Day 1 - Melbourne, Devonport, Launceston

Melbourne, Devonport, Launceston

First part of the journey was fairly boring - driving along Melbourne’s Freeways and suburban roads to reach Station Pier where the ferry to Tasmania departs. Then the almost endless waiting....starting..... stopping in a line of cars until we finally had our parking spot on the Ferry.

On the boat at last

Dinner on the trip over was superb and soon we were in bed. The morning call at 5:30 am seemed to come around very quickly and it was time to disembark and begin the proper part of our trip.

Gathering in Devonport after disembarking

After gathering just outside the gate we set off for our first stop which was Anvers Chocolate Factory for breakfast.  It is about 7km south of Devonport and the smell of chocolate waffles while tempting it was mainly eggs, toast and smoked salmon all round. 

Anvers chocolate Factory, Jo and Ian Todd driving the McDougall Speed 20 Special

Anvers Chocolate Factory

After the lovely breakfast we left Anvers and traveled along some delightful twisty back roads to the Great Western Tiers Visitor Centre in Deloraine. This housed a wonderful display of early farming equipment along with an enormous silk embroidered display of the different seasons in the district. 

Tasmania's busy roads

Tudor does some under bonnet checking of the TE21

Oddfellows Hall, fitting really

Magnificent silk artwork in the Museum showing the different seasons of the Western Tiers

Dale playing the Aquaphone

Some more wonderful roads and we arrived at the Hagley Church and then on to the Gardens of Hawthorn Villa. This garden, owned and developed by Innes and Nicole Pierce has an excellent mix of 200 year old trees and more modern plantings to provide a great retreat that complements their B&B cottages.

From here it was a short drive to Carrick house, home of members Sally and Chester McKaige who provided a huge delicious lunch with help from fellow Alvis owners - Steve and Margaret Denner.

Mike does some fettling on the Graber's Windows

Line up at the Home of Innes and Nicole Pierce

Magnificent Gardens

Chester's Motorhouse, not sure where the Napier will fit.

It had been a long day and the weather was closing in so we decided to forgo the afternoon picturesque route to out overnight accommodation at the Grande Chancellor Hotel in Launceston.  This also gave us a bit of time for some afternoon “fettling” as Norm and Clair's car was tending to over heat.  Turned out to be a problem with a faulty switch for the radiator fan.  Dale soon had that solved.