2009 was the year of not many holidays for Meg and I. That was sort of OK after our two month trip to Europe in 2008, but it still made the year feel like a bit of a long haul. One of the lights at the end of the tunnel was the promise of a whole month in Tassie at the start of 2010!

Originally we’d thought we’d do the Overland Track, but the logistics turned us off, mainly the fact that getting back to our car from the end would have taken two days on a bus. That left us with a completely open schedule, which was really nice, although as the trip progressed we penciled in more things so by the end it was jam packed.

We began by driving to Melbourne and staying with my lovely cousins, who put us up for the night and didn’t mind too much when we had to leave at 6:30am on a Sunday in order to get to the ferry.

After driving from Devonport to Launceston we spent a couple of days taking it easy, breakfasting at the awesome Fresh cafe, doing a bit of climbing at Cataract Gorge, swimming at first basin and lounging in the sun – it was really warm.

With the weather looking dicey we headed to Freycinet, where the weather was really dicey, and climbed Mt Amos in low cloud and winds. We spent a day doing not too much, other than a trip to Bicheno, to wait out the weather. Once the worst of the rain had passed we started the Freycinet circuit, and were rewarded with three days of great weather, in particular a stunning day for our summit of Mt Graham.

After resupplying in Hobart we spent a night in Dover before climbing Hartz Peak in awesome weather, and then driving back through the lovely Huon valley to the Tasman peninsula. There we enjoyed the excellent restaurant just near the camp ground, and did the day walk out to Cape Raoul. The rain forecast for that week never really came, though we had a bit of cloud and a few sprinkles.

We wanted to spend a weekend in Hobart so after a detour to the Cadbury factory we setup in a great hotel in Battery Point, walking distance to the city. On Friday night we caught the very cool Rectango, a free gig held every week in a courtyard behind Salamanca. Saturday was obviously spent at the Salamanca markets, and then wandering around town. On Sunday the weather dampened our climbing plans, but we had a climb at Hobart’s indoor wall instead which was quite good.

Week three began with a trip up Mt Wellington for the view, then the long, by Tassie standards, drive out to the Edgar dam campground in the south west. After one night there, punctuated by an awesome sunset, and the presence of 30 odd hippies, we started the walk up Mt Eliza and eventually to shelf camp. Our plans to climb Mt Anne the next day were thwarted by low cloud which blew in just at sunrise, but it was still an awesome walk.

Having come down from Mt Anne early we drove straight to Lake St Clair, and the next day started a three day walk there. We camped at Pine Valley for two nights and climbed the Acropolis, spending a couple of hours on the summit in brilliant weather.

On the day we walked out of Pine Valley we drove to Launceston, past the Great Lake, and refueled with excellent steaks at the Jailhouse Grill. We’d planned to spend a day climbing at Hillwood, but when we arrived we found it smoking, still burning after a bush fire the previous day. The firies politely asked us to stay away, for our own safety, and we agreed, especially after they started preemptively felling trees.

Our final adventure for the trip was a three day hike at Cradle Mountain. It began in fine but freezing weather after a day of heavy  rain. We climbed Cradle Mountain, and spent a full day climbing Barn Bluff from our base at Scott Kilvert hut. Once again we were blessed with excellent weather, though it did get below freezing overnight which was a bit of a shock!

All in all it was a great trip, and even though it was only a month it felt like a lot longer while we were there, the days don’t go by so fast when you’re out doing things. Although we saw many of the best bits of Tassie, there’s so much down there we’ll have to do another trip, one day!

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Went and saw Ross Noble last night, as funny as ever. He was on for over 2 1/2 hours, and at least half the show was just improv, pretty amazing 🙂

A couple of nice pics of the wildlife at Nowra on the weekend, climbing photos coming later 🙂

A friendly lizard that sat and watched.

A little mouse that hung out with us.

Back in January Meg & I spent a few days in Adelaide to catch up with her extended family. We had a really nice time, meeting in my case, or catching up with, all her relies on her Dad’s side. There was lots of nice food, a few beers, backyard cricket and board games.

In between all the get-togethers we managed to sneak off and watch some of the Tour Down Under – which for bike weenies like us was a real treat.

It was a bit hot some days, standing beside the road waiting for the race, and driving around trying to catch the peloton was a bit stressful at times – but it was still really good fun, more than I thought it would be in fact. We will have to see a stage of the Tour de France one day.

I took a few photos, mainly just shot from chest level without looking through the view finder as the riders went past – hence a few cut off heads and so on. Still I got good pics of Mick Rogers, Lance Armstrong, André Greipel (who won), big Jens Voigt, Robbie McKewen, Cadel Evans (world champion – rainbow jersey), and Stuey O’Grady amoungst others.

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We almost didn’t get to Woodford this year. We’d been planning on a January holiday in New Zealand, which ruled out going to Woodford, but when that plan fell through we sort of forgot that made Woodford a possibility again.

In the end the thought of all our friends heading to Woodford without us was too much to bear, so we searched frantically for cheap flights, and found none. So driving it was, and the inland route for a change (Newell) got us there only a little bit frazzled after a day and a half of zooming through the outback.

I didn’t take many photos, it pretty much looks the same every year – though I did try and get a few more shots of bands and other acts. In this collection are:

• The Panics – one of our favourites
• Kerry O’Brien interviewing Bob Hawke!
• The Panics again 🙂
• Clare Bowditch – who was kooky and great
• Whacko & Blotto – our fishes’ name sakes
• The Audreys – great folkies, with much more pep than a few years back
• Weird spaghetti monster at the Endorphin show
• Timothy Caroll – my big find for the festival – loved them
• Mr Percival – amazing one man show

Intermixed with a few random photos. JBT were also great, really liked their new material, though didn’t get any decent shots of them.

The weather was good this year, possibly the best ever. It did rain, but mainly just the odd shower, which kept the temps way down and made the hangovers less painful. Though it did lead to some slippery slopes and nasty twisted ankles 🙁

But all in all it was another great Woody!

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