We hadn't really grasped just how far away Launceston is upstream, the notion that you could technically motorsail all the way there was deceiving us. It's actually about an hour by road! We arrived at the bus stop shelter (a construction a bit more substantial that the ones were were accustomed to in Perth in homage to the weather) in plenty of time and were heartened by the arrival of another potential passenger soon after. As it turned out he was probably just as encouraged by our presence as he was not a regular bus traveler either. We chatted while we waited but before the bus arrived, an acquaintance spotted our new friend and offered us all a lift nearly all the way to town. We had a lovely running commentary and discovered also that our driver was a former yatchie who'd been a live-aboard on Pittwater. See; we are not freaks at all!
We caught a town bus from the drop-off point and made our first visit be the chandlers. As bedtime reading the night before I'd gone through the catalogue which was about the thickness of a small phone book and made a small list. If nothing else, I hoped that the Bloke would agree to extra paper charts. The ones we bought in Port Lincoln ran out at the Bass Strait/North East Corner of Tassie. While having the paper charts is no longer a requirement in this electronic age, they are still nice to have and we (dinosaurs) find them helpful in getting the 'big picture' of where we are going. The computer charts only give postage stamp snippets. Mind you, at $35 for each paper chart one does think twice and unbelievably there is no single chart for Tasmania! To cover the whole island you need about a dozen and I'm not making it up. Furthermore, a couple of the charts are more than 75% water and the locals gleefully try to make our already widening eyes bulge a bit further by reminding us that this is all because there are lots of things to hit around the Tasmanian coast. This makes us feel better, right?
Tamar Marine is a fabulous chandlers and was doing a brisk trade when we arrived - on the scale of a Whitworths but with 'supersalesman staff'. We met another boatie couple also being led about by a staff member and we laughed about who had the longer list! We sensed that the jubilant workers were about to achieve sales bonuses this month!
A TV has been on the wishlist for a long time and we are not kidding anyone ... we do watch TV, albeit iView in addition to our recorded films and TV series. Surely watching stuff free-to-air would soon reduce our internet download needs? The TV should then be expenditure-neutral in the medium term plus our enjoyment of photos, films etc would be greater on a screen larger than the iPad. How's the sale pitch doing so far? Anyway, we left the place roughly weight neutral, the wallet lighter and arms heavier and that dear friends, is why getting a really good look at Launceston just got a bit more awkward!
The Bloke who by this stage needed mollifying with a coffee, a paper and some lunch, told me I was "dreamin'" if I thought for a nanosecond that going into the Museum or Art Gallery was a good idea. Even a tour of Boags Brewery failed to entice. Luckily, I spotted some signage for a Tigerbus, a free inner-city 'hop-on hop-off' (like the Perth Citycat) bus that would carry us and our purchases around, allowing a bit of sight-seeing before we could catch the very first afternoon bus around 3:15 pm back to Beauty Point.
The heritage listed Ritchies Mill, circa 1830.
The Penny Royal Hotel is a part of a small historic precinct.
At the edge of Cascade Gorge
Civic art near the Town Hall.
They are very keen on depictions of the now extinct, Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine).
Even the Tiger Bus alludes to this creature.
The Albert Hall, Launceston.
Lovely cathedral spire with wind vein.
Quick snap of the Beaconsfield Mine on the way home.
It's the one where 2 miners were rescued two weeks after being trapped nearly a km below ground following a tunnel collapse in 2006.
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