Down with the Devils – Tasmania 2024 – Day 35

The head of Maingon Bay at the southern end of Tasman Peninsula.

Remarkable Cave

An elevated walkway gives a good view of the cave but now stops access to the cave. It is very dangerous at high tide but a sandy track at low tide.

Pimelea on the headland

Cape Raoul from Remarkable Cave walkway

Daisy

Maignon Bay Lookout

Small-leaved melaleuca – Melaleuca gibbosa

Correa reflexa var. reflexa

The dolerite columns of Cape Raoul from across the bay.

The botanical standout was this plant – probably a melaleuca – yet to be identified. It clothed the heath in a spectacular monoculture in places.

These flies sounded like bees noisly hovering in a stationary poistion.

The Mount Brown track

A bridge crossing a deep narrow gorge.

Maingon Blowhole

Zoomed image to the bottom. Spray periodically puffed up through the vent.

Colour on the track – Billy button daisies

Bluebells

Mount Brown

A wet mossy area. Shortly after this, I was power walking to a vantage point on a narrow uphill track when a VERY large tiger snake ends up around my feet; we did a dance together with its huge head adjacent to my boots and I unceremoniously hurtled back down the track doing a pirouette and leap that I did not know I was capable of. All ended OK for the serpent and me. Sadly no photo – 10cm from the 6th most deadliest snake in the world is a bit too close to stop for an image.

Leptospermum in the coastal heath

Wave action on a granite rock shelf.

Brilliant orange lichen

The southern coast of the Tasman Peninsula on the road to Port Arthur.

Sea cliffs on Tasman Island – the coast here has the tallest sea cliffs in Australia – up to 300 metres high.

We pass by Carnarvon Bay with the resident pied pipers….

…and a White-faced heron.

We arrive at Port Arthur half an hour before closing and get a pass included for tomorrow too. I took a few images in the brilliant afternoon light. The fickle weather here can rapidly change the lighting.

Port Arthur was a penal colony from 1833 until 1877 and was the destination for those deemed the most hardened of convicted British criminals, those who were secondary offenders having reoffended after their arrival in Australia.

The Penitentiary – rebellious personalities from other convict stations were also sent there.

The Guard Tower

The weathered sandstone.

Doo-town is a small settlement near Eaglehawk Neck where all homes have a Doo-name. This shack is Make-doo.

Dr Doolittle or Dr Doo-little?

Here’s a honey of a home.

Sounds idyllic. Maybe the retirement home for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Interestingly for pop music historians, Dave Dee (David Harman) from the UK band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich was a police cadet before he went into a music career. He began learning the guitar at the police station on a Gretsch guitar that was impounded after the death of American Eddie Cochran in a motor vehicle accident (collision?) in 1960.