We left Kelso on a sunny morning and headed over the Tamar river and travelled down the east side to Launceston. Launceston is a lovely little city but did not stay as we wanted to get to St Helens. We headed east over the mountains through forested passes and open valleys with cattle in the lush green fields. We stopped at a lookout and chatted to some locals to get a feel for what we should be doing and they gave some good info as well as telling us about an Amish community nearby that sells produce and freshly baked apple pie not far down the mountain. We stopped and bought two apple pies one of which we ate shortly after arriving in St Helens - it was divine!
We stopped at Legerwood where the locals had planted a tree for each of their men who had died in the first world war. The trees had grown old and were condemned as they were now dangerous. The locals organised to have a wood carver come and carve the stumps into likenesses of the men who they were planted for. These carving are now famous and people come from all over the world to see them. The most amasing thing about the carvings is they were done with a chainsaw!
The rest of the road to St Helens was through forests of huge trees with the largest tree ferns we have seen. No photo can do these scenes justice but we tried our best.
The morning brought a beautiful day so we were up early and did some washing, had breakfast and headed out to explore. We drove to the Bay of Fires and saw some humpback whales tail slapping in the bay and some yellow tailed black cockatoos. The bay has white sand and is pretty but not as good as Esperance. Next we headed inland to the cheese factory with their various cheddar cheeses. After tasting some cheese we had a simple lunch at the 'Pub in the Paddock' then went on to view the St Columba Falls which were in spectacular rain forest with huge tree ferns. We took many photos then visited the Forrest Walk with numerous Myrtle Trees. This short walk had great information boards about the Myrtle Trees. We then drove home for champagne cocktails and dinner.
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| View from the mountain pass |
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| Our home on the mountain pass |
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| Tree fern next to the road on the pass |
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| Tree fern and flowers on the pass |
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| Legerwood carvings |
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| St Columba Falls |
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| Rain forrest stream with fern trees |
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| More rain forrest |
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| Giant fern trees |
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| Myrtle trees |
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| Vlasta sitting on a fallen fern tree |
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