Dust, fire, flood and now a Pandemic….really! Unknowingly, the walls are closing in on us as we approach New Norfolk. The caravan park in town is normally full at this time of year, high season with the caravanning community. We take a large site next to Gary and Jenny, and settle down to catch up on the latest news….it’s not good!
New Norfolk is a really nice town, big enough for a Woolworth, though it now has empty shelves where toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitiser did live….and flour, all gone. The irrationality has hit the Tasmanians whilst we have been in the wild West. Being in town for 3 nights is a good time to stock up the larder with food and wine, check out the shopping area and put the feet up. The latter looked like being the only option the next morning when the caravan park manager told us that the council is probably going to close the caravan park, and where will we go then on this island?
The Premier was giving a daily update each morning, and during one such update he said “to the tourists on our island, we don’t want you here, we want you gone”, and he nominated a day within a week hence. Now given the number of caravaners on the island, and only one ferry a day back to the mainland, and so many oƒ us booked here for another month at least, it needed a miracle to comply. Eventually we scored a new booking sailing on the 5th April, a week after the deadline! Now it is totally understandable that the Tassie Government needed us to go, but the manner in which the directive was presented was poor, causing much anguish amongst the older travellers, and emboldening some in the community to be somewhat aggressive. Fortunately, the vast majority of locals, and especially the caravan parks, were friendly, helpful and concerned for us.
Our friends from Burnie, Bruce and Judy, rang at this time and offered us their 3 bedroom apartment in Hobart for as long as needed, a very generous offer. To that end we took a day drive to Hobart to see how the lockdown looked, and it was not pleasant. We had spent a week in Hobart in 2001 and really looked forward to our return, however, now the streets were deserted, all restaurants, attractions and the famous Salamanca Markets were closed. We walked the harbour-side boardwalk and saw only a handful of other people. We soon grabbed a takeaway coffee and a Scollop Pie, retired to a nearby park and lamented the state of the nation.
From Hobart we decide to do an afternoon drive southward through Huonville and Dover, both of which sit on the Huon River, which becomes a wide bay protected from the ocean swells by South Bruny Island. It is both a very scenic and historic area. This day the river surface reflects the surrounds, yachts and fishing boats from its mirror-like surface. The 20klm drive from Hunonville to Geeveston the road skirts the riverside as it meanders south, passing fish Co-Op’s, boat builders and restaurants. It is so sad to see so many businesses closed due to CoVid, there were so many places we would have loved to stay, and passing closed pubs and cafes was a real tug to the heart.
On the journey home we detour at Huonville and turn south and east on a wide peninsula bounded by the Huon River on the west, and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to the east. At Cygnet we turn east across the beautiful mountainous spine of the peninsula towards the coastal holiday village of Snug. Here in Snug is where Julia and Phil have holed up for the past week, and we have a strict “social distance” catchup with them in a waterside park. They intend to head north to St Helens in the next days, and we hope to meet there.
Back in New Norfolk with Gary and Jenny, we convene to plan the next move. By interpretation of the “new normal” we are now classed as “essential travellers”….travellers heading home! That comes with the stipulation that we are heading home, which means north, but more specifically in Tasmania the we “have a confirmed boarding date for the Spirit of Tasmania ferry, and we are heading towards Devonport to await our booking. To this end we decide to travel up the east coast and stay in Swansea for a couple of days.
Australia. Dust, Fire, Flood & Pandemic 