February 29 ,2024

Day 9: Launceston and on to Cradle Mountain



Happy Leap Year! We decided to take advantage of our extra day this year, and visit the Cataract Gorge Reserve , just outside of Launceston. The gorge is a forested reserve area at the edge of the city along the Esk River. The reserve has a chairlift , suspension bridge and numerous trails around the gorge and basin area. 

We followed the trail up the Esk River above the basin. The walk is along the edge of the gorge. The sides are lined with huge upright rock formations. Aboriginal legend has it that the rocks are warriors who were turned to stone to stand guard over the gorge. 


There are many spectacular views along your hike. 




The gorge is also home to a colony of peascocks and peahens who can be found all over the reserve.



After the gorge we went to the gardens at the city park in the centre of Launceston. Before visiting the flowers, we went to see the Macaque monkeys. Im still unclear why these monkeys, originally from Japan, have a home in Tasmania, but they seem to draw a big crowd. 





The dahlia display was incredible. A wide range of different dahlias were in bloom. Since we grow dahlias at home it was wonderful to see them in bloom yet again. The only drawback was that there were no signs. telling us what type of dahlias they were. However , this was a small drawback , and did not take away from the pleasure of seeing such beautiful flowers. 






Our final stop of the day was a small winery in the Tamar Valley north of Launceston. The Evenfall Winery lies on a hill overlooking thee Tamar River. The wine was delicious and what a delight to spend time drinking wine in such a picturesque spot. 



After enjoying some fine wine, we made the two hour drive to Cradle Mountain where we are spending the night in a cabin before exploring the beautiful Cradle Mountain National Park. 




















Popular posts from this blog

Image
Day 1 & 2: February 19, 2024 - February 21, 2024 As we began our adventure , I ventured outside our home front door and took this picture to remind myself of what we were leaving behind. Kingston was cold and snowy this morning. It was around -11 C and the sunshine was bright on the new snow fall we received over the weekend. And while it has not been a very cold or snowy winter, it will be a wonderful change to experience summer in February.  Our travels today included a train from Kingston to Toronto, a five hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver and finally a 13 + hr flight from Vancouver to Brisbane. In many ways , the trip is a marathon. In fact as I write this part of the entry, we are 90 minutes from landing in Brisbane. To be honest, at this point in the journey you want it all to just end. However it has been a good day of travel. Our flights have been on time, the service has been good, and the meals have been ok (which passes as a compliment for airplane food). After ...
Read more
Image
 March 8, 2024 Day 17: Inverloch Today we made the 2.5 hour trek from Ballar to Inverloch. Inverloch lies on the southern coast of Victoria, approximately 250 kms from Ballarat. The drive takes you through Melbourne to the southern coast. It's a holiday weekend here in Australia, so traffic was a bit heavy but we made the trip in good time. We arrived in Inverloch around 2:30. Inverloch is a small beach side community. Like many beach communities it has a small main drag where you can find a few restaurants, pubs, ice cream shop and a few surf shops. We did a short tour of the main drag then headed to the beach. Inverloch has beautiful calm waters that lie on Anderson Inlet. The beach seems to stretch on forever, and as we walked we came upon people fishing, sunbathing and other water sports. After spending almost 3 hours in the car it was a glorious walk. We even decided to dip our feet into the the Southern Ocean. The water felt wonderful ! After our walk we visited a "hotel...
Read more