Day 21 / 2015 - Devonport to Launceston

We watched the ferry slide off into the darkness as it headed back towards the mainland thinking to late to turn back now. We then turned our thoughts to all the attractions and natural wonders we will see and experience over the next 3 months.

Devonport is the gateway to Tasmania if coming by sea From the mainland.  One thing we have found is Tasmania does tourism well and feels like they have a tourist information centre on every corner. After a quick walk around Devenports CBD we headed off in the car for a look around the wider area. The first thing we had noticed was the weather had change it was quite windy and rain oh well this is Tasmania and you have to expect the occasional rain even during summer.

There are a number of attractions to visit in the area and in Tasmania it's not very far to anything after all it's only 400km from top to bottom so we made Devonport a base to check out attractions within a certain radius. Since Tassy is full of hills it made sense not to drag the caravan everywhere.

One of the main attractions we visited was the Don Railway. There is a museum of old rail engines and rolling stock. They also do a 5 kilometre run in a restored railcar which runs every hour. There is a large volunteer run workshop there with various pieces of rolling stock and engines in different stages of restoration. From Devonport we also visited the Chocolate factory  called the House of Anvers on the way to the town of LaTrobe about 20km from Devonport. There were a number of viewing windows where you could watch the chocolates being made then it was off to the tasting rooms. Cherry factory was just a littler further on down the Bass highway at the off ramp for LaTrobe. Here you could sample and buy products made from Cherry's including jams and ports to name a few.

Travelling into LaTrobe we came across a shop Reliquaire Toys and Gifts which I first though was just about Dolls and Bears but honestly this place is better than Aladdins cave. It seems to have an infinite number of rooms to explore they even had a Dr Who's TARDIS and a room setup with mirrors so it is like looking into infinity and beyond (pun intended). We didn't give ourselves anywhere near enough time and were ushered out the door at closing time without seeing everything.

After spending 2 nights in Devonport it was time to move on and we headed towards Launceston. We managed about 50 km down the Bass highway and come across a small town called Deloraine. There was a free camps spot here so we decided to stop for a couple of days and used it as a base travelling to places such as Mole Creek Caves and a number of delicious treats such as the Rasberry factory, the honey bee factory and the cheese factory (Everything to do with food is a factory over here).

There was another food place called 42 degrees South which sell smoked salmon (we were surprised it wasn't called the salmon factory). Each of these places would offer self guided tours or an insight into how their product was made. The honey factory at Chudleigh had a bee hive setup with glass viewing portals so you could see the activity inside the hive itself. At 42 degrees south you could hand feed the salmon in their ponds and at the cheese factory you could watch each stage of the prosses of making cheese.

Mole Creek is located about 30km west of Deloraine. just beyond the township are the caves of Mole Creek called Solomons Cave and Marakoopa Cave. The caves are guided by a park ranger and they take you through a number of chambers some quite small while others are cavernous. Marakoopa cave is unique in this area as one of its chambers contains glow worms. They turn off the lights and one by one you can see the worms lights start to wink into existence. After a while the roof starts to resemble the night sky on a clear night.

From Deloraine we packed up and moved onto Launceston seting up camp in the Big 4 caravan park which overlooked the valley in which Launceston is built in. This was our first real taste of the large hills with the caravan in tow. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania and is nestle in the Tamar valley. There is a highway either side of the river which wander through the Tamar valley towards the ocean one is called the West Tamar Hwy while the other is the East Tamar Hwy.  

For a day trip we followed the West Tamar which took us to Beauty Point where the Platapus House and Seahorse farm is located. The Platapus house shows Platapus in an artificially produced natural environment. The tour talks about the life of of the Platapus and takes you past a number of tanks with glass windows. They also have display of echidnas where sit on the ground and help them.

Seahorse world is next door on the same wharf. You are taken on a guided tour where you walk amongst the various tanks holding live seahorses at verious age of growth. The guide takes you past each of the tanks taking about that particular stage of their life. Most are used for export and are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Leaving here we travelled back towards Beaconsfield. Most know this place when it hit the headline about two miners trapped almost 1 km underground when the roof caved in above the metal cage they were in. In the Visitors centre there is a mockup of the cage covered in rocks and the lifeline pipe that was drilled beneath them to get them out. Having a look inside the cage I take my hat off to the lads after experiencing for only a couple of minutes the cramped conditions they endured for 14 days.

The next day we stayed local visiting Cataract Gorge about 5 minutes from where we were camped. They have set this up really well for day use by both locals and tourists alike. There is a chair lift which takes you from one side to the other passing over the river which cuts through the bottom of the gorge. There are some great facilities for picnics as well as 2 cafes and a swimming pool. There is also a swinging bridge for those who want an alternative way to cross the river. There are lookouts as well a number of short and long walking tracks to test both the beginner and experience walkers. Take a pinic lunch as you can easly spend a whole day there if you wish.

Next (which was one of my favourites) was the tour of the James Boag brewery located within the Launceston CBD. The tour starts off at the visitors centre where the guide shows you all the ingredients used to make the beer. He then takes you through various parts of the brewery such as the area holding the kettles used for the different stages of brewing then onto the packaging area where the beer is added to the bottles then packaged in cartons ready for distribution. Finally we end up back at the visitors centre for the best bit the tasting of the brews. You can choose up to three to test from and none of this wine tasting thimblefull sizes you get to slurp down a whole glass of each. It was interesting to find out breweries don't always export their beer but get other breweries produce them under licence. For example all James Boags in Tasmania is produced in Launceston but for the mainland it is produced in Melbourne or Sydney where XXXX Gold is produced at Boags for Tasmanian drinkers.