Maria Island and Spring Beach

One of our Bucket List for this trip was a cruise over and around and a visit on Maria Island.

We had had to pick a day that was not on the list for high swells and rain fall.

Turned out to be a good day but misty to start with.

Richard up top.

Part of the tour..unusual walls of vegetation close to a waterfall..or trickle fall.

Sea Caves with the most amazing colour ranges within the walls..

layer upon layer of stone, granite with colour.

The Sea Caves from further out....notice the travelanch (think that is how it is spelt, this is the stripping of land when a tree falls and clears the land below as it travels down to the water.)

The Mermaids Cave, three of which join up in the cliff!!

Pulled into Whalers Cove for a Coffee Break, the waters were much calmer in this spot. 

We had just been watching Albatross sawing the skies.

Incredible Fossil Cliffs. Dates of 240 million years ago were mentioned.

The Cement works..now dead, but the Silos still there.

Hows this for a Visitors Centre..all with whale bone outside!!

The Model of the Island.

The Jetty were we pulled up so that we could have a walk around the small residential area.

Still has a few people on the Island. Reminds me of Rottnest Island, no or few cars, bikes can be brought in, a few possible accommodation possibilities.

The Coffee Palace...decked out with a dining room, and lounge..

plus more in the future as things get refurbished.

This was in the Bernacchi era. A family that we will follow later on the trip. 

This family introduced both silk and wine to the Island and then Lime for Cement.

Blow this up if you can...good job it does not apply to Grey Nomads or we would all be buggered!!!!

Bearing in mind this was a Convict area to start with, there are many items and articles and also many uses of their original space..below is some interesting art.

Me trying to find the 40 spotted Pardalote...no joy try again on Bruny Island.

Cape Baron Goose with Cement Silo in the background.

The Painted Cliffs.

And on our return to Triabunna, a welcoming committee...

Peggy and Michael had caught up with us again...pub here we come.

Then one of the best pictures that Stephen has taken this trip. This is the shot at dusk, 

from the Bluff outside the front of the shack we were staying at in Spring Beach.

St Helens to Spring Beach

Freycinet Winery with Geoff the owner giving us a guided tour..interesting person, interesting wine and very interesting turning point.  The Nomads after a few point turn!!

The guided tour.

On to Bircheno and the Blowhole..I even found another bird for my collection here...

about time as I was getting disappointed in my finds.

Now this Winery had it's act together, a steep drive but enough drive way to accommodate two caravans.

This is Milton Winery...home of the award wining Iced Riesling.

And some interesting wood work...

....and collection of corkscrews.

Not a bad view either.

Next stop was Spring Beach. Stephen and I had been offered this while we were at Exmouth last year.

Thank you Janine and Robert for the use of your shack for a couple of days.

To say it was interesting getting the van up here is an understatement...but just showed how good Stephen has become..he even listened to instructions!!!!

Bay of Fires

Firstly, I have to comment on these bloggs.....they have been very slow...not just because we are enjoying ourselves so much but two other reasons as well. One, they have changed the layout soooo much that I have had to go back and start again as to how I enter all the text and photos, and number two...we have not had the best reception all along the East Coast which really mucks up the uploading...having said that...here we go again.

We got back to The Bay of Fires and came to rest at Cosy Corner North.

The rocks and the scenery were just as we remembered,

not such good weather and the wind was full on.

The birds were great and Stephen actually got some good ones that were not birds bums.

Some of these I am going to try and paint...wish me luck!

While in the St Helens area we back tracked a little had lunch at the Pyengana Cheese Factory and then went on to St Columbia Falls. This was further up the road from the Pig in the Paddock but we could not do this while we had the Turtle on the back.

Incredible foliage and other stuff!

Then the actual falls, these are the longest falls in Tasmania..

Also Halls Falls..not so spectacular but pretty none the less.

Misses Superb Blue Wren Tasmanian Form.

An incredible Double Rainbow at the Bay of Fires.

Picture does not do it justice...one of the best I have ever seen..

Not what I was told was at the end of the rainbow!!!!!!!

Thats more like it...the scenery not the GOM.

Pig in the Paddock

On the trip from Bridport, was to "The Pub in the Paddock" this was back from the road.

A quirky little joint with a beer swilling pig named Priscilla.

Bums in the air.....

Legerwood

We stopped just of "the Highway" in a place called Legerwood. Now if you remember we mentioned the chainsaw carvings in Campbell Town...well the same guy did these as well.

If you can read this it basically says that a line of trees were planted at the end of the First World War in memory of the young men that had fallen. Years later the trees were condemned but rather than cut them down completely, the decision was made to Chainsaw Carve them.

Each tree has the story and depiction of one of the sons, husbands, who went to war and never came back.  It is very well done and moving in a strange way. (Also a much better use for the trees!)

                                               Me writing as much in the Visitors Book.

The other thing that we liked about this stop was they had also converted the old Railway Station into a Rest Spot and BBQ Area...Well done...this was something that we would happily paid for and it is all by donation only....clean, lots of parking area and very informative.

The first time we have really appreciated something from the Economic Stimulus Plan, from an RVers perspective