Wildlife Park and Leven Canyon

 Wildlife Park

We thought we would take the kids to a wildlife park before we left Tasmania, hoping to see some Tasmanian Devils. We visited Wings Wildlife Park southwest of Ulverstone not far from Devonport and were really surprised at what we saw at the park. We had expected the "usual" - mainly Australian animals and some Tassie devils. This park was amazing with animals from all over the world...




                    Byson!! Huge animals









   Theo feeding the ducks and checking out something his own size...

Meerkats...Ostriches














Quite a few Tassie devils...









Max got to pat a 10 month old Tasmanian devil too.

 

  Leven Canyon


 In the afternoon we stopped at Leven Canyon which was beautiful.

Sheffield

We took a day trip south from Devonport to Sheffield, Mole Creek, Allum cliffs and Liffey Falls.

 

Sheffield is a pretty town with murals on the town buildings. Apparently there is a competition every year to determine the next mural to be painted on a town building.

  
 

 

From Sheffield we drove south past Mt Roland, which was very impressive from the road through Mole Creek to Allum Cliffs.

 

We drove further south past Deloraine to Liffey Falls.



Unfortunately we did not have time to see all cascades of Liffey falls, only managed the first one…but we did find another big tree!

Diameter of 3.30m and height of 50m.

 
 

 

  
 
 
 

Devonport

DEVONPORT

We decided to head to Devonport, a little earlier than planned as we still had seven nights to go before we were booked to leave Tasmania on the 13/3/15. However, we thought we could use Devonport as a base to visit some places and have a bit of a rest from setting up and packing up more frequently. We arrived in Devonport at the Big 4 on the 6/3/15 and were able to catch up with Pete and Deb. We had ourselves some luxury with an ensuite campsite and it happened to be right behind Pete and Deb. They were leaving for the mainland the following night so it was good to see them again before they left Tassie.

The kids had a great time on the air pillow and playground in the caravan park…

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the Spirit of Tasmania leave that night, it goes right past the caravan park every night…

  

 

 

 

 

Port Sorrell

PORT SORELL

 

We left Stanley 4/3/15 and travelled east to Narawntapu National Park, just east of Devonport, we planned to stay in the national park for the May long weekend. Unfortunately, they were doing some control burning and there was a lot of heavy smoke coming across into the camp grounds.  We ended up leaving and going into Port Sorrell but we could only stay a couple of nights as the campground was booked out for the long weekend.

Port Sorrell seemed to be a quiet seaside town, the boat ramp was interesting. Drive out onto the beach and the boat ramp is there too – very wide and flat….

 

ASHGROVE CHEESE FACTORY

During our stay at Port Sorrell we went for a drive and visited the Ashgrove Cheese Factory. The boys loved seeing all of the cows out front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theo found a small cow inside the front door – just his size!

 

Inside we were able to view the cheese manufacturing process and taste the different cheeses. Yum!!

 

 

 

We passed through Hartford on our drive and the town was apparently celebrating harvest time at the end of the month! I couldn't help myself I had to take some photos of their 'hay' people.

  

 

Northwest Tasmania

 

 STANLEY

We left Waratah and travelled north to Stanley, originally we intended to stay for a couple of nights, but I went back to reception and got a deal for the week. We had a beautiful flat powered site on the water at the base of The Nut, so we wanted to stay longer AND the weather was warmer!  We used Stanley as a base to explore the surrounding area.

On our first day at camp we had a visit from Pete and Deb, they had come to visit Stanley from where they were staying in Devonport, so they stayed for a coffee and a catch up.

 

 

Max was also catching up on schoolwork…

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARTHUR RIVER

The following day we went for a drive through the Tarkine Forest, out to Arthur River and the western most point of Tasmania. It was very windy and cold.

"Edge of the World"

Arthur River in the distance



 



 

 

Couldn't resist this sign in the Tankine Forest!

 

 



Road to Arthur River

After Arthur River we stopped at the Tarkine Forest Adventures where they have a slide that kind of goes straight down!

Needless to say the boys had to have a go! I think Mick needed his back put back in afterwards! It was a bit rough.

 

 

 

Slide

 

 

Prepping for slide

STANLEY

The following couple of days we spent at camp,

Mick got some work as there were a lot of Mokes in the caravan park – apparently on their way to a club event in Hobart. A couple needed some minor repairs...

 

We took a walk around town, searching for Mick's next stubbie cooler and the kids had a great time on their scooters.

 

 

 

 

DIP FALLS AND BIG TREE

On 2/3/15 we headed off on another day trip from Stanley to Dip River Forest Reserve. We visited Dip River Falls and found the Big Tree. Mick had a bit of a quest going looking for BIG trees in Tassie. This one did fit the bill!

 
 

 
 


The 'Big Tree' here was a Eucalypt, 62 metres tall and approx 100 years old. Apparently this is not exceptional as Eucalypts can grow to 90 metres tall and 150 years.  The exceptional fact about this tree is its circumference. It's 16 metres around the base which is unusually large!




 

Dip Falls was very interesting and different to the other falls we had seen in Tassie. It was a very steep descent down to the bottom of the falls and the falls were "surrounded" by these "step" formations.




Mick climbing the 'steps'