At Shearwater (Tassie central plateau and north coast)

May 5th
Weather is back to being amazing and the forecast says it will be like this for most of the week.  Sunny days approx 14 degrees and chilly nights of 6 degrees.  The Tasmanians keep telling us this is the mildest start to winter they can remember having and we are very grateful.

Set off this morning with no particular destination in mind.  Started driving to Sheffield and then became distracted as we had been told there was a great brewery at Railton.  We are easily distracted!!  Actually haven't found it yet! 

Railton - town of Topiary!

The next distraction was 'etc' an award winning bakery at Elizabeth Town.  This was then followed by a visit to Ashgrove Farm for cheeses (we are in fat and happy cow country again), and Christmas Hill Raspberry Farm.  The tasting treat here was beautiful, fresh raspberries dipped in dark chocolate, yum, yum!  At this point we decided we needed to do something active so we drove south through Deloraine to the Great Western Tiers and walked into Liffey Falls. 

Liffey Falls

Temperature 12 degrees at the  Raspberry Farm and 4 degrees by the time we were up on the Central Plateau.  Turned a corner to find last nights snow still on the sides of the road and decorating the slopes.  We were so close to the Great Lake we decided to drive on and have a look, but unfortunately it looks like it has just experienced a long, dry summer. 

Great Lake

Once back down off the plateau we headed for '41 Degrees South', a salmon and ginseng farm.  What a great place!  It was getting fairly late by this stage, but the young folk 'running the show' that day made us very welcome and gave us the opportunity to take a tour around the farm, walk to Montana Falls and feed the Atlantic salmon.  Really interesting stuff!  They have won awards for the treatment of their waste water using natural methods that incorporates a great wetland area.

Feeding the Salmon

Wetlands at the Salmon Farm
 

Montana Falls

A little excitement while we were there.  A hired motor home belonging to a couple of elderly ladies rolled away from the car park and down the slope towards the salmon ponds.  Left it out of gear and without the handbrake on!  Took out a wooden rail fence and stopped when it hit a heap rocks.  Fence not looking too good, but damage to vehicle minimal.  A couple of near heart attacks though!!

May 6th
At the Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre this morning.  The presentation and displays they have of the rescue of Brant Webb and Todd Russell are very powerful and emotive and the mining history and general heritage exhibition excellent.  Beaconsfield gold mine closed last year so sadly the town is very quiet now!  As part of the exhibition you crawl into a pipe.  In the photo you can see there is an opening above Mike's head, just wide enough to fit your shoulders through and stand.  Your head pops up inside a replica of the space that entombed the two miners, only just big enough for them to lay side by side curled up.  Amazingly small and cramped!

 

Beaconsfield mine disaster display

My efforts panning for gold

The water wheel that drove the original ore crusher

Then to Grindelwald, a small village outside Launceston modeled on a village in Switzerland.  Interesting and very quaint little place whose population seems to be largely retirees. 

Grindelwald

 

Grindelwald

Back to Shearwater and time to sweat a little at the gym!!

May 7th
In Devonport by 8 am this morning as we had the Hilux booked in for its 100 000 km service.  While we were waiting we visited the hairdresser to have a bit of a spruce up ourselves. 

Then out of town heading south again to "The House of Anvers" for the total chocolate experience.  Belgian chocolates and the most amazing waffles, (as I imagine they are in Belgium).  Tasmania is not good for the waistline!! 

On to "The Cherry Shed" where you can find everything cherry you could ever imagine from jams and chutneys, to wine, port, liqueurs, face cream, candles and more.  Mole Creek was our next stop where we went to the Marakoopa Caves.  Probably the biggest cave system we have ever been in and our tour was topped off at the end watching the glow worms.  Just like looking at a clear night sky with lots of stars.

Marakoopa Caves

 

Marakoopa Caves