Launceston and the Tamar Valley

Launceston was the last city in our Tassie Tour to explore. We used it as a base to also look around the east and west Tamar Valley. On our journey up to George Town we went for a walk along the beach at the mouth of the Tamar River. As we were walking along we saw two horses come around the corner and watched as their riders rode them hard along the length of the beach and back several times. It was just awesome to witness such fit horses at full gallop so close up. The sound of their hooves on the hard sand was amazing.

Musselroe Bay

We made our way to the top north east corner of Tassie, it was not the best weather and the seas were pretty wild. It was a lot more remote than we thought it would be, very beautiful and lots of wind farms. We stopped on the way at the Pub in the Paddock and had a quick drink while marvelling at the size of Prescilla the Pig. We could have bought her a beer, but to be honest we didn't think she needed it!

St Helens and the Bay of Fires

We stayed at a free camp outside of St Helens and explored the Bay of Fires and the amazing coastline nearby from there. We had lots of fun climbing around rocks and exploring beaches. Tim rescued a poor Pacific Gull that had eaten a fish still attached to some fishing line. It was stuck in the waves, very tired and very angry. He managed to get close enough to grab the line and it broke. We don't think it was completely untangled but it was able to fly and get out of water.

Freycinet National Park

We were so excited to leave Hobart and be on the road again! Our first stop was Freycinet National Park and were greeted with beautiful weather. The beach was perfect for relaxing on and watching the sun go down, which we took full advantage of. We walked over the range and down onto the beach of Wineglass Bay... so beautiful!

Seven Mile Beach

After eight weeks it was time to say good bye to Seven Mile Beach. It was a lovely place to stay with the beautiful beach with its constantly changing colours as well as the pine forest behind it. The kids built themselves a great fort with the help of some other kids they met and over time it grew to be quite impressive. We had such a wonderful time in Hobart and will miss a lot of things, including the Bellerive Farmers Market, where we discovered a local honey maker with a great sense of humour!

Penny & Tony's Farm

Before leaving Hobart, we headed north and spent a day visiting my cousin Penny. We had a great day walking through her paddocks and Tim even got to work and helped load some firewood. The kids learnt how to play "Hello Cow" which they love (and Tim says thanks for that Penny). It involves yelling "Hello Cows" at a field of cows (or sheep or goats or horses) and seeing how many look at you. Their bulls, including Fergus a scottish highland breed, were very impressive to us city slickers. It was lovely to catch up with Penny and Tony as well as Mary (my other cousin), her sons Nick & Luke and Tony's daughter Julie and her son Jack! I don't know why I didn't get anymore photos than just the bull, maybe too busy catching up to think of photos.

Port Arthur and Remarkable Cave

Back to the Tasman Peninsular to explore Port Arthur on a very cold morning. The kids enjoyed the convict stories but really enjoyed playing with the leg irons. We nearly got away from them but they didn't seem to have any locks for the leg irons. Its a pretty impressive attraction and we were happy we had the option to leave!
Tim had heard about Remarkable Cave and was keen to check it out. We wondered if it could stand up to its name... we should have know better, of course it did! It has two entrances open to the sea and we got lucky with the tides so could have a good explore.