Tas - Launceston and the Tamar

Launceston is a city of contrasts, with modern marinas where there are many sleek restaurants and a wonderful collection of 19th century architecture everywhere.

Three rivers meet at Launceston, the major one is the Tamar where we went on a cruise up the river and then to the Cataract Gorge. The Tamar valley and the area from Launceston to Devonport has an abundance of wineries and extremely productive farmland. We ate our way through this area. We had lunch at the Rasberry Farm in Elizabeth Town where we decided to have desert.The fresh rasberries, grown on the property are to die for.
We then stopped in at the Ashgrove Cheese Factory, sampled cheeses and filled our fridge with many that we liked. Next stop was the House of Anvers which is the local chocolate factory. Oh My goodness! I am not much of a sweet tooth but I sampled everything in sight. The chocolate made here is melt in your melt divine. After this day of indulgence we should have walked back to our caravan park, not driven.
We have enjoyed every minute of our stay in Tasmania, enjoying the fresh and tasty produce, seeing the beautiful scenery and learning about the history of this island. I now have a real appreciation of the hardship that the convicts had to endure. The weather was not the best but we did have some sunny days in between the cold and the rain. One month was not long enough. Even though Tasmania is small, there is so much to see. We will look forward to a return visit in the future.

Our trip back to Melbourne on the Spirit was a little rougher than our trip over but I did not get sea - sick so that was a plus. I was bouncing from one side of the hallway to the other on my way to our cabin with the sway of the ship and once I got to bed went to sleep rather quickly so all was good.

We drove from Melbourne back to Newcastle on the coast road and enjoyed re visiting areas that we had not been to for years. It is now back to reality for us. We start work on March 2nd and move into our house on April 7th. I know that I will miss life in the caravan. I will miss the looking forward to of a new place every few days and reading about the area. I will miss the casual life and meeting new people from all over Australia. These last two years have been a gift to both Mike and I and we hope that in the future we can again travel around this fantastic country. Thank you Australia for giving us such a wonderful time.