along the Chinese Heritage Trail up to 'Henry's Hut'. This is on the site of a Chinese tin miner's hut. Inside the hut is a small display and short story about migrant Chinese miners.
As we were unprepared for long bush walk, we were both in sandals, we didn't take the long walk along the 'water race', we returned to the caravan park along the banks of the river.
The next day we went to Scottsdale, in the heart of 'Dorset Country', here we topped up scripts at the chemist, and were delighted to see a Chicken Feed store. These are cheap, discount, variety stores that sell great potato crisps at $2 a bag. (I think that by now they own Crazy Clark's stores in WA).
We stocked up on said crisps, washing up liquid and laundry detergent.
There was an award winning bakery in town so we gave it a try for lunch. Mmmm, good pies, great coffee and lots of fresh bread to choose from.
Then we drove up to Bridport on the coast.
It was reasonably busy, but not as busy as St Helen's or Bicheno.
I think the 'peak' of the peak season has finished. I've got a sneaky suspicion that the season is only from Christmas to when the tradesmen go back to work on January 9th.
We then carried on heading west to George Town (yes, that is two words).
We passed through some interesting country, reminiscent of the scenery around Wynyard on the north west coast.
George Town was a surprise in that it doesn't have a large percentage of properties for sale.
It's an active working town.
There was a 'real' butcher in town so he got some trade and then we went to the information centre on the edge of town. The very friendly, helpful staff invited us to stay behind the centre in their overnight area. They even came over at the close of business and gave us the newspaper to read.
We spent a very quiet night there and the next morning did the 'tank business' (emptying black & grey water tanks, and filling the fresh water tank), then drove into town and took ourselves off on the 'self guided' Heritage Trail - a walking tour of the town and Port of Dalrymple.
That took us to lunch time so we had a sandwich and a milkshake at the signature cafe.
After lunch we drove out to the edge of the estuary of the River Tamar, to Low Head.
We found a shady spot up by the lighthouse and had a little rest before we headed off and visited the Maritime and Pilot Station Museum.
It was a very interesting museum and surrounding grounds.
The little area of Low Head is still undeveloped thanks to the foresight of the locals who raised the funds in 1963 and bought 550 acres of land to remain undeveloped. If they hadn't done this I'm sure that Low Head would now resemble the tip of the Mornington Peninsula - which is Melbourne's playground. Low Head would be Launceston's playground.
After tea in the cafe we parked up again, rested, had dinner and then at dusk......
Penguins
We had been meaning to go on a Penguin viewing tour ever since we arrived in Tassie and we finally got around to it. The timing and location were perfect because we only had 5 kms to drive at night, after the viewing, to our overnight stop (back at the info centre in George Town) and it didn't involve disturbing other caravan park residents or having to disconnect and re setup etc.
We met at the viewing platform and had a good intro talk and then once the first penguins started arriving we went off in small groups with our guides onto the beach and through the rookery.
It was amazing, we are both so glad to have done it.
The next morning when we walked into the info centre to thank them and say goodbye we were treated like old friends; they are such lovely, friendly people. And we whole heartedly recommend Low Head Penguin tours.
Then we headed south before turning north east out to Lilydale. On our way we stopped at 'The Fly', Tree tops adventure - a flying fox system taking through the forest and tree tops. We thought we might give it a go until we found out that 'the tour' takes 3 hours and costs $100 each. We could have had a segway 'tour' instead at $85 - but we chose neither and headed on.
6kms north of Lilydale we went to a Goat 'cheesery' - I kid you not, that's what it's called in the tourist brochure (no pun intended).
The Yondover Goat Cheese Farm is in an absolutely stunning location.
We had a tasting - yum!
And then we stayed for lunch, a cheese platter! WOW! It was really delicious, it's such a shame that this is so small an enterprise and doesn't have retail outlets, these cheeses are outstanding. We comforted ourselves by buying 2 pieces of feta and some feta in Italian herbs and oil.
Then we said goodbye to the kids, in the playpen (this time the pun is intended), and headed back towards Lilydale.
Just down the road from the 'cheesery' we took a detour to the Tunnel railway station. The town was called Tunnel because when the railway went through, in 1888, that was what was needed to get through the mountain - a tunnel. All that's left now is an abandoned station platform and the old tunnel.
We took a walk along the track and ventured into the tunnel.
It's a shame that this hasn't been incorporated into some tourist venture - it's just an abandoned, wet, smelly tunnel now.
Then we went back to Lilydale and set up for the night at Lilydale Falls Reserve - and that's another blog.
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