Corinna---------In the wilderness- In der Wildnis

Corina consists of a building that functions as a reception, general store, meeting place, bar and restaurant. There are some cabins and camp sites scattered around. The "Fatman" is a ferry which crosses the Pieman river. There is no bridge! There is a red button that calls the ferryman from somewhere and with a smile, he takes you across. The ferry utilises cables and a very old sounding diesel motor and the crossing is quite slow. Time to get out and take some pictures.
Corinna used to be a small bustling settlement in the gold rush and the miners loved to meet in the pub after a days back breaking and wet work. When the well-liked pub owner died, he was buried across the river. Hundreds people attended the funeral and had to cross the river. They had to have a drink before they could take the funeral, some drank to much, started fighting on the ferry and fell into the river and some more funerals had to be arranged.






 

We decided to join some other guests on the porch and enjoy `happy hour´, 5-6pm.

The weather was great the next day and we had coffe in the little 'camp kitchen' near our campervan watching blue wrens and pandemelons.

We went on a long walk into the rainforest, following a marked trail along the  river. We had a picknick on a landing where the Savage river joins the Pieman river and then had a sleep to prepare for the long walk back. A kingfisher joined us for a while and dived in and out of the water, catching it´s lunch.

That evening we decided to treat ourselves. The meal was delicious, the Tassie wine very tasty and we slept very well that night. We had booked a boat trip on the Arcadia II for Sunday. The boat is an old wooden one from 1939 and made of Huon wood. These are the trees of this area. They grow about 0.2mm per year and can live for 3000 years, unless someone comes along and chops them down, which the invading Europeans did very vigourously. There are some who still see a profit in it and wants to continue felling these beautiful trees.  The trip along the Pieman river shows the rainforest at it´s best.

At the estuary, we tied up and walked the last 500 meters past some small tin houses. What a place to live! The beach was full of old logs washed up on the shore. We had a picknick box and lunched on the beach. Adrian, the skipper noticed a dark cloud coming our way and suggested that we all return to the ship. His estimate was only out by 10mins. but on the wrong side. We got very wet, very quickly. Not to worry, Dale, the crewman, soon had hot drinks coming to warm us up. The ride back was just as enjoyable with Adrian giving some guests a turn at the wheel. You cannot do much wrong on the river and there was no traffic to run into.

With us on the trip were two couples that we started talking to, (as we do!). They were gypsies and were travelling in their "Vardos", small self-made caravans. It reminded me of Dr. Who and his TARDIS.  Outside small looking but nice and spacious inside. We arranged to visit at the hut next to their sites where there was a large wood fire burning. We had a bottle of Tassie whiskey with us and we enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours together. Later, the call of the restaurant was too strong to deny. The chef had worked wonders again and the meal was a delight. Afterwards we sat with everyone on the deck, talking, the gypsies sang a gypsie song and Terry did his drumming.

In the night, the westerlies brought in the rain and in the morning, it had put the dampeners on our plans for another walk so we set off for civilisation and a chance to sort out our internet. The road out was again gravel, but quite driveable at slow speed. We arrived safely in Burnie on the north coast and with the help of a computer whizz kid finally sorted the internet.

But how that went is another story,
See Ya, Terry and Angie