MOT Tour Day 26 - Lullworth to St Helens

The country near Scottsdale

After a relaxed weekend enjoying the enveloping warmth of old friends, we struck out for the east
coast, after more than three weeks in the north.

An expected few hours of winding, slow going lay ahead as we wound our way between the Blue Tier and Mount Victoria Forest Reserves, so there was no hurry. It was as well we started with this attitude, for at times the roads were very narrow, the edges very rough and the oncoming traffic wanted more than their skinny allocation of road.

Before those times, the passage to Scottsdale via Bridport was mostly farmland - milking cows and digging potatoes in the main - but pine plantation increased as we went along. We stopped for groceries and a coffee: an experience enhanced by an encounter with a pair of local brothers who admired the Avan while I was head down and bum up packing 13 days groceries into 5 days space.

As such, it was few minutes before I actually faced them but “she sure is a purdy thing”, repeated several times, should have been a giveaway. Jethro whistled while he spoke, which I took for asthma until I caught sight of his three teeth and realised it was just him breathing past them. Billy Bob, whose turn it was to have the town teeth in, just smiled and nodded and said “yeah” a lot and paced restlessly. I concluded their game of twenty questions and excused my departure on a coffee addiction. They were nice enough fellows but something about them was unnerving and I’m glad our mutual admiration for the Avan happened in Woolworths car park.

We had a nice coffee at the Cottage Bakery.

The award winning Holy Cow Cafe

It wasn’t long before the farmland became fewer and the forests - natural and planted - dominated our world view outside the window.

Weldborough was a five minute stop while we debated a lunch stop and whether we could take breaks to enjoy rainforest walks and waterfalls on offer. The reality of tourism on a towing day is that you always have to be aware of that van on the back and can’t get yourself into a situation where turning the van to re-cover your steps is impossible.

Therefore we bypassed several chances for experiences as the afternoon of winds and turns and the gritting of teeth at oncoming traffic became every moment.

We stopped at The Holy Cow Cafe, part of the Pyengana Dairy Company. The attraction was the chance
to eat lunch while you watched the cows get milked and then buy some expensive cheese. The milking proved to be more olfactory than visual but we had some hot chips and took some snaps. The service staff were very friendly. I managed to turn the van.

Click here for today's photos

It was a slow afternoon. The remaining 26km to St Helen’s took an hour but we were eventually driving beside the bottom end of George’s Bay and into our digs for the next three nights.

Tomorrow we begin our exploration of the east coast of Tasmania.