Departing Devonport

Pap and a Farmall H

It rained heavily during our last night in Launceston, which meant a very wet packup. Fortunately the rain stopped long enough to achieve same, but it started pelting down again as we hitched up to drive to Devonport. We were fervently hoping that it would be the very last wet morning packup.

We stopped in Westbury to visit the Tractor Museum, arriving before it opened! We filled in time with an early morning tea and returned to see the private collection of tractors, where Pap was thrilled to find his father's first tractor, a Farmall A, as well as the tractor that he spent hours driving from the age of 13. The boys' eyes were gleaming at the thought and I suspect that his tractor will get a workout at the farm when we are there next! The vintage tractor display was comprehensive and we all enjoyed it, especially as the owner wandered around with us explaining details. He and his son had also amassed an incredible collection of model vehicles, which were displayed very well. The kids loved it! We were about to head off when the owner's daughter arrived with morning tea for us all, so we downed another cuppa while chatting with the lovely fellow.

The mural at Marble World

It was still drizzling as we left Westbury and we drove through some gorgeous country on the way to Devonport. We took a slight detour to see Sheffield, famous for its murals. Just before Sheffield we were amazed at the topiary at Railton. Topiary everything - house numbers, dogs, dragons, horses, fishermen and even topiary soldiers at the War Memorial. We almost didn't see Sheffield's murals as the kids disappeared into Marble World ... a shop containing every kind of marble you could imagine and then some! After each purchasing a small bag of marbles, we had a squizz at the murals painted on every surface around the town before heading on to Devonport.

The ferry arriving next to our campground

We arrived at our campsite, where we set up the caravan for Gran and Pap and enjoyed the thrill of real beds in a cabin as we left the wet tent in the Buss. The kids enjoyed the novelty of  having a TV, but soon turned it off when it became apparent that as usual, there was nothing worth watching! They played marbles and collected pebbles on the beach before we saw the Spirit of Tasmania coming in to dock a few hundred metres from our campground.  They also saw a couple walking a pig, which amused them no end.

Alarms set, we all headed off to bed to try to get some sleep before the ferry crossing.

Stay tuned ...