Day 248 - 256 Phillip Island Pelicans San Remo

Our caravan park was just as you pass over the San Remo Bridge and hang a left. From our van it was an access way down to this view. (Low tide)
To the left was the San Remo Bridge (no it was not made of pasta). The tides here were ferocious, flooding into Western Port Bay. Not bad for fishing though... we didn't try but saw many lines out on the tide turns.
The San Remo Co-op has a daily Pelican feeding session, with these bombers coming into land with great gusto (see below). I still think their faces are comical, so they tend  to be used in cartoons...

Day 248 - 256 Phillip Island

The Nobbies are at the tip of the Island, and have a natural wonder all of their own. The island that you see in the background is Seal Island. There are many tours out to view the graceful seals in their own environment, but we just enjoyed from the mainland, well main island anyway. 
Not bad coastline, with crashing waves and a large swell. We saw Abalone divers, meters from the shore... no thanks, not a job I would be interested in!
This is also the area for the famous penguin parade. The parade is always at dusk, with these fascinating creatures coming up the beaches to their nests after a full day of fishing. While we were there there were still some of the penguins moulting. While moulting they can not go in the water... so they hide in their nests or in dark areas awaiting the food train that will come in when dusk falls.
Another area on the coast was the Pyramid Rock....looks like a tit so Stephen takes a picture!!!!!!! He sees them everywhere.....

Day 247 Return to Melbourne

On our way back to Melbourne after a fabulous 27 days in Tasmania. We should have stayed another month and I still think that would not have been enough time. The weather could have been a little kinder, but overall we could not complain, we had gone from heat to rain storms to snow in that time.... and they think Melbourne can have all the season! We spoilt ourselves with a lovely meal in the restaurant, a bottle of wine, Tasmanian of course, and a toast to the Apple Isle.
Perfect crossing weather, with only a slight swell, Stephen sighted this outgoing ship, with incredible light and sky.
Back to the city, we put the SatNav  on and went out to see Kristian for a late evening Pizza and a hug before we move on again in the morning.....off to Phillip Island. 

Day 246 Sheffield to Port Sorrel

On our way down the hill to Port Sorrel for our last night on the fabulous Tasmanian Island, we stopped off for lunch in mural town, Sheffield. Some of which you can see below. We also found a lovely shop that was full of dolls, teddy's, boxes, canisters, Elvis dolls, carriages and much more. It was owned by a lovely old lady who was having to sell everything as she could not afford the rent any more....so to the rescue, well to help, I acquired Tassie the new teddy on the block.
Now what I want to know is if this is the sort of thing that you can paint on walls, why is it that we can not get the graffiti artist to do things like this...there were so many in the town that we have only been able to post a few on the blog.  
There are some that are primarily two dimensional and then there are some were you feel that you can walk straight into them.
This is a must read, double click to enlarge.

Day 245 -246 Cradle Mountain What a difference a day makes!

Stephen decided the next morning that another walk was in the air....and a few reshots.
He caught the shuttle up to Snake Hill Walk, along the board walk, with fields of button grass.
The clouds had lifted and a clear Dove Lake was a picture in it's self.
And having had a dull Boat Shed the day before...this is a completely different feel for the same shot...

Day 245 -246 Cradle Mountain

I had the great pleasure of taking Stephen up to Cradle Mountain...I had explained how glorious it is,but still I do not think he believed me, until he got there...."Is this were the Almighty was born".
Having said that we had arrived late in the day, onto an unpowered site that was only big enough for a large tent or small mobile home, certainly not enough room for a Toby and Turtle....we had had a leak in the hatch in the lounge area, it snowed on the Cradle that night and I slept with the bogy man (Stephen in a beanie in bed)!!!!!!!!!
The walk around Dove Lake was a lot wetter than the last time that I did it, so a lot of the waterfalls were in full swing...still a very beautiful area, that takes your breath away.
This is the old Boat Shed, not really used any more these days, although you can still hire canoes and go round the lake. (What a difference  a day makes, check out next posting.)
As you can see...bloody freezing! But did we enjoy, of course, it was brilliant, even if I was a little sore the next day!

Day 241 - 245 Launceston/Longford

We spent a few days in the Launceston region and caught up with Ron & Teresa (Happy 60th) and managed to get together for coffee and dinner..great Indian.... Stephen did the tour at Boag and as I don't drink beer I opted out of this one. The building was interesting though and some of the original photo's for their advertising campaign's, done by Helmet Newton were very entertaining!
Outskirts of Launceston, small areas of old English style (Tudor) buildings, with cliffs almost as side walls....
Old Sport Car stuffed into a Pub/Bistro window at Longford, were the races used to be run in the mid 1960's, with memorabilia all around the walls. To much to see, so much to do and not time

Day 241 - 245 Launceston

Cataract Gorge is one of those must see places...we were there when the Get Away team were filming all this majestic landscape in the pouring rain. Still, Stephen has this need to get me up on chair lifts...this one has the longest single span in the world.
We had purchased an up to the top pass for us both and just me for the downward return..this was fine till I realised that Stephen was giggling at me because it meant that I would have to come down on my own......more of that later!!
The gardens up here are stupendous and still have the feel of yesteryear, this was taken from the cafe (not bad coffee), and shows the old music pavilion, you can't see them in this picture but we found a Peacock hen (or peahen, I think they are called) with two chicks just in front of this building...really sets the scene.
Yes, this is me coming down the chair lift...luckily you can't zoom in to see the white knuckles!!!!
Stephen walked back to the base, across bridges and river to get back to the terrified me...... 

Day 239-241 Bay of Fires St Helens

We pushed on heading for the Bay of Fires... On the way we found a shed, that's all it was a small shed that had a variety of sea life, including these lovely Sea Horses.
We did a small detour to St Mary's, which was a very windy road, and we found this interesting old Railway Station that had been converted to a Cafe come Historic Rooms...unfortunately, this was for sale @$195k and shut....still had lunch on their lawn, with quite a lot of other company who had also come for the Cafe but found it shut!!
This is the Bay of Fires, very aptly named with these incredible colour's across the rocks and surrounding area.

The seas were fairly fierce but very photogenic! We had found a place called Cosy Corner North which was a free camp. We stayed for two night's but should have stayed for longer.....we were just about on the beach, with views through the trees to the beach just below...heavenly.

Day 238-239 Wineglass Bay/Cole Bay

Coles Bay is a pretty little place, with one of the worst caravan parks for parking that we have come across.. That is one thing that we have noticed, caravans are now coming to Tasmania in droves but up to a few years ago there was only tents and mobile homes....well the sites have not been converted to be caravan friendly..... we thought this one bad but worst was yet to come.... 

Anyway, back to the story..Coles Bay very pretty and close for the walks to Wineglass Bay.
I did not do this walk as the hip was playing up and Stephen had ascertained that there were 600 steps...no way was I doing that...I had done some of this with JJ so all was well. Stephen's knees suffered so I was very glad I didn't do it.

Some of the pathways were considerate in supplying a seat, or is this sculpture?
Stephen and his nature photo's, not sure which way round we are here!!!!!

Day 238 Tessellated Pavement

On our way out from Port Arthur we stopped off at the Tessellated Pavement. Incredible what nature does, something we were not aware of was that they actually used some of these preformed blocks in the building of Port Arthur....
Some of the Pavements have channels in them..makes me wonder if this is were they removed the blocks in years gone by.
At Eaglehawk Neck, we stopped to see the statue and information plaque on the Dog Line. Worth blowing up and reading
These poor creatures were left hungry and chained to platforms so that they could attack any prisoners that made it to the Neck while attempting to escape.

Day 237-238 Port Arthur

I had visited Port Arthur with JJ, seven years ago and although we did not have bad weather during the day we had the worst weather during the Ghost Tour with rain and sleet coming at us from right angles...well Stephen & I got the rain pretty much all day, but that's the nature of the place...it all adds to it's dismal past. Having said that, it does have a beauty and atmosphere all of it's own....I have never been the best in churches, feeling that they are sometimes over the top...this one is great the sky is the ceiling and all of nature to behold.
Bearing in mind that this is still an area that is being restored and a huge tourist attraction, it is a credit to the organiser's with this huge area being a pleasure to explore.
Were the buildings are in disrepair, they have made areas safe and still kept the original look, none of this replace and you can't get a feel for what it was like...bearing in mind that the Government tried to get rid of as much of the area of Port Arthur because of it's past.
This is just above the old Military Station.
Looking through some of the buildings with only the ruined walls and ghost's of the past around you....eerie and very poignant.