9/7/10 Launceston to Devonport

This morning started with packing up and loading the car and a leisurely drive out of Devonport. We had all day to fill before boarding the boat early evening. So our first planned stop was the small town of Chudleigh, on the Mole Creek Rd, some 60 kms from Launceston. This is the location of Melita Honey shop and museum display. We got to taste a range of honeys - the range was staggering really. Some we liked, some were way to sickly sweet when combined with other ingredients such as lime or strawberry. There were some odd flavours such as chilli honey which was an unusual combination. We settled for some local stringy-bark honey that was from a nearby mountain. The display included the process of the bees producing the honey - there was even a perspex hive to view them hard at work - interesting!

Next we drove to Elizabeth Town where we had lunch at the ETC (Elizabeth Town Cafe) which was a large place on the highway that used to be an old country pub. A little overpriced and our sweet chilli chicken wraps didn't live up to expectations.

Just a few km's up the road is Ashgrove Cheese, somewhere Jet had been looking forward to visiting the whole time we'd been in Tassie. She missed out on this last trip (in 2004) when the car broke down and we were stranded in Sheffield most of the day on our way back to Devonport. We tasted a range of cheeses, then looked at the huge racks of cheese in the maturing room. This room had little effect on our own maturity fortunately. So we went outside and photographed some of the colourful fibreglass cows... a bit like the ones in Shepparton's 'Mooving Art' display.

Took some back roads while the kids snoozed in the back seat. Drove through Railton which is the 'Topiary Town' - with heaps of oddly shaped plants, sculptured into place with wiring. Jet wandered and photographed.

The next town we passed through was Latrobe. Home of the Axeman's Hall of Fame. We didn't stop as everyone was still sleeping. We headed for the coast, Port Sorrell. At the end of the road we came across a wide sweeping beach, with the rugged tree covered hills of Narawntapu National Park across the estuary. With dark clouds over the National Park and sun to the north west it made for dramatic colours. We enjoyed a walk along the beach to a jetty and back which ran off some of the kids energy. Got a family portrait of late afternoon shadows...

It was only a short drive into Devonport and we went straight to Macca's for an early dinner. We then drove across the river to check in for the boat. After a short wait in the queue we drove on and found ourselves driving deep, down into the ships bilge... G1 was the car deck - you don't get any lower! Caught the lift up to level 8, to our room 8087, right next to the room we had on the journey over...

A reasonably smooth journey, it did rock a little in the middle of the night according to Jet, but the rest of the family didn't notice. Awoke to the lights of Melbourne's bayside suburbs drifting by the window, a flock of seagulls following along beside, ever hopeful of snacks.

Found our way out of the ship's dungeons and were home by 7:30am...