Yes, I am definitely in love with Tasmania. No matter which way we turn on this amazing island we are able to feast our eyes … on ever-changing landscapes, rolling hills, rugged mountain ranges, wild seascapes, quaint villages, historic buildings, beautiful roses in gorgeous parks and neat gardens, cozy cottages with smoke belching from chimneys, cows contentedly grazing on fields that are covered in wildflowers – a thousand shades of green soothing the senses. It is absolutely lovely … and, I must admit, reminds me a lot of Austria.
Just this minute as I am writing this whilst sitting in a coffee shop in a tiny place called Chudleigh, I watch heavy clouds of mist drifting across a mountain range that majestically rises in the distance. It’s raining. The rose bushes surrounding the coffee shop seem to be struggling to hold their delicate pink heads high under the heavy weight of water. It smells, looks and feels very familiar and immediately transports me to a different time in a different place. I could be sitting in just about any coffee shop in just about any tiny village in my home country.
As you know, if you’ve been following this blog, I am rather given to ‘waxing lyrical’ and if I were to follow my inclination this minute I’d be reminiscing … and God only knows where that would lead or when that would end… So, since this is a distinct possibility I’ll stop right here right now and will simply confine myself to brief descriptions of the places we’ve visited in the past so many days. Okay, here it goes:
Beauty Point: We stayed at a rather lovely caravan park right on the western side of the Tamar River. From there we visited a number of vineyards and enjoyed an afternoon of wine tasting. It was a bit gloomy and cool that day but the country through which we travel led on our ‘vineyard crawl’ was and is simply magnificent.
On our way to Launceston we stumbled across Grindelwald Village which is a lovely replica of the Swiss village by the same name. This village, apparently, is a very popular resort and is charming beyond description.
Launceston: An absolutely gorgeous town that charmed its way into our hearts with its graceful Victorian streetscapes. In glorious weather we took a 50 minute boat ride on the Tamar River and as far into Cataract Gorge as the boat was able to go. Along the way we admired massive old homes on the hillside overlooking the water, apparently none over $550,000 which is difficult to believe. We then enjoyed a culinary hour or two on Launceston’s waterfront and had a most delightful salmon lunch accompanied by a fruity Pinot Gris - yum!
Ian’s body was badly misbehaving that day. Not sure if his back, hip or knee were the major culprits but the end result was that he was unable to walk very far, which meant that we had to give the famous Gorge Walk a miss. We decided to, instead, take trip to historic Low Head – an incredibly pretty, well manicured and rather quaint hamlet that houses Australia’s oldest continuously used pilot station. Even though this spot is pretty as a picture, we found it be be as dead as a doornail.
Ian’s body was badly misbehaving that day. Not sure if his back, hip or knee were the major culprits but the end result was that he was unable to walk very far, which meant that we had to give the famous Gorge Walk a miss. We decided to, instead, take trip to historic Low Head – an incredibly pretty, well manicured and rather quaint hamlet that houses Australia’s oldest continuously used pilot station. Even though this spot is pretty as a picture, we found it be be as dead as a doornail.
