Dip Falls

 

We drove about 40 minutes inland (south) from Stanley along a narrow farm road that is only partially sealed to Dip Falls. It is one of the more interesting of the many waterfalls in Tasmania, mainly because the water flows over cubic-basalt columns.

As for the other waterfalls so far, the water volumn was very low. Despite the lack of water, the falls were still pretty impressive. I can only imagine what these falls look like in spring. The falls are in two distinct sections with a shelf in between. The lower section is far more photogenic,

A short distance further down the road from Dip Falls is 'The Big Tree'. This particular 'Big Tree' is roughly 400 years old & stands at 62m. It is also was a 16m circumference. As for many old growth forests, there's rarely one 'Big Tree' rather a number of similar big old trees, including a few that have falled down.

We chose the Big Tree picnic area to invite the march flies for lunch. Harry's tolerance for the biting flies soon ran out & he finished his lunch in the car.

Stanley and The Nut

The Nut is one of the better known bluffs dotted along Tasmania's north coast. The steep sides of the 143m high extinct volcano are quite dawnting when you are standing at it's foot. There are two ways to reach the flat top.

1. The easy way. Take the chairlift.

2. The hard way. Walk up the steep zig-zag trail.

Stubbornly, we opted for the hard way. I'm going to say that the challenge of the climb was the driving factor. The reality was probably more finacial.

Fortunately, the reward for effort is significant. The unobstructed views from the circuit trail around the rim of the knoll are breathtaking.

There werre plenty of things to see as we made our way around the circuit.

We encountered abundant wildlife including a blue tounged lizard and a family of show-off fairy wrens.

Just as we were admiring the last of the spectacular scenery before decending into Stanley, one more creature decided to impress us with a flying display.

This Autralian Kestrel was hovering completely still in the face of a considerable breeze.

Truth be told, we found decending the steep zig-zag trail more difficult than the climb.

We didn't stop in Stanley itself. There wasn't much of a draw and we had lots still to do.

We did make one stop at the lookout point on the top of the hill that overlooks Stanley before moving on to our next attraction.

Port Latta

This morning we got going early to beat the heat. Today we'd be tracking along the north west coast to one of the mpre famous table top capes, The Nut, along with the historic town of Stanley that shrouds the base of the long extinct volcano.

As we tracked along the coast, we stopped every now and then to enjoy the views back toward Rocky Cape and Table Cape (above). About 20km short of Stanley, we were surprised to find a very long jetty, of all things. As it turns out, Port Latta is home to an iron ore ship loading terminal.

The iron ore is mined near Savage River some 42 kms to the south and piped to the port. Western Tasmania was the last place I expected to find an iron ore mine.

We caught our first good look at the Nut while we were checking out the port.

During one of our photo stops, we left the car unnattended for a moment. Sure enough the crazy rally driver was in the driver's seat as quick as a flash!

The Town of Penguin

 

The drive from Devenport to Sisters Beach didn't have much of interest. We were seemingly hopping from small coastal town to town. Our lunch stop was in the town of Penguin. There is a healthy penguin population that have nests along the local coastline. The towns folk have almost everything penguin themed. Statues (above), street furniture (below),...

Even rubbish bins.

Mysteriously, we didn't see any real penguins.

We eventually reached Sisters Beach late in the afternoon. By then, the temperature was in the high 30s! We had a quick drive around to get the lie of the land. ending up at Rocky Point (below).

The heat was too much, so it was swim time at Sisters Beach. Lost of people were swimming the the stream, but we thought better of it and made the effort to traverse the wide beach and swim in Bass Straight instead. There was just enough of a wave to teach Harry some of the basics of body surfing.

Don River Railway.

 

Today we were on the move again but we did have one activity planned before leaving Devenport for Sisters Beach.

Devenport is home to the Don River Railway. The historic railway is stacked with a wide range of locomotives & rolling stock from the steam age, through to more more recent times of the diesel age.

Harry's favourite was the Y-Class loco (above). He was most put out that it wouldn't be pulling our train today.

The Railway has a sizable workshop where the visitors can observe the volenteers repairing & resorting the trains.

Steam train journey.

The Don River Railway isn't just a static display. Most of the locos & rolling stock are still active, albeit as a tourist train. We were fortunate enough (depending on perspective) to be there on the one day a month that they were running the M-Class Steam Locomotive with the tourist train. Harry isn't a fan of "Stinky steamies" and wanted the Y-Class to be doing a proper job of it.

Mum was much more excited having caught a steam train to school back in the day.

All Aboard!

Before we knew it, we were off on the 30 minute journey alongside the river toward the coast. The original railway once ran all the way to Burnie, but the first few kilometres from the museum are all that remains in use today.

 

The M-Class is no little dinky toy. It is a prober heavy duty stream locomotive. Although the time for the technology for these old relics has long passed, it is difficult to look past the engineering & mechanics of these amazing pieces of machinery.

The loco pulled the train in reverse on the outbound leg & had to decouple and swicth ends at the terminus. It gave us a chance to hop out of the train & watch it in motion at close range.

We were delivered back to the museum safely. With another activity box ticked, we were on our way to Sisters Beach on the Bass Straight coast.

Devenport Ferries

Our caravan park in East Devenport was located right at the rivermouth where the Spirit of Tasmania departs for Melbourne. With departure information at hand, we set off to the river hoping to see the famous ferry make it's way out into Bass Straight. Our first impressions of the ferry were a bit underwhelming (above). We quickly we realised that this was in fact the Spirit of Devenport, a small cross river ferry.

The huge Spirit of Tasmania cruised past us right on time. Mersey River is fairly narrow, so the size of the huge ferry is quite daunting when you are so close.

Before we knew it, the Spirit was out of the river and into Bass Straight for the overnight voyage to Melbourne.