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.
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