Tasmania 2018 – Day 6

Miena to Mole Creek via Deloraine

Under another blue sky and warming day, we set off from Miena for the small town of Mole Creek, at the foothills of a number of hills/mountains as part of the Great Western Tiers.

Up until now the road surface has been good, patchy and gravelly in a few places (notably on corners where vehicles have dragged rocks and such onto the road), however between Miena and Deloraine there were extensive roadworks, set to last for another year or so (They generally can only work in Summer due to the ever changing conditions in the mountains at other times).

Liffey Falls
We decided to stop along the road to Deloraine at our first falls of the trip, a place called Liffey Falls. Once we travelled down the narrow, gravel road, we realised that it was up to an hour round trip, which we didn’t have time for, so settled for a visit to Big Tree near the Liffey car park. If you look in the picture really hard, you’ll see Mr12 with his outstretched arms at the bottom left of the tree (as we see it) – showing the scale of the tree.

Deloraine
Deloraine is a lovely arts/creative-centric town in the Highlands of Tasmania, between Launceston and Cradle Mountain. We stopped by the Meander River to eat morning tea and enjoy the summer sun. The town has a number of small sculptures lining the streets, made by local artists.

We visited the information centre and stocked up on maps and info for the locations we were to visit along the way (on many occasions, more can be gleaned from a brochure or book/map than you can get from Google or Siri).

We continued West along the Bass Hwy towards Mole Creek,when we stopped by an old cemetery in Chudleigh for Eva to pick up a cache. I love the name “Chudleigh” and found out it’s named after a town in England, the name having come from Saxon origin.

Mole Creek
We soon came across our accommodation for the next 2 nights along the road from Chudleigh – we unloaded our stuff, got a feel for the place then headed off towards the Marakoopa Caves.

Mole Creek Caves (Marakoopa Cave)
There are 2 caves jointly marketed as the Mole Creek Caves – King Solomon cave and the Marakoopa cave. We opted for the Marakoopa Cave because it offered glow-worms – reportedly the largest gathering of glow-worms in Australia.

The Marakoopa cave also had an underground river at the end of the cave, a spot to stop and listen (in darkness as well) to the sound of running water. I spotted a fossil on the wall whilst inspecting the cave with a torch.

Tulampanga (Alum Cliff)
On our way back from Marakoopa Caves we diverted up a hill towards a location referred to as Tulampanga (Alum Cliff). There was a short walk to be completed to get to the lookout over Alum Cliff and the valley and river below (isn’t there always?) On the way down I said hello to a couple of cows!

Back to the accommodation for washing, dinner and for Mr12 to play with his new friends – 2 goats and a sheep. I only took 1 photo of one of the goats for your enjoyment 🙂

Tomorrow: We’re off to Dove Lake in the Cradle Mountain National Park
Previous: Tasmania 2018 – Day 5