There has been little activity this month and I have found the time to put one story on Friends adventures and more paintings on the Mikes Paintings blog.
Here I show some of the other Paintings I've done in this or last month these are not all from my Caminos, although most are.
Note; (If you left click on them they will come up big and click again for bigger still, the last older blog will not do all this and you can only click the once but you can try control + on your keyboard ! Remember to use return arrow after looking at them big
All other news is now on Maisies Blog
Till next month
Abrazos
Mike
Hi amigos rellies and peregrinos
This month was one to remember as being a very good but very hectic one.It started off with Josie and I putting our pictures in an art exhibition in Riverton.
This was quite a new thing for me and I was pleased to see my work on show. I also finished the Fumero painting just afterwards.
Next John and Silvia came up to see us for a while as they were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. Remember it was Josie's 20th last month! Time flies and suddenly we had to pack and rush off to Tasmania for a promised early holiday together to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary that was due on the first of April shortly after we would get back. We will display those photos next month in the April web page.
Launceston
Tasmania!
The day arrived and Maisie and I had a taxi in the early hours to the airport and flew out first to Melbourne then on to Launceston, Tasmania! There had been a bit of a wait in Melbourne so by the time we arrived the 3 hours-time difference had little impact on us.We were soon taken the 15 or so kilometres in the shuttle bus to the hotel! This was really more like a motel we found on arrival! Perched high up on a hill, we had to first wheel our luggage down to the office where we received the key and were told to go out and up the slope, climb the stairs above the office to our room was on the first floor! Having struggled up there we found we could not get in, so Maisie went down again and the guy then came up and showed us the secret of turning the key and the shoulder shove, chuckle! The room was big with nice double bed and bedside tables, a single bed, a couple of easy chairs, coffee table, and a desk.
Just inside the door was a separate shower and wash basin and a separate WC. A cupboard held a kettle and complimentary tea and coffee and a small fridge with beer and wine to buy. The view was good looking right over the North Esk River and its junction with the bigger Tamar river! But having no balcony you had to stand at the windows to see it!
Having sorted out our bags and put the necessary bits in daypacks we went down for dinner in the restaurant, then having collected pamphlets on things to see, we retired.
Next morning we had breakfast here but after that we usually ate some biscuits and headed down the very steep hill into town to find something to eat.
Most of that first day was looking around the town finding our bearings and we decided to walk the track up the South Esk river that comes down the Cataract Gorge into the tidal Tamar just above the North Esk river junction. We had been told to take the left side up as this was hiking country and cross over and come back the easy path on the right hand side. While it was quite a climb with plenty of views of the river below, 
it had steps and boardwalk in the hard places. Having reached the summit we could see the chair lift that crosses the gorge over its first basin. There are cafes on both sides of the river here, the oldest we were to find later, a charming place on the right side. We walked now down to the basin and passed the café and sat and ate our lunch on the lawn to one side of the café.
Tame peacocks kept us company while we ate looking over the large swimming pool and watching folk travel in the open cable cars high up over the gently flowing river!
The sun was out and it was quite warm but cooler than Perth had been for months. We continued on to the bridge that crossed the far end of the basin and took photos from both sides but returned to the left and continued up for a while.
We came to the old Ducks Reach power station that stands on the right bank, and we crossed over and I photographed a guy fishing from the amazing smooth sculptured rocks below the bridge, that reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle.
He would not have risked that in a few days time I was to find out later! From the old Power station we climbed up flight after flight of steps only meeting one friendly young couple doing the walk in the opposite direction. The top came and we stopped to rest and for a drink of water. A turning to the left led into the forest but it had no signs, so we turned to the right and back towards the first basin from this side.
Maisie had problems with her knee so we made slower progress till we came to the nice café this side and spoilt ourselves with coffee and cake. Leaving here the path was all smooth and the view of the river different again as we were closer to it.
The old Victorion iron bridge this end looks great. Unfortunately a new one now spans the river here but at least it takes some of the traffic as we have to cross the road to get back into town. We were told later by a boat tour lady this first iron bridge had soon been too narrow and a copy had been built and assembled alongside it and joined to make a wider road on the top. Just a bit of interesting trivia, chuckle.
We walked back into town and found a supermarket and bought rolls for tomorrow then back to the river where we found a fish and chip shop and had great fish and chips sitting outside. Then moved to the park and watched the river traffic for a while, after all we had been on our feet for 9 hours!
Next day the 19th an easier walk was decided on.
We filled 2 small flasks with tea then down the hill we went. In town we bought a breakfast and snack for lunch then crossed the old iron bridge turning down to the right under the highway to find a path past the b
oat workshops and we followed the river on rough paths through canes and low scrub.Unfortunately the West Tamar highway was not far away but it was a pleasant easy walk with nice glimpses of the river and also the older houses and mansions that were on the hillside facing the river to our left. We arrived at Tailrace park and sat on a bench overlooking the water and ate lunch and spent a lazy hour in the shade before returning to town. Here we got food for tomorrow and sat in a park by the rather nice fountain
before setting off in the direction of our motel.
Just before the steep climb up we came to a pub that did food and here we obtained a nice dinner in pleasant surroundings, with old nautical photographs and shipping wreck maps.Next day, the 20th, we spent a lot of time in the tourist office deciding what and when to see things. The normal bus service was pretty hopeless, often late getting there and then only one bus back, that being probably the one you had just arrived on. Organised trips were better but 10 times more expensive, still we tried to plan something. We decided on a day trip to Dove Lake near Cradle Mountain the following day. There was some chance of a trip on the buses to Hobart and maybe Beauty Point farther down the river on another day too. From here we walked to the river and its boardwalk and today there was a regatta.
We watched that for a while, some fell in chuckle, there has to be one! Now we had time for another look at the gorge again taking the easy way up!
Near the café we sat in the park and ate our picnic lunch. Maisie was eager to ride the cable chair across the first basin. It was great and we managed not to drop our walking sticks in the river.
We then walked up that side and over the suspension bridge, and round to our lunch spot again for coffee. We enjoyed the walk back to the motel where a well-earned rest did us good. I washed out our smalls like on good old camino days, chuckle, then down we went to the pub at the bottom of the hill for dinner.
Monday 21st
We had the Cradle Mountain trip booked for today, so we climbed to the top road to wait for the tour bus. It arrived and we boarded with a couple from Hong Kong and picked up another couple later. So there were only 6 of us and the lady driver Megan. We headed out across country, stopping at Sheffield about an hour later.
Here we had a coffee and a muffin snatching a quick look at the painted murals on the sides of the houses, then away again. Now much prettier country, climbing up a steep river valley onto the plateau above and on to the tourist's starting point where we got our first sight of the Cradle Mountain. It had drizzled a little rain on the way here but now it seemed to brighten up and just one small cloud capped the mountain's peak. After signing her busload in the book and getting them out of the toilet, chuckle, we left. I was surprised it was still quite a bit further before we came to the carpark at Dove Lake with the mountain standing majestically behind it.
We walked all the way round the lake. I'll drop in a few photos here but look at the albums listed on Maisie's home page to see more.
The weather was perfect for walking although a little overcast. The easy walk took just over an hour with a short lunch break at 1pm.
It is a big lake and the scrub and trees with the mountains behind make it good for photos. Our new Hong Kong friends could not get over this elderly couple in their seventies able to walk the rough track, chuckle. 
When I said how I walk those long caminos in Spain they were dumbstruck, chuckle. I just loved the way Indi was so polite and always ready to help Maisie as she came down steps. Made me feel quite guilty for moving from her side, chuckle.Hi Indi and Mai
If by chance you should read this I would like to say thank you for your company that day and hope you continued on to have a great time and holiday in Australia. We would love to hear how you got on when you have returned to Hong Kong
It poured with rain as soon as we left in the bus and all the way home!
Tuesday 22nd
We were up late and after some breakfast crossed Charles street bridge, and walked the far side of the North Esk river.
This wasn't very exciting. We walked along the levee bank most of the way. This side of the river was a bit industrial but it got better as it went uphill but the path seemed to stop just after we crossed a road. We came back but took a different track into the University precinct where the local stadium coffee kiosk has just opened. Maisie had been tired and her feet hurting but the coffee revived her and we crossed over the bridge and walked to the riverbank to near the fish and chip shop.In the park here was a BBQ so we fried a chorizo we had in the backpack and ate it in two bread rolls! Very Spanish! From here we went into town where we bought Maisie a good pair of walking shoes. Maisie went straight back to rest while I went to find a nearer supermarket. That night we had dinner in the local pub.
23rd Wednesday
It rained during the night, and was still raining when we awoke. Rather than getting soaked we forgot about going to Hobart and lazed till 9.15 then headed for the museum the far side of the North Esk river. Having crossed the Charles street bridge we followed the levee and passed a big shed where we could see old carriages being restored. We detoured off the levee and went back past this shed and I asked one of the men there if we could look.
We were invited in and inside stood two carriages and 9 older gentlemen who were restoring them. One carriage was pretty well finished with a padded seated first class compartment
and one for the lesser folk in wood panelling and hard wood seats. The workmanship was brilliant. I forget the dates but this one was I think late 1800. The other carriage was used by George the 5th, so might have been built a bit later. This was being restored as a Royal coach!
They still have much to do but you could see it was going to be a very fine exhibit. We were very lucky to see them, as they will go to Devonport when complete as the council here is too short sighted to re-open the tracks even though most of the rails are still in place! All volunteers and not one having worked on the railways, these men are severely underrated by their local council.
The museum was much better than anticipated with a wide range of history from the Dinosaurs to shipwrecks and local convict records.
We ate our lunch in a covered area outside and as the weather had brightened up we crossed Charles street bridge again to the boardwalk of Home Port as I believe its called on the town side of the junction of the Esk and Tamar rivers. Here we decided to go on a 2 ½ hour boat trip which went about 10 miles up the Tamar river
(Maisie was pleased it was a big boat, chuckle!) It was also very interesting and also incorporated parts of both the North Esk and South Esk (which is Cataract Gorge) Rivers.
We got back about 5.15pm and by the time we walked to our local pub, it was 6pm, so here we had our evening meal before walking back up to the motel in the rain.
Thursday the 24th
It was wet most of this day so the trip to Hobart was put off. We did get out to the cinema and saw a good film 'Wild Target' and spent time eating and drinking in café's before returning to to motel room to get some washing done.
25th Friday
It looked a much better day so we caught the local bus at 8.25 to Beauty Point. We got there about 9.15am. Finding the river front we had a coffee sitting outside the Fish and chip shop
then walked around the point on the estuary foreshore as the tide was out! It was a nice walk with a numbers of oysters found, but I think the river water might not have been too clean so they were left there. chuckle
We returned by the local campsite, a great spot too, and had a fish and chips lunch on the foreshore in front of the café. It was now cool so we walked the other way to the big seahorse/platypus place on the jetty but never went in (that’s tourist stuff chuckle!) Walking back to the village centre we caught the last bus out at 2.15pm.
We got off the bus and walked back to Cataract Gorge to take another look as the river was now in flood.
The dam was letting masses of water out and the gentle river was now changed to a white water torrent and the noise was deafening.
I took photos and videos as we went up the easy way to the café and First Basin. This was now so swollen by the torrent of white water it covered the swimming pool and grass where we had lunched the other day, right up to the café on that far side.
On our return just the other side of the old iron bridge, there was some excitement as four men tried to shift an old boat to safer moorings. Having boarded they could not get the motor going.
Two men returned to the open tin dingy fitted with a big outboard motor. They fixed a towline and the others let go the mooring rope of the much larger old cruiser they were hoping to tow. The current soon had both boats in its control and the boats started turning add lib. The small boat was soon facing one way, the other boat the opposite. The outboard was started but by now the towrope was slack and below the water and under the little boat.
The throttle was opened and the dinghy took off at speed!!!!! In a split second it came to the end of the towrope! This, for some unknown reason was fixed to the front of the small dinghy! The enormous jolt almost shot the men in the river, spun the dinghy around where it roared back across the stern of the larger craft. When it came to the end again it snatched the bow around at speed once more, throwing the man in charge of the outboard into the bottom at the stern. (Had he gone over board in that current he would not have been seen alive again!) Throttle open and with no one in charge now, it planed with its bow high across the top of the water, and smashed into the old wooden cruiser amidships, sending its bow through the cabin window, smashing wood and glass on the way! Here it stopped in an almost vertical position. The stern of the little boat was now partly under water and it started to sink! The man in the bottom reached up, grabbed the throttle and cut the motor. Another quick thinking man on board the old cruiser, realised it was sinking and shoved the bow out of the window and off the side so the small craft could again get on a level keel and float!
I had watched all this with my camera in my hand not thinking to film it! There is a bit of video taken as they recovered and docked the old tub, which Maisie has put on her blog. Even in this you can see they were no sailors!
We walked on to the motel and noticed there were lots of ‘rangers’ about watching the levee as apparently the flooded river was not to reach it’s peak until tonight.
26th Saturday
We walked to the supermarket and bought 400 grams of prawns, apples, hot cross buns and had coffee in the bakers forgetting to buy bread! We crossed the road and up the bank with the intention of walking along the levee towards town. From up here we saw a helicopter on its pad! We had noticed there had been a couple flying around and thought they might be taking photos of the flooded river for the newspapers, but thinking Maisie would love a flight I said"Come on, lets go and look".
We discovered they were doing short trips up over Cataract Gorge and up to the dam that was overflowing and causing the raging torrent coming down Cataract Gorge and into the Tamar for $50 each. Why not? Chuckle so off we went!
It was very exhilarating and it looked so very different from up in the air!
When we got back, we took their leaflet as they do other flights. We then continued on along the levee to town. The river had been right up over the grass where we normally have our picnic by the river, but it had not quite reached the bottom of the levee wall. There were loads of tree trunks and branches still racing down the gorge into the river. We sat and watched this and people while we had our lunch, only to find that we had forgotten to buy the rolls! Undeterred we ate just over half the prawns on their own (no shops nearby), followed by grapes and hot cross buns, Chuckle! It was such a lovely day we sat there taking photos and just watching till about 2.30pm. We then decided to phone the helicopter office and book a champagne sunset trip for tomorrow evening to celebrate our 50th!
We bought bread rolls and walked the North Esk levee and on returning to where we turn to go home, we sat on the bank and ate King prawn rolls facing the view, chuckle!
It had been a really lovely day doing things we hadn’t expected to do.
27th Sunday
We walked to the weekly flea market, not as good as our local WA market, but quite interesting. Unfortunately Maisie got one of her Migraines so we had lunch in the Museum café and looked round the old forge there, then went back to the motel for a sleep, as we wanted to enjoy our sunset helicopter flight together.
Maisie still had a bit of a headache when we left the motel. We arrived at the heliport just after 6pm. We had a really marvellous ½ hour flight over and up the Tamar river and surroundings, and although it wasn’t quite sunset, the shadows and light were great to see..
On our return, we met the owner – Joe Pelechski (didn't quite catch your surname, Joe, sorry!) we paid the bill and found they had treated us very kindly because of our anniversary and the fact we’d had a trip yesterday too. There was a bottle of Champagne and a lovely plate of cheeses and biscuits, toasted bread, salmon, pate, jelly stuff, assortment of olives and capers, strawberries, chocolate liqueurs, and nougat and we pretty well ate the lot, chuckle! While we were eating they asked us questions about how you get through 50 years of marriage successfully and also wanted to hear about my walks. Maxine, who was the receptionist, and Grant, our pilot were lovely people.
Joe's toys...............>Joe and Maisie
Grant
Maxine
By the time we left it was nearly 8.30pm so we knew we’d be too late to go for a restaurant meal – good job we hadn’t booked anything – as they take last orders about 8pm!!!! We were nicely inebriated without being legless, so we happily walked back to the supermarket, got a cooked chicken and some nice crusty bread which we ate in our room with a small bottle of wine from the fridge, chuckle!
28th Monday
Having booked the airport shuttle we caught the 10am bus to Hobart to return on the 5.30pm bus which would give us 5 hours for a quick look round.
The weather was perfect once again. The drive was OK, but not as spectacular as we hoped it might be. It was fairly flat once we left Launceston
and continued the same till the outskirts of Hobart when it became more hilly, with mountains in the distance again.
We arrived at 12.30pm after a (2½ hr trip). We had our lunch straight away in a little park near the Hobart Rivulet. Then walked towards the port, stopping for coffee and cakes on the way. We walked round Princes Port then along the jetties and saw lots of boats, including the Bob something or other, which is one of the ‘Sea Shepherd’ anti whaling boats.
A crashed dragon?
You have to be made of bronze to go to the South Pole
We then walked up to the War Memorial where we found some good views of Hobart and surrounds.
We decided that we had better start walking back towards the bus stop, hoping to stop for a coffee and a bite to eat before catching the bus. Unfortunately, it appeared that by 4pm, everything closed on a Monday afternoon, including the café next to the bus stop! Anyway, we had a good trip back and arrived in Launceston about 8.10pm.
We were hoping to get a meal in our local on the way back to the motel. Unluckily, they had a show on, so all meals were finished! However, we got a huge plate of potato wedges with sour cream and chilli sauce, which filled us up.
When we got back to the motel we started packing.
29th Tuesday
We left our big bags at the motel to pick up later when we caught the shuttle bus to the airport, then walked into town via the boardwalk. On the way we went to see if we could look in an old church, but the warden was rushing off in a great hurry and said if we were back between 10 and 12 he’d probably be there. (As it happened it was 12.30pm before we remembered, so we didn’t go back).The river was much calmer today,
but there was still a lot ofrough water coming down from Cataract Gorge. Some men were trying to clear log jams under the boardwalk, which was quite interesting to watch.
We went to have a coffee in our favourite café, then wandered about a bit away from the river as there was a very cool wind there. We went in a few shops and decided to have a proper lunch in a café. We’d done enough walking for a while!
After lunch we went back to the park near our motel and watched the monkeys again, and sat enjoying the warmer sunshine here and watching the world go by. Two men came walking by, and one was the church warden! He recognised us, and said he would be back in a minute if we still had time to look at the church. We still had about an hour before we needed to be back for the shuttle bus, so waited for him, then all went to the church. It was very interesting and he told us all about it and enjoyed talking to us about the architecture etc.
After that we collected our bags and waited for the shuttle bus. It was 10 mins earlier than quoted, but when we got to the airport there was already quite a queue checking in. We collected our boarding passes and didn’t have long to wait until we were off. The clouds looked lovely with the sunset.
We arrived safely in Melbourne and only had 1½ hours to wait for the plane to Perth, which soon went. When we went to board, we noticed that our seat numbers were 3E and 30D! We hadn’t really looked at them before when we were given them at Launceston, as we presumed they would be together like the ones from Launceston to Melbourne! Anyway we queried it going through and were sent to the desk to see if they could change anything, but apparently not. They said ask once we were on the plane, which we did, and were told they would try to do something about it once we were in the air.
Luckily they did and we managed to get seats together in row 23. Maisie said there were 6 empty seats in front of her so why couldn’t we have 2 of those to give everybody more room, but they were business class and we could only have them if we paid extra, chuckle! The rest of the trip was uneventful except for the fact that we couldn’t get what we wanted to eat! We ordered meat pies and 2 glasses of wine - but they had all gone! They wouldn’t change to our other choice without a increase in price, even though we asked, for NO cake or cold drink, but a glass of wine instead!! They said it was all computerised, can't do that! I got annoyed so said (damn it!) give us a packet of crisps and a glass of wine! chuckle! That cost almost as much and the crisps could have been made from a third of a small potato but they come in a nice big box!.
Chuckle
We arrived right on time, and after picking up our luggage we found Jo and she brought us safely home!
We finally got to bed about midnight. We had had a fun time!
I would like to take this opportunity to write here that a very dear friend of mine, Cathy who I met while on the North Camino and kept in touch ever since and has given me several pieces to put in Friends Adventures, was taken sick this month and is very ill in hospital. I know she cannot get to see this from where she is but we pray she is soon on the mend. Get well soon Cathy!
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