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11/19/2007 Archived Entry: "Sorell Fruit Farm"

Well here is an early entry into my adventures in Tassie.

The reason being I have to get up early for tomorrow's adventure. So I will toss this in before I go to bed.

Today's travel went to a town called Sorell. We drove through it yesterday on our way to Wineglass Bay. The town is literally the fork in the road for your travels. When the Tasman Highway reaches this town it forces you to make a left or a right. If you go left You are going toward Wineglass Bay. If you go right you are going toward Port Arthur.

Our first stop was Sorell Fruit Farm. Which is just opened for the U pick season last weekend. U pick fruit is a little different here. Yes you can get strawberries. As a matter of fact in November it is the only thing you can get.
Last weekend was opening weekend. You would have thought they had gleaned the fields that first weekend. There were lots of strawberries but finding ripe one's was the trick. We found plenty though.

The Sorell Fruit Farm however has all sorts of fruits that you can pick as they become ripe. So what the heck is a Tayberry. And the reason I want to know is the bees were working the blooms like there was an open bar. The fruits become more and more available as it gets close to January with that being the peak of picking fruit season in Tassie. Did I mention the seasons are reversed here.

So with a couple of bins of Strawberries, a very happy wife, and more road tripping to go we head out to road continual reminding myself at each intersection to look right left right not left right left. And look over shoulder if your walking. Because they come at you from behind.

We had the benefit today of a gorgeous sunny day, complete with a nice wind off the Antarctic just to remind you how close you are to the south seas. Actually it was warm today. So when we found this gorgeous shallow bay. You could easily walk out 500 meters and never get your knees wet. I believe this is only possible in low tide. I suspect high tide would probably add a meter or two.

This area would be remenescent of the Bahamas or Bermuda. The nice thing was since the water was shallow it was warm. The bad thing it has these little crabs. Now there is a great eco system here. Lots of bivalves that the crabs like to eat. The Sea Gulls eat the crabs. And when the Sea Gulls die other sea creatures help decompose them which the clams eat. However there is one thing to upset this delicate eco system. Toes. That's right, little appendages on the end of your foot are a crab delicacy. They look at them like sausages and in Tassie everyone eats sausages. So here I am arguing with this crab over possession of my toes. I move my foot left the crab moves left, I move right the crab moves right. I move my foot forward he puts his claws up and whips out seasoning. Ok, not quite but it is very interesting to see these little crabs with bodies about the size of a quarter not running away from you. Best defense make a bird shadow and squack like a sea gull if the crab doesn't run away, it will die of laughter.

We made a stop at the Tasman Devil Conservation Park. They work at Rehabilitating Tassie Devils and finding a cure for the oral cancer that is afflicting the the Tassie Devil. Apparently this cancer is also contagious among Tassie Devils. Who apparently squabble and fight frequently. One of the reason for some much visible road kill is the lack of Tassie Devils who are basically the roadkill collectors in nature. I didn't dare suggest that oil, radiator, or brake fluid getting on the roadkill may have contributed to this issue. They may have fed me to one of these things.

Now Tassie Devils are a bit weird(like so much else down under). The Tassie Devil is a Possum (Okay actually it's a marsupial) but it has the tail of a possum and the build of one also. I don't mean a bush or ring tail possum. I am talking the American version that is the size of house cat and on rare occasion is rumored to feign death in order to avoid being eaten. So this Tassie devil is a Possum that is oversized and has razor sharp teeth that can bite through bone.
It eats meat, not fruit, veggies, or the occasional one that tries to get into my beehives. It prefers it raw also. And when they are distressed and or threatened they are loud. They also on rare occasion when fighting spin wrestle on each other. Not like the cartoon character made famous by Bugs Bunny / Road Runner. But not to far off either.

The park is short and basically keeps on it's premises animals that can't be reintroduced to the wild. So they have some friendly roos and wallabies.They also have a goose with green on it's bill. They are not friendly and look similar to what I saw at the game reserve yesterday except these at the reserve were gray. These geese like to stand on one leg like a Flamingo with it's knees on properly. The whole park can be covered in a half hour. It is basically a nice little tourist trap they use to help raise money to help rehabilitate devils get them off highly addictive fruits and veggies and back on raw meat. Okay I joke about the fruits and veggies but they help those that are injured or orphaned and can be reintroduced.

We continued to Port Arthur. Now Port Arthur in it's day was a prison city. The prisoners were brought into Port Arthur and assigned one of a variety of tasks from quarry to boat building or something else. Port Arthur only held the men and boy prisoners the females went to the female factory which Janel and I went by on our bike down Mt. Wellington.

Basically Port Arthur was a self contained city in some ways. There is an interesting situation that came about because of Port Arthur and helped contribute to it's closing. It worked. They would rehabilitate prisoners and give them a trade. Many of them would leave Port Arthur able to read, write, and have a skill which they could use to earn a living. Sounds good right? The problem was the townsfolk were complaining about losing jobs to reformed prisoners. Who had a trade when they came out of prison. So what happened was they enacted a parole system and basically closed down Port Arthur.

Now my wife has basically consolidated the history of Tasmania to these bullet points.

Blah Blah Blah Van Deimen's Land Blah Blah Blah Built by convict labor in the 1800's Blah Blah Blah Destroyed by fire Blah Blah Blah.

Now that is a bit oversimplified but I love it when she let's her sarcastic side out.

Some notes on the ocean water. it is usually a bit choppy or very deep which contributes to the lack of clarity you might expect when you visit. This isn't the Bahamas. However on a nice day the water will rival anything the Bahamas has to offer. The problem is it only lasts a short time. Tasmania is surrounded by the South Sea which is a vicious section of water. Calm and serene it is not. Now imagine being some 15 year old convict stuck below deck in irons with cold antarctic water seeping in and rough seas. Maybe next time you won't steal that coat just because your freezing to death in the middle of winter in the cesspool that was London at the time.

More pictures:
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=118