A bunch of us headed to the north east coast of Tasmania last weekend for a camping expedition to the beautiful Bay Of Fires. The majority of us were there from Friday night till Tuesday, so had a good chance to settle in and get with the earth.
The weather was absolutley perfect. I think we had about twenty minutes of rain. the water was beautiful, and we were swimming constantly, both at the beach and in a couple of lagoons. Katie and I even got to road test a tent (thanks Braz & Sophie) before we decide on what we'll go with.
Of course there was much drinking, sitting round the fire and other general merriment. "Fivesies" is a new tradition at the end of the afternoon, nad funnily, a continuation of "Happy hour" that I remember my parents and their friends indulging in when we camped as kids.
And then, on the way home, we stopped off in reputedly Tasmania's smallest town (the town signs in both directions are on the same pole!), Llandaff, where Katie's Great x6 (and our kid's Great x7) Grandfather, Robert Barber was buried in 1870. Katie's Dad, Ivan knows some of his story:
"John Barber was a convict, transported from Great Yarmouth for stealing a length of rope. He somehow ended up woking for the Lynne family, there are several Lynne family graves at Llandaff. They owned the Apslawn estate, Sir William Lynne was the first premier of NSW. The Lynne family financed John Barber's return to England where his conviction was quashed. He then obviously returned to Apslawn..."
Tassie, everybody's got a connection!
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