Last 10 days of Tasmania.

We head inland to St Columba falls, another one of the tallest in Tasmania, not bad though. The walk down to the falls is full of Man ferns[ not tree ferns] and very tall trees. We stay the night here.
This area is rich in history of the Chinese miners of tin, now it is full of wine, lavender and cheese makers.
On the way to the falls you pass the pup in a paddock which has been liscenced since 1880 and is one of Tassie's oldest pubs. It has a beer swilling pig, no we did not stop.
We headed down a dirt road only suitable for 4 wheel drives to Ralph falls and Cashs Gorge.
We walk the circuit walk around as there is supposed to be plenty of wombats. We find plenty of their poo but do not see them, fresh stuff too , so they are probably looking at us from the low vegetation.
We continued along the dirt road to Ringaroma then bitumen to Scotsdale and camp for the night. $3.00 hot showers and you are next to a beautiful reconstructed natural park area with a frog pond and other ponds with platypus in.
Before Scotsdale we stopped at Legerwood to see the tree sculptures. The trees were sculpted in memory of WW1. Soldiers, Gallipoli soldiers and Anzacs of the area. The trees were planted in 1918 and carved with a chainsaw in 2004 and they are a good likeness to the photos of the people.

We had a young frenchmen beside us who was working at a vegetable grower close by for a couple of months. He gave us some potatoes and onions that were not to standard of sale so we cooked them up for all in the cob cooker. Most of the camp was full of Tasmanians and they were very clicky and would not talk to the young man or any of the other young backpackers here to travel and work a bit. We found them all nice.
It rained nearly all night so we had to wait for the tent and canopy to dry to be folded up for travel.
Then on to Lilydale falls and camp. We find they have stopped the $2.00 showers but you can stay overnight while you look at the falls. It was another day of rain and cold. The falls are not that big but the walk was quite good .
On to Launceston.
Walk around the city park, they have a enclosure for Japanese macaques, the originals were presents from Japan and some Tasmanian Devils went to Japan. We also visited the Community Radio Broadcasting centre and museum. Lots of very old radios and the first record player built. They also have a replica miniature of the ship that broadcast the pirate radio from the English channel back in 1960s.

The next day was spent walking around Cataract Gorge just outside Launceston, on the meeting place of the rivers North and South Esk to become the Tamar river. This gorge was formed over millions of years and was once the home of the Tasmanian Tiger. The gorge was discovered by the explorer William Collins. In 1890 the area was developed as a resort with a swimming pool, chair lift, band rotunda and a power station on the south Esk river. Walking tracks were carved out of the dolerite cliffs and 2 suspension bridges built. One suspension bridge goes across to the old power station . The workers would have had a hard walk to and from work each day as it took us a long walk into the suspension bridge and a very steep rocky walk back up the other side. In total we walk up and down the different tracks for 5 hours, some very steep some gravel tracks some no more than dirt and rocks, up and across to both sides of the gorge , looking down from both sides.



We did no more that day just back to caravan park for a shower ,food and a sit with a cup of tea.
On our way out of Launceston we stop at the Tamar river conservation area and Tamar river island wetlands. This has 3.2km of walking tracks through wetlands out to the island and back. The Tamar estuary is one of the largest in Australia at 70km, it is tidal all through with a range of 3 metres. Most of the surrounding area and wetlands were farming country in 1800s. The island had 3 small huts and an iron jetty for workers on the dredging works in the esturary back in early 1800s and by 1892 workers wre removed, but because of the huts the land was leased to Thamas Robinson for many years, 
 
 
We leave here to head to Nawrapatu national park passing through Beaconsfield and other places that we thought we might stop the night at. We did not like any so kept going, cutting across on a dirt road to the entrance of the park, arriving at park late afternoon.
After setting up and having dinner we went for a walk to find the wombats the area is known for and we found heaps, old ,teenagers and very young. There is also lots of Tasmanian paddymelons, Bennets wallaby, and some Forester kangaroos[ a little smaller than greys but they are greys].


In the morning we walk around the lagoon find some copperhead snakes along with water birds, paddymelons, wallaby
Tasmania has 3 snakes all are venomous, the tiger, copperhead and white lipped { formally known as whip snake. Fortunately no body has died from Copperhead bite as we have nearly stepped on some when walking in bush.The last person to die in Tasmania from tiger snake bite was in 1966, the same anti venom works on all three snake bites.


 
We walk to the top of Archers Nob it takes a couple of hours but the views are great of the park and ocean- Bass straight .The steep last bit to the summit is made a little easier by a band of Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos eating Banksia seeds and screeching.
 
 
We swim at Bakers beach and walk tracks, watch wombats for 3 days, it rains the last night pretty hard. We take a little longer to pack up as everything has to be dried.


Tasmanian Paddymelons are small about the size of a large cat to small dog so just look at the size of little one in the pouch.
 
 
Our last few days we want to do something different so we are heading for Tasmazia and the village of lower crackpot , a land of mazes.

The first town on our way we stop at is Railton, a town of topiary. Hedges cut in animal shapes and farmers with ploughs and at the war memorial the soldiers are topiary hedges.



Next is Sheifield, the town of murals . We stop here to take photos and taste the local honey. We must have tasted 20 different honeys, some with lavender , some with fruit , some with alcohol in them.


 We stop tasting honey to go and find camp at Lake Barrington.
In the morning its on to village of crackpot and its complex of 8 mazes, 4 of which are tradional hedge mazes.
The great maze at the time of planting in 1985 was the worlds largest. We took a few wrong turns, found dead ends but we got through the other side,.Linked to this is The Hampton court maze is a repeat design of the original Hampton court maze in the UK. The Hexagonal Maze is the only one we did not find but we managed the confusion maze ok. The Balance maze you walk along a low brick wall just like any maze you have dead ends etc and you are not supposed to fall off, but I did once and did one dead end so did Larry. WE also walked the kids one of the Yellow brick road with its story book buildings. The cage maze is built you guessed it with poles like a giant cage , we did take a wron turn and had to double back. 


Inside the mazes are The 3 bears cottage, Cubby town, Spook house you walk through in the dark, Nacy the witch, Largest Bonsai, Embassy gardens with buildings and things to represent each country -this is still under construction, the little pigs ville , humpty dumpty wall and lots more and of course The Village of Lower Crackpot built 1/5 scale of normal buildings in brick and concrete.
We head fun until after lunch time so we had lunch watching the rowers train on the Lake Barrington then headed to our last night at a new camp at Forth just outside Devonport.
We had a few hours to kill so went and walked around the local arboretum and found heaps of platypus in its lake. Then into Devonport and have a shower at the surflife saving club. We thought about a swim first and nearly did but I was still cold from the very cold night before. Then on to wait in line to board , waiting waiting for 2and half hours.
I am quickly typing this on the ship heading for Victoria.