If there’s no kiting to be had then we’ll better move on. Kidding, the location is nice but quite exposed to wind, sun, the railroad track and the road. Also we want to explore more and after the coast it’s time to try a little inland. To do that we backtrack a few kilometers and go South.
We drive up and down a few times to locate the dump point in Penguin but then we finally say goodbye.
One of the nice parts of Tasmania is that it’s small (only 1.6 times The Netherlands with about 2.5% of the population) everything is close by, so in no time our scenery changes from beaches and coast line to winding roads and mountains.
We drive past a nice scenery of Dutch looking cows and many fields of poppy seeds.
They say that Tasmania is the largest exporter of poppy seeds for medicinal purposes (codeine and morphine) and I believe that, we have not seen too many drug heads here.
We see that we were not the only ones who kept a horse as a pet, however we never used it to guard our property.
Then we reach our first destination and Marjo is a bit disappointed with the size (aren’t we spoiled).
When we drove on Nos refused to lie between the front seats as he normally does and instead jumped on our bed and stared out of the back window. He must have been moody because he started this morning already anxiously when we drove off.
We then proceeded further south to look at Leven canyon. The name aroused our interest as “Leven” is the Dutch word for “Life” so there must be some Dutch connection. There’s not much written about this, the closest we could find is the following:
Prior to 1840, unlike much of Northern Tasmania, the central north coast was not regarded by Europeans as being fit for habitation and agricultural purposes.
The region where the town of Ulverstone is situated was originally called Badger Plains & Cotton but assumed the names Leven & River Leven after the river which was probably named in the 1820’s by explorers/surveyors from the Van Diemens Land Company.
When we arrived, Marjo, Nossi and I decided to leave Dotti to guard the bus and take a short walk down hill to the lookout.
There are two paths there and I blame the poor signage where Marjo thinks I need new glasses or look more carefully. The first stop was nice with a beautiful walk.
And a very nice view.
(Panorama view).
Then I knew a short cut up some stairs to the other view which saved us walking all the way back uphill to the car park. Nos was eager to go.
The first rest stop confirmed that it was not far. But the fact there was a rest stop should have been enough warning.
And hey, who thought that the weird scribble in front of the 80 was a 5? Ok, the 191 to the next seat was a giveaway, but now you’re talking too much detail.
Well, three rest stops later, we finally reached the other view.
I still say it was worth it.
Marjo says she agrees but that walking the other way around would have been the sensible thing to do.
We were all glad to see Dotti again.
And really enjoyed our lunch and had a Kodak moment.
The road from the Leven canyon back to the coast was very nice and we stopped for photo opportunities and some free snack from the side of the road.
Then we reached the nice Pioneer campground, nicely maintained by volunteers and found a great spot.
Nossi checked out the playground and Marjo checked out the surrounding nature.
A fabulous day.
Posted from Black River, Tasmania, Australia.
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