On the move

Our fourth day and it is time to move on. Today we thread the island state and head towards the capital, Hobart.

We awoke early and began the process of packing up. I’d gotten into the habit of procuring coffee from a nearby café, but today we decided to go into town. The weather looked promising as we peered out towards East Launceston. We walked into town (10-15mins on foot) and eventually found the place I was looking for – but alas, only coffee (it used to be called “Shots on Wax” and had sold vinyl). We took our time and enjoyed watching people passing by.

Before long, we checked out of the Mantra Charles and took to the car. We decided to give the kids another opportunity at Riverbend Park (given a lot of the day would be driving south), so we headed north and let them have at it.

The road was peaceful and the journey uneventful. We wove through places like Perth, reaching deeper into the heart of the island. The terrain was mostly farm land with forests and hills in abundance. I’d already decided we would be stopping at a charming little village called Ross which was helpfully “sort of” half way to Hobart. We pulled off the highway and made our way into town.

There was quite a bit to see, mostly federation style heritage buildings, a very old church, and a main street packed with character. We opted for lunch at the pub, and the place was exactly the sort of experience you’d expect – like an English village pub and the food was very good. Keeping the kids from being loud was less easy. We spent a reasonable amount of time walking the village and looking inside some of the sparse shops. As we were beginning to head out of town we came to THE attraction – the Ross bridge.

My heart filled with joy as vividly recall visiting this bridge with my family back in 1990, and it is virtually unchanged since then.

Now.. standing with my own family on the same soil, taking in the same bridge. Amazing.

It really is an impressive and well built example of early colonial construction (1836) and well worth the visit The bridge at Richmond is also impressive.

We lumbered back into the car and continued our journey south.

As we began the approach to Hobart, we detoured slightly to an Antiques Centre in an outlying town called New Norfolk. Here I made a massive blunder and bought an album for about 5x its actual value by wrongly mistaking it for an original pressing. Not my finest hour.

We now drove direct to the Wyndham resort at Seven Mile Beach and began the process of getting acclimated to the new region.

The Wyndham (Ramada) at Seven Mile Beach is a series of detached houses, with some townhouses peppered into the mix. The resort surrounds a central complex which contains the pool, gym and spa plus the main reception and meeting rooms.