Port Sorell- Our final Tasmanian stop!

Tuesday May 15th saw us pack up the caravan at Quamby Corner and head a bit North to Port Sorell. This will be our final stop in Tasmania before setting sail on the Spirit of Tasmania on Saturday afternoon. The drive was beautiful with some of the nicest farm land we have seen!

We booked in at the Lion's Caravan park which is quite a large park. We joined Carol and Stephen in a separate area down the road near the beach. Not crowded at all at this time of year with most of the Grey Nomads already heading back to the mainland. A large block of ensuite type toilet/showers were the amenities in our section of the park. Nice, modern, and clean with key access. 4 Stars! The sites are lovely and large and easily accessible. On the negative side they aren't that level and there are large distances to the power/water facilities at the front of the sites. We needed an extra section of hose from the Ransleys to reach our water connection.

We got setup before taking a quick trip into town to do some shopping. Quite a nice little town with a new Woolworths and a good size IGA. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach with the Ransleys before having a bit of a campfire before dinner. Nice night and good to catch up with our travelling partners.

On Wednesday the Ransleys joined us on a road trip to Waratah. We travelled West along the Bass Highway before heading South at Burnie. We made good time and arrived in Waratah about 10:30 where we had a bit of a stretch. We then headed about 10Km West towards Savage River before stopping at Philosopher Falls. There was a short 2 hour walk there that I only stumbled across on the Internet when looking for things to see in Waratah. What a great find and a shame that it is not better advertised. This would definitely be the best rainforest walk we have done in Tasmania (and there are a lot of good ones)! The colours were incredible with the brightest green moss/lichen you can imagine growing on everything. The highlight though was the vast variety of mushrooms, fungi, and lichen that grew everywhere throughout the walk. I've included several examples below but this is only a small sample of what we saw. The colours and shapes are incredible with a number that I had never seen before even in books! The photos below are unedited other than adjusting the light!

The walk had good paths although there were a number of wet areas. The temperature was only about 3 degrees so we were all dressed warmly as you can see. The walk ended with a good set of some 217 steps down to the viewing platform for the falls. The falls weren't the best we have seen but were still impressive and with lots of water flowing. The steps back up were a bit of a challenge before we retraced our steps to the parking lot. Lots more photo stops along the way!

Surprisingly we were the only people there throughout our visit which is a shame given what an outstanding walk it is! Not that we minded enjoying the enchanted forest all by ourselves!

We returned through Waratah before heading North on the Murchison Highway via Hellyer Gorge. This was a road we had avoided with the caravans but were keen to see before our Tassie trip ended. The road was relatively good until we approached the Gorge reserve where it became quite steep and winding. That being said it was far from the worst road we have ventured on in Tasmania and probably would have been ok with the caravans (taking it slowly).

Hellyer Gorge itself was a major disappointment. We had lunch in the picnic area which is quite rundown before doing a quick 15 minute walk. It wound through some less than impressive forest before walking briefly along the Hellyer River which again was nothing special. Not a gorge by our definition at all! Thank goodness for the great walk earlier or we would have all been quite disappointed with our day!

We carried on North after lunch enjoying travelling through some lovely green fields and small towns on our return to Burnie. From there it was a quick trip back to Port Sorell a bit earlier than we had expected. A good days drive and a fantastic walk!

Thursday and Friday are going to be easy days with a bit of relaxation, lots of cleaning, and some serious computer catch up. Sandra had the washing machine going for several hours while John spent the time editing/deleting hundreds of photos and a few weeks worth of Blog posts.

We enjoyed a lovely BBQ Thursday night and a big baked breakfast on Friday morning. Friday will be more of the same with hopefully some quiet relaxation time in the afternoon. We are able to stay at the caravan park as long as we need on Saturday so can head straight from here to the Ferry late afternoon. The ferry at Devonport is less than 30 minutes from here. Hopefully our Spirit of Tasmania experience is much better than our trip from Melbourne 3 months ago!