9/29 thru 10/1 - Launceston, Burnie, Smithton, Wynyard, and Strahan

09/29/2012 - Lindsey & Lorraine took us to the Cataract Gorge in Launceston.

It was quite a nice hike. 
This gorge is part of a dam spillway.

The weather was fascinating today... our weather karma was fabulous.  It was sunny on the trail.

You get hints of the trail every so often.

Sun comes out again

The weather gets overcast and threatens rain a couple of times.

Bridge looks small...

... it is skinny and wobbly.

The views from the bridge are great. 





We get to the Bison Cafe for lunch and the rains come down with a vengeance.  The poor people on the small skytram were soaked!

Lindsay thought he might have to call a cab, but we were patient and the sun came out again...

This guy had a number of girlfriends hanging around.

Cormorants were huge and active

We got back to the car and the rains came again, but we were fine and dry.

THEN we went home an watched the Australian Football League Finals... WOW what an incredible game and so exciting between the Hawks and the Swans.  Whew!  We're probably going to have to find those games on TV back home. 

09/30/2012 -We went to the Ashgrove Cheese Shop for some tastes - really good cheeses!

 


Plus they have a whole bunch of cows that schoolchildren have decorated for charities.







Wwe went on down the road to Anvers Chocolates and had a lovely lunch in the atrium.






Of course we bought some goodies for later and headed off to Devonport.




We left Lorraine & Lindsay at this pretty park and headed over to Burnie so Lee could taste Tasmanian Single Malt Whiskey.

The Hellyer's Road distillery was started by a group of milk farmers who wanted to diversify.   One fascinating note is that they export to Asia, but have to call the whiskey something like 'Summer Fire' and the Distillery name isn't as acceptable.

We took the tour after Di tasted their Gin and a Flavored Vodka. 

The casks are from Jack Daniels who can only use them once.

 Their cask room has some new, little casks which had been used for Port.





If you take the tour and taste, you can bottle your own - for a fee.  Lee picked the peatier whiskey, which is unusual for him.

 Then he capped and waxed it

And they gave him a certificate for his bottle and she wrapped it for travel.

We headed off to Smithton for the night.







10/01/2012 - Weather was up and down so we headed back past Stanley and the Nut on our way to the Tulips and then the road to Strahan.

The timing and the weather did not cooperate for us to hike up to the top of the Nut, but it was certainly breathtaking.







The road to the Tulip fields and Table Cape Lookout outside of Wynyard was quite scenic and - in spots - very steep.

 

Hint of tulips to come!

 Table Cape was amazing.




We could have hiked to the Lighthouse, but we had a long way to go yet.

So we drove to the lighthouse, impressive.

Beautiful Colors

 Then we had a coffee in Wynyard and started down toward Strahan.

Slim, curvy Roads...

It was a wild ride... one that Iain would love to drive!






The problem was that we couldn't see the views... until we stopped for lunch at Lake Roseberry.

There were indications of mining before we got to Zeehan.  

We should have - as many have told us - stopped and done the Zeehan museum as it has some very interesting pieces.

We walked to a park for other history.








The road took us over to the coast and we stopped at a lookout .

We stayed at the Risby Cove in Strahan and this was the view from our door.










 
This was the travel we did today...

It was a good day.