We had a good night’s sleep and did actually have bit of a sleep in, not waking until just after 5:00am. 🙂
After hot showers and poached eggs for breakfast we packed up the car, checked out, and headed west to Deloraine.
We stopped at the information centre where there was a statue of a racehorse named Malua. Neither of us had ever heard of him, but he certainly was an impressive horse.
The Malua Memorial, commemorates the winner of the Melbourne Cup in 1884. Malua was bred at the famous Calstock stud property at Deloraine in Tasmania in 1879. The memorial features a life size bronze statue of Malua as well as a series of photos behind the statue commemorating the racehorse.
In 1884 Malua not won the Melbourne Cup but also the nation’s top sprint races, the Newmarket Handicap and the Oakleigh Plate against the best sprinters in the land. A few months later he won Australia’s richest stayer’s race of the time , the Adelaide Cup, and then capped it off by winning that year’s prestigious Melbourne Cup against the nation’s best stayers.
He was retired to a very successful stud career, but in 1886 he was brought back to the track to win the Australian Cup. In 1888 he came out of retirement again, and, ridden by his owner he won the stayer’s Australian Grand National Hurdle against the best jumpers of the time. No other horse has ever come near to Malua’s amazing record and he is always always known as “Australia’s Most Versatile Champion.”
Click on the images below to see them full size to read.
From the information centre, I bought a large map to keep and we drove around this pretty town.
Our next stop was Ashgrove Cheese. This has grown to be a huge building now, but sadly without the large tasting room they had when we were here years ago 🙁
We did buy a couple of cheeses and some crackers before heading to our next stop.
Anvers Chocolate is a lovely chocolate factory and cafe. We were able to have a small taste of a couple of their chocolates and, of course, there was chocolate and fudge purchased 🙂
We decided to have a snack in the cafe and were shown to a table. After a good 10 minutes or so without our orders being taken, we realised other table around us had not been served either. They were very busy and we figured even if we did get attended to, the wait would probably be quite long :(. We. decided to leave and head toward Devonport for lunch.
We arrived in Devonport around 11:30am and had a look around before finding the Mersey Bluff lighthouse. It was very windy but not too cold.
Further down the beach we came across the Devonport Surf lifesaving Club and “Drift” Cafe.
We had a VERY nice lunch of Fish and Chips and Mushroom Arancini with Salad.
After lunch, we drove around the town to see the Spirit of Tasmania ferry. I knew it was a big ferry but I must admit I did not realise how big it actually is.
Soon it was time to head to our overnight stop at Sheffield.
On the way we saw Spreyton Cider Co. We thought “why not”. They had a tasting flight of 5 different ciders and a ginger beer for $20. I asked if we could share one flight and were told Yes!.
While it was $20 we felt at least we now know we are not cider fans 🙂
None of them grabbed us enough to say, Yes we would drink that”. In fact, we did not finish any of the little glasses.
We made it to Sheffield just after 2:00pm, checked in to our motel room, walked up the main street to have look at some of the murals.
I did not ake too many photos as I had takem a lot when we were here in 2005. You can see them all HERE
We stopped off at the local IGA to buy a hot chook.
We made some hot chook sandwiches for dinner, watched some TV and had an early night.
Tomorrow we head to Cradle Mountain and Strahan where we stay for 2 nights.
