5 replies to this topic

[cathypault]

Tuesday

Day 7 Tasmanian holiday

We left the Oyster Cove Chalet at 8.25am.km reading 19043. Another big breakfast and some cold fish for snacks(it was a big slab of fish).We are heading south toward Cockle Creek. It is a beautiful morning but we won?t be fooled! The temperature outside is 7⁰.

We drove along the coastline past Ninepin Point, around to Cygnet, all nice scenery. At Cygnet we went looking for a wood turning place we were told was a must see. After some local directions and getting hopelessly lost we found it. Well a sign saying we have relocated to the Salamanca Markets. Couple of expletives then onto Huonville and Geeveston. At Geeveston we looked around the visitors centre and booked tickets for the air walk

We did the Tahune Forest Air Walk and it was fantastic. I was very brave and suffered it (scared of heights) because I knew the better half wanted to see it. Some huge trees here and great views of the river. I found it very invigorating. There are several walks here, we did a short walk along the river. It is 2.40pm and the km reading is 19258 and we have arrived to view the big tree. The big tree is the biggest tree in Australia and it was 6.2m diameter and 87m tall. You walk along a short track thinking that doesn?t look that big then you round the corner and there is the tree, wow. It was a big tree.

We went on to see the Hastings Caves and the Thermal Springs. Alas the supposed sightings of the Platypus all day, proved fruitless. Everywhere we have been so far it has been did you see the Platypus or if you look hard you may see the Platypus. Well so far we have looked everywhere but up the trees. The caves were great and the trusty camera took some great shots. There were only 3 of us on the tour so that was a bonus. We left the caves at 4pm and continued on to Southport Km reading 19276 and it is 4.15. We are on the way to Cockle Creek and it is dirt road. We reached Moss Glen at 4.45pm. We reached Cockle Creek at 5.15pm just before dusk. We have made it to the further most point south that you can drive in Australia km reading is 19309. Very nice scenery and obviously a very popular camping area. Everyone was standing around their fires. We drove back to Dover and stayed at the Dover Hotel in our own little cottage it was very comfortable and we had a great meal. The cottage had a wonderful view of Port Esperance.

I will post some photos later

[Mystic]

Another great read. Love the area around Cockle Creek, pity you did not camp there for the night as the night sky is the most spectacular I have seen anywhere in Australia. Even on a moonless night the amount of light shed by the stars make you think it is a full moon.

Dover Hotel is a nice alternative, have visited a number of times,(it is also your last chance to buy reasonable priced alcohol if heading further south), and the Dover area is also quite pretty, esepcially looking back from the jetty across to Andersons Peak. Makes the town very pretty indeed.

Look forward to the pics.

[Shane V]

Thanks for sharing Paul. Sounds like you were having a greta time. Did you manage to see a platypus while you were here?

Can't wait for the pix. I really like that area.

[henry]

lots of platypus in the kermandie river runs through geeveston a short walk along the river from the visitor centre to the river and along the path back to the highway (about 1km) you would be unlucky not to see one.
there is even a platypus lookout on the pathway specially to see them.

[Shane V]

Thanks for the info henry.

[frank_in_oz]

We stayed in Dover many years ago and wandered along from where we were staying to the pub to book for dinner. On the way we saw what we thought were oysters on the rocks and asked at the pub what they were. Oysters was the reply. We asked why they were there and not been taken and eaten and the reply was that most of the locals either did not eat them or were SICK of eating them.

On the way back to our unit we collected a few and had a great feed.

We had a fantastic 2 nights at Dover. Caught fish off the jetty, bought a cheap cray off a boat that was unloading and had a good meal at the pub. Great family place (was about 12 + years ago) The highlight for the kids was finding $5 plus in the back of the chairs and around the cushions of the place we were staying!!