Mole Creek Karst National Park and Trowunna Wildlife Park

Thursday 8 January 2015

On waking, my ankle was quite swollen and a lovely shade of pinkish purple.  We all have some sunburn from yesterday, despite having applied sunscreen multiple times – it shows just how strong the sun is in Tasmania, despite the temperature (or lack thereof).

Today we visited Mole Creek Karst National Park and took a tour of Marakoopa Cave seeing the glow-worms and Great Cathedral. I found the glow-worms quite difficult to see and after speaking to Drew and Hayden I gather I could only see the brightest ten percent or so compared to what others could see – very similar to when looking for stars!  The cave had a great variety of interesting features and the guide was very informative.  He explained the differences between flow stones, stalactites and stalagmites.  Flow stones is formed from flowing, as opposed to dripping, water.  When it is still an actively growing flow stone it has a sparkly surface; when it is old and inactive it has a duller appearance.  All stalactites form initially from a “straw” which is very fragile, being hollow with walls only 1mm thick.  The Great Cathedral was a very large chamber with many different formations including shields, stalactites and stalagmites.
https://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=3530
https://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=4648

We stopped for a picnic lunch and then went to Trowunna Wildlife Park, where with great timing we immediately joined the beginning of a tour.  First, we got to pat a ten month old wombat that was found in the mothers pouch after a road hit.  The zookeeper fed a group of six Tasmanian Devils with a section of wallaby, complete with skin and bones.  It is pretty gruesome, they really do not waste anything!  The devils fight each other and “talk” a lot while eating.  It is a full contact activity!  Apparently, a Tasmanian Devil can eat up to one third of its body weight in food in one sitting and they will eat as much as opportunity presents, as in the wild, they do not know when they will next eat.  We had the opportunity to observe, but not touch, a Spotted Tail Quoll.  The mainland has very few quolls of any type, left in the wild.
http://trowunna.com.au/

We took Hayden to World of Marbles in Sheffield, where he bought some very cool marbles.  They had musical marble tracks – one with a glockenspiel and one with wooden “leaves” of changing pitch.  They also had some incredibly complicated and interesting to watch marble tracks.  I watched a video of how the various styles of marbles are manufactured from glass.

Lastly, back to our accommodation to tidy up a bit in preparation for moving on tomorrow.

Foodie Day in Northern Tasmania

Tuesday 6 January 2015

07:30 before Hayden woke up – he must have been so tired; even so he is still rather grumpy.

I took myself for a run around Sheffield – I always feel so much more oriented once I have been for a run in an unfamiliar place.  Sheffield, while small, has great undulating training hills and no traffic!

Today we hit the roads and Drew got to try out the new car – apparently it has “flappy paddles”, I had never heard of them but I am assured by both Hayden and Drew that this is an excellent feature and that I am truly ignorant by not having knowledge of it.  Drew really likes the car! 

While we were driving we saw multiple jet streams which appeared to go straight up, like a rocket, due to the viewing angle compared to the Earth’s curvature – presumably Planes heading to the mainland.

Stop one was the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Café – in all honesty this was very disappointing as it was just a café, with no picking or viewing of the farm available, which is what we were really interested in.   Bonus though – across the road was the Van Diemen’s Land Ice Creamery.  Hayden had Raspberry Sorbet and Lemon Sorbet, I had Rum’n’Raisin Ice-cream and Chocolate Gelato.  All were absolutely delicious!!!

http://raspberryfarmcafe.com/

http://www.vdlcreamery.com.au/

Stop two Ashgrove Cheese- my favourite was their Smoked Cheddar, followed by the Red Leicester style cheese called Red Rubicon.  Watching the making of the cheese was interesting and we could also view the storage areas.  Ashgrove Cheese had the most amazing collection of painted cows throughout the grounds; Hayden and I both loved them and took many photos.  There was even a cow in the colours of rainbow swirl ice-cream – she must be the one they milk to make it!!

https://www.ashgrovecheese.com.au/

Stop three The Cherry Shed – beautiful fresh cherries and every sort of cherry themed item you can imagine!  Here I discovered that I prefer the “Van” cherry over the sweeter and more popular “Lapins” cherry. Of course, we bought some for the road.  They had an interesting display of the growing through to harvest process done with tiny figurines including a number of tiny animals to find in each scene.

https://www.thecherryshed.com.au/

Stop four House of Anvers – boutique chocolate, in particular fudges and truffles. They had an interesting collection of antique boxes and moulds.  Once again, we were able to view the factory process through glass windows – we saw them making Chilli, Cinnamon and Cacao Chocolate as well as some type of filled chocolates.

https://anvers-chocolate.com.au/

Stop five Devonport for a late lunch and grocery supplies for the week ahead.

In the late afternoon we went to the mural park in Sheffield for a look around – some amazing painting, some with a lot of depth of thought in the layers of meaning.

http://muralfest.com.au/

Spirit of Tasmania - Melbourne to Davenport

Monday 5 January 2015

05:30 – ALARM – out of bed, shower and AWAY

We were picked up in the hotel lobby by “Chris” and driven to the docks for the ferry across Bass Strait - “Spirit of Tasmania II”.  The traffic in Melbourne, even very early as we were, on a Monday morning is very heavy.  There was a lot of traffic queued up to load onto the ferry.

We checked in, very much like at an airport, although it seems the majority of passengers are taking a vehicle and there are only a few travelling as walk on passengers.  Child passengers are given an activity bag including a pack of cards, Tasmania themed activity book and pencils, a Spirit of Tasmania map and a fridge magnet photo frame with detachable words to add to your photo; all in a zip up carry bag.  We were on board just prior to 08:00.  There was then a long wait while the vehicles were all loaded and secured in the lower decks.

Departure from the docks was about 09:10; Hayden was very excited by the idea.  Being day passengers we had not booked a cabin and did not get to see what these were like, but the main deck with the restaurants, tourist information and mini cinema were beautifully appointed and kept very clean.  Hayden and Drew watched “Planes – Fire and Rescue” in the on board cinema.  Next time, I think I would like to have a cabin.

We spent some time out on the decks in the wind.  The sea was extremely calm and flat however it was very windy, particularly on the eastern “port” side of the boat.  We passed the heads, out of Port Phillips Bay, at around 11:35, and were into Bass Strait proper – still calm and flat.  Beautiful weather to be out on the water.

During the peak season summer months there are two sailings per day (one overnight and one during daylight hours) in each direction.  We passed the “Spirit of Tasmania” travelling from Devonport to Melbourne at about 14:00.

Interesting stuff I learnt about the Spirit of Tasmania included:
1. Melbourne to Devonport crossing is 429km

2. Spirit of Tasmania II is 194.33m long

About two hours before we reached Devonport we could see the coastline of Tasmania.  When we entered Devonport, I was surprised at how narrow the Mersey River was – it must have very steep drop-offs from the bank.

https://www.spiritoftasmania.com.au/

After disembarking, we collected our luggage and hire car – A silver Subaru XV10 – very nice!!  Tasmanian Registration Plates D60WF. By this time we were all very tired and very hungry, we stopped off for hot chips and made our way to the small town of Sheffield.  We checked in to the Kentish Hills Retreat – lovely staff, with very large clean rooms that were well presented.

BED!!

https://kentishhills.com.au/