We left the coast heading inland from St. Helens towards Launceston.
Our first stop was the cheese factory at Pyengana where we bought some delicious cheese for dinner and enjoyed watching the cows line up for milking at an automated milking machine. Whenever a cow wants to be milked it walks up to the machine and waits in line for its turn. A collar around the neck registers the specific cow, who much milk it is giving and whether the cow had already been milked before. Something that was particularly cute to watch was a rotating brush that the cows used to have their bodies scratched after being done milking. The cows seemed to really enjoy this treat.
From the cheese factory we continued on to St. Columba Falls, an amazing waterfall that drops 90 meters into the river. In the winter months the volume of water reaches a dazzling 200 000 litres per minute.
To get to the waterfall we walked through temperate rain forest with gigantic fern trees. It was mesmerizing.
Exept for the 25 meters where they warn you not to stop. A sign reads: „The next 25 metres of track has a small risk of landslip. Please reduce your exposure to this risk by not stopping on this section of the track.“
Talking about warning signs. The road to Launceston is quite interesting if you are not used to unsealed roads. Today we sent a big thank you to the rental company that had once again upgraded us to a Toyota Prado with four- wheel- drive capability. The roads got significantly worse between St. Columba Falls and Ringarooma and we switched to four- wheel- drive mode for the first time as the road got bumpy and steep.
But this road is worth taking as it takes you to Ralphs Waterfall. This was a stop we had not planned on but spontaneously added to the tour- and we were very glad we did. The hike was magical. We walked through the forest to two lookouts and felt like fairies and elf were about to appear.
And the best thing: we had this hike to ourselves. Even though the paths were well prepared not a lot of people made it out here. Probably because the bumpy roads do not make this hike easily accessible.
We had lunch at a picnic place in Legerwood not realizing that a very special place lay just a few meters ahead of us the Legerwood Memorial Park.
In 1918, 9 trees were planted in Legerwood’s main street to honour the soldiers killed in WW I and a tree. When these trees were declared dangerous in 2001, the town’s folk were distraught to think that the Memorial Avenue would be destroyed.
The people of Legerwood decided to hire an artist to chainsaw carve each stump into a likeness of the men for whom each tree was planted turning the tree stumps into art in memory of these soldiers.
As we both were tired that day we decided to stop at a lavender farm to get some coffee. Unfortunately it was not blooming season (that would be December) so we did not see that whole beauty of Bridestowe Estate, the world‘s largest privately owned lavender farm with 260 acres of unique environment with Mount Arthur as a backdrop.
We arrived in Launceston in late afternoon and did not have much time before darkness. So we decided to visit Alexandra Suspension Bridge in a wonderful recreation park.
Our plan was to head to Cradle Mountain the following day to do some hikes. However, the weather forecast predicted rain for the next couple of days which meant we had to change our plans. But for this day at least we had this beautiful rising of the moon.
