Scenic Drive Devonport Area, Tasmania

Our very last scenic drive in Tasmania was around the Devonport area.  We winged it a for lot of the day, but ended up doing a very large circle that took us first to Port Sorrell where we surprisingly found a large sandy beachfront on the Rubicon Estuary.  Many people were enjoying the calm waters on their paddle boards and kayaks.  The caravan park is situated right on the beachfront at Port Sorrell and if we were to ever return to Tasmania, this is a place we would stay.  While we were enjoying the views out over the water, right behind us a man was digging a hole in the sand that you could bury a car in!  Don't know why..

Port Sorrell is to the east of Devonport so that when we left here we turned the vehicle in a southerly direction towards the town of Westbury.  It is around 50km from Port Sorrell to Westbury and for 49 of those 50kms we were in forestry country.  I have read that 70% of Tasmania is timbered and if it isn't a forestry project it is national park.  Tasmanian's are very proud of this fun fact.  When we reached Westbury we headed a little to the west to reach Deloraine.  This is a lovely town and it is teeming with visitors roaming up and down both sides of the Main Street.  Every shop is busy with customers and it is pleasing to see so many people out and about.....many more people than we have seen anywhere else in Tasmania.

From Deloraine we head west towards Mole Creek.  Just before we head into Mole Creek we turn-off to go to the Alum Cliffs Lookout that we have read has some spectacular views over Mole Creek and the surrounding gorge.  It is only 800m into the lookout but quite a strenuous uphill walk.  The views from the lookout were pretty spectacular so it was well worth the effort. 

It is almost midday by the time we get back to the car but we decide to drive on to Sheffield for lunch.  Sheffield is the "mural town" of Tasmania so it will be good to walk around the town after a filling lunch.  We chose what seemed to be a decent cafe for our lunch stop and quickly chose the Seafood Pot Pie and Mixed Meat Pot Pie from the specials menu.  When Philip ordered our meal there were a few people in front of him and the lady that served Philip said that the meal might take awhile.  One hour and ten minutes later our meals were finally brought to the table.  It was a terribly long wait by any stretch of the imagination.  Maybe they had to catch the seafood for my pie before they could cook it :-)  and to make matters worse, the pies that were placed in front of us were less than spectacular (8 chips!) but isn't it amazing how a sprinkle of parsley can make it look better 😂😂😂

After our meal we wandered around Sheffield that is as lovely as we remembered.  It seems like every available blank wall in Sheffield has a mural painted on it and it has certainly given Sheffield a well deserved reputation.

So tomorrow is our last day in Tasmania.  We board the Spirit at 6.30pm for a night sailing that will have us arriving into Geelong around 5.30am.  Even though I have our site booked in Geelong from midday tomorrow, we will probably wait for a decent hour to check into the caravan park.  Well, at least until the sun is up!

Christmas 2023 at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family.  I hope that you are celebrating this time of the year in a most wonderful way.  For us this year, at Cradle Mountain, it is very different from any other Christmas.  It is a beautiful part of the world here in the wilderness of Tasmania and as I sit here typing this blog, this is the view from our room at the Cradle Mountain Hotel.  It is a glorious day and we will reach a temperature of 22 degrees.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we spent the morning hiking.  For as long as I can remember I have had a penchant to walk the Dove Lake Circuit.  I have looked at photos of the "hut" on the edge of the crystal clear waters of Dove Lake and knew I had to photograph that special place.  

The only way you can now reach Dove Lake is via shuttle bus.  I seem to remember that 11 years ago we drove right up to the lakes edge, but things have certainly changed.  The Information Centre is also a new addition and it is quite a lovely building that blends in beautifully with the surroundings.  

We purchase our shuttle bus tickets and wait no longer than a couple of minutes before one of the buses arrives.  There are many, many people here to hike.  There are numerous hikes ranging from easy to difficult, the most difficult being the Overland Track that is over 60km in length.  We have chosen a medium difficulty track that should take us around 3 hours.  There is still a little cloud as we start our walk but within ten minutes we are shedding our jackets as the sun makes its appearance.

My goodness me.  This is such a beautiful hike, particularly the first half.  Around 40% of it is boardwalk and the remainder is a well marked out gravel path.  We are told to walk in a clockwise direction to avoid running into people but nearly half of the hikers either didn't hear the instruction or ignored it.  Still, it didn't detract from the experience.

The second half of the hike is slightly more challenging with lots of steps and quite a climb.  However it was short so that was a blessing.  I have learnt to walk up the stairs slowly.  By doing that I can walk up hills and steps for quite a long distance and it is always so rewarding at the top.  We come upon the Enchanted Forest that is an area covered in moss, and ferns and we comment that we have seen a lot of areas like this on our various hikes around Tasmania.  They still hold a certain charm whenever you come across them. 

Reaching the "hut" signals the end of the hike and what a way to end.  It is such a gorgeous postcard pretty view but it is after midday and there are many people here all vying for a photo.  The best photos is to get the hut without anybody around it but some selfish people have decided that the best photo is mum standing outside the hut taking photos of dad and bub inside the hut and thereby blocking everybody's photo.  It is so frustrating waiting for them to finish their photo shoot!  Anyway, enough whingeing.  Here is my photo of the day. 

The walk was immensely satisfying and just as I imagined it would be.  As we made our way back to the entrance to wait for the shuttle bus, I stopped to take some photos of some hikers on another boardwalk track in the area.  The boardwalks make it so much better for hiking and protects the fragile environment.  We are seeing more and more of them on our travels.  A lot of the timber boardwalks are being replaced with a recycled heavy duty matting that would last a very long time in this harsh environment.

It is around 1pm when we finally get back to the car so we head to a nearby restaurant for lunch.  It was a recommendation when we checked in and another recommendation was the wood fired pizza.  Good suggestions!  We devoured the pizza (well... almost all of it) and washed it down with beer and wine.  We jokingly laughed that we had probably exercised off 2000 calories and just put them back on again with this meal!

When we arrived back into our room at the hotel, we had this lovely treat waiting for us.  Christmas really is in the air!

Devonport Part 2

Wednesday was once again a moving day.  We commented that we hardly talk to our neighbours surrounding us at the caravan park, but the day that you are packing down and ready to move, they want to talk.  I shouldn't really say that about the couple behind us that wanted to talk as we left, because they have been chatting to us off and on over the past five days.   They are Queenslanders from the Sunny Coast and are in Tasmania for seven months.  They love it.  Apparently they just keep going round and round Tassie until they have seen it all (well.... almost).

We finally left the Tasman Holiday Park just before 10am, and it was a fond farewell, as this was a lovely park to stay at.

The road from St. Helens towards St. Mary's takes us through St. Mary's Pass that many have told us is quite bad.  Philip found it very easy compared to some of the passes.  It was a short winding road, around 8km, so we were through it before we could think too much about it.  Once through the pass we were on a familiar road and it is a very good road.  We pass through the little town of Avoca where there is silo art!  The one and only I have seen in Tassie.  The scenery, once again, is stunning.  I don't think we have been on a Tasmanian road yet that hasn't had a beautiful view.

Today is one of our longer drives towards Devonport so we decided to stop and have lunch at Woolmers Estate.  Wow!  Hasn't this place changed since we were here in 2011!  There is a brand new gift shop/restaurant through which you enter to walk around the estate, but we didn't bother doing the estate walk as the views over the Heritage Rose Garden from where we were seated for lunch were enough.  Lunch was enjoyable, Roasted Quail for me and Roasted Duck for Philip, but very expensive!  We thought we would probably get a toastie for lunch and were surprised that the cafe has been replaced with a five star restaurant!

We are now safely ensconced in the Discovery Park at Devonport where the van will stay until we leave on the Spirt on the 28th.  Yesterday was a relaxing day with very little driving.  However we did drive to the main centre to walk the 7km from the lighthouse to the town centre return.  It is a gorgeous walk that follows the bay and there are many people with the same idea as us.  As we rounded the Bluff we looked down onto the Surf Club and noticed four lifeguards lined up on the beach looking out towards the ocean at all the swimmers :-). Admittedly there was some sort of school breakup happening later on the day so they were there ready and waiting for the hordes that would be there later.....

There are some magnificent homes, many recently restored, along the waterfront in Devonport but this was the one that impressed me the most.....

Yesterday when I was doing some research into this area I found that there are some extraordinarily beautiful caves to the south of us at a place called Mole Creek.  These caves are fully conducted tours so I quickly rang and booked us.  This morning we woke nice and early and drove to Mole Creek.  The countryside here, once again, is breathtakingly beautiful.  In the background is Mount Roland, with its soaring rock face. Imagine waking up to that view every morning!

We drive through the "mural town" of Sheffield and will probably return here next week when we have a little more time, but for today we have to keep moving to be at the caves for our 10am tour.  We are doing two caves today.  The first is Marakoopa.  There is a group of twelve that are guided through this cave by our very knowledgeable guide.  This cave is unlike anything we have ever seen before with its incredible amount of Stalactites, Stalagmites, and many other forms that I can't remember the name of.  The cave is around 2.5km in length and is a wet cave with two streams running through it.  It's hard to imagine that scientists have put the age of this cave to around 400-500 million years old.  It was first discovered in 1906.  But the feature of this cave tour is the Glow Worm Cathedral.  When the lights are turned off the whole ceiling is alight with these beautiful creatures (that we are told are not worms but maggots!). No photos of the glow worms are allowed unfortunately.

From Marakoopa Cave it is a 12km drive to our next cave, King Solomon.  This cave is vastly different.  For starters it is small and compact and around 250m in depth.  It is made up of two chambers that were joined after the clay between the two was excavated.  What this cave lacks in size it makes up for in the number of rare formations.  There are an incredible number of columns (where stalactites and stalagmites meet) and I can now understand why these caves have been voted the best in Australia.  Our guide points out many rare calcite crystal formations, the rarest being the three white "domes" in the photo below.

The tour guide is animated and he throws questions at us all the way through the hour long tour.  I just pretended to not hear him if he looked my way :-)

This was another highlight of our Tassie Tour - so many highlights!  We didn't get home until 2 so it was a late lunch.  Tomorrow we head to Cradle Mountain and I am really looking forward to it.  It will be a good time for a bit of rest and relaxation, with fine wine and food. However, we will hike the Dove Lake Circuit on Christmas Eve that has been on our list of places to hike since the last time we were there.  Will hopefully update the blog while we are at Cradle Mountain.

Scenic Drive North East Tasmania

Yesterday we drove hundreds of kilometres around the north east area of Tasmania.  It was a full day but absolutely worth it for the lovely scenery.  Hardly any mountains here, just rolling hills.  A good lot of the roads were gravel, that we actually prefer to drive, as they are well maintained and wide.  Our first stop, to the north, was the Eddystone Point Lighthouse that lies at the northern end of the Bay of Fires.  It is a striking lighthouse built out of pink granite and unlike any we have seen elsewhere.  It is also one of the highest lighthouses we have seen.  It has rather a grand entry with large steps leading to a solid wood door.  It is still a working lighthouse so we could not enter but I was content to just wander around the perimeter.

Back in the car and driving towards the west we passed through the little township of Gladstone that is really only a whistle stop, but just outside Gladstone is Little Blue Lake.  What was once an ugly mine is now one of beauty.  Minerals sit at the bottom of the lake that give it the blue colour.  No swimming in this lake though!

Our drive now takes us through some lush farm land where the fields of white poppies stand out against the backdrop of the nearby mountain ranges. There are large warning signs and electric fences surrounding the poppy fields, with good reason.

The furtherest west we head on our drive is to the beachside town of Bridport. This is a holiday destination for people from Launceston that is less than an hours drive away.  It is raining as we arrive at Bridport so we are probably not seeing it in its best light but you can tell it is a lovely town.  I loved the moody photo of the old jetty.

Scottsdale is an easy 20km drive from Bridport so we decided to stop here for our lunch break.  We found a lovely restaurant where we enjoyed a pot of tea, burgers and loaded fries (topped with salsa).  It was a cute restaurant and the food came to our table super fast and was delicious.

After lunch we walked the Main Street of Scottsdale.  The buildings all date back to the 1800's (surprise, surprise) and it is a neat and tidy town.  As we were walking the street an Amish family passed us by, all giving us a big smile.  Later we watched them leave town in their horse and buggy.  I didn't have my camera with me unfortunately.  

Not far from Scottsdale is the tiny town of Legerwood that is famous for its timber carvings carved from the stumps of old trees.  We had seen these once before but they continued to impress us.  Unfortunately the weather is really closing in by the time we reach Legerwood.

It is only 20kms to the next town of Derby.  The town is alive with vehicles and people as this is the home of MTB (Mountain Trail Bikes).  MTB is huge in Tasmania and people travel from all over the place to ride along some of the trails.  The mountains are so high here in Tasmania that we imagine it would be a real adrenaline rush to race down the side of these mountains on a mountain bike. It is not a sport for the faint hearted!

Our last stop before heading  back to St. Helens is Pyengana where there is a robotic dairy and cheese making.  These cheeses are very good so we purchase a stockpile.  We also indulge in one of their famous ice-creams - ginger for me and rum and raisin for Philip.  After we have devoured the ice-cream we drive around 5 minutes down the road to the Pub in the Paddock.  This is where the famous beer swilling pigs live.  You can feed the pigs a beer if you like but we don't stay to do that.  

It was quite a long day and we didn't get back to the van until almost 5pm so we just showered and hit the sack!  Today has been a day of rest.  Philips shoulders were aching this morning after the long drive yesterday but 20 minutes of yoga seemed to sort that out.  Tomorrow we head to Devonport, right back to where our journey started.  The van will stay parked here until we leave on the Spirit on the 28th December.  As I mentioned previously, we are heading to Cradle Mountain for three nights over the Christmas period so that will be great to have a break from the van.  Tomorrow is rather a longish drive and we have to tackle St. Mary's Pass that is 12km of winding, narrow, mountain road.  It will be interesting!