Our trip to Tasmania ** Warning - extremely large photo content**

 I can't believe that it's been so long since we got back from Tasmania...and I still haven't blogged any photos!  I just never seem to get the time....but I've been slowly doing this post & adding pics whenever I can (which seems to take forever!).

As my title suggests...there will be lots of pics (as anyone who knows me, knows that I love to take lots & lots of pics - especially when I'm on holidays!).  I took close to 5000 pics in the 3 weeks that we were there...but don't worry, I won't be sharing quite that many!!! LOL 

Anyways...here are just some of the pics taken , some you may recognise in layouts that I've already scrapped......So grab yourself a cuppa (or perhaps a pot!!! lol) or something stronger....& I hope you enjoy!


We sailed over to Tassie on The Spirit of Tasmania....from Port Melbourne.  So we will start with a few fav shots from there....

Looking at the beach & buildings at Port Melbourne from Station St Pier

Bike ride anyone???  Hire bikes all lined up ready to go for a spin

Spirit of Tasmania coming in to the pier...so we'll soon be on board & on our way :)

The sailing was overnight, so the next day after breaky on board, then exiting the ship with our car we headed off to do a clockwise tour of Tassie.... towards George Town & Low Head....

Low Head Lighthouse

A gorgeous beach at Bridport

And rocks at Bridport

Clouds starting to build up....Bridport

Tree carvings at Ledgerwood...sculptured with a chainsaw to create an Avenue of Rememberance.

Welderborough forest walk...the trees here were amazingly tall!

Very tall!

St columba falls

The gorgeous scenery on the walk down to the falls

And the path back up

We stopped off at the Holy Cow cafe & cheese factory for some cheese tasing & purchasing...YUM!

Our second night....we arrived at St Helens about 4 in the afternoon & didn't waste any time to start exploring the amazing coastline with these fantastic orange stained rocks against the white sands & gorgeous blue ocean.

On our walk we came across this cute lil guy...an echidna! 

But he was so so shy & soon scurried away into the bushes.

The next day we headed up to the Binalong Bay area, which is the start of what is known as "The Bay of Fires". I had seen pictures of this place in magazines & always dreamt of one day going there...so it was such a joy to finally be here...and I have to say that it was everything I expected it to be & more!

.

The scenery is just utterly breathtaking!

Sigh....

Double sigh

Hubby practising his photography skills....
(I won't show you the one where my head only just got in the pic! )lol

How amazing does this look?!  So much orange (Lichen) covering the rocks & they were like giant stepping stones all pieced together

This one was taken a little further north, at "The Gardens"

From here, we had to venture inland a bit to get onto the road to take us up to Mount William National Park.....and Eddystone Lighthouse

Eddystone Lighthouse

With the amazing orange rocks in the foreground...it was just spectacular!

Looking down to the boat ramp near the lighthouse

The lighthouse from a beach around the other side to the previous pics...the beach here was amazing...it had the most whitest sand.

As you can see in this pic...the white sand against the turquoise blue ocean....loved it!

We spent 2 nights at St Helens....then had a really early start the next day & headed down the east coast stopping off at a few places along the way

This was an old fence and gate at the convict built Spikey Bridge - but typical me...takes photos of anything & everything - I love rustic old stuff like this so hence the pic  

Cray pots on a boat at Triabunna

We finally reached Richmond for a late afternoon lunch...then spent the afternoon exploring this
 gorgeous historic town............

Just one of the shots of Richmond Bridge

And now for some of the beautiful old buildings within the town....

We then headed down to Port Arthur.....

And this gorgeous little bay was just a short walk from where we stayed.....Stewarts Bay.

The next day we headed off to the Port Arthur Penal Settlement....where we spent the whole day - but even a whole day really isn't enough to spend here...so much to see & do!

The Penitentiary

Inside the Penetentiary....not much of it's internal structures are left, unfortunately.

Included in the cost of entry was a short cruise out to the Isle of the dead & this is a photo looking back at the Port Arthur settlement.

The Broad Arrow Cafe....which is now a memorial site to the 35 innocent people that were sadly killed, and numerous injured, back in 1996...this was Australia's worst massacre.

The gardens & remains of the Broad Arrow Cafe are beautifully done & reflect such a peaceful & serene aura about them....a stark contrast to what it must have been like on that dreadful day. 

The Commondants house

View from the Commondants house

TheHospital

One of the locks inside the Separate Prison - not much chance of cutting thru this lock!

Weather worn bricks

The Church

We then took a drive down to Mangion Bay late in the afternoon...I so wished we could have gotten closer to get photos of this.....

Remarkable cave

The next day we drove out to Salt Water River to see the old convict run Coal Mines

And we also went to Eaglehawk Neck, The Dogline & Tesselated pavement

The dog line

The Tessilated pavement.....It's hard to believe that these are natural formations in the rock.

Oooops....a flat tyre!

From here we are headed down towards the most southern part of Tasmania.  So we had an early start, wizzed through Hobart...only stopping for petrol, then kept heading south down to Southport....and OMG was it hot!!!  Apparently, certain spots in Tasmania had the hottest temp in Australia for that day...who would have thought that Tassie could get so hot! 

So of course we headed to the beach.  It needs to be super duper hot for me to go swimming....but it eventually got to me & I just had to go in.  Talk about a stark contrast...the water was icy cold freezing!!!  So cold that it hurt...lol.  So needless to say, not much time was spent in the water....just a quick dip then out into the heat to warm up...hahaha. 

The next day we had planned to do the South Cape Bay walk...and were dreading it being really hot again.  But someone must have been on our side, it was actually quite cool & drizzling rain :-/

The start of the track

So much of the walking track has boardwalks like this

Even in these flat open grassy plains.....there were boardwalks

We walked through lots of forest type areas too

And here we are at our destination......South Cape Bay - the southern tip of Tassie.  No roads to get here, the only way is on foot :)  Apparently we were closer to Antarctica, than what we were to Brisbane...no wonder it was so blowy & cold!

We came across a group of walkers who were on day 10 of their walk!!!  They had walked from
Melaleuca ...some 85km away...and here I was thinking that we were out on this big adventure...LOL  Imagine doing that!!

Antarctica....this way!

The walk back out....

More boardwalks

And the official signing off from our walk

From Southport, we headed to Bruny Island, but had a stopover for the night in Port Huon on the way ....

Such a beautiful spot right on the lake.

Onwards to Bruny Island....

On board the ferry

Our first stop on Bruny....the Bruny Island Smokehouse. 

The smoked salmon & trout here was a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

Cape Bruny Lighthouse

Days end at Aventure Bay

For our 2nd day on Bruny, we had booked a Bruny Island Adventure cruise...and wow, it was awesome!

^ This is the boat we were on

And this is some of the scenery that we seen....

We even got to see some fur seals....perched on this rocky outcrop that was just sitting there in the middle of the southern ocean....they were a bit cute, but OMG do they stink!!!  LOL

From Bruny Island we then were heading over to Strahan...with a 1 night stopover in New Norfolk.  Then we were up early again the next day with a few touristy stops along the way. 

Our first stop was "The Wall in the Wilderness".  All I can say is that this place was amazing...and it's not even finished yet!  When completed, it will be a 100 metre wall carved from 3 metre high panels of huon pine, that tell the history of the harsh Central Highlands region - beginning with the indigenous people, then to the pioneering timber harvesters, pastoralists, miners and Hydro workers.

 The carvings were unbelievable....they were so real life like...and so hard to believe that they were actually timber!

No photographs were allowed, so I don't have anything to show just how great this place was, but here is a link to the website, which has a few photos so you can get an idea of what it is like.
http://www.thewalltasmania.com/indexms.html

Ok, now we're off to Lake St Clair.....

And we came across another echidna...but this guy wasn't anywhere near as shy as the one back at St Helens.  He just went about his business like we weren't even there...lol.  I think I took about 50 photos of him...told you I am obsessed!  We stayed & watched him for about 20 minutes, until he finally toddled off from the track :)

Next we stopped off at Nelson Falls

More boardwalks to get to the falls

Another stop to stretch the legs...and the view was amazing.

Finally we arrived in Strahan, albeit rather late in the afternoon :-/

Next day we are off on the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

An all day trip on the old steam train, from Strahan to Queenstown....

We didnt get to spend long in Queenstown, as the bus was there waiting to take us back to Strahan.

Back in Strahan...& time to take a walk & explore...and take more photos. lol

I think Strahan was one of my fav places in Tassie :)

Next day & we're off to do a Gordon River Cruise...including a visit to Sarah Island!

It was a freezing cold & super windy day....

Our cruise boat

The lighthouse at Hells Gate - the entrance to Macquarie Harbour.

Captain Linda...LOL!!

On to Sarah Island....which was a convict penal settlement.

Our tour guide...who was a bit of a character

Not a very good photo....but the little needle pine type tree is actually an 8 year old Huon Pine!  It stood all of a few cm high.  So it just goes to show how long it takes for these trees to reach as high as what some of them are....hundreds & hundreds of years!

Back on the boat

A yacht we passed along the way

After finishing our cruise, the rain had set in & was to continue the next day as well.....we had
planned to head to Cradle Mountain, but knew that it wouldn't be much fun, nor would we get to see much, with the weather being cloudy/foggy/wet.  So we decided to head up to Stanley instead, and then we'd come back down to Cradle Mountain once the weather had cleared up.

On the way we stopped off at Rocky Cape...you can see how rough the weather & the seas were.  It was really blowy!

As soon as we booked into the caravan park, we headed further west to Arthur River & "The edge of the world".......

Nothing between here & Argentina....hence it's name - "The edge of the world"

And now we're back to Stanley to explore some more .....

Next day we are off to Highfield...an old historic homestead just a few km's from Stanley.

And we're back on the road...headed for Gowrie Park...which will be our base while exploring the Cradle Mountain area

Along the way.....Port Latta

Table Cape Lighthouse....they even do tours inside the lighthouse!  YAY

This bloke looked a bit like Paul Hogan!

Back on the road....

With Mount Roland in the background

Driving up to Cradle Mountain

We get there....and there's fog everywhere!!

I was a little disappointed...but hopeful that it would lift later in the morning

A furry friend we met along the walk around Dove Lake

He wasn't shy at all....let us get quite close to him.

Still foggy!

We made a detour from the Dove Lake walk...and headed UP to Lake Wilks (a huge emphasis on the UP...lol,  as it was very steep in spots & lots of climbing up/down rocks etc)

Here we are at the end of the Lake Wilks walk (the lake is just to the right of us)....and now we're a whole lot closer to the Mountain....but there's still fog!

Looking down onto Dove Lake

The walk back down....rocky & steep

Then the last section....some timber steps

Continuing our walk around Dove Lake....looking back at Cradle Mountain, and YAY the fog is lifting!!!

Just beautiful!

I love this photo..... with the boat shed in the foreground.

A close up of the boat shed.

We stopped off at Cradle Mountain Lodge on our way back to camp.

We had stayed here on our honeymoon...almost 25 years ago, and couldn't believe how much the place had changed, although the main lodge itself still looked the same.

Next morning, we're on the road again and headed to Sheffield....the town of many murals!
Here are just some of them.....

They were all amazing...and again, I probabaly took oodles of photos, but unfortunately, can't share them all.  There was a mural of some kind on just about every building in the place!

Now we're heading to Beauty Point, our next nightly stop, so that we can go see the Beaconsfield Mine.

Green's Beach

A huge sea sponge we found on the beach

Narawntapu National Park

Next day....Beaconsfield Mine - the mine where 2 Australians were trapped inside for 2 weeks after a collapse in the mine in 2006 ...and one man unfortunately killed :(

It really was an interesting place...and we spent quite a few hours there

The 2 trapped miners

The clothes that they were wearing

Old ruins of the original mine buildings....with these amazing gardens growing in amongst them.

Mr Grumpy on the steps of the old school house...lol

Next day, and we're heading back to Devonport to catch the boat back home :(

A stop off at Port Sorell

And the final leg to Devonport.....our amazing holiday has come to an end :(

The last time we went to Tassie, we went for 2 weeks....this time we went for 3 weeks, but it still wasn't enough to see even half of what we wanted to see & do.  We do plan to go back again one day...and maybe next time we need to make it 6 weeks...lol  Some people that we met along the way were there for 6 weeks...and one couple were there for 10 weeks!!  Oh how I wish.

Oh well....as I said, we will get back there again one day....but there's just so much to see in this amazing country of ours that there's a few other places that we want to "cross off our list" first.  So it'll probably be a few years before we get back there....but hopefull it will be well before the 25 years that it was since our last visit!

If you've made it this far....you've done well & thank you!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share some of our Tasmania trip....I hope you enjoyed it :) xx

Probably time to now go stretch your legs....