9th February 2010

Tuesday 9th February 10

Relaxing day updating this blog and watching the one day cricket, but we did the riverside walk again, with our cameras this time.

This takes us passed the old railway bridge remains and round to the visitors centre and the footbridge to Pig Island.

Wednesday 10th February 10

We awoke to a thick sea fog that had moved in overnight that gave the local hills and trees an eerie appearance but by 9.30am it had cleared and become a very warm day, just like every other day since we have been here.

We drove to Railton to visit a shop called Fibre Optic Magic – Looking Glass Cottage which incorporates a massive array of fibre optic items presenting a fairyland effect. Kids would appreciate even more than we did.

This was followed by a walk throughout the town and a drive around the surrounds to look at over a hundred exibits of topiary that exist in the town, originally started by the same guy running the fibre optic shop, as you can see alongside the shop.

Some exhibits are still in their early stages and display more wire framework than shrubbery but a few more years will see a huge improvement. Those that have been around for a while are really effective.

Some houses had the house number fashioned by their letterbox whilst others settled for animals,etc.

We then drove on to the slightly larger town of Sheffield with a very impressive backdrop created by Mount Roland despite the overcast weather, and as we arrived at a sensible time for lunch we drove a few more kilometres out to Gowrie Park which is a free 48 hour camping ground.

Unfortunately we would require a longer stay than that if we were to use it, plus the road there is not the best for a caravan. However, it is a lovely wooded setting near the base of the mountain and an ideal picnic lunch spot.

We then returned to the town, parked and walked thoughout the town to view the many murals that the town is renowned for.

Amazingly none of them have been spoilt with idiotic grafitti, and age seems to have been kind to the majority of them.

We came across a guy sitting at a table outside a bar with a slightly different pet than the average person, a really friendly alpaca that was treated just like any other domestic pet. Foxy was quite intrigued with the alpaca, not intimidated by size and quite happy to be friends.
Unfortunately we then returned home along the same route, where we could have used another route had we checked the map and taken in different scenery and another town, but no doubt we will catch up with that town at some other time.

Thursday 11th February 10

We spoke too soon, this morning it is raining, consequently had the benefit of lazing around and left with no alternative than a drive just out of town to visit the Anvars chocolate factory. Their dark chocolate was their best offering but left a powdery taste in your mouth and definitely didn’t shape up to the Woodside chocolate in South Australia.

Friday 12 February 10

Still a bit rainy so did our necessary shopping and watched the third one day cricket match up until it was rained off due to the stormy weather in Sydney.

Saturday 13th February 10

This is one day we have waited for in anticipation and meant a 100km drive down to Launceston to their annual Festivale (that is spelt correctly as they pronounce the vale part as valley).

This is their way of showing off the food and wine of the district in similar fashion to the Margaret River Wine Festival, but in our estimation failed on several points but we may be biased. Firstly dogs are not allowed into the park so Foxy had to be left in the car (fortunately it was an overcast day and not hot). Secondly, the evening entertainment was Daryl Braithwaite which is a huge turn off for us, not that we intended staying that long. In fact we wouldn’t have gone at all but for the fact that we had contacted Stu and Be (now based in Hobart) a few days earlier to let them know that we were now in Tasmania. They told us about the Festivale and that they would be there so we arranged to meet them, plus we had the added bonus off Stu’s parent, Dick and Val being with them. It is always great meeting up with people whose company you enjoy and when you haven’t seen them for several years it is so much nicer.

The day was therefore really good despite the minor hiccups and the wine tasting added to the pleasure, plus we took advantage of the swine flu vaccinations that were on offer.

They also have troop of monkeys in the park.

Sunday 14th February 10

Total rest day

Monday 15th February 10

Merry worked on SAFE accounts for part of the day and then we took Foxy for a walk around the riverside walk to the visitor centre so that we could have a look to see what the pile driver noise was all about. Apparently the path beside the caravan park used to be a railway line that continued across the road and along the current walkway and across the river. They have now decided to remove the concrete piles that once supported the bridge. The river splits shortly after the old bridge and creates Pig Island in front of the visitor centre, so we continued our walk across the footbridge despite the ‘Dogs prohibited’ sign that Foxy couldn’t read and took the walk through the picnic area and into the walk trail.

Tuesday 16th February 10

Merry visited a dentist and had one tooth filled. This was directly across the road from Woolworths so we did our necessary shopping before returning home.

Wednesday 17th February 10

We set out to drive to Liena and chose to drive the longer way via Deloraine and purely by chance saw the sign post to Tulampanga Alum Cliffs, so took the slight detour.

From the car park we had a 20 minute walk uphill and down dale to the lookout from which we were greeted with a magnificent view of the cliffs and surrounds. We then had the 20 minute walk back but we were able to let Foxy enjoy this part of the the day out.

We drove down to Marakoope Cave, near Mole Creek, to see the cave and glow worms but arrived just after a tour had begun, so booked for the next tour and had a picnic lunch whilst we waited.

Unfortunately Foxy had to stay in the car whilst we did the 45 minute tour of this quite large wet cave with a creek running through it, and we were shown through three chambers, but we were only allowed to take photos in the third chamber.

The walk from the car park to the cave entrance was alongside the creek which provided a fern tree shaded view of the cascades and small waterfalls.

We then drove on to Liena to look at the small community where Ashley’s daughter and son in law lived for some time. We didn’t know which of the few houses was theirs at the time but there weren’t too many to choose from, and quite why anyone would choose to live in this remote valley remains a mystery to us.

We then backtracked to King Solomon’s cave to do another 45 minute tour at 3.30pm in this smaller, more compact cave which is the prettier of the two.

It involved more ducking and squeezing than the other cave as there were several low, narrow tunnels to pass through but had more colour in its formations, however, as both were entirely different it was pointless claiming one to be better than the other.

We drove back home the shorter route via the small village called Paradise, which didn’t exactly fit our idea of paradise despite being reasonable scenic, and then through Sheffield and Lower Barrington.

Thursday 18th February 10

Relaxing morning after yesterdays trip, but I the afternoon we took a drive to Burnie for a shopping spree and detoured through the small village of Penguin and the larger town of Ulverstone. This was a very scenic detour and will get a more thorough looking at. We also did a 2km detour to drive up to a lookout that provided 270 degree views to the mountains.

Later in the afternoon we took a walk into, and through, Latrobe to take photos and have a proper look at the heritage town that we are currently staying in.