Today marked a change in the tour
After breakfast our first stop for the five of us on this tour was this reserve
The had two ways around down the stairs or down the almost vertical tram. We vetoed the tram and went for the stairs
We made our way down to the lookout and trails
As we got over toward the suspension bridge, it was easy to see where this place got it’s name
The look back along the way we can, showed the play area and swimming pool
We climbed to the lookout. The suspension bridge is just visible off to the lower right of our group
When we headed along the trail, it seems that we got a new local guide who insisted that he leads
We also got to enjoy a few things in the wild. This Eastern Gray Kangaroo kept their eyes on us as we passed
On the other hand these Tasmanian pademelon totally ignored us as we walked past
This place has been a family fun place since the early 1830’s or so. There are concerts, picnic areas, playgrounds as well as gift shops and a cafe
Carl, our driver, went to get the bus and meet us at Kings Bridge. We walked the trail along the river to get to our meeting spot
This does not really show the River off properly. It is wider than it looks and has rapids and cataracts all along it
The two guys climbed these stairs to look at an art installation, but us three women decided to stay on the trail
We actually beat our guide down to the meeting spot even though we stopped and took pictures several times
Just above where we were is the caretakers cottage
We then got a look at some of the old building on our way to the city park
Several of styles and designs were used, but it was lovely to see
The Main Street still maintains the feel of a time gone by
Most of the stone used in the building is quarried near by
The first college in town is a study in brown and white
Even the fire station built latter had kept a style that goes with the older buildings
I will be the first to admit that these guys were not what I was expecting in the city park
They have quite a colony of them there, they were a gift from their sister city in Japan
A little social grooming was in the works as we watched
The back building was added later and the group in charge held a contest for the design. It attracted architects from all over the world, but the design that finally won was done by a high school student
They had a lovely building in the center of the park
The conservatory was an oasis of flowers in the park
It felt like we had walked into the rain forest again
One of the new additions to my group of traveling companions, cuddles the wombat, checked of the water feature in the building
There were lots of go photo shots to take there
Two of the lovely features in the parks, one was a statue
The other Queen Victoria placed for her diamond jubilee in 1887
Then we finished up the town tour with more buildings. This one an historic hotel
The metal lacework was very impressive
The streets all seemed to flow in a wonderful pattern
Not sure what the build was built for, but it was quite impressive
Many of the buildings had iron work that reminded me of the French Quarter of Nee Orleans
We finished up by going by this part. The fountain in the center was delivered by mistake. It was order by a town with the same name, but in the British isles. Some clerk probably got fired for this slip up as it was manufactured in London!
After finishing the driving part of this mornings tour, we dropped the other three people in our group off at the hotel and the tour went from small group to private
We then began our private tour by heading out of town on our way to cradle mountain area
This town is no the geographic center of Tasmania I believe
If the cars where not there the whole town looked like it was in the 1840’s
I do not know what this was, but I looked out the window as we were driving an spied it and just had to get a picture
The weather had turned cool and off and on rain as we drove past pastoral country side
We then stopped for lunch at a place called 41 degrees south
It was a salmon farm in the middle on pretty much nowhere, but they had the best salmon sandwich I think I have ever had
This was one of the creatures that belonged there and kept checking up to make sure we were okay
Our next stop was for some honey tasting
They had a live hive right in the store. I am not sure how that worked, but they were moving and such
They had Leatherwood honey, that is only produced in northern Tasmania. It was so good I am bringing a small jar back with me.
Another of the new traveling crew as eager to watch as we wound are way through the mountainous roads
We made last stop before our hotel here
In the caves we were allowed to take some pictures
It had the most formations of any of the other caves we had been into on this trip
Both the colors and the flows were very beautiful
The Tasmanian Devil was the traveler who got to come into the caves with us. As you can guess, I have probably doubled the travel buddies I started with.
These caves also had a section with glow worms, but photographing them was prohibited
That ended our day. It was really pouring rain when we finally arrived out our night’s lodging. We had a nice dinner just the three of us (Dale, myself, and Carl)
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