Jackman & McRoss

Jackman & McRoss is a bakery and café in Newtown. It primarily serves baked pastries, cakes and drinks as well as selling more substantial meals. In on word, it is fair to say that this place is ‘popular’! It always seems busy and as it is visible from (though not quite on) the main road, when you drive by and see the window full of customers it is clear that there must be a reason that people come back.

The range of produce sold is wide including, in my opinion, some of the best pies in Hobart. I’m pretty discerning when it comes to eating, so a simple pie has to be pretty good in order to impress. The pies are sold with an option to add relish, that I’d take every time. My favourite of the range of pies is the lamb and potato pie which has huge chunks of ‘fall apart’ lamb. This pie is stuffed to the brim, so you definitely get your value. The chicken pie is a close second! Sold out every time by lunchtime is the beef pie which we are, sadly, yet to try. One of the pies even has a lamb shank sticking up out of  the crust! The breads on sale look good but seem a little expensive for my  tastes, then again boutique style breads will always command a solid price.

The cakes and pastries range is good, we have sampled several of them and we have always been pleased with our choice. One of the standout cakes is the sweet muffin. You’ll have to ask which one is available on the day. Ours was triple chocolate and despite it being warm, gooey and massive (easily enough for two) it is served with a pot of butter on the side. Its clear that this is pretty decadent, yet delicious. This said, if I ate one on my own (which I could totally do) I’d feel guilty for a week. I wonder how many calories/joules are in this muffin, it’s likely to be a lot.

The range of beverages is fairly standard, you can get the usual, yet excellent, range of coffee and teas that you would expect from a quality establishment. One thing to note is that there are a variety of Cascade and other fruit soft drinks available which are nice, luxurious feeling alternative to ‘Coke’ and other super brands.

There is also a Jackman & McRoss in Battery Point and on Victoria St, Hobart.

Springs Track

The Springs loop starts from Fern Tree on the Pipeline Track, as previously blogged. Walk the route to Silver Falls and when reaching the waterfall, take the tight right hand turn up some steps, onto Silver Falls Track. The route from here, whilst flagged as easy-moderate in a few books we have, might be considered tricky for those with short legs, or those who tire easily. It gets narrow, slippery when wet and steep in considerable sections.

(Please note this isn't my map, click for further, more detailed Mount Wellington maps)

Shortly after taking the turn up the steps the ground is relatively stable and the walking is pretty easy going. You have to take a left turn off this route onto Reid's Track which is a much steeper section, that looks like it regularly gets flushed with water and it essentially looks like a waterlogged rainwater gully. It is steep here and in places needs a bit of a heave to get up to the next part. In my experience, it is worth taking a few breathers as you go, maybe stop for a drink because its tiring work. This may have all seemed much harder on the day we walked as it was very wet out and we were getting pummeled by the rain, so much so that even my water-proof became less water proof. When you have reached the top of this section, you then take a left turn onto a much bigger looking track, Radford's Track that leads ever upwards towards the springs.

When we arrived at the springs, cold and wet, we saw the carpark, and information stand and smoke in the air. We looked across and saw a hut, and sought refuge from the rain. We went in to get dry and lo and behold, there was a raging fire! We stopped to warm up and have something to eat. We don’t know who had lit the fire as there was no one around when we got there but to say that it was a relief to have a fire, is an understatement. It instantly lifed our spirits and made having an Easter Egg even more enjoyable. So to whoever lit the fire for our arrival that day, thanks again. Of course we stoked the fire a little before heading off, so that the next half drowned adventurer might benefit too.

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When we’d had a break, we went off from the Springs, back onto Radford's Track that we’d come up, except rather than fully retracing our steps back down Reid's Track, we remained this time on the wider Radford's track that headed down the hill. At this point there is a small sign that prompted the way to Fern Glade. When we headed down further, there was a small monument on the left that signaled that Radford, a young man, had died there during a hill run many years ago. It was at this point that we took a right turn off this track down into Fern Glade.

From this point to the bottom of Fern Glade is a short but excellent walk, even with little kids. Don’t miss this one! See the Fern Glade Blog for further detail. (Point to note, this track comes out on the main road just along from Fern Tree where you might have parked). Walk along the road to the right for approximately 5 minutes as you come down the steps in order to get to Fern Tree.

Fern Glade Track

Fern Glade Track is located on Mt Wellington, and can be taken either from a drive up to the Springs and walking down for 10-15 minutes until you see Radfords Monument and turning right onto Fern Glade Track, shown in PINK below, or start from Huon Road at the bottom, just before Fern Tree, and walk up towards the springs. There is parking in both of these spots but needless to say, if you have the ability, a quick car shuffle, would be ideal so that you can drive to the top, walk down and still have your 2^nd car available at the bottom to ferry you back to the top to pick up car number 1. 

Fern Glade Track is part of the larger Fern Glade Circuit and is relatively easy if you want to do a circuit, it is shown in GREEN below. This loop leaves Fern Tree on the Pipeline track (as blogged here), head up to Silver Falls then onto the Silver Falls Track, then take a right onto Fern Glade Track, this then loops back down, eventually to the Fern Glade access on Huon Road at the bottom, or a minor detour will return you to Fern Tree (GREEN LOOP).

(I take no ownership of this map, it's just really good, find all of the Mount Wellington tracks map here, this one is the 'Eastern Face Map')

Either way, main Fern Glade section is short but magical. When starting the Fern Glade section you enter a dense fern forest. It looms over the track with banked sides in many places. You are essentially walking along a rivulet and as such are close to the water for the most part. There are lots of mini bridges that cross and re-cross the river, with many places inspiring talk of faries, pixies and trolls that live under bridges. Now I have to qualify that, whilst we walked on a rainy day, when we got to this point, there were golden shafts of light beaming down through the trees, lighting up fungi and ferns, glinting off the water and showing the way down. It really was fantastic.

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(It was so wet out that our camera gave up on us, these are all we have...until next time!)

Taking this down hill route would be an excellent idea if you have younger kids as they could easily do it, but might also enjoy the things to be seen on the walk down. The bridges and windy path are sure to inspire some adventurous stories and conversations.

When you come out at the bottom, you come down some stone steps below a large sign signally the entry to Fern glade, it’s a cool place to have a photo of the family if your inclined to. You come out at a car park on the main road, where you might have parked, but if not, follow the road to the right and you’ll end up in Fern Tree in 5 minutes, back to the car.

Lake St Clair - Shadow Lake Circuit

When we decided to go to Lake St Clair, we knew that we'd be walking, we intended to do the Shadow Lake Return walk, by heading out directly to Shadow Lake, have lunch and return the same way. 3-4 hours, 13km return. Accidentally, we set off in the wrong direction, so technically away from Shadow Lake, more towards Mount Rufus. As it turned out, this was part of the Shadow Lake Circuit, not the return walk. The Shadow Lake Circuit is one of the 60 Great Short Walks.

Either way, we set off from the visitors centre and the walk begins relatively tamely, wandering through a wide open forest track. The route then becomes a lot narrower and meanders through tight turns but the track is well beaten and is easy to follow. In many places, the track was muddy, very muddy and in some places totally waterlogged. This added to the adventure as there were several places where rocks, logs or branches had been dropped across the track to provide 'stepping stones'.

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(Click the pictures to enlarge)

After about 20 minutes there was an open swamp area that had a sturdy boardwalk as it would have been near impossible to pass without it. The ground was rough, winding and the bush is quite dense. You can't really lose your way for the main part, but where you aren't sure, there are pointer arrows guiding the way. You are generally surrounded by tall gums for the first part of the route but after about an hour or so the trail then begins to rise through the forests and the air becomes much more moist and there are loads of different kinds of fungi and mushrooms. I'm no 'mycologist' (fungus academic) but it was really interesting to see the vast variety up there. At one point, the route crossed a narrow river by taking stepping stones and having a short leap to the far bank. The route in the forested, marshy banks is easy to lose, look around for markers! After about two hours, where we were sure that Shadow Lake must be extremely near, we paused for thought and double checked our route using Google maps. Lo and behold, we are nowhere near our lunch destination, we realise whats happened (us accidentally doing the circuit not the return), and then have lunch sitting on out on the boardwalk. Most of the track is not boarded out but this part drops down across a clearing, through marsh and back up into the forest. If you take this route, pause here, it's a pretty spectacular place.

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(Click the pictures to enlarge)

An hour on and we finally reach Shadow Lake. There didnt seem to be anywhere to sit/rest so we scrambled throug the bush a little bit to sit on a fallen tree near the lake and again take it easy. When we headed off on the return side of the circuit, we actually found several much more appropriate places to stop and sit, so if we were to go again, we'd continue on a little bit as the views from these other spots are just as good and way less fuss as they are almost on the track.

As we were leaving,  we met a lady coming the other way who was woefully ill-prepared as she was planning to do the full circuit in pumps, continuing in the opposite direction to us (another 3+ hours for her). She had no kit, drink, bag or even raincoat. Let's be sensible here, if you're off on this walk, take some kind of provisions, as all signs at the start centre suggest (quite rightly) that the weather can change pretty quickly.

We got back to the centre about and hour and a half to two hours later, finally crossing over a large river, walking along a boardwalk and then a short forest walk back to the visitors centre. In total about 5 hours and 15-16km.

Additional day walk information

60 Great Short Walks

The advert that inspired us to move to Australia!

I have to say we were already thinking about it, clearly no advert will convince you of such a monumental life change, but it is definitely a factor that helped things to gain momentum, even if in our heads. We ended up singing this song all of the time, dreaming of the life on the beach, the barbecues and the exploration to come.



This ad was on in the UK during 2010-2012, possibly longer, I found it floating around on an old tourism website that is no longer maintained. As they have now replaced the advert with a newer 'cleaner looking' version, I don't think Australia would mind me uploading it!

The new 'There's Nothing Like Australia' advert was released in September 2013, so we actually missed it as we were already here!




More specifically, the new Tasmanian 'episode'/'version' of this advert!


 

Lake St Clair

In April we went to Lake St Clair as part of a longer trip to Strahan. It's about half way between Hobart and Strahan on the west coast and we thought that it would be a good stop off for a few nights to explore and do a walk or two. Lake St Clair is within the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, so to actually enter the park you'll need a parks pass which can be purchased when you enter and head to the main visitors centre and they'll sort you out. Otherwise, you can have an all year, all parks pass as mentioned earlier in my blog (Cradle Mountain). Here is the official National Parks info for Lake St Clair.

The trip up there by car is pretty interesting, scenic and all the rest. We stopped off at Tarraleah on the way which is the old Hydro town. The hydro complex itself and the engineering involved, I found was very interesting, yet surreal that in an incredibly scenic valley there was the blatant scar of pipelines, man-made canals, wires and pump houses. Its an incredible sight to behold and an engineering undertaking on a massive scale. The history of Tarraleah and the Hydro can be found here or here.

When you are nearing Lake St Clair, you approach Derwent Bridge, where we stayed. Its the closest conurbation to the national park, lake, walks etc. There isn't an awful lot here except a couple of lodges/hotels, a fuel stop (which I'd advise you to use, there isn't fuel for ages!) and a cafe, The Hungry Wombat. This said, an evening walk with a torch found quite a bit of wildlife, especially if you walk down to the river or the open land area just off the road. Although if you see a Tassie Tiger, it's likely to be the model one at the Derwent Bridge Chalets and Studios, we made this mistake!

When you head to Lake St Clair itself there is a road that leads you into the NP. They recommend you be extra vigilant after dusk as there is a lot of wildlife here and not very many cars brave the road much after dark as there isn't a lot to go to in there after dark. There is a visitors centre which has advice, books and trail information, as well as a hotel/hostel and restaurant. Most walks at Lake St Clair start from here and there are walk registration books here that you'll need to sign, just in case of emergency. 

There is a small foreshore and beach, with a jetty for the 'water taxi' that returns tired walkers from the end of the Overland Track. Apparently you can take a ride around the lake for a better view, you'd have to ask in the visitors centre. 

See Shadow Lake Circuit blog for walk information.

Tinderbox Hills Trail

The Tinderbox Hills trail is a route approximately 3.5 km return on a rather inclined slope. It's not a difficult walk but some sections get your heart pumping and even require a quick breather stop as you go. It heads off from the end of Estuary Drive (off Brightwater Road, Tinderbox) and starts off as a flat walk along a fairly wide path.

As the route elevates you become surrounded by Blue Gums, yet the path remains fairly well trodden. Where the trees thin out towards the ridge there are some excellent views to be had across The Derwent River and Storm Bay, its an ideal place to take some scenic snaps from the top. Some of the steeper sections the ground can get a little rocky and there are some areas where both soil and stones are loose so watch your step.

When you get to the end of the track, at the top there is a sign then saying "No Entry, Private Land". Whilst I'd never encourage anyone to trespass onto privately owned land, its pretty clear that the trail continues to the peak, or at least that's what the very well worn path leading straight past the sign would suggest. Near the sign there is a good flat area to have a picnic or just sit and look out at the view. I think, although I'd need to check, it is possible to see the Iron Pot from here also.

You have to return the way you came. More information on this route can be found here. In all the walk took us around 1 hour, so its a nice short walk for an afternoon, with some nice views and more interesting terrain to negotiate.