Tassie 2023 (Still at Cozy Corner)

27th - 28th Jan -  Lilydale 

We are camped in Lilydale a pretty little town in 20 mins from Launceston.  We stopped off in Launnie on the way here to pick up some supplies and then arrived at our camp Cherry Top Eco Farmstay. The site has a bit of a slope so it took us a bit longer to set up.

Lilydale is in a valley and the scenery is quite pretty with the hills surrounding us.

Abandoned Launceston to Scottsdale line.

After lunch, we drove into Lilydale and walked around the township visiting the Antique shop with some really unusual items.  We also visited the little arts and crafts shop which also had some nice quality arts and crafts.

Garden Art.

Would make a good Jigsaw.

Lilydale. Town of painted poles.

Saturday, off to the western side of the Tamar River.  Our first stop was Beaconsfield.  We visited the Beaconsfield Mine & Museum.  It's an excellent museum and there is a part of it dedicated to the rescue of Todd Russell and Brant Webb who were trapped in the mine for 2 weeks after a rock fall.  

Beaconsfield Mine

Further north we stopped off at the York Town historic site. There isn't much there as the town has disappeared totally not even a foundation is visible.  It is a  nice 15-minute walk through the native bush.

Greens beach was our next stop which is right at the top and it's where the Tamar River flows into Bass Strait. Walked along the beach and checked out the caravan park. 

Our final stop of the day was at Beauty point before heading back to Lilydale.

29th Jan - 6th Feb Bay of Fires Conservation Park

Woke up to a very wet morning packed up in the rain and headed towards the east coast.  It was a long twisty hilly drive across to the Bay of Fires.

We managed to find a beautiful secluded campsite at Cosy Corner North and the weather had improved.  A little chilly but it had stopped raining.

In the evening we walked down the beach and onto the rocks which are covered in orange algae.

Sliced Bread.

The next day we walked along the beach from our Campground Cosy Corner North across the rocks and checked out the other campgrounds along the coast. We decided that ours was the best.  After lunch, we headed into St Helens to pick up supplies and walk around the township.  Then back to camp for a roast chicken dinner that we cooked in the camp oven on the gas stove.  Fires are not allowed in National Parks or Conservation areas during the summer.

Our nightly visitor

Just missed us.

Plenty of Bluebottles around.

Beautiful sunny morning and we are off to the Gardens which sits at the beginning of the Bay of Fires.  It's called the Bay of Fires not because of the orange algae on the rocks but because when the French explorer Captain Tobias Furneaux passed the bay in 1773 he could see lots of fires burning which had been lit by the local aboriginal people.

We climbed around the rocks checking out the rock pools, some of them are little fish nurseries.

Then we were off to Mt William National Park.  We took a shortcut across to the main road our first stop was Ansons Bay.  There wasn't much there its mainly fishing shacks. With a small population living there permanently in rather large homes.  Ansons Bay didn't have any beaches it was a sheltered body of water with a boat ramp.

The next stop was Eddystone Lighthouse which was built from 1887-1889 from local granite. The grounds have 3 lighthouse keeper's cottages also made of local stone. The lighthouse was manned until 2000 and is now automated.  The lands have been handed back to the local aboriginal people and they use the lighthouse cottages as places to stay when they visit.

Eddystone Lighthouse.

We then travelled further around and stopped at Deep Creek Camp Ground which had excellent access to the local beach.  We checked out the sites at the campground and saw a large tiger snake slithering off into the bush. Before heading back towards St Helens we walked along the beach.

Deep Creek

Picnic rocks.

One of the Stumpy's

Before we went back to camp we headed down to Binalong Bay and walked along the seafront.

Headed to the wharf at St Helens this morning to ride our bikes along the bike path around St Georges Bay. After the easy cycle around the bay, we went into the forest along the mountain bike trail which starts just outside of St Helens.  It was pretty rough lots of rocks and tree roots across the tracks.  The climb was up the hill with some tight hairpin bends so we only went about halfway up before turning around and heading back down the hill which was a lot easier than the trip up.

For the last few days, we've just been hanging around camp. Reading, walking on the beach, and climbing over the rocks. We keep saying we'll move on tomorrow and then decide to stay another day.

The Hand of God.

Linda's Insta pose.