South of South!

Tassie has turned the weather on once again; it's been beautiful for the past few days.

Native Oysters in the Snug River (where we launch the boat)

We spent Friday and Saturday fishing. On Saturday we did more touring in the boat leaving here and crossing the bay (about 9km) to Bruny Island then back to Tinderbox and home. Russ estimates we did about 20km. Naturally we stopped to fish and caught ourselves 12 flathead and a barracuda for bait. A seal spent about an hour fishing and sunning himself close by and we were amazed to see him catch something (a squid we think) and play with it like a cat with a mouse as he ate it. We are sure we'd have caught more fish if he hadn't been around.

Yesterday was a really calm day on the water so we boated the 6 ks over to Tinderbox and caught ourselves 9 flathead, one red gurnard perch and I managed to catch us two good sized squid. We have realised the squid here are quite different to SA and WA-much more slender and arrow shaped, with shorter, stubbier tentacles that make better bait. They are tricky little devils to catch as I reckon they are thinking fish! The nature lesson for the day was to see two fairy penguins swimming along across the bay. We both initially thought they were ducks, but quickly realised they were penguins-another amazing sight.

Today we had brunch at Banjos in Margate. We've breakfasted at Banjos before in Latrobe and really, really enjoyed it, but today I don't think they wanted to serve breakfast (only one menu and that was hidden) and the dining room was quite dirty so I wrote to the company tonight! After brunch, we headed down south once again. We've been to Huonville twice just recently but I love the drive through the orchards and wineries and along the river.

Huon River


This time we headed further south. In Ida River, Russ wanted to turn back, but I wanted to go the whole way as we've been to the most westerly and the most easterly points in Australia. Russ gave in and we headed to through Catamaran to Cockle Creek, the most southerly point we can drive to in Australia. We passed such milestones as the most southerly pub, the most southerly caravan park and my favourite, the most southerly B&B. I would love to buy the property on the southern side of that and start my own......

Cockle Creek




At the END OF THE ROAD (Cockle Creek), we visited the tiny tip of the Southwest National Park (a huge NP that covers about a massive amount of Tasmania with much of it designated a wilderness area and world heritage listed). We took a short walk to Fishers Point with its Southern Right Whale calf sculpture.

Fishers Point





Cockle creek was a busy whaling station with a big logging industry until the trees and whales ran out! Now it's biggest claim to fame is being the end of that road. We came home along some wonderful back roads wherever we could for great views of D'entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island and Huon River. Leaving Huonville, we hit rain and thick fog (at 5 pm) which made for a slow drive home.