The Fine Art of Squirrel Navigation

Spring has sprung here in sunny Tasmania so Paula and I decided it was time for a touristy trip. We thought it would be nice to go South along the East coast as we've only ever gone North so far, to St Helens and The Bay of Fires.

I should point out here what we call "Squirrel Navigation" and how it came into being. Last year we saw an animated movie called "Up". Very funny, even Paula enjoyed it and she's not normally into animation. At one point in the movie a dog wearing a collar with a flashing light bounds up to our hero and speaks. It says "Hi, I'm speaking to you through this collar that my master made -squirrel- Hi I'm speaking...." he said squirrel in the middle of his sentence as he saw one out of the corner of his eye and it distracted him, then returned to what he was saying before... much funnier in film than in type. Anyway, we decided to adopt and modify the idea for our own use. Squirrel navigation as we call it consists of having a rough destination in mind but being prepared to be distracted by anything that looks interesting. While on a squirrel hunt (no squirrels are harmed in the making of these trips) either one of us can call "squirrel" at which point we deviate from our course and investigate our newly found distraction before we return to our original course.

So, this squirrel hunt took us through St Marys and down to the coast via Mount Elephant Pass, through a town called Bicheno and on to Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula. The Coles bay turnoff was our mutual squirrel call. Freycinet is an amazing place. Pink granite mountains, pristine bushland, crystal clear (freezing cold) sparkling water. We stopped and had an incredible lunch at Freycinet Lodge, I heartily recommend it.

On the other side of the mountains from Freycinet Lodge is Wineglass Bay, a place we've been meaning to see since before we came to Tassie. Sadly it was too late in the day for much in the way of bushwalking, so it'll have to wait till another day.

After lunch, we set off on a squirrel within a squirrel trip out to Cape Tourville lighthouse. By the time we'd done with the lighthouse walk, the light was failing so it was time to start heading back.

We had originally intended to come back via Lake Leake, but saw another squirrel before we got there. A minor road leading straight back to our home town of Avoca via a small "town" near here called Royal George. Small it was. It made Avoca seem like a bustling metropolis and that's not easy to do. Getting there was interesting. Thirty odd kilometers of old coach track. Corrogated gravel and dirt road, mostly up hill. Not the most comfortable or safest feeling drive I've been on in our Suzuki designed for city use.