Tas - Stanley

Stanley is a very pretty, restored Bass Strait fishing village with tiny, brightly-painted cottages neatly terraced on the lower slopes of an extinct volcano, called The Nut. We enjoyed walking around the town checking out the shops, the many B & B’s and then ate fish and chips for lunch overlooking the bay. As this is a major fishing port the seafood here is fantastic. I have never seen such huge crayfish. There were many in the tanks between four and six kilos each.
We left the area heading further west to the Tarkine Forest and the Dismal Swamp. The swamp is at the bottom of a sinkhole which has been formed over thousands of years of dissolving rock. One way to enter the swamp is to be propelled down a 110 metre curved tube lying flat on your back inside a bag with your helmeted head slightly elevated, in 5 seconds. I screamed the entire way down as I was flung from side to side on the “bullet train”. My poor neck, I needed my Chiropractor after that whip lashing ride. It was fun though, but scary.

As you wander along the four pathways there are works of art done by local artists disbursed in the forest. The smell of the forest is beautiful with blackwood, myrtle, sassafras and eucalyptus trees. It is special to see all of these magnificent trees close up.