Stanley and Boat Harbour Beach

The ruins of a convict barracks and the 'Nut' in the distance.

I love the different varieties of gum trees.

The rocky coast of ah... Rocky Cape National Park.

Strange rock formations at Boat Harbour Beach.

The river flowing through the Sisters Beach.

Friday, April 1^st.

Happy Birthday Megan! It's a big one.

I headed into Sheffield early and had bacon and eggs in a cafe in town before heading over to the mural painting competition. I talked to the lady collecting a 'gold coin' donation. She had been to Canada and loved it. She gave me a push pin to mark my home on their world map. I was amazing how many people came from other places in the world. Of course most were from Tassie or Aussie, but there were people from all over the world. This is an international competition and there was an artist from the US, Poland and Canada (Vancouver). I talked to him and wished him luck with the judging tomorrow.

Then I left and drove out of town towards Stanley on the north-west shore. On the Tasman highway I made note of places to visit on the way back to the ferry.

Stanley was a lovely small fishing village at the base of a large rock formation. I drove around the town and up to the lookout to see the town nestled around the foot of the 'Nut'. On top of the hill I learned this area was called Cape Grim and that there was a small convict barracks up there. They were used to help with logging.

When I left Stanley I headed back eat to where I have to get the ferry this evening. I stopped en route at a couple of places. I visited Rocky Cape National Park, which is a small rough park. It consists of several large hills and a very rugged rocky coast lines. This was obviously a volcanic area and the rock was razor sharp.

Then I went to Boat Harbour Beach. It would be another lovely beach on a warmer sunnier day, but today it was blustery and overcast. I had lunch at the cafe there. I ordered grilled fish and the meal was excellent. The fish was called blue-eyed trevalla, never heard of that one before. From there I drove another ten kilometres to check out Sisters Beach. Another lovely rough beach.

Next I stopped at a penguin colony. It was behind a fence so no one could disturb them. There was information about them, but I didn't see any, as they were probably all in their dens for the day. The only thing I saw was two rabbits! First I've seen in Australia.

Lastly I stopped at the town called Penguin. It was named that years ago by a famous naturalist. But there was not much there, so I headed on. The sun came out and the hills and farms look very lush.

When I got to Devonport, I gassed up, put air in the tires and cleaned the windows. Then I bought a t-shirt and visited an ATM before lining up to load for the boat. This time the boarding was much quicker and we got on on time.

I typed up the blog, had a sandwich and went to bed early. I was in bed before my room mates. We are going to be woken up at 5:30. 

Drove a total of 335 kms today.