Columba Falls

On Sunday we drove from St Helens to Launceston for our last night in Tasmania. On the way we stopped at Columba Falls – at 90 metres high it’s the highest waterfall in Tasmania. It’s quite a fun [Tracey: - fun if you fancy yourself as the next Lewis Hamilton] detour up a tight winding road that’s been cut into the side of the mountain. There’s a short walk through rainforest before emerging at the base of the waterfall.

Cataract Gorge, Launceston

We were staying in Launceston on Sunday night before flying out of Launceston Airport early on Monday. The drive to Launceston was quite a long one at nearly 4 hours (including an hour out at Columba Falls) but it was quite an interesting drive through the hills – there are no motorways in Tassie, and the only advantage of driving a car with automatic transmission is that you can left-foot brake to pretend you’re a racing driver! [Tracey: - you see!]

When we arrived in Launceston we went to Cataract Gorge which is right in the town centre. We took a ride across the gorge on the longest single span chairlift in the world – it only takes 5 or 6 minutes, but I think Tracey held her breath the whole way across!

I had a fantastic (huge) burger in the cafe for lunch and then didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day. After checking in to the hotel (quite a nice one, in a big old stone building with wooden beams and waterwheels everywhere) we went for a walk around the town and down by the waterfront area but everywhere seemed to be closed on a Sunday evening so we spent the rest of the evening in front of the TV finishing up the local beer from the night before.

Today we left Port Arthur and drove back through the Tasman Peninsula toward Hobart and then turned North to head up the east coast of Tasmania. We stopped at Eagleshawk Neck where there’s a few formations in the rocks caused by sea erosion. The Blowhole is an area where the  ocean has eroded a cave but the roof of the cave has collapsed so the water comes in through a tunnel and then fires up in the air where the cave roof would have been. There’s also the Tasman Arch, the Devil’s Kitchen and the Tessellated Pavement (which gets bonus points from me for use of the word “tessellated”)

Just before we got to Swansea we stopped at Spiky Beach which is a really nice secluded beach. There was nobody else around but unfortunately it was a bit too cold to sit on the beach or paddle.

We’re now in Swansea and have just gone for a walk around the town and are on the lookout for somewhere for dinner. We’re sat in a nice coffee shop/bar with a glass of wine, expecting to get thrown out at any moment because it was supposed to close 20 minutes ago!