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Published: December 23rd 2008
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We caught the 'Spirit of Tasmania' ferry from Port Melbourne to Devonport, departing at 9am and arriving at 6pm. It was a relatively smooth ride, although we all felt a little queasy whenever we had something to eat. Alex and the kids took advantage of the free movies, watching Ratatouille in the morning while I added our Melbourne blog entry (the ferry had NextG reception). In the afternoon, we all watched another movie (Baby Mama) to pass away the time. Once we got off the ferry, it was only a very short drive to the Abel Tasman caravan park, where we stayed for 3 nights.
During our first day in Devonport, we drove out to Coles Beach where we had barbecued sausages for lunch, visited Mersey Lighthouse, and then drove out to the east to visit Port Sorell and Hawley Beach. After dinner we drove out to Lillico Beach to see the Little Penguins (AKA Fairy Penguins - Eudyptula minor) return to their burrows after sunset.
The next day we drove via Latrobe to Deloraine where we stopped for lunch, acquiring several different types of delicacies at Ashgrove Cheese along the way. We then headed west via Chudleigh and
Mole Creek, briefly stopping for the short walk to Alum Cliffs (Tulunpunga). Then it was north to Sheffield to look at the many colourful and striking murals and also to visit Art Etude and the World of Marbles. It was then back to Devonport via Lower Barrington and Spreyton. We didn't quite make it to Nowhere Else, so took a photo of the sign instead.
On Friday, we packed up and headed, in a roundabout way, for Launceston. From Devonport we travelled east towards Exeter, but took a dirt road short-cut to Beauty Point on the western side of the Tamar. We also drove across Batman Bridge and back again, continuing down the West Tamar highway, but stopping at Matthew Brady's lookout. Thomas especially was keen to stop at the lookout as he had completed a slide show about bushrangers in grade two that had included Brady. Brady was also known as the "Gentleman Bushranger" due to his good treatment and fine manners when robbing his victims, but this didn't stop him being hanged in 1826, aged 27! Interestingly, the Batman bridge was named after John Batman who captured Matthew Brady and later founded Melbourne. From here, we continued
south and did the Tamar Island Wetlands walk. Then it was into Launceston, where we stayed with Alison, Mat, Jaimie, Liam and their two dogs Kimba and Rosie at their lovely house in Blackstone Heights.
On Saturday we visited
Cataract Gorge , where a very brazen peacock tried to snatch a biscuit from Alex's hand. By the afternoon the temperature had hit the low 20s (which is warm for us so far), but the sun was shining and all the kids decided to go for a swim in the local dam and play 'survivor' on the banks. We had a short but lovely stay at Alison and Mat's. On Sunday we packed up and headed to
Mt William National Park in the northeast corner of the state.
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