Friday 3 October 2014

TASMANIA - AFTER 43 YEARS
On 9th September Jeff and I flew to Launceston.  We had last toured Tasmania in l971 when we took our car to Tasmania from Melbourne and hired a caravan in Devonport and toured down the east coast and up the west coast.  We were young and naive and had never towed a caravan in our lives before. 
This time we flew to Launceston and hired a car, a VW Jetta and after a look around Launceston headed off down the Midlands Highway to our first b and b, Rose Cottage, at
Epping Forest.
 Cataract Gorge was our first stop.  We walked across this suspension bridge 43 years ago and as the chairlift had been installed since then we decided to take it over to the other side. 

 We had lunch in this quaint little tea house we saw from the chair lift.
 The gardens on the other side of the Gorge were so pretty and we were so taken with the peacocks that roamed the garden.
 At the Cafe there were signs that said "DON'T FEED THE PEACOCKS".  They were very annoying while you were eating your lunch.  Jeff tried to totally ignore this one as he ate his pie.
 Downstream of the Gorge looking down towards the Tamar River.
 Beautiful rhododendrons.  We saw them everywhere in Tassie.  And Daffodils, even on the sides of the road and out in paddocks.  I was surprised to see daffodils planted into the Australian bush.
 The famous Tasmanian Tree Ferns.  Sometimes called Man Ferns because they grow as tall as a man.
 A cute little wallaby eating an apple some people threw to him.
 Downstream of the Gorge.
Our VW Yarris we hired.  We weren't particularly impressed with it.  I would have loved to have layed my backrest back a little but never ever worked out how to, after much trying on several days.  The blinkers and wipers were on opposite sides than we were used to.  But apart from that it ran well, fitted in all our bits and pieces and was nice and warm, as the weather was still quite cool in Tassie.  About 13c when we arrived.

3 comments:

  1. Nice Blog of part of our Launceston visit. The VW Jetta made me realise what a good car our 380 is. Those peacocks were just like our seagulls in Wollongong when it came to trying to get food!! :) Jeff

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  2. Can't wait to see the "photobook" with all the photos

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  3. Love the photo of the peacocks head, very clever to get that...Jul

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