On an earlier thread you mentioned the following: "I have a very special drive in Tasmania, just south of Hobart, with stunning scenery, great cafes/restaurants nearby, and a few wineries thrown for good luck. Very few tourists know about it, or drive it."

This sounds like a lovely day on our trip to Tasmania in October. Will you share the route? If you don't want to post it, you may e-mail me at betsy at speakeasy dot org.

Thank you in advance!

Where <i>is</i> that guy?

Hi Betsy -

Haven't seen a post by Tropo for awhile. I've been anxiously awaiting his response too, as I'm curious to see if his special drive is one we found on our last visit to Tas.

Don't know for sure but Trop gets around a bit, he's probably away on a trip.

Hi Melnq8. In Tropo's absence, would you be willing to share your south of Hobart route? The Huon Valley is on our &quot;to do&quot; list, as is the Tahune Air Walk.

You and Liz and oliverandharry have provided many snippets of information for us to use on our October trip. We're doing a few days in Hobart, then driving up the Eastern side of the island, stopping around Freycenet for the night, and continuing up to Launceston for two days.

Maybe Trop will check in before we leave in October.
I'll continue to top this thread from time to time.

Betsy –

We’ve driven south of Hobart on two separate visits. Here are excerpts from both trip reports regarding these drives:

2004 -

Later that morning we took Sandy Bay Road south and picked up the Huon Trail. Along the way we stopped at the Shot Tower and climbed the 315 stairs to the top. The views over Hobart made the climb worth the effort ($5.50 per person). We continued our drive turning on A6 at Kingston. In Grove, we stopped at Doran’s Jam Factory and Museum where we learned about the fruit industry in Tasmania and sampled and purchased some jam (no charge for museum). When we reached Geeveston, we saw signs for the Tahune Forest Airwalk, (www.forestrytas.com.au) and decided to go take a look (29 km). The Airwalk looked intriguing, so we paid our $11 and walked amongst the trees. We both enjoyed the Airwalk; I liked being above the trees. I suspect my husband’s favorite part was bouncing on the cantilever, which made the platform move, and made me squeal.

On the way back to Geeveston, we stopped at Big Tree and viewed the heaviest tree in Australia (a Swamp Gum) at 405 tons. Once in Geeveston, we continued on to Dover, where we encountered lots of curvy roads. We stopped at the Dover Hotel Pub, where we had a pint and were entertained by a guy strumming a guitar and singing Waltzing Matilda. We wanted to continue on to Southport, but it was getting late and I’d had my fill of squiggly roads, so we returned to Hobart (1 hour 15 minutes).

2006 –

We headed south to the Huon Valley, stopping at a vegetable stand to pick up some of that yummy leatherwood honey. Our next stop was GrandvEWE Cheesery, where we sampled some sheep’s milk cheese and got a kick out of the “CamemBAA”. We made a detour to Eggs and Bacon Bay (no, I didn’t make that up) then called in at the Hartzview Winery where we met a Kiwi from Golden Bay, a place near and dear to our hearts. We sampled several wines and just had to buy a bottle of Tasmanian spiced apple liqueur mead. After a nice cheese platter and a glass of wine overlooking the vineyard, we headed back towards Hobart. We decided to drive up to Mt. Wellington, where we saw our first and only snow of the trip. Awesome views.

On the way back down Mt. Wellington, we stopped for a short walk in the rainforest. Back in the car, we discovered that some thirsty leeches had found us, and we hightailed it back to the apartment to de-leech ourselves (ugh).

NOTE: Of these two drives, I preferred the one in 2006. We drove from Hobart via A6/B68 to Kingston, then on to Margate, Kettering, Flowerpot, Middleton, Cygnet, Huonville and Grove, then picked up B64 to Fern Tree, up to Mt Wellington, and back to Hobart, thus making a loop.

You'd be hard pressed to do the Airwalk and the entire loop I've mentioned in one day though, so if you have the time, I suggest you spend two full days exploring the Huon Valley. LOTS to see and do.

May I just improve on that 2006 and suggest going from Kettering south to Woodbridge and then take the inland road over to Cygnet ( this is the road that the Targa Tasmania takes and it is a lovely drive - if done when it is dark you are guaranteed to see a lot of animals). If you have time and its daylight take the Lymington Road out of Cygnet and around to the little but gorgeous settlement of Lymington. Any of the roads around there are very pretty. For a longer and equally nice drive then do the whole circuit down from Hobart to the bottom of the look at Gordon and up again through Verona Sands and up to Cygnet. The last time I was driving down Geeveston way I took another road past Surges Bay and continued through to Dover along a small coastal road which was partly gravel and found some absolutely delightful and away from it all bays and beaches. I decided to feed the fish at the fish farm a couple of weeks ago which is due west of Huonville and through very pretty country - there were plenty of trout and salmon but they refused to be caught. From there you can continue through on the forestry Rd to the Tahune Air walk which is a lovely drive and a lovely walk when you get there. I most certainly agree with Melnq8 about going through to Fern Tree and up to Mt Wellington on the route back to Hobart as that is a terrific drive and the view from Mt Wellington is fantastic over Hobart and surrounds. Follow the road from Grove to Lower Longley then to Fern Tree and up to Mt Wellington. On the way back you go down into Hobart a different route past the Cascade brewery which is worth a stop over with perhaps a tasting. In a couple of weeks I am doing a boat trip around Bruny Island and down to Rescearch Bay ( sp??) which I shall report on in due course. Am also taking a flight over the Wilderness areas of the south West to Port Davey for a day when it is more into Spring here and that too I shall report on. The cost of that for 5 hours is $170 which I think is pretty good.

Thanks to both of you. It's still mind-boggling that I'm corresponding with Fodorites in Australia and Indonesia from the SF Bay area of the US!

Just in case, Melnq8, how does one de-leach oneself?

Liz, please do post reviews your upcoming trips. The reports posted in this thread (and the ones to come) definitely will be copied and pasted into my trip notes.

De-leeching is the same as de-ticking -light a match, blow it out, then put the hot tip on the creature in question so it completely withdraws. We didn't have a match, so had to pull the things out, but fortunately only a few had attached themselves.

Don't worry too much about leeches - we took alot of walks and only ran into them the one time (thank goodness).

On the subject of seeing and staying in the Huon Valley and getting to see all of it, I note from the papers today that Fodors has awarded Matilda's of Ranelagh B&amp;B a Fodor's Choice award. I know for sure that that is only given out when the product is nothing short of excellant so get on the phone to Pam there at Matilda's, say you saw it on Fodors and book a room - you will not regret it.

Good way to remove a leech is to sprinkle table salt over it - it will detach immediately. Match works too but when your legs are as hairy as mine - well enough said !!!

I do tons of bush walks and only got leeched once so far. I found that jumping up and down, running, swerving, screaming and slapping my husband to do something doesn't help to actually remove the one little leech I had.

I do recommend the styx river if you have a greenie streak.(the real greenie, not those political fruitcases, apologies to any political greenie reader.. Stop enroute to Mt Field, very pretty but accessible too much?. It is a dirt track to Styx so slow going with a 2WD but worth it. Makes you see both sides of the logging issue. Want to see both sides happy but hurts to see such magnificnat old growth forest clear felled. Then again you can't deny Tasmania a right to use land when they have exploited least of all the states. Very thought provoking.

hot matches and salt certainly quickly remove a leech (and kills them unfortunatelyZ) - my 2 yr old got a big one in Mt Field National park last summer. but this year in April I saw a most amazing thing. Walked with a guide on Mt Wellington. one of us got a leech on her shoe - we stopped and watched it worm its way up the boot, sock and lock into her calf. and start to expand. She was a brave girl from Vancouver.
The guide then demonstrated his eco friendly removal technique. He put his finger tip gently on the leech and softly stroked it with a little circular motion. It fell off! It puts them into a doze of contentment and they stop feeding.
its true!