I woke up this morning with a mixture of emotions inside me. Happy to know that I am still in Tasmania, curious to know what would this day be like, regret for not spending more days here and sad that today I would be leaving Tasmania, a land of serene, beauty and calmness. I started to clear my things and ready to check-out from Launceston Backpackers. Dumped my heavy rucksack here (with a storage fee of AUD 3) and studying the map for a while. And before I started to make my way to Cataract Gorge, I took couple of pictures of the hydrangea flowers grown in the backpackers compound.
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| Hydrangea at Launceston Backpackers. |
Cataract Gorge
I headed to Cataracr Gorge which I was suggested by a Korean room-mate (forgot her name) last night. SHe has access to the internet and she Google mapped for directions to Cataract Gorge. It was a little weird when I need to take a bus which is only 1 MINUTE ride. So I assumed that the place was not very far from the backpackers and decided to walk to get there. Without really knowing if I went to the right direction, I finally saw a sign which convinced me I was on the right way. It took around 15 minutes to get to the pedestrians entrance. Well, the view was beautiful and the sun was shining strongly too (felt my forehead was about to darken).
There were couple of people jogged along the walkway and it must have been a very pleasant time for them to breath fresh air and enjoy the sunny day. I could not take many pictures here because my camera battery was running low and I definitely did not want to miss capturing the pictures of the most awaited place to visit later today. By the way, a visitor may enjoy a cable-car (or is it cable chair?) across the river which costs AUD12 per way, or AUD15 return. I did not bother to take the ride as I think it was a little too expensive for a short ride.
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| View from the bridge before the pedestrian entrance. |
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| View from the walkway |
Upon returning to the pedestrian entrance, I saw something dark resting on the rocks. At first I thought it must be some weird creature but when focusing my pair of eyes properly, those were birds spanning their wings under the sun. I was not sure what were they doing exactly but my prediction was that they have just wanted to dry their feathers after diving through the surface, looking for food. They have shiny feathers which I found it interesting (never saw anything like this before). I have no idea what species was this so I leave this to the avian experts throughout the world.
It was already 10.50 am, so I returned to the backpackers to get my things and recharge my camera battery.
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| Was this fellow sunbathing? Or burning itself? Or meditating? |
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| Enjoying the sun eyy? |
At 11.30 sharp, Diane (the owner of Beyond Urban Tours) arrived Launceston Backpackers and picked me up there. She handed to me a goody-bag containing several pamphlets, bottled water and some chocolates. I did not expect this but that was something extra offered by her (obviously I have not gotten this extra thing from the many day tour operators before). For a small group or solo traveller, it is my pleasure to recommend Beyond Urban Tour if you are in the mood for lavenders, cherries and berries. There are several other day trips offered and do check it out from the link above.
Some additional information before I keep on writing here : it is not possible to reach Bridestowe Lavender Farm and the berry farm from Launceston by public transport, unless you rent a car or book a half/full day tour. What is so nice about the lavender farm and the berry farm? Just scroll-down and you can see why.
Yondover Goat Cheese Farm
The first stop was Yondover Goat Cheese Farm. I love cheese so don't ask me why I repeatedly visit these cheese farms. And another reason was that, I can do the cheese tasting for free. Yeayyyy....I love it!! This time was a little different because I would get the chance to taste the GOAT cheese, not the normal cow cheese. Goat cheese has a strong 'cheese taste' compared to cow cheese but those who do not enjoy the 'strongness' would dislike it. I am OK with both cheeses and did imagine a cheesy scrumptious meal. They have several flavoured goat cheese but the best as my taste buds could remember was the rosemary-thyme flavoured cheese. There was chillied cheese and several other flavours which I could not remember their name. Again, I thought of buying those cheeses but storage would be a problem.
I forgot to take the pictures within this cheese farm compound because I was busy chit-chatting with Diane and her friend, Margaret. Below was the only picture I took before leaving Yondover Goat Cheese Farm.
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| View from the cheese farm |
Bridestowe Lavender Farm
After 20 minutes at the cheese farm, DIane drove us to Bridestowe Lavender Farm which was 15 minutes drive from the cheese farm. It was a quiet route and not many vehicles passed by. When entering the farm gate, seriously, I was super excited though the rows of lavenders were not in view yet. And when approaching the parking area, I could hardly slow down myself and got off the car quickly to snap pictures around this region. Woohoooo!!! It was such an awesome moment and exciting. Why? Because I love purple a lot and lavenders are purple and it was like walking on a sea of purple flowers.
A picture tells a thousand story, so what if I have more than a picture?
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| From a distance |
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| Zoom a little |
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| Much closer look |
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| Even closer to the heart |
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| Rows of lavenders making me a little high |
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| Is that Cradle Mountain? |
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| OK..i know, my purple sweater, scarf and bag |
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| Couldn't resist taking more pictures |
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| A field of lavenders at the edge of the pines. |
I bought several things from the farm shop such as the lavender-flavoured fudge, teddy lavender soaps and a fridge magnet. I have never tried consuming any products made of lavender essence and that was why I bought the lavender fudge. There were also skin care products, honeys, pot-pourris and home decorations items. And to complete the so-called shopping, I bought a reusable purple bag. Thihihihi...
We spend more than 1 hour here and we had lunch here too. I had curried egg sandwich and a cappuccino for lunch. I guess that was not a good combination but as long as I did not starve, that was fine. There were lavender scone in the menu but I forgot to order one and give it a try. Diane told me it was nice so I guess it must be really nice.
After lunch, we chit-chatted about many things. I did give some information about my religion and I am happy because they can understand it and respect me as a Muslim. I did tell them about certain things about the heartless deeds ie. dumping their newborns in the thrash bin, flushing them into the toilet and so forth. We discussed about several social problems arising here and there and Australia do have their own set of social and moral problems too. And as traveller, we did exchange some information on the travelling thing, especially travelling in New Zealand which was another piece of encouragement for me to fulfil my plan this coming spring.
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| The souvenir shop and cafe |
Hillwood Berry Farm
The last stop before Diane send me to Launceston Airport was the Hillwood Berry Farm. They have all kinds of berries grown here, strawberry, raspberry, Logan berry, blackberry and some other berries. I have enough of strawberries because we have lots of them in Cameron Highland, Malaysia. But I have never seen raspberries fruiting on the bush/tree. I have 45 minutes to spend in this berry farm so I took lots of pictures of the berries here. And for 4-5 times, I plucked some the berries, doing my own tastings. Actually there was a fee for self-plucking the berries which was based on the weight of the plucked items. It was about AUD 9.50 per half kilo (for raspberry and some other berries) and other price for strawberries. I thought of plucking the raspberries but on a second thought, I have to forget about it because there was no more space and no proper containers to keep those berries. And again, I would be flying to Melbourne so I thought it would be a little difficult to carry those berries with my almost over-flowing carry-on bags.
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| Everybody knows this is strawberry |
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| Raspberry....love it a lot |
Besides selling fresh self-plucked berries, this farm also sells skin-care products made of these berries which I personally thought they were cheap and good too. There was a small cafe where a visitor could indulge in berry ice-creams or other light meals and desserts during this perfect day. I think children will love this place so much especially when it comes to pluck-your-own-berries and ice creams.
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| These are cranberries |
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| Wood sage |
Melbourne
I reached IMB at around 8.30, clean-up myself, performed all daily obligations and rest, to revive for the next great days.
To be continued.....
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