Stanley, Tasmania

Today we tackled the Stanley "Nut" and I have to tell you it was a very hard uphill walk that almost felt like a vertical walk in parts.  The only thing that got me to the top was that it was a relatively short uphill (430 metres) and the path was well defined with a hand rail all the way to the top.   It also helped to have a degree of determination :-) There is a chairlift to take you to the top if you prefer but it wasn't operating when we arrived.  In the second photo below you can clearly see the zig zag path that we followed up the side of the mountain,

But all the pain was forgotten once you reach the summit.  The views were spectacular in every direction.  We were quite surprised at the changing landscape on top of the mountain.  On the eastern side it is quite barren with just native grasses growing but on the other side it becomes a lush rainforest walk.  I am so pleased that we did this walk.  Last time we were in Stanley we decided against it because it was a cold blustery day.  Today we are blessed with sunshine and 20 degrees. 

Once we had completed the circuit and made our way back down the steep path we rewarded ourselves with coffee and scones, fresh from the oven, and served with homemade raspberry jam!

We needed to walk off the scones so we wandered up and down one of the heritage streets in Stanley.  It is such a lovely town and it has been shown a lot of love.  A lot of the heritage buildings have been repainted and even the buildings that are now vacant have not been neglected.  It was a little walk down memory lane for us as we found the place where we had lunch and smoko on our trip here in 2011.

From the lookout on top of the "Nut" we could see the harbour below us so we drove a short distance to where the King Islander ship is anchored.  This ship carts cattle from King Island to the mainland and King Island beef, apparently,  is of exceptional quality. I have yet to try it but I will look for it on our journey around Tasmania.

Tomorrow we travel the Tarkine Drive.  We are considering breaking it down into two days as it is quite a long drive that you would need a whole day to do all at once, but we will make that decision tomorrow.