September 1

Tuesday 1 September

Today was a great day. We started off with a long walk on the beach and headed to the spot where the planes go straight over as they come into land. The runway is just the other side of the beach ~ there’s beach, a road, then the runway. So 8.10am saw us lying back against the sand dunes taking pics of the underbelly of a Virgin Blue plane and 8.15 am, doing the same with a Jetstar plane. Fun!!

We decided to head off to the west today and we saw some absolutely beautiful scenery along the way. We were able to get some gorgeous pics of snow on top of the mountain too.

We stopped at a little place called New Norfolk and had a look through a little craft shop where I bought some beaded bracelets and Bob bought me a pendant. The lady there told us about a place now named Willow Court but it used to be the old asylum that was built many years ago. She was saying eventually some of the convicts that were sent out went mad, so they had to build somewhere to house them. Governor Phillip had a house there and liked everything built symmetrically. There were lots of windows across the front of his building and he had the inmates paint venetians and other things onto the windows. We drove down to take a look and most of the buildings are fenced off now, although one is used as a community centre. Windows are broken and it looks as though it’s a place with a very sad and somewhat disturbing past.

From New Norfolk, we went to the Salmon Ponds that are in a little place called Plenty. They have a trout farm there and have a beautiful setting with ponds that hold rainbow trout, tiger trout, brown trout, brook trout, albino rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon. A few of the trout enjoyed the food we gave them but we didn’t see much of the others. We enjoyed a most delicious banana and maple syrup pancake there too.

The Derwent River runs behind the trout farm and on through the town of Plenty. It was in flood and the water was very fast flowing. We took a couple of pics along the way.

We continued on towards Mt Field National Park where we did a rainforest walk up to Russell Falls. The rainforest and falls are a real treat ~ the scenery is just so beautiful that you are in awe the whole time you’re there. The other walks were all closed due to heavy rainfall and fallen trees on the walking tracks, so we will have to come back another time on another trip to Tasmania. It was a little hard to leave this beautiful place.

So we headed off on our trip back to Hobart and this time took a couple of pics for Nick of a place called Bushy Park. The scenery was just as enjoyable on the way back. And so ended another gorgeous and full day.