North west Tasmania

On Friday we left our favourite campspot and travelled to Stanley in the northwest corner of Tasmania. It is a quaint town and is known for the Nut - a very large rock that dwarfs the town sits right on the ocean shore. We climbed this Nut, it is a short but very steep climb and then walked around the top (about 1.5km round walk) Molly has climbed it twice, once with Darren and then with all of us - she is amazing a very determined little girl and it sure gets her places!

Then on Sunday we took the chair lift to the top for a more leisurely way, not that I felt it was, I was a little nervous as the ground disappeared beneath me, but it was a great experience. You can see by the pictures how steep the track and lift were. That is Darren, Sophia and Grace on the chair lift and Jerome and Josie are on the one down near the jump off point!

We went for drive in the afternoon and visited a Timber heritage place that explained alot about the pioneers who began logging in the early days - a hard job for a man's man. It was very interesting to learn what they did and how difficult it was for them, yet how resourceful and creative they had to be in their forest environment. From there we went to Dip Falls, aptly named as Sophia decided to take a dip when crossing the shallow creek!

On Monday the rain came in and we left Stanley and headed back east to Deloraine where we free camped and enjoyed another quaint town, which reminded me a bit of Northam, a swing bridge over a runny creek, etc. Our first night there was really cold as the wind and rain set in a bit. We got out the winter pj's and had porridge for breakfast - hard to believe as it is still February! And we know Perth WA is sweltering at the moment, so I hope you are all coping with the heat over there.

We visited Liffey Falls. We walked a few kms through the rainforest to see three cascades and then ended up the bottom to see where it landed. It really was beautiful - clear, cold, sparkley water gushing over the rocks and constantly flowing from somewhere and to somewhere watering the land as it goes. We sat in the sun absorbing this creation of nature and comment how people spend hours and dollars creating this in their backyard and here we get to see it so much more amazing and created by the master Creator. Amazing!

We now find ourselves in Longford a historic town on the Macquarie river and, again, very picturesque.