Day 7! That means only 4 days left!

This morning the weather was terrible- very wet in Launceston. We were going to visit the famous Launceston Gorge, but the weather was not inviting. Instead we travelled to our next stop, St Helens.

The East Coast is more like your normal coastal towns on the mainland. The West Coast is far more rugged and towns are isolated from each other and from the main population centres.

Our room wasn’t ready so we had lunch and headed for the Bay of Fires. By now the rain was coming down and the wind was getting close to 100 km/hr. I quickly jumped out of the car, threw my coat on and snapped a few photos before we got blown into the ocean.

We then headed back to the Panorama Hotel, where our room was ready to enter. We have a magnificent view from our upstairs room, and the balcony is on the sheltered side of the building so it isn’t too bad out there.

We only have one night here so tomorrow we move on to Coles Bay, thence on to Hobart.

Today was cold, wet and windy in Northern Tasmania, so activities were limited to food related options.

Our first stop was The Tea Equation just outside of Launceston. The very friendly lady told us it was started by her mother and step-father as a hobby, but has grown faster than they expected. They take genuine Tasmania-grown tea from the Huon Valley and make up various blends. At our hotel, there is a daily compliment of two English Breakfast and two Earl Gray tea bags. I am not a fan of Earl Gray, but the English Breakfast is very nice.

We decided then to go for a drive to Devonport, a bit over 100 km from Launceston. What else is there to do on a day like this? Devonport is the Tasmania terminus of the Spirit of Australia ferry that links Tasmania to the mainland.

Not far from Devonport is Anvers Chocolate Factory. This was started by an immigrant from Belgium in the 19th Century. The picture shows the various types of cacao bean that are used in various stylers of chocolate making, as well as some moulds.

It was lunch time, so we sat down at the cafe there and had a completely chocolate free lunch. I had a toasted turkey and cranberry sandwich, while Margaret had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. That alone was worth the admission price as they say (admission is free, but you get the idea). Lunch was choc free, but we did buy some merchandise to make sure it was up to required quality standards.

I notice that today is Day 6, and that means we are over half way through our holiday. Tomorrow we move on to St Helens for one night.

Today we managed to buy some scissors. When we went through security at Tamworth Airport, they found not one pair but two pairs of kindy scissors in Margaret’s carry on bag. The security operators thought is was a farce that they had to confiscate them- what would we do with kindy scissors, do some violent decoupage? You would’t believe how many times we have said in the last week, “Scissors would be handy for that.”

Beauty Point is a point on the Tamar River, 45 km from Launceston, and is located a few km from the ocean. It is a few km from the mining town of Beaconsfield, which many people will remember from the accident that left several miners trapped underground almost 20 years ago.

Beauty Point has a long history of fishing, but it is also home to Seahorse World, the biggest breeder of seahorses in Australia, mainly for pets and research. On the same property is a Creation Museum, which is only open Thursday to Saturday in the off-season, so we missed that one.

We went on a 45 minutes guided tour of the various display tanks and the breeding tanks. They have display tanks of various species of sea horse, some of which are native to Tasmania, but others from far away places, including the Great Barrier Reef.

The facility also breeds a few species of handfish which are all under threat. These fish are native to Tasmania. Rather than swimming, they propel themselves along the bottom using protuberances that look very much like human hands. They are a form of angler fish- you can see the “lure” poking out from his head. Other fish are attracted by the lure and when they come close to get a good look at it the hand fish catches them.

This rock lobster is over 30 years old, despite thousands of visitors thinking it might make a good lunch.

This fish is called the Old Wife. It has venomous spines in its dorsal fins that deliver a nasty sting. I won’t make any comparisons with other elderly spouses.

Seahorse World is a wonderful facility. Nearby there is another shed dedicated to the platypus and echidna. They have guided tours there, too, but I think we were overdone with nature, and we decided to go and have our sandwiches at the Beaconsfield Mining and Cultural Centre. There is a very nice park there. Much of Tasmania has daffodils blooming in parks, gardens, and even along fences. That is something you don’t see in Narrabri 😀

This afternoon, I made a huge technological leap forward. I have this wonderful new laptop, the only downfall of which is it only has USB-C slots, that’s the version you get on phones. The trouble is that my camera has a lead with the older style USB-A plug. Until now, I have had to get my photos off my camera by sending them to my phone, then uploading them to Google Photos, then downloading them from there to my laptop. We found JB HiFi this afternoon and I bought an adaptor that lets me plug the camera to the laptop.

We have another full day in Launceston tomorrow, so we have to work out which places to visit.