Jake and the Giant Camp Sign-Off

Posted on January 15, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

It is with mixed emotions we have arrived home. A feeling of achievement, excitement to be here, sadness at the thought of something special finished, relief that we are safe and thankfulness for an experience such as this. As we pull things out of boxes in the loft, signs of our old life are flooding back. Our house is in marvellous order thanks to our caretaker tenants Andrew & Jaime (& their kids) and our parents & neighbours who have lent a hand at the end.

We have so many friends and family we would love to see, new resolutions to pursue and things to plan and organise for the year ahead….and yet this afternoon as we unpacked things, it was time to stop, watch a little cricket, read a book, take a walk to a friends place and just reflect a little. So much of the enjoyment of a journey is in the anticipation, plenty in the doing and finally in the reflecting. We hope you will forgive us one last blog, of reflections, (Spike is intent on stats) things we want to record about our year and adventures together.

Cape Range WA

Barkly Tableland NT

Karlu Karlu (Devil's Marbles) NT

In six and a half short months, our idea of Australia is changed forever. We think of cities, beaches, deserts as we used to, but now we think of wide skies, blue of every colour imaginable, gorges, waterholes, dust, rocks of red, orange, green, granite grey, mining, whaling, fishing, coral, birds, sheds, roadkill, ghost gums, river gums, towering forests, windy coasts, mountains, wheat, beaches of white sand, windmills, and so we could go on… Axo1000 was heard to say in the last days. “Australia has so many amazing and different parts, and we just come from the part with traffic!” Images of our land are so much richer and the complexity of this country will stay with us all our lives we hope. We knew that we would see iconic and amazing things but we were, in reality, unprepared for the splendour and vast beauty of our country.

Around the last campfire, we came up with some of our favourite places and the reasons why they were so special to us.

Our All-Time-Favourite – Cape Leveque WA (Unanimous)

This was unparalleled – a remote paradise with amazing colours – red rocky outcrops, white beaches and warm beautiful blue water. There were coral reefs, beach caves, swimming, fishing, campfires, huts on the beach, siderailing, and friends – it had everything!

Other Top Spots

Cape Range (WA) – Marine life – incredible, colourful coral reef on your doorstep. Wide skies and picturesque beaches. A unique beachside NP camping experience.

Cape Le Grand (WA) – Walking the coast along stunning beaches, white sand, turquoise water and granite headlands, in company of travelling friends. (Plus prize for best camp kitchen and bathroom in a National Park!)

Cradle Mountain (Tas) – Alpine beauty. Crisp weather, sparkling lakes, rugged mountain peaks and button grass. Good friends and some of the best walking in Australia.

Whole of the Top End – the rest of this NT experience where life revolves around beautiful falls, abundant wildlife in their natural setting and a swim.

Streaky Bay (SA) – It all came together for us here, weather, gorgeous camping in a standard campground, friends met, incredible tour with Sea Lions & Dolphins.

We could go on here…

Favourite States:

Spike & Kate – WA – Kimberley, Pilbara, Coral Coast, Perth, Esperance and Le Grand – It’s got the lot.

axo1000 & BloggiE – NT – Wildlife, scenery, wetlands, springs, rock formations, gorges, top end, swimming in the rockholes.

As we thought about our favourite experiences, it was not only the places that had found their ways into our hearts, but the people we met along the way. Memories of places were entwined with the people we shared them with. From the gorgeous hairdresser in Streaky Bay and the father and daughter who shared our dinner in Nerren Nerren rest stop one night, people came into our lives to make it richer. Being in unfamiliar circumstances everyday required us to be more flexible, to let down our guard sometimes and reach out to others. It is something we’d like to continue.

We are however, by far the most grateful for friends made, and old friends & family met. Our days spent exploring part of the country with new or old friends will be there for us to remember with them always. Sharing the road, stories, dinners and adventures with others was a really special part of our trip.

Siderailing at Cape Leveque

The nature of a road trip was such that we spent plenty of time on the road. If we go again, there is little we would change about the vehicles we took. Tug did us absolutely proud. Both Spike and Kate drove. We shared almost 50/50  until Tasmania, when Spike drove most first shifts & there often wasn’t a second.

Tug was serviced in Caloundra, Broome and Victor Harbour. He crossed rivers, climbed mountains, drove on beaches, rocky paths and sandy tracks. We had legroom, headspace, air conditioning in the back and our whole life squashed into nooks and crannies of the car. Now we hope that we’ll have time to take him on some other adventures rather than just driving into poles at North Shore shopping centres!

Jake  – our Eagle Outback – certainly became our little home on the road. We lived with less, all packed efficiently into the corners of the van. Spike & Kate slept on one pop out bed, and axo1000 & BloggiE took turns on the other, until BloggiE decided she was really at home on the fold down table every night.

Jake's .... repair on the way to Mornington Wilderness Park

Jake did need a repair. On the way to Mornington Wilderness Park a 90km side trail on the Gibb River Road, Spike had to take off the hub caps and reinstate the axle caps. We noticed this week that our rear bumper bracket that holds on the tyre was not looking good either- and so Jake will need one last repair at the end. He went everywhere we wanted – Bungles, Gibb, Cape Leveque & withstood all kinds of weather, even hail. We’ll be sad when we finally say goodbye in the next few months.

Spikes Travelling Stats

  • 194 days on the road
  • 28985 km travelled
  • 3975 litres of fuel consumed
  • 13.4Litres/100km fuel economy (Go Tug!)
  • $2.20 per litre was the most expensive fuel at Curtin Springs Roadhouse – tourist trap on way to Uluru
  • 73 setups of Jake …got down to a relaxed average of about 30min for a full setup with awning.
  • 7.41am earliest getaway (from a  rest area free camp. Couldn’t get out of there fast enough!)
  • 7450 Photos (that’s the culled version – estimate about 12,000 prior to culling)
  • Days in each state… 24 days in QLD (12%) , 35 days in NT (18%), 82 days in WA (43%), 16 days in SA (8%), 12 days in Vic (6%), 19 days in Tas (10%), 1 Day in ACT (0.5%), 5 Days in NSW (2.5%)

We also had some opinions on the roads and driving we saw around the country…

Best Drivers + Best Roads: Territorians

Let’s face it, there is only one road in the Northern Territory – it’s straight, well maintained, has a speed limit of 130 – and everyone waves to you!

Worst Roads – QLD – construction everywhere requiring 40km/h. High concentration of Nomads.

Worst Drivers – hard to tell – Victorians – pushy and erratic, QLD – struggling with their roads and WA – special mention here for Perth drivers and the anti-merge thing they’ve got going.

We have shared many of our highlights on this blog, but the best thing about this experience was that it was real life together. And in reality, there are always ups and downs. Here are a couple of our lows..

Trip Lowlights

1. One night in Darwin! (Too horrible to recall – but involved a domestic dispute in a nearby cabin)

2. Armidale – before we had our warm bed strategies sorted out.

3. Rain in Albany, and more rain, and more rain… and a little hail.

4. Spike throwing up in Jabiru.

And we also did a survey of things that we were glad we’d brought – and some we wished we’d left behind…

Best items packed:

1. Roman sleeping bags & insulation under the pull out beds (thanks Brad!!) Kept us warm and toasty every night.

2. Basins – can’t have too many! Used for washing up, sponge baths, carrying stuff etc… see Spike’s upcoming novel “1001 Uses for a Basin”.

3. Ugg Boots – everyone used them and everyone loved them.

4. ipad – used by everyone to email, skype, watch movies, navigate using google maps, caltex finda app. Also used by axo1000 mainly for reading books on kindle, but plenty of successful attempts were made to play games and surf the net.

5. spirit level – used by Spike every time we put up the camper to check the crossfall!!

6. gaffer tape – used by Spike on everything!

7. turbo chopper – at the risk of being an ad for Tupperware, this chopped / grated everything – (when it wasn’t lost for a month or so down the back of a cupboard!)

Excess Baggage

Awning walls for camper – Who needs walls when the sun is shining? When it’s windy they blow away… and raining?? well they funnel water into your campsite. Leave them AT HOME!

Trumpet! – What were we thinking? – sent home from Perth (thanks Rach)

Blogging in Longreach

Often, in the evenings, we would upload our photographs from the day, cull a few! and record our adventures on this blog. We began it for a couple of reasons; to keep our own diary (and turn it into a book at the end) to allow the kids to keep in contact with classmates, and to share our adventures with family and friends who wanted to keep up with what we were doing.

It has been such a fantastic thing for us. We have recorded things that are already lost to memory without a prompt. It has forced us to keep up to date with photo organisation and best of all, it has kept us in contact with so many people and given us so much enjoyment in the sharing.

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who read, commented, emailed, skyped and phoned. We have all been blessed with great support and love throughout our journey and I know that it is not only Spike & Kate who feel that, but the kids too.  6 months is a long time in the life of a child, but was made so much easier for them by their friends. Thank you to parents of our kids friends, who really made an effort to keep them in touch.

axo1000 was grateful for all technological assistance with his trip and has put together some awards…

axo1000’s Blog Awards

We’d like to thank you all for reading our blog. We loved it when you commented and I’m not one for making sappy speeches so I’m going to give some blog awards.

Most commented: Lozzy – by a country mile!

Most enthusiastic blog reader – Stellamarie

Most enthusiastic commenter in U18’s – Grace Ayling

Thanks to Russells (Sam & Lib) and Loofs for getting into it!

Funniest commenter – Stuart Rowe

Least commented – How would we know? You didn’t comment!

First subscriber – Marnie

Day with most views – July 19th – Hervey Bay

Page with most comments – axo1000’s say

And the mystery remains….who was Ghosty?!!

Karlu Karlu

Time together has been the most precious thing about the trip. All our routines were changed. The days were dotted with opportunities to discover Australia, but also to discover each other and to spend time sharing thoughts, ideas, joys, sorrows and differences of opinion. There was no personal space. We slept in a tiny space together, ate our tea under the stars around our little table, and sat within reach of each other in a car for hours some days. Paradoxically, we were free to roam far – on a long leash from our usual city lives. A long leash from parents down the beach at Cape Leveque exploring the caves each day, a bike ride away at the Ninja-forest-hideout in Cradle Mountain, snorkelling where the ocean took us at Oyster Stacks.

Our children have grown taller, grown up and grown in their understanding and curiosity of the world that surrounds them. Hopefully we have too.

….And after all is said and done, we have grown in our love for one another and thankfulness for a time given to us to relish God’s goodness, love and amazing creation.

Posted in axo1000, BloggiE, Kate, Spike | 5 Comments

Postcards from the Journey Home

Posted on January 13, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

We knew that once we left that ferry in Port Melbourne, we would want to head for home. With holiday time dwindling, we spent the past week ticking off a few things, but also savouring our last moments of riding, walking, camp-firing and being together. This blog is a record of things we want to remember from our last week on the road.

Puzzling it out on our last day in the Apple Isle at Tazmazia. BloggiE, Kate & Li reach the centre of the confusion maze..

Evening aboard the Spirit of Tasmania II.

Farewell Tasmania. Lights of Devonport in the background...

Farewell Bolgers - lovely friends and travelling companions - we are so glad to have shared our time here with you all! See you back at the ranch...

Beechworth - Victoria - a rail trail downhill not to be missed - uphill much more of a challenge!

What really happened to Ned? (Kelly that is!) Our walking tour guide brought it all to life.

Hay ride anyone? Another great campground activity for kids.

Yippee!!!

Along the road to Gundagai... what's a trip around Oz without the Dog on the Tuckerbox? axo1000 jazzed up the photo shoot with a trip into the pond that now surrounds the statue!

2 border crossings in one day!

Gotta be done! Year 5 excursion ticked off.

Good to visit the National Capital at the end of our time. We all feel very differently about Australia now.

aaah... Wairo Beach. Back to where the plan was first hatched.

Spike & BloggiE enjoy the surf.

axo1000 - post wave.

Our final set -up. Jake parked on the South Coast in our usual Christmas camping spot for 2 nights. Of course once we set up, we wanted to stay for the week. Everything was familiar and the weather was fine.

Last evening on the road.

Last minute reading, drawing and a little blogging before the final camp fire.

On the way to Sydney, we stopped in for one last visit with our old travelling buddies, The Bohemians. It was the perfect end to the trip because one of our greatest gains from our time away has been friendship, forged on the road, and we will take that with us into our next adventures and beyond. After a delicious lunch, a swim in the dam, and a ride on the quad bike, they sent us on our way…

And at last .... home!

Thank you friends for our special welcome home - we are glad to be back.

Posted in Kate | 4 Comments

High Country

Posted on January 11, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

Sunny days, nippy nights, alpine wildflowers, high rugged mountains, button grass, secret lakes, boardwalks, lookouts, walking sticks, shuttle buses, sturdy shoes, kids with backpacks, cups of tea, hearty dinners, warm showers and warm beds.

Cradle Mountain. Of all the places we visited in Tasmania, this was my favourite. We spent 4 nights camped in our own private spot. Of the 69 days a year that are usually clear – 6.2 allocated to January –  we enjoyed 2.5 of them! A win by any standard.


We undertook 3 beautiful walks while we were there. The first was a glorious afternoon around Dove Lake. The track was 6km around the lake. It took in the Ballroom Forest and the famed Boatshed with the mountain always watching over us.

On the path, with the mountain high above us.

Ballroom Forest

Walking companions - Dove Lake

The boat shed.

With such cracking weather, we did think about offering our holiday snaps to the printers of tourist brochures here in Cradle Mountain.

Our second walk was shorter and designed for 4 kids and a fairly relaxed day. While we hung out with the gorgeous 6 yr old Bolger twins, the other intrepid Bolger walkers hiked to the summit. We ventured from Ronny Creek through to Lake Lilla and back to the Dove Lake.

Overland track, through the button grass.

We stopped to watch an echidna.

A trip to see the Tassie Devils that evening gave us a greater insight into these animals. While we were not exactly endeared to them…. solitary, competitive, scavenging carnivores….we did at least feel very sorry for them in their current fight against the facial tumor that is decimating their species.

Feeding at the sanctuary - they had the manners to match their name.

Black spotted quolls - also carnivores - but they hide to eat - thank goodness!

Our third hike began on the only rainy, freezing 5 degree day where the wind was howling up the mountain. Abandoning the shorts & T-shirts of the previous days, we unloaded every woolen, thermal and waterproof item from our bags and put them all on.

All set.

Together we hiked at 8am from Ronny Creek along the Overland Track towards Marion’s lookout. Although we couldn’t see terribly far, the mist and fog in the valleys and over the lakes was wonderful.

Crater Lake enveloped in fog.

Spike on the path.

When we stopped at the breathtaking Crater Lake and sheltered in the hut there, for morning tea, we wondered if we would dry off or warm up? Gloves on and walking sticks out, we continued on our way up the hill.

BloggiE and Kate at Marion's Lookout

BloggiE with Marion's Lookout in the background - We've been all the way up there & back!

The kids did brilliantly, BloggiE making her way easily up the steep sections supported by chains, on to Marion’s lookout, where we admired the view from 1223m above sea level. We descended via Wombat’s Pool – not nearly so picturesque, but a new adventure, and left axo1000 and Spike to continue their climb to the summit.

They took it easy, because with the weather, they were uncertain that the boulder clambering at the end would be wise. However 4 hours from the start, as we hiked into the Dove Lake car park, to catch the shuttle back to camp, the sun was shining. Wind continued to whip the mountain, but it had been dry enough to scale the cliff and axo1000 & Spike were at the top! Shrouded in mist, they were at 1545m! What an achievement!

At the top - not much of a view though...

Their whole trek was 7hours & though tired, they were jubilant and celebrated with a hot chocolate back at the bottom.

Sharing adventures at the end of the day.

The campsite was reminiscent of a National Park and equipped for cold, wet conditions, with a large indoor camp kitchen. Happily the kids found a secret ninja forest hideout, where they played each afternoon and we had a few moments for a cuppa and a chat about the day’s events.

The only disappointment of our stay in Cradle Mountain was that it had to come to an end. One day we would love to return to hike more of the many paths that we didn’t have time for, or perhaps the Overland Track itself, from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. And for me, I think that if I had to choose just one spot to visit in Tasmania, this would be it.

Posted in Kate | 4 Comments

Wild West

Posted on January 10, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

Next on the agenda, the wilderness of the west coast. Mountains, forests, world heritage, famous rivers, roaring forties smashing the coast line. We were looking forward to the real rough stuff. With time quickly passing, Strahan was the only realistic option as a week long hard trek into the south west wilderness was not going to gain much support from the troops.

Strahan is a little town, founded as the point of access into the west coast. Convicts, logging and mining were the main reasons for it being there. It is situated at the north end of the beautiful Macquarie Harbour, into which the famous Gordon River system also flows. Macquarie Harbour is 4 times the size of Sydney’s, meeting the Southern Ocean through the tiny Hell’s Gate.

Strahan also has the distinction of having the highest wave energy of any beach in Australia. Swells of up to 23m have been recorded. Having read in Tim Baker’s recently released book Surfari, that Strahan “is almost never without thumping Southern Ocean swells sent straight from the Roaring Forties”, our plans for seeing the rough stuff looked promising.

So with all this wildness forefront of mind we were excited to be boarding a cruise that would take us the length of Macquarie Harbour, out Hell’s gate into the raging southern Ocean and then up the Gordon River into the deep dark ancient forests. However….

It was flat as a tack....

It seems we struck it lucky on the weather (not!) and Tim is lucky he used the words “almost never”. Despite the lack of raging swell, it was pretty spectacular. The Hell’s Gate passage was given its name by the convicts as they passed through on the way to the Sarah Island penal settlement.

Hell's Gate, through which Macquarie Harbour exits and convicts entered.

A cracking day on Macquarie Harbour

Towards the southern end of Macquarie Harbour, Sarah Island was a penal settlement for second offenders. Not a nice place and the setting for Marcus Clarke’s The Term of His Natural Life. We stopped for a tour, hosted by fantastic guides, actors who brought the settlement to life and recounted great stories of the convicts and history of Sarah Island.

A few convicts escaped over the years (see Kate’s blog on Port Arthur) but only one convict made it out by foot through the wilderness and mountains all the way to Hobart. The magnitude of the feat is hard to fathom but you get the picture when told that the convict, upon capture in Hobart, was immediately given a job with the Surveyor General and was responsible for charting the main inland route up from Hobart to Launceston.

Team Tasmania gearing up for tour of Sarah Island

Our dynamic guide giving life to the Sarah Is convict times.

Post convict serenity

Our brief foray into the Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, by road and by boat, certainly convinced us that it is worthy of its World Heritage status. To become World Heritage listed you need to satisfy only one of ten criteria. The South West Wilderness of Tasmania satisfies 7 out of ten criteria, the highest of any of the world heritage sites around the world.

The mountain ranges are truly rugged. May not be as high as Kosciuszko, but are definitely far more rugged. We felt we were heading into the Misty Mountains. The forest is the largest cool temperate forest in the world. It is so thick and dense, with trees thousands of years old, and using another Lord Of The Rings analogy, we felt we were walking through Mirkwood or Fangorn. We cruised up the Gordon River for a while and hopped out to walk through the forest.

Forest as ancient as Fangorn

The deep dark forest floor. 2000yr old Huon, fallen but still giving life.

On the way back to Strahan, the breeze had come up so it was time to get out on the deck and enjoy the wind on the water. A brief but stunning stay on the west coast.

Enjoying the breeze

Enjoying the breeze, Team Tasmania style

Posted in Spike | 2 Comments

Hard Labour

Posted on January 9, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

Still firm believers that Sydney Harbour is the most spectacular on the continent, we learned this week, that it is one of only 3 natural deep water harbours in Australia. The other two are right here in Tasmania – Hobart and Port Arthur. Like Sydney, they were discovered early by all those seafaring captains who settled this land. (Hobart is in fact the second oldest city of our Nation.)

Taking advantage of the Harbour, Port Arthur Prison was built in the 1830’s as a secondary penal colony for repeat offenders, and it was truly harsh. So harsh, that 10 convicts transferring from Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour near Strahan, sailed a boat out Hell’s Gate and made their way to Chile (in the most successful convict escape of the time) rather than go there.

The day of our visit was brilliant sunshine and a warm Tassie day, so the mood was perhaps not as bleak as it might be. Thus it was, that Port Arthur was an interesting learning experience for us all about how the people lived here and the attitudes of the government of the time, to punishment and reform.

On purchase of our entry, we were funneled straight into a walking tour, booked onto a ferry ride into the Harbour, issued with kids workbooks and allocated 10 playing cards which would help us to follow the story of a particular convict who had come to Port Arthur. We spent the day exploring and learning – a highlight being the play performed behind the penitentiary of “A Boy’s Life” which gave us all the story of “George Hall”? (I think!) – a bushranger who was incarcerated in Port Arthur.

Here are some snaps from our day…

Port Arthur Settlement

The Penitentiary where punishment was all about hard labour.

The hospital

Flagstones and the view out to Point Puer from the Penitentiary

The kids looked for clues for their workbooks while the actors helped it all come to life

Cast of "A Boy's Life"

Isle of the dead - cemetery for those who never got their ticket of leave...

On the cruise out to Point Puer, the boy's prison, our boy's hat took its chance for escape from the colony and plunged into the water.

The black flat cap - just about to dive in.... Thankfully, the captain of the ship was much more obliging than those of the 1830's and it was picked up with a grappling hook, just before it met it's end in the propeller.

Remains of the Chapel

The Government gardens - the only part of the site still actively maintained.

We were all horrified by "The Separate Prison" where in later years, the philosophy of punishment was total physical and emotional isolation of the prisoners. Here we are walking in the excercise yards, where they were placed alone each day for an hour.

In keeping with the Port Arthur work ethic, we put in a little more of our own hard labour to establish our campsite on the Tasman Peninsula. Thrown a curve ball when the campsite double booked the Bolger’s cabin, Team Tasmania rose to the challenge erecting tents and setting up camp together complete with roaring fire.

Work gangs in action.

Good to be back to our usual holiday setup together…

Team Tasmania Nippers, sharing a meal at Port Arthur..

Posted in Kate | 3 Comments

Sydney to Hobart (The Long Way Round!)

Posted on January 7, 2012 by onlinewheatleys

There was good and bad in the fact that we had to pack up and leave St Helen’s on Boxing Day. The traditional day of lounging on the sofa watching cricket and eating left overs was sorely missed. However we were heading to the Hobart area for a few days, coinciding with arrival of the Sydney to Hobart yachts, and hoped to soak up some of the seafaring vibe.

Our journey to our campsite at New Norfolk, just out of Hobart, was down through the midlands via the “Historic Highway” owing to the fact it was the least windy road we could find. Twisting narrow roads have become the norm in Tasmania with the glory days of the Stuart Highway and WA highways long gone. There is a string of little historic villages from convict times that we were able to check out along our route.

Historic bridge at Ross - The convicts responsible for this beauty were justly pardoned.

ye olde post office

Our foray into Hobart Town was planned to coincide with the line honours winner of the Sydney to Hobart.  We began with a stroll around Battery Point. There was a lot happening around the waterfront with the Taste of Tasmania festival at Salamanca Place and Constitution Dock buzzing in anticipation of the winner’s arrival. As we checked out the displays and the official trophies in the Race Tent, we watched the estimated time of the winners arrival slowly get later and later as the two boats were becalmed off Tasman Island.

Past S2H stories

Handicap winners trophy

By lunchtime, the winner’s forecast arrival time had blown out to 9pm, so we decided to tackle Mt Wellington. By car, not foot. The Mt Wellington summit is only a 25min drive literally from the centre of Hobart. Towering over the city with a summit of 1250m above sea level, there is a spectacular vista for miles around, when its not covered in cloud of course. Just two weeks ago it was covered in snow.

Luckily for us we had a clear bright day and with vain hopes of watching some yachts from afar come up Storm Bay and into the Derwent we checked out the views, climbed over rocks and marvelled at how far we could see. No boats though.

We could see for miles and miles

Looking south out towards Bruny Is

onlinewheatleys conquer another mount

It was back to New Norfolk for the night, vowing to return the next day to see a few of the leading boats come in. Our little campsite was a cracking spot up in the hills with a timber cottage for a camp kitchen, great gardens, only two ensuite sites and two cabins. Perfect for the 10 strong Team Tasmania party.

We built fires, enjoyed their warmth,  played around the property, fed the goats and played with the resident dog.

Our New Norfolk campsite

The Camp Kitchen !

The traditional toasting.

The resident camp dog

We awoke to the news that the line honours winner, Loyal, was subject to a protest for an alleged breach of the “outside assistance” rule.  Luckily for us the hearing was scheduled to be heard that morning as we headed back down to the docks to see some boats come in.

So with the result still up for grabs and only a few of the big name front runners finished, we wandered around Constitution Dock and got up close and personal with the pure racing machines Loyal, Wild Oats XI, Lahana, Ichi Ban and others. Fortunately we saw three boats cross the line in quick succession around midday including Ragamuffin. Cheers went up and we all celebrated as the word came through to the crew still onboard Loyal, that the protest was dismissed and they were declared the winners. So, in the end, we were there when the race was won!

The highlight was being able to board Lahana, the 3rd boat over the line. The crew were decidedly happy and merry having come in at 1am, and had not yet finished unloading the boat. We all climbed aboard and chatted with the crew, discussed the race, checked out below the decks and found out all about these super maxis.

Constitution Dock

Yo ho me hearties. Bloggie skippering Lahana to 3rd place.

The winner, Loyal.

Lahana and Wild Oats XI

Calmly does it!

Lahana and Wild Oats, and many others a few days later.

So with our Sydney to Hobart completed, the long way round, it was time to move onto Port Arthur and commence the Hobart to Sydney return journey by a much shorter route.

Posted in Spike | 3 Comments