{"id":1353,"date":"2015-05-11T12:43:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T11:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2022-06-20T01:55:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T00:55:48","slug":"tasmanias-spectacular-east-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/?p=1353","title":{"rendered":"Tasmania’s Spectacular East Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arriving off the 6am ferry meant our first view of Tasmania<\/em> was in the most beautiful frosty morning light with ribbons of mist lining the valleys. Ah\u2026now this is what we came to see! At 2 degrees it was a bit fresh though!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8564\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After a much needed full \"IMG_8546\"English breakfast we drove to Cataract Gorge<\/em>, in Launceston. It\u2019s a Victorian reinvention of a natural gorge, tamed and civilised for afternoon strolls, brass bands, cream teas and, for the times, exciting rides across in a chairlift. It still has the original chairlift, which we had to do, and a bushwalk along the Gorge revealing its natural beauty too.<\/p>\n

Ben also noticed a lot of very familiar places names here!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8652\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019d arrived with a basic itinerary to work our way north from the port then travel right\u00a0around Tasmania starting in the East. So we headed up to the Tamar Valley<\/em> to Beauty Point<\/em>, named not for its looks but rather after a favourite cow that unfortunately drowned in the Tamar many years ago, or at least that\u2019s the story they tell the tourists?? There is also a coalmine here called Beaconsfield<\/em>, which may ring some bells, because, in 2006, it was the scene of an mining accident where 3 men were trapped 1 km underground for 14 days, while their colleagues came up with ingenious ways to get them out. Unfortunately, only 2 men survived, but their unfolding story stopped the nation. The mine is now closed since it became unprofitable, but they have a great museum and let you wander all over the site, including the cage that took the miners underground.<\/p>\n

\"Going<\/a>

Going down!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Teaching<\/a>

Teaching Cameron how to use a ‘dial’ telephone!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beauty<\/a>

Beauty Point – Moo!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_8633\"<\/a>Another interesting stop here, requested by our own little Steve Backshall \u2013 Ollie – was the Platypus & Echidna House. It is a breeding and rescue centre for these monotremes (the worlds only egg-laying mammals). I had to apologise to Ollie here because I had scoffed when he told me they were poisonous, only to be told by their keeper that Platypus do have a poisonous spike on their hind legs that can make you sick for some months. Ollie was in heaven when we got to be in the Echidna\u2019s run whilst they were being fed.<\/p>\n

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Platypus<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_8661\"<\/p>\n

On our drive east we stopped to see Legerwood,<\/em> famous for its WWI memorial trees carved into wooden tributes to local war dead when the trees started dying. It was ingenious and \u00a0moving.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8756\"<\/a>

Holiday House with a view!!<\/p><\/div>\n

Coles Bay & Freycinet National Park<\/em> was our next overnight stop. and we were amazed to see our gorgeous holiday house (amazing find Ben!!). It had wall-to- wall windows looking over the ocean and beaches. We drove the Freycinet National Park to do a long bushwalk down to Wineglass Bay.<\/em>\u00a0It is a goblet-shaped bay, but got its name during the whaling period when it was used as a slaughter bay when the water would turn red. \u00a0The walk down was steep and really hard work but sitting on the white sand in the now pristine bay was well worth all the sweating! Before we left, we had an early morning walk on our own practically private beach collecting large shells and wishing we could take this view with us.<\/p>\n

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Wineglass Bay<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_8770\"Tasmania is famou\"IMG_8779\"s for its culinary delights, and we therefore needed to do our own research. So leaving Coles Bay we stopped at the Freycinet Oyster Farm for some freshly collected oysters, Kilpatrick style and Garlic scallops \u2013 delicious! And of course great seafood needs fine wine so another stop at Devil\u2019s Corner Vineyard<\/em> filled the brief. Poor Ben was driving, but I was happy to do the tasting for us both and we came away clinking with some award winners! But if there is also an award for best view, this vineyard would win gold since it overlooks the simply magnificent Oyster Cove. Sipping wine, eating cheese, warm sunshine and incredible views, and it was truly hard to leave<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8793\"<\/a>

Oyster Cove with the Hazards (mountains) in the background<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Other<\/a>

Other unique road hazards<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_8777\"
\nWhilst driving, we were all amused to see a sign on the side of the road reminding motorists to \u201cExpect the Unexpected\u201d, only to round the next corner to see a large brown snake slithering across the road. Ben just managed to avoid it and to satisfy his curiosity turned back to take a look.\u00a0\u00a0 We later identified the snake as a highly venomous Tiger Snake.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3231\"Hobart was our next destination where we arrived on the same day as the Targa Rally (a tarmac rally race of about 100 cars of all type and age) and you could see them all at the Hobart Marina \u2013 Ben & Ollie loved it, Cam & I not so much. Salamanca Craft Markets was more my style for some excellent coffee and interesting food vans, including some delicious cakes to take away.<\/p>\n

So far we think Tasmania is terrific; it\u2019s historic, picturesque and untouched, three of our family\u2019s favourite things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arriving off the 6am ferry meant our first view of Tasmania was in the most beautiful frosty morning light with ribbons of mist lining the valleys. Ah\u2026now this is what we came to see! At 2 degrees it was a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4BBYQ-lP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2558,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}