Tamar Island and Surrounds

 24th Feb 2023

24^th Feb 2023

 

This morning we can see a steady flow of people into the Bakery, so I decide to take the short walk down from our room to get some good coffee to complement our breakfast. No other breakfast items were available but the hotel serves breakfast. We just had our usual cereal in our room.

 

There is a highly recommended wetlands walk only a few km from our hotel, which goes our to Tamar Island in the middle of the river. It gets good reviews, so we decide to have a look.

 

Surprisingly we find constructed boardwalks over the swampy grasslands that edge the river provide access to this major wetland, which is teeming with birdlife. The total walk is about 3 km, 1.5km out to the island and back. A visitor centre at the commencement of the walk provides information on the area.

Visitors Centre

 

The Tamar is a wide, shallow tidal river that completely dries in many of these  wet land areas along it shores and attracts lost of wildlife, especially when feeding at low tide.

 

There are a couple of wooden shipwrecks

Once you reach the Island, there is a picnic/BBQ area and toilets with a short walk that loops around the island taking you past a lot of exotic trees that were obviously were planted their years ago, probably by occupants.

There are a number of large Oak and Spruce trees

Nice ripe blackberrys

Wild blackberrys prompt a short foraging stop, where we had a snack on the ample supply.

 

A final short jetty out into the Tamar completes the walk before returning back to the carpark. The whole walk took about an hour and was well worth the effort. It was also very popular .

One learning from our time in Tasmania, is that unlike in the city, the main walking hazard is bird shit, not dog poo. It is everywhere including on the hard sand on beaches. It would be pretty frustrating having a yacht at a marina down here.

 

It is only mid morning, so we think we can fit in another walk before lunch so head off to the Notley Gorge Walk which is about 12 km inland up in the hills. It does not draw the same crowd, in fact we were the only ones there. The track is well formed, but rugged, so we decide to do only part of it as it involves some steep rocky sections and neither of us have the proper footwear on for this type of walk.

The entry sign to the track is not that welcoming

The early part of the track is easy going

 

Bradley’s tree is heralded as one of the highlights, so we decide to walk far enough to see it. There are lots of monstrous trees on this walk, but this particular one, with a hollowed out base is supposedly where bushranger Matthew Bradley and his gang used to hide out.

Bradleys Tree

 

Back towards the river for lunch, we grab a takeaway donor kebab and head towards the river to see if we can find a park to relax and have lunch.  We eventually found a spot with no tables, so we bought a towel to sit on. A whole group of people ended us in the same park with similar plans. There was a strong breeze blowing and I got a burst of something that triggered a strong hay fever reaction with swelling itchy eyes. I had an antihistamine with me, but needed to stop in at the chemist after lunch to get eye drops. That sort of killed off any desire to go back out this afternoon.

Arriving back at the hotel the carpark, restaurant and bar were packed with what appeared to be a touring group of hot rods, full of old couples. We retired to our room to try and shake off the hay fever.

We dined at the hotel again tonight and had another very nice meal.