Got up this morning and wandered over to the beach. Snug is a pretty little town on the banks of North West Bay. The caravan park is very nice. They are adding extra self-contained cabins and are in the process of totally upgrading the camp kitchen and have recently upgraded the amenities block.
From Snug we headed north to Kingston and the Australian Antarctic Head Quarters. This was marked on our map as a destination, but we could not see anything “touristy”. It is a very large complex and, judging by the number of cars in the carpark, employs quite a lot of people.
We headed into Hobart and out to the Mt Field National Park and Russell Falls. On the way, we noticed a sign for CADBURY!!! So of course, we detoured! $12.50 each for the factory tour and all you can eat chocolate! Then they gave us more chocolate to take home!
Back on the road to Mt Field National Park. We stopped off at the Salmon Ponds. This is the oldest Trout and Salmon Hatchery in Australia beginning in 1861. It was fun to see the large Rainbow Trout and Atlantic Salmon and feed them. Rainbow Trout were quite aggressive and jumped all over each other to get the fish pellets we had bought. We had lunch at the Salmon Ponds “Pancakes at the Ponds” restaurant. YUM!!!
From here we headed to Mt Field National Park. The road passed through massive Hop plantations. Hops obviously are deciduous, as there was no green anywhere. There were signs saying that Hop fields are restricted areas and that all visitors must report to the office before entering. Heaven help that someone might steal some hops and brew their own beer and not pay any government taxes!!!
We arrived at Mt Field National Park visitor centre and did the short 10 minute walk to the Russell Falls. The track to the falls goes through a wet rainforest that is almost totally covered in moss. On the track to the falls, we saw a group of girls looking into a creek. They heard us coming and told us “Shhh, there is a platypus” We all watched the little platypus for a while frolicking in the water. We continued along the track to the falls and came across a HUGE fallen tree. It was so big we could stand inside the hollow trunk. The group of girls were taking photos and I offered to take a picture of all four of them in the fallen log.
Further along we came to the falls. The Russell Falls are a really nice wide ribbon of water that cascades over three tiers of cliff face. Again we were lucky with the weather, we drove to Mt Field under heavy cloud cover, finished our walk and got back to the car and drove off as it just started spitting.
We drove back through New Norfolk and looked around the town. It is a fairly large town centre and is a nice place with everything you need. From New Norfolk we went back to Heimat Chalets, where we had stayed on Day 1.
Temps: Snug – 9ºc at 7:00am
Hobart – 9ºc at 10:00am
Heimat – 7ºc at 7:00pm
Weather: Overcast with just a few sprinkles of rain.
Travel: Snug to Kingston – 21kms
Kingston to Hobart – 11kms
Hobart to Mt Field National Park – 70kms
Mt Field to New Norfolk and Heimat – about 40kms
