August 8, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Zeb and Eider Duck Explore Western Tasmania

Zeb and Eider Duck, with humans, leave Burnie, Tasmania for a long drive. We want to see the western part of Tasmania, but we have to return our car tonight, in Hobart. It is pretty cold today. The valleys have fog.

Cold, foggy morning leaving Burnie Tasmania

We stopped to admire this waterfall,

Such a pretty waterfall

near Roseberry. We like the rainforest.

It is wet in this rainforest and seems mysterious

We are now in a mining area of Tasmania.

Gold, silver and copper were mined near here

This is Queenstown.

Love this sign, especially the O in Queenstown

In the late 1800s gold, silver and copper were mined here.

Queenstown is a nice little town

We stopped at this lookout.

Lookout place for humans and ducks

We looked down into the mining area.

Mining pits are now lakes

Looking ahead we see fresh snow on the mountain. Mom is going to put us in the snow.

Fresh snow at the East West Divide. It is cold, mom

We stopped at the East West Divide. The snow has just about stopped. Coming out of the mountains, we really like this green, hilly landscape.

So pretty

So much change in the land in so few miles. We still see flocks of sheep, but we also see many herds of cattle. We really like Tasmania. The scenery is breathtaking and the people are very friendly and helpful. This is an island for hiking, camping and enjoying the outdoor lifestyle. However, we want to caution you that the roads are rather narrow with so many curves.

Most of the roads we found were rather narrow and had many curves. Beautiful but be careful!

If you have a camper you may find driving difficult, so please be careful. This is our last day in Tasmania.

Typical road

We will miss it, but we are eager to explore other parts of Australia.

August 7, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Zeb and Eider Explore Northern Tasmania

Yesterday we admired the white sand and clear blue water of the Bay of Fires and marveled at Tasmania’s tallest waterfall, St. Columba Falls. This is such a beautiful island. Continuing along the north coast of Tasmania, we saw more flocks of sheep, but we also saw herds of cattle.

Many cattle

We think the rolling green pasture land and fields are beautiful, especially with the mountains in the background.

Beautiful green fields with mountains in background

Our next stop was Little Plains Lookout on our way to Scottsdale.

Little Plains Lookout

Tasmania is repurposing this land, planting hardwood trees which will be harvested in 2025. These will be used primarily for hardwood timber and veneer products.

New hardwood trees

The residue, not suitable for sawlogs, is used for pulp. In Colorado we do not see many stores called bottle shops, but we did in Tasmania. This was our favorite brand of bottle shop.

Thirsty Camel Bottleshop

This Thirsty Camel Bottleshop is in Lilydale, Tasmania.

We are in Lilydale, Tasmania

We like the camel. Continuing our exploration, a few kilometers north of George Town, we enjoy Low Head Historic Precinct. This is the ship’s bell, standing by the octagonal chart room.

Ship’s Bell in front of octagonal chart room

This is a recovered wooden marker buoy.

Recovered wooden maker buoy

These buoys are used to mark channels and other hazards. Here is the Low Head Lighthouse.

Low Head Lighthouse near George Town

This view from the keeper’s cottage shows why the lighthouse is needed here.

Vast water view from lighthouse keeper’s cottage

Continuing our journey, we are on the Batman Highway, where we encountered Australia’s first cable-stayed bridge. This is Batman Bridge in Sidmouth, Tasmania. Batman Bridge spans the Tamar River.

Batman Bridge

Construction began in 1966 and the bridge opened in 1968. Batman Bridge is named for John Batman, one of the founders of Melbourne,who earlier lived in Northern Tasmania. We drove under the bridge

Batman Bridge from below

where we were greeted by this colorful bird.

The official greeter?

Driving over the bridge, we admired its architecture.

What a great bridge

It is getting late and we do not want to drive in the dark. We see too many kangaroos every morning that have been hit by vehicles during the night. We spent the night in Burnie, Tasmania. We, the Colorado Traveling Ducks and our humans, like driving round Tasmania. We think you would enjoy it also.

August 3, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Zeb and Eider Duck Visit Bay of Fires and St. Columba Falls in Tasmania

Zeb and Eider, with the humans, visited the Bay of Fire. This is near St.Helens in northeast Tasmania. And there are so many rocks!

So many bright rocks

The Bay of Fires extends along the coast from Binalong Bay in the south to Eddystone Point in the north. The sand is so soft and white.

Soft white sand and clear blue water. Perfect!

If it were not winter and cool, we would be lounging on that perfect sand and testing the clear (probably cold) water. The white sand is derived from the granite bedrock that is predominant in North East Tasmania. The soft white sand is because of the high quartz content of the granite boulder. First we visited a lookout platform and then walked to the rocks.

We were walking on these rocks

Then we drove to the The Gardens in the Bay of Fires Conservation Area. Isn’t this beautiful? Notice the lichen growing on the granite boulders lining the bay.

Bright blue water and orange rocks lining the bay

The bright orange is beautiful. Hundreds of years ago the native aboriginal people burned this area of the island. These Aboriginal fires were spotted by Captain Tobias Furneaux when he sailed past in 1773, so this area became known as the Bay of Fires. The repeated burning kept the vegetation low, giving the animals fresh young plants to eat. The low vegetation also made hunting easier for the aboriginal. The fires could be seen from far away, giving this area the name, Bay of Fire. While the Bay of Fires is beautiful and serene, it does have a darker side.

Sitting in soft white sand, near orange boulders and blue water.

The coast is littered with shipwrecks. A few being the schooner Mary Ann in 1850, the brig Dart in 1865, the barque Queen of the Sea in 1877 and the fishing boat Vagabond in 1950. These unusual trees caught our attention.

Unusual trees

There were many Australian Black Swans in this area.

Several beautiful black swans

These gorgeous black swans have bright red beaks.

Love the bright red beaks

So beautiful. We were told that black swans are native only south of the equator. Driving about 30 kilometers west, we visited St. Columba Falls, at Pyengana, Tasmania.

St Columba Falls

The falls are located in a rain forest.

We are in a rain forest

This is the path to the bottom of the falls.

Path to bottom of falls

St. Columba Falls are said to be the tallest falls in Tasmania,with a drop of over 90 meters.

We can hear the waterfalls

August 1, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

East Coast Road Tasmania with Zeb and Eider

Zeb and Eider Duck and the humans are driving in Tasmania. Leaving the Hobart area, we head north to the East Coast Road We stop at the Prosser River at a boat launching place.

We could launch a boat here

We see no other humans. It is so peaceful and beautiful. Look at this clear water.

Look at these shells

We can see these shells so clearly. And, none of these shells seem to be broken. Aren’t they beautiful? We stopped in Orford for breakfast.

Ready for breakfast

Orford is a nice town on the Prosser Bay and River.

Town of Orford

Look at this picnic area on the Prosser Bay. We love the water.

We like the beach at Orford

We ducks are sitting on a gas grill.

This is for all to us

This is available for picnics. Zeb and Eider are not the only birds that like this grill.

Company of our kind on the gas grill.

Further up the coast, we see Mayfield Bay.

We like Mayfield Bay

As we travel near the east coast of Tasmania, we saw several vineyards. This is winter in Tasmania, so the vines are cut back.

Vines cut back for winter

There were several wineries we passed that were open for tours and tasting. We did not stop. The humans were more interested in the water views. Just north of Swansea, we drove to the end of the Nine Mile Beach Road to another boat launch at Bagot Point Coastal Reserve.

Driving on that road brought us here

This was looking back at the road that guided us here. We saw stormy skies here.

Stormy skies but no rain today

These rocks are our color.

Yellow ducks on yellow rocks

Just a couple yellow rocks among the regular rock colored ones. Driving in Tasmania, we saw so many sheep. Many more than sheep than people.

We love the sheep

We are fascinated with these sheep. Different sizes, some recently sheared, some with heavier coats. We love them all. This is 4 Mile Creek, north of St. Marys.

We liked 4 Mile Creek

This white sand is beautiful. Today we wanted you to see a little of the landscape in eastern Tasmania. We think Tasmania is beautiful.

July 31, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Zeb and Eider Duck at Bonorong with Kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils

Today we saw and fed kangaroos. There were so many of them

So many kangaroos waiting for us

and they liked us.

Our new friends

We really liked them, too. We were at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary between Brighton and Richmond, Tasmania.

We loved Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Tasmania

When we entered this sanctuary, each human received a bag of kangaroo food. The kangaroos were waiting for us and looking for the food.

Human has food and the kangaroos want it

Aren’t they so cute? Soon the wildlife tour began. We first saw a wombat.

This wombat is so cute

These guys are strong, fast and not afraid to give a nasty bite if they want to be left alone. Wombats live in burrows, and if a predator tries to enter, the wombat will allow the predator to touch his rump, and then the wombat will raise his rump and crush the predator against the roof of the burrow. Wombats have broken human hands this way, also. Here is another strange fact about wombats. They have square poop which they place on elevated surfaces to mark their territory. The square shape stops the poop from rolling away.

The wombat likes us

Scientists know they have square poop, they just don’t know how they make their poop square. Next we went to see the Tasmanian Devils.

The Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devils were the main reason for visiting Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. The Tasmanian Devil is threatened because they have a rare form of contagious cancer. They have Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD). So far there is no known cure for this disease. These devils have a bad reputation because of the shrieking noise they make when eating. The devils we saw were kind of cute.

This Tasmanian Devil is coming out to see us

This one kept running around his enclosure.

This Tasmanian Devil was running a lot. He has nice red ears.

Here are the koalas.

An adorable koala

One was in his tree, almost sleeping.

Koalas pass most of the time sleeping like this guy

The koalas were so cute, but they don’t move much. This is a spotted tailed quoll.

A Spotted Tailed Quoll

He is having a snack. There were also brightly colored birds.

So colorful and not in a cage. Just a wild bird

We liked the Musk Lorikeet.

Native Musk Lorikeet

This is the only Lorikeet native to Tasmania. The sulphur crested cockatoo is beautiful.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

We saw many birds and other small animals, but the kangaroos were certainly the stars of the day. This one has a baby, or joey in her pouch.

Mom with her baby “joey”

We think this kangaroo is our new friend! For more information visit http://www.bonorong.com.au You will love this place.

Another friend

When the humans need a break, this is the place.

Pretty clever

July 29, 2015 by coloradotravelingducks

Cruising to Tasman Island in the Tasman Sea with Zeb and Eider Duck

We are now in Hobart, Tasmania.

Arriving at airport in Hobart Tasmania

Tasmania is the largest Australian island and the most southern Australian state. Today we are going on a cruise in Tasmania with Pennicott Wilderness Journeys. We arrive at the docks in Hobart and then ride a shuttle to the boat dock near Port Arthur. We are cruising to and around Tasman Island.

This is our cruise for today

We will not get off the boat, but we are excited because we will see amazing cliff and rock formations. These rocks are millions of years old. Here the rocks shifted during volcanic activity. The shifted rocks make it look like the water is running downhill.

Result of volcanic activity. Water is not going downhill

It is not! Now we are inside a cave.

A cave. Let’s go inside with our boat

Our boat is inside a cave.

Our boat is in the cave

This is exciting for the Colorado Traveling Ducks. We love waterfalls.

Waterfall in Tasman National Park

This is great! This is the totem pole.

The Totem Pole. A rock climbers challenge

It is a favorite for experienced rock climbers. Here we are at Cape Pilar.

Cape Pilar. Australia’s highest sea cliffs. In Tasman National Park

We are seeing some of Australia’s tallest rock cliffs, while we are in Tasman National Park. We ducks are on this cruise, but the caption said we could not sit on the rails; we must be out of the wind and surf. We love this cliffs.

So majestic and beautiful

We are in our travel bag. Next is Tasman Island. There is a lighthouse at the top.

Lighthouse way up there

Here is the pulley system used to get people and supplies to the top of the island and the lighthouse and also to bring supplies and people from the top to the boats so they can leave Tasman Island.

Pulley system to and from lighthouse at top. On Tasman Island in Tasman National Park

On the way back to the rock, the weather changed. The clouds came and the wind also increased. The ride back was a little rough, but we loved it. Our next stop for the day was at Port Arthur.

Port Arthur–former prison

Port Arthur was a brutal British prison from 1832 to 1877. Now it no longer functions as a prison, but many buildings remain. We walked around the grounds. The setting is beautiful.

Now it is so beautiful and peaceful

We are happy this is no longer a prison. We enjoyed our visit to Port Arthur and hope when you are in Tasmania you will also visit Port Arthur. For more information about our tour visit http://www.pennicottjourneys.com.au

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