Big plans…..for small(er) adventures

Having been drawn back inexorably to Wynyard, new home port of the Andante… we have experienced a few zen breakthroughs. The barriers we’ve expended huge amounts of energy to overcome are: TIME FRAME, WIND, HEALTH, MONEY…

so we threw all our ideas, plans, expectations into the air and watched them transform. Thankyou to our friends Arno and Glenda in Albany; and Wayne and Denise in Bunbury who showed us another way.

We are going to sell our beautiful property, “Tiabunna” and buy a smaller, easier, cheaper, “lock-up-and-leave” place to call home…. That way hopefully Col won’t be too exhausted trying to keep the boat and the property going… Tiabunna is advertised on realestate.com.au and gumtree for private sale. Check it out at http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/burnie-area/property-for-sale/large-house-with-5-ha-of-bush-lake-productive-gardens/1038163444 and please help us get it out into the universe.

We are going to bow to the forces of my health, and do small Tasmanian trips for this summer and autumn while I recover from the gall-bladder operation scheduled for 19th February, and give me breathing space for the fibro myalgia to ease a bit….

If the winds are kind, we’ll head north in April/May and back south in November. If they’re not, we’ll go when and where the winds don’t blow just for small explorations…

So Tasmania it is. Tasmania boasts the extraordinary complement of 374 islands greater than 1 hectare in size and 6,163 islets with a total land area of only about  68,000sq km – just under 1% of the area of Australia! How many could we explore? We’re not promising this – even to ourselves, but the potential is right here.

There are the Hunter group of islands….where we’ve kayaked a bit. We’ve visited beautiful Hunter, Three Hummock, Albatross, The Petrel’s, Walker, Kangaroo, Short, Harbour Islets… but we could go and see The Doughboys, Trefoil and even the Black Pyramid which is a spire of rock reaching out of Bass Straight covered in a gannet colony and will be a sight to behold. And, of course, King Island with the best cheese in the world!

There are the North East coast islands – Flinders Island is wonderful with the added attraction of being the Paper Nautilus capital, surrounded by Cape Barren, Great and Little Dog, The Chappells, Prime Seal – oh they sound so fascinating. Back to the Deal Islands because we simply didn’t get anywhere near enough time to enjoy them.

Further down the East coast there is the wonderful Maria, with such a diverse geology and history. And what a great coast line, so indented we could spend our lives sailing in and out of the bays and inlets. The whole Tasman and Forester Peninsular will need serious exploration as this area is so amazingly rich in pelagic and coastal bird life.

The south of Tasmania boasts Bruny Island, and the D’entrecasteaux channel with another life time there. We’ve always hankered to visit the Maatsuyker group, the Mewstones and Pedra Banca. That promises to be a true adventure.

Possibly back up the west coast, checking in to Port Davey, Bathurst Harbour and Melaleuca… come in over Hell’s Gates to Macquarie Harbour. We could visit Sarah Island where the tormented souls of tormented convicts still wail with the westerly winds .

Wow! Smaller adventures – can’t wait!