Terrific Tassie Tour: Day 4

Cataract Gorge

Off and running by 8 this morning, checking out of our Launceston hotel. Our first stop was the amazing Cataract Gorge. One of my favorite things about the beautiful place is the city is built all around this gorge, so it is free and easily accessible to the people of this town at all times. To have a place this beautiful be so accessible in minutes from a good sized city is really cool!! Cataract Gorge is a “forested river reserve wrapped around a dramatic gorge” that has hiking trails, a scenic chairlift, swimming spots, gardens, and wildlife! There was someone filming a woman doing acrobatics on a tightrope today over the gorge. Not sure what that was all about, but she was (tied in) and bouncing all around the gorge. Crazy!!

Peafowls and Pademelons

Today we saw tons of peacocks that roam freely in the gorge (someone introduced them to the gorge in the 1890s in advance of a royal visit to fancy up the place). Some of the fellows were all puffed up and putting on a display for the ladies, and we saw some baby peacocks running around, too. We also passed several sweet little pademelons in the brush- so cute!

Bouncing tightrope artist

Peacocks calling

Avoca Pit Stop

We had a quick stop in the tiny town of Avoca (pop. 192), a former mining and current farming town. They had a cool church built by convicts that still stands, and a water tower that is part of the Australian Silo Art Trail, where over 250 old grain silos and water towers have been painted by local artists. Cute stop!

https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/water-tower-art

At Last… the Wild Platypus!

If you’ve read more than one of these blogs, you probably have a really clear idea that Rob and I are BIG animal lovers, and wildlife spotting is a big part of many of our vacation activities. Our Australian animal bucket list just got a little smaller today with the marking off of a PLATYPUS!! Our tour bus stopped in St. Mary’s, where our guide knew of a platypus that lives near the town bridge. Despite the pouring rain, our bus full of hopefuls got out and wandered the river banks, and sure enough… there was the platypus!!

Frolicking platypus

Lunch Stop: St. Helens

We had a lunch stop at this quaint little town on the east coast of Tasmania. With several members of our tour group we dined at The Wharf, and had a particularly spectacular seafood meal. After several days of pub/cafe mediocre meh, this was a real treat. The Tasmanian Kilpatrick oysters – chef’s kiss! 😘 💯

Bay of Fires

Our after-lunch stop was the beautiful Bay of Fires beach area that stretches a 50km length along the east coast of Tasmania. Our “beach day” had weather in the low 50s and drizzly rain, that mostly managed to hold off during our beach time. Two of our tour crew even went swimming! The Bay was so-named because when Captain Tobias Furneaux sailed by in the 1800s, the aboriginal people had fires lit throughout the Bay. The rock structures and orange lichen in the rocks make this area very dramatic, and the crystal blue water and white sands are a bonus. We spent a wonderful hour + walking and photographing. Another group member had a drone, so we even got some cool aerial shots! Our group has a What’s App chat that we have been using to share photos all week. So, in full disclosure, some of our group got better photos or videos than we did, so we used theirs for our post! Here are the results:

Bicheno

Our hotel stop for tonight is the beachside town of Bicheno. I was especially excited about this location because Bicheno is home to colonies of little blue penguins (fairy penguins) that nest at night on their beaches. Naturally, this called for a penguin hunt after dinner in town. We walked the rocky path around town and checked out all the tidal pools, then waited on the beach with some other tour friends. We got to see several of these little guys as they came in to nest at night, and some of our group mates saw a bunch at another beach location. They are very shy and spook easily, so we had to pick a spot and stay silent and still. Such a neat experience!