Tassie Tourist

Well it is indeed good to be here in Tassie.. the forest festival was fun fine and festive, you can imagine me camped out in a paddock with a bunch of six women enjoying the gentle breeze from the mountains...


went walking up the tiers the second day


and caving near Mole Creek (honeycomb cave) the first day

(These are the waterproof 4WD foot tractors that got me there without a blister...my best ever $5 bargain from the casino st opshop...)

...and relaxed and listened to the music and ate good food the third day.

Here is the brilliant pizza oven that worked night and day to feed the masses bread, pizza and apple crumble, even baked rainbow trout - we are definitely going to build one at Tuntable...
It's kind of chilly but I am acclimatising....and now I am camped in luxury at Lisa's friend Niecy's Tigerhill Cafe near Golden Valley, awaiting the fixing of Lisa's car and waiting for the washing to dry. Then we plan to get to Strahan for a reunion of the old forest-saving no-dams crew, perhaps even go down the river and perhaps even camp...
here are some of the exquisite and minute alpine life-forms we discovered up there close to heaven...
I saw the aurora the other night - all my life I have wanted to and somehow it flashed for a minute or so above the mountians when I went out for my late night pee - big balls of white light travelling backwards and forwards on the southern horizon, very beautiful and awesome.



We are heading off to Strahan for Friday - and hoping that Lisa's lemon car will be fixed by then. It's pissing down rain and everyone is very happy about it here. More news next week... till then, enjoy!

Folk Fests and Floods

Looks like I am only updating my blog once a month now. And a lot can happen in a month. I've survived Xmas,

travelled to the Sunshine Coast for a New Year reunion with some of the Papunya mob,

went to Underwater World with them (too wet to do anything outside!)


spent a night with Jan and Charlie and met their new grandson, Thomas, and caught up with Sally who is a beautiful young mother now

travelled back down to a mini folk fest at Woody Head,

evacuated from there due to cyclonic rain and had to go round the Monaltrie way because the Wyrallah Road was flooded near the tip,

woke Nichol up in time to move his car away from the rising floodwaters in Wotherspoon St,

and was surprised to see Winiata, up from Canberra again, wading through the floodwaters.









A few cars were drowned but otherwise it was not a major event in Lismore - more like some excitement for the locals out with a camera and a reason for a family boating trip

I am presently engaged in some fast and furious house (and road) renovations with some very willing wwoofers - next post will be about my forthcoming trip to Tasmania (10 more sleeps!)

Rainforest Reunion

I am now in Lismore studying for the phenomenally boring Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment - but most of the last week was spent camping out on Mt Nardi with old campaigners for the rainforest (and a few young), celebrating the victory for rainforest we won 25 years ago.

Lots of photos, from the old Benny 25 years ago, to Winiata who never seems to age...





















Jingles as the coffee wallah...

The grannies telling stories of the old days to the kids from Tuntable school (just like the creekbed at Town Bore, only greener)

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Gummy, Doug and PJ...


people reminiscing and making plans round the fire ...

me and Luna up in the magnificent strangler fig...