THE RaTTAToT TOUR
(Ramsay's Terrific Tag-a-long Adventure Tour of Tasmania)
For 13 November 2001
Report by André and Julia
So, the big day came and we arrived in Devonport, Tasmania
at 8:30am where Steve collected Jan and baby Angelique from
the airport, completing our travel party. Angelica's constantly
smiling face was a joy for us all throughout the trip - did
anyone actually hear her cry ?.
The sun was shining and soft tops were lowered for the drive
to Queenstown. We split into groups (which came the pattern
for most days) and drove through Sheffield (town of murals)
and over Cradle Mountain. The winding roads and craggy mountain
scenery were excellent and most of our drivers could not resist
some fast speeds. The Passengers Union have started a design
for 'grab handles' for these occasions in future !
Having passed through such wonderful lush green landscape,
the rain began again and our arrival in Queenstown was something
of a shock. We were presented with a sharp contrast of desolation,
naked hills and much temporary type housing associated with
this long-time mining town. Had we arrived on the Moon ? or
in Afghanistan perhaps ? These thoughts were further increased
by our good but basic accommodation and warnings not to drink
the water.(it's orange colour hadn't made us inclined to anyway).
Oh well, variety is the spice of life. All the scenery and
accommodation was better after this and we were very glad
of Jim's decision to go against the trend and travel Tasmania
in an anti-clockwise direction.
At the end of the day (our first in Tassie) we had experienced
a few light bulb outages, the loss of a window winder screw
and a mudguard bolt, a non-functioning trip meter. Also some
dodgy plugs and some nasty sounds as Norm's exhaust bashes
against his shock absorber (to be fixed in Hobart). The local
pub fed us very well and the buxom bar maid (obviously use
to the miners) took none of our jovial nonsense.
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