Tassie Trip January 2015
Day 2 - 7 January 2015
Launceston - Beauty Point - Beaconsfield - Bridestowe Lavender Estate - Cataract Gorge - Launceston
It was an animal kind of day today. We left Launceston at 8.30 to head North past Beaconsfield to Beauty Point for a taste of Seahorses, Platypuses and Echidnas. We stopped at the Seahorse sanctuary first and were amazed at the thousands of Seahorses in various states of age being houses at this sanctuary. The most common Seahorse there was the Tassie Potbelly Seahorse and they can be found just off the pier outside the sanctuary. These little sea creatures breed faster than rabbits when in the right circumstances and so it's a daily activity to clean out the new babies before the Dads eat their newborns!
From there we pretty much moved next door to the Platypus House where they are attempting to breed these unusual creatures in captivity. It's not really happening as yet but they aren't giving up. The House also has Tasmanian Echidnas in a separate garden environment so that they can roam freely. We all got a kick out of sitting on the floor and watching these walking vacuum cleaners crawl all over and around us. They all hoovered some food quickly in front of us and continued exploring around our legs.
We had lunch on the pier overlooking the river and then decided that seeing that it was another cracking day that we'd head further North East to the Bridestowe Lavender Estate.
But first, it was a quick 5k drive back to Beaconsfield and a walk around the now shutdown Mine. This was the gold mine that had 3 miners trapped in 2006 with 1 killed. The whole town was taken over by media during the 2 weeks rescue mission of the 2 surviving miners and their harrowing tale. It's now a tourist operation and historical site.
We then hit the road for a 100k trip to Bridestowe. This place has recently gained some fame due to some Chinese celebrity being given a lavender infused soft bear called Bonnie...now every Chinese it seems wants one- they've gone viral!
We wandered through the fields and fields of purple carpet buzzing with thousands and thousands of bees inhaling the sweet perfume of lavender. The bees weren't interested in us though as they had much more pressing business in pollinating all the lavender plants. We had an impromptu private tour talk from one of the owners who was excited to see so many visiting his operation.
This place is spectacular to say the least. All up there is over 200km of lavender bushes on the property. Very pretty indeed.
On the way out at their closing time, we rolled over a metre long black thin snake on their driveway. Was great you decided to wear things the whole walk Cobes!!
Being so hot still by that stage at 5pm we decided to drive back to Cataract Gorge for a cool swim in their refreshing waters before dinner.
A nice BBQ dinner overlooking the town of Launceston tonight watching the sun finish its work for the day.
Tomorrow we are packing up to head East towards the Bay of Fires and the Tassie East Coast.