it was Sunday but thought no one would mind !! Paul went into the 'chip shop' and asked for some chips.. the guy said that he would have a short wait, which proved to be quite a long wait as they 'cook to order' and he had a lot of phone orders to do first !! No worries, once cooked, back in the van, Trev stated the other food was still hot so no problems !! Great, we would not be in trouble when we got back !!

Everyone was waiting patiently for us to return, and had the table laid out with drinks waiting to be poured in anticipation of food !! We all had a hearty meal and then sat down to relax and do whatever we needed to catch up on the day, facebook, facetime and txt messages !!

Tomorrow is another day !!!