Spent the morning casually strolling through Deloriane again. We went back to the art gallery. There was a painting there which George had seen and really liked last time. It was painted with instant coffee used as water colour paint, so all in shades of brown. It also depicted a woman drinking coffee. It was part of a series by this artist, all themed around coffee. We had found and bought a small print of one of them last time, but not the one he really liked. ...

Low Head had a lovely beach, but it was very windy, and this morning dawned cold and grey. The smoke had set in again. So we set off and had a look at the maritime museum and the light house. Had another scallop pie for lunch at the light house café. Now it was decision time. Do we spend another night in Launceston? Or do we head down and check out a few towns south of there? Saturday night would have to be in Devonport, ready to get on the boat early in the mo...

It's a good thing we didn't attempt the mine yesterday afternoon. We went in at 9.30 when they opened, and didn't come out until 12 noon. It was very interesting. Apparently gold had first been found here in 1870, and the mine continued to produce until 1914. It was shut down then due to a combination of the war and the dropping price of gold - it was no longer feasible. So the whole site was covered with old buildings in various stages of disrepair. Then in 19...

Today we are heading up the Tamar Valley. The plan is to do the west side today, then cross the bridge and do the east side tomorrow. On the way up towards Beaconsfield, we decided to drop in to a place called Grindelwald, which was advertised as a Swiss village. After a long and winding drive off the highway we found it - basically it was a resort attached to a golf course. They had set up a 'Swiss style' glorified shopping centre at the entrance. The shops don'...

Woke up this morning and found the air smoky and hazy again. The wind must have turned. Then we heard the fires were moving across from the west, and there was a fire just south of Deloraine, in Chudleigh. Glad we had decided against that. Today we decided to finally head for Launceston. We had been avoiding the big towns, but George had walked around the centre of town last time we were here on New Year's Eve and he was suitably impressed, and keen to check it ...