Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd February 2019

It's an early start as we drive around to Port Melbourne to catch the Spirit of Tasmania ferry to Davenport. It's a long day as the crossing takes around 10 hours.

We arrive safely at Davenport, disembark as the sun goes down and drive on to the port city of Burnie where we will spend the next few days looking around.

During our stay in Burnie we do the following:

Visit Fernglade reserve and walk along the bank of Emu river, watching birds flit between the trees, spotting Pademelons (small marsupials) grazing in the bush and forever hopeful that we will spot an elusive platypus swimming in the flowing water. You've guessed it they remain elusive.

Drive to Stanley, a town with beautifully preserved colonial buildings nestled at the base of the Nut, a steep sided bluff that is all that remains of an ancient volcanic plug.

Not wishing to shy away from a challenge we take on the steep climb to the summit of the Nut that gives panoramic views over the town, beaches and farmland along this stretch of coast. There is a chairlift to the summit but not wishing to be defeated we make the climb back down.

We then drive down to the beach for a picnic lunch looking across to the Nut before continuing on up the hillside to Highfield a historic site of a restored gentleman's home & farm of the 1830's.

Our next stop is Rocky Cape National Park where we drive along the dirt tracks that open out onto beaches sheltered by contorted, twisted rocks and rock pools. We take a stroll down to a beach but we are not able to stay too long. The scene becomes hazy with the smell of smoke in the air and knowing that a bush fire has started north of the town of Stanley we leave and make our way back towards Burnie.

We make our way through some picturesque landscape to the Table Cape lighthouse that was commissioned in 1888 (the light was made in Birmingham, England) before driving on to the town of Wynyard and back to Burnie.