Tasmania, The North West Devonport to Stanley

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We are now saying our goodbyes to the wonderful city of Melbourne but will be back again on the 26th April after our Tasmanian Tour. We spent a week with Coral and Greg who are also travelling around Australia and will be in Tasmania around the same time. An early rise of 5am we were packed and ready for the next adventure; heading to Port Melbourne to board the SPIRIT OF TASMANIA with car and caravan. A fairly simple operation but I would suggest anyone attempting to locate the Port of Melbourne, to navigate a couple of practice runs as we did with Coral and Greg during our week in Melbourne. Once you have honed in on your navigational skills you can be rest assured you wont miss the boat, literally. Another really good point to remember: if you do miss the turn off, your GPS maybe getting you out of a bind but it does not take into account low bridges found in Melbourne CBD, which are generally too low for caravan heights.
Once aboard The Spirit Of Tasmania we settled in for our 10hour cruise and took advantage of the amenities provided. Q Man and I were quite impressed to find restaurants, movie theaters, bars and lounge areas with plenty of windows for viewing Bass Strait. Arriving at 7pm, we were checked over by quarantine (no fruit, vegetables or fresh fish to be on-board the van or car) and navigated our way the local caravan park on the coast. The next few days we meandered up the Bass Hwy from Devonport to Penguin, Burnie, Sisters Beach, Black River and Stanley.
Geographically, Tasmania is a plethora of rugged coastlines; beautiful protected bays & inlets; mountainous terrain; rainforests which date back 65 million years; rich dairy pastures and diverse flora and fauna. Not only does Tasmania boast all that I have described above, it has a diverse art culture which encompasses the art of weaving and knitting with fine homespun alpaca wools and silks, painting, sculpture, glass marble design, wood design using precious woods such as huon pine, sassafras & mrytle to name a few. The list goes on from fine wine, foods and homemade artisan products made with care, attention and not to mention; made with love. People here are so friendly its like going back 30 years to the days when your Grandmother was around. Well it was for me anyway. Quentin and I have great fondness for all things, Tasmanian. Photos are never quite the same as seeing it in person but the photos might entice you to take a trip to this beautiful State.

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Photos

Spirit Of Tasmania
Quentin getting very comfortable on the journey to Tasmania

Spirit Of Tasmania
Dinner on the Bass Strait

Devonport
Sculpture of The Sea created by Aden and Kareen McLeod. This piece depicts the fascination and power of the sea.

Devonport
Interesting facts about the lighthouse in Devonport

Devonport
A couple of crazy guys jumping off the cliffs below, very dangerous as the sea is fairly treacherous. I had to take a photo as I couldn't believe it. Crazy Crazy guys but they looked like they were having fun :-)

Devonport
Devonport Lighthouse

Lilico Beach
Lilico Beach is between Devonport and Ulverstone, visitors can observe a small penguin colony, each evening generally with a volunteer and ranger onsite. Normally you arrive before dawn and wait a couple of hours for the penguins to come up from the sea. Here they build nests and lay eggs in the sand and once the eggs hatch they spend the summer months looking after their babies. Michael, Jill and Jacqui you would love this, I'm pretty certain it is the only place in the world you can view this - pretty special.

Lilico Beach
A little more information on the Pengins in this area

Lilico Beach
Follow this platform to view the penguins; you are not allowed to use a normal torch with a white light as this can affect the penguins (red globes are normally used as this is not as intrusive).

Penguin
Free Camping right on the ocean except we had a huge big train come right past the window at 3am in the morning. Can't always be perfect can it!!

Penguin
Still another beautiful view of our free campsite

Penguin
Not a bad view to wake up to in the morning.

Penguin
How fantastic is the sunset

Moo Cows in Penguin
Moooooooooooooooooo................Crystal this pic is especially for you.....MMMMMMoooooooooooooooooOOOOOOoo

Bass Hwy - North West
Driving to our next destination on the Bass Hwy.

Bass Hwy - North West
A horse is a horse of course of course but no-one can talk to a horse of course, unless the horse of course is famous MR ED
HELLO.......I'M MR ED

Sisters Beach
One of our favorite little free camping areas in between Burnie and Stanley on the West Coast.

Sisters Beach
Quentin looking out to sea from campsite......see the van in the background??

Sisters Beach
Looking towards the The Nutt in Stanley

Sisters Beach
Looking from our campsite