Tigers & Devils & Scenery, Oh My!

[davidd]

A Bugatti racing car?!? 

[Alliecat]

Wow, what a cool fountain with the ships! The market looks like lots of fun. And that's quite a collection of old cars. It's nice to see people appreciate and maintain historic items.

[Elfy]

Not sure if the Bugatti was a racer or not, it was very old, even had the crankshaft to start it. They’re a rare car, and I bet it was the most eensive one there.

[Elfy]

We headed south today (yes, it is possible to go further south than Hobart and not fall off the edge of the world), to travel down the coast and see the Tessellated Pavement.

We stopped in Richmond (another of Tasmania's historic towns) for morning tea. Becky and I rested by the fountain in the park.










We made our way to the Tessellated Pavement via the Pirate Bay Road, but unfortunately we didn't see any pirates (Becky was even wearing her pirate pants). I know the Tessellated Pavement looks like it was tiled by man made means, but I can assure it's all natural. It took more than 100 million years to make it that way.










That same stretch of coast contains other geological phenomena: a blow hole, Fossil Beach, the Tasman Arch ad the Devil's Kitchen. I also saw a small snake when going to get a picture of the Kitchen, but it was moving too fast for me to take a picture of it.

[Alliecat]

Wow, very cool. I had to go look up tessellated pavements. I've been to the Giant's Causeway and we have a small area of similar basalt columns here, but this is completely different. I could spend a very long time there taking abstract photos of the rocks. And what grand scenery with the cliff and canyon. I love the photos of the arch, Becky peering into the pool, and Amelia with her camera.

[dargosmydaddy]

Wow, gorgeous photos! I am enjoying all the different places I get to see and learn about via these forums

[werepuppy]

Those landscapes are just so stunning! I cannot stop scrolling back up to stare at them because... wow

[davidd]

Stopping for morning tea in a historic village and then ex–ploring amazing seaside geologic wonders sounds like an ideal day!

That is quite the impressive cliff you're peering over in the last photo!

The sea arch is truly massive!

What an exciting, fun trip so far!

[neon_jellyfish]

Beautiful nature! Edge of the Earth is a beautiful place.

[Elfy]

Time for us to head north, up Freycinet Peninsula way.



Shell covered Kelvedon Beach.



The blow hole at Bicheno going whoosh!







Pics on the rock beach.



"Amelia what do we do if the water rushes in and covers us?"

"Cry?"



I know beaches aren't normally made of rock, but this one had some great scenery and photograph taking opportunities. I saw a big seabird, but it flew away too quickly for me to take a picture of it.





A view of Oyster Bay from the Devil's Corner (they love their devils down here) Winery.





A couple of random shots at the quirky convict built Spiky Bridge.



We found a tiger! I don't know his name, but he seems friendly. The Tasmanian Tiger, or to give it its correct name thylacine, isn't a tiger at all. It's a marsupial wolf, but because of the stripes people called it a tiger. It did actually occur on the mainland, but thrived in Tasmania due to the island's isolation. The last known one sadly died in Hobart Zoo in 1936. It is officially extinct, but there are reports of sightings or evidence that it still lives in the wild, however nothing has ever been officially confirmed or proven.

[werepuppy]

The girls look like they're having a great time.

Seriously, it all looks so beautiful! It seems like you had a lot of fun and you got amazing weather.

[neon_jellyfish]

Your ladies sure are having a blast!

So many seashells

[davidd]

They did find a thylacine! Or at least, a thylacine replica!

(I wonder if leaving the girls out all night as bait would attract a real one?)

Such wonderful beaches! Sandy beaches, stony beaches, rocky beaches, and beaches covered with seashells... all beneath a beautiful blue sky!

[Alliecat]

Ooo, our beaches never have such a nice variety of shells. The rocks are intriguing and it looks like the girls might be discussing geology In a closeup at least, the spiky bridge looks like a dolly-size Stonehenge!
It would be cool to think there were a few thylacines somewhere, that had managed to evade human eyes...
Great scenery!

[Elfy]

There are theories that the thylacines do survive and honestly some of the Tasmanian bush, especially in the Franklin river area, could be dense enough to hide some of them, and as they're an apex predator there's plenty for them to eat.
We were quite lucky with the weather, Tasmania is generally wetter and cooler than the mainland, but we've gone before in April and it always seems to be the last of their good weather.