Back to the Mainland

Cradle Mountain
 

The Edge of the World

The wild north west of Tasmania provided some dramatic seascapes west towards Patagonia with one viewpoint named The Edge of the World. One of Tasmania's main attractions is Cradle Mountain - an area of Alpine scenery. Spending a couple of days in the area reminded us more of Scottish weather with mist and drizzle - and overnight lows of -4 Celcius, but through the mists we caught glimpses of the more rocky outcrops of Cradle Mountain and wandered through some of the valleys where ancient pine trees, many over a thousand years old sit in the temperate rain forests covered in mosses and lichens - all very atmospheric.

Tasmanian Devil

With time running out on Tasmania, and not having seen a wild Tasmanian Devil we visited Devils @ Cradle, a centre where they are maintaining a breeding population of Tasmanian Devils, and Quolls isolated from the current outbreak of facial cancer amongst Devils which is decimating the wild population.



Russel Falls on Tasmania
 

Our last day on Tasmania was spent driving through the beautiful central mountains and stopping at Sheffield to view some of their extraordinary displays of wall murals and on to Latrobe, and the Mersey River to look for platypus. We were fortunate to see a couple of platypus - strange creatures,  searching for food in the meandering river.



Duck Billed Platypus

Back on the mainland we drove around Melbourne to get a feel of the city and enjoyed its fabulous Botanic Gardens, then headed south to Philip Island with its beautiful beaches and rocky headlands. It is famous for its little penguins and as we walked some of the tracks we spotted some resting in their burrows. However with the weather still mainly dull and drizzly we decided it was time to head north and east to find more scenery and to get away from the static weather pattern which had established itself over the Tasmanian Sea.


Little Penguin in its Burrow

Driving north we crossed into the Great Dividing Range - tree covered mountains with beautiful winding valleys. As it is out of season the roads and campgrounds are incredibly quiet. Canberra - the Capital is a planned city with huge spaces of grass and trees between its public buildings, but driving through it had a feel of Milton Keynes - lots of roads with wide grass verges and roundabouts.

Dramatic East Coast
 

We are now on the East Coast of New South Wales about 200kms south of Sydney enjoying the wild coast and beautiful beaches of Jervis Bay. This is a popular area for vacationers and as a consequence some of the wildlife has become very friendly - we have had close encounters with wallabies, kangaroos, possum and have even been attacked by a Kookaburra!

We plan to head north now to explore the Dividing Range and head to Queensland and hopefully even warmer weather.

 



Frosty campsite Cradle Mountain
 

 

 

Tasmanian Mountains

 





Captive Spotted Quoll