Our route today gave us more splendid mountain, lake and sea views.   Bicheno promised to provide a blow-hole experience but it was rather disappointing although the rock formations there were interesting.

Earl wanted to visit St Helen’s famous for its fishing and boating and we stopped here for a while. It gave him plenty to be enthralled and horrified over.  It seems that the Australian boating and fishing skills are not up to the level of the South Africans.  That of course is a subjective view and as I know very little about how it should be done I shall just let Earl’s photographs speak to you.

Birds always attract our attention and en route we were pleased to spot a kookaburra and a pallid cuckoo perched on the overhead wires. Both obliged by not flying away as I clicked the camera.  I have been very keen see the native-hen which is supposed to be common here in Tasmania – and guess what – about five of them appeared on the side of the road but unfortunately did not stick around for a photograph.  Try as we might we could not find where they had managed to hide.

We also passed through beautiful farmland and the twisty forested mountain passes were impressive.   We stopped at a quaint tin mining village of Derby that seemed to have been frozen in time and reminded me a bit of Elim in the Western Cape.   Here, there were a few businesses like gift shops and coffee shops but not many were open. The schoolhouse museum grabbed my interest but unfortunately that too was closed.  We were amused by a rock that was painted to look like a fish just outside the village.

Launceston is quite a big town and we are staying at a Quest Hotel – self catering units.   We decided to eat out tonight and at The Indian Empire we had stunning curries!