Awoke early and it was cold!! 6ºc at 6:00am, 7ºc at 7:00am. No wind or rain though. We had our showers and headed off for Forth at about 7:30am.
We followed the Letterbox Trail to Wilmot. Many of the residents here have been very creative in their letterboxes. Unfortunately, many of them are not in easy to stop places to be able to photograph them all. 🙁 The road to Wilmot was a good road but we drove through quite heavy fog.
Reaching Wilmot, we followed the Mersey River to Moina where we got THE best pies. The lady at the shop makes these beef pies. (Mick ate two!)
Off to Sheffield to see the many murals on the walls of the town. (This was a Bob Blakely suggestion). The next stop was Railton where the community is in the process of growing a topiary trail. It is good to know that due to the foresight of these communities (Wilmot, Sheffield and Railton), they have put themselves on the map and are not going to fade away.
Continuing north we came to La Trobe. La Trobe was a surprisingly large town. It has the Axemen’s Hall of Fame which is dedicated to the Legends of Wood chopping and in particular David Foster who is a local resident. It was well worth the $9.00 each to see some of the stories of the characters that have been legends in this sport.
Just out of La Trobe we visited the Ashgrove Cheese Factory and (more importantly) Tasting rooms. YUM. I often buy Ashgrove cheese at Woolworths for my crackers. I was expecting a much larger operation than we saw. The Ashgrove dairy started to make cheese in the early 90’s to supplement the income for their farm. They have obviously done very well!!
Next stop was the Anvers Chocolate factory and tasting room!! YUM again!! Mick and I are not great chocolate eaters , but we made a good go of their tasting!! (Butterscotch fudge is pretty good!!) The only downside of Anvers is the lack of parking for larger vehicles. The main carpark is tucked away very prettily under low trees.
From La Trobe we took the main highway from Devonport to Launceston. Turning off at Deloraine, we had intended to visit Liffey Falls. We needed to shop so pulled into Woolies and then the pub shop. We asked the Pub Shop man how far to Liffey Falls and he said not to bother, as there has not been much rain and they would be disappointing. We bowed to local knowledge and decided to look for the caravan park Bob Blakely had recommended.
Bob was correct!! This park is very pretty sitting on the banks of the Meander River. As soon as we parked the van, a group of 11 mallard ducks came to greet us. (They obviously know that vans mean FOOD!!) We settled in for an early night. We had requested a sight near the laundry, as I still had to dry the washing from our rained-out night last night. The caretaker lady for the park said we could setup wherever we liked! We chose a site directly opposite the amenities block and away from the other 4 or 5 vans parked for the night. We fed the ducks and settled in for a fairly lazy night.
Temps: Turners Beach 6ºc – 6:00am
7ºc – 7:00am
Deloraine – 13ºc – 4:30pm
Weather: Overcast in Turners Beach with a light breeze. Foggy as we headed into the mountains following the letterbox trail. We dipped in and out of fog depending on how high out of valleys we were. No rain and blue skies overhead, until La Trobe where it was slightly overcast. Deloraine was fine until about 5:30 when we had a little rain for about 30mins.
Travel: Turners Beach to Forth – 5kms
Forth to Wilmot )Letterbox trail – 30kms
Wilmot to Moina – 25kms
Moina to Sheffield – 26kms
Sheffield to Railton – 12kms
Railton to La Trobe – 17kms
La Trobe to Deloraine – 35kms
