Friday 9th March - Monday 12th March 2012 - Cockle Creek

We left Port Huon and drove down to Cockle Creek. It is the southern most point to camp in Australia I believe. We found out that it was a long weekend in Tassie so we decided to stay put for a few days. We set up camp and just chilled out for the day. It was actually quite sunny would you believe and it was great to dry out the camper and air everything out.

Our campsite

Ed and Thomas went for a fish and caught 3 flatheads whilst to the disappointment of the girls they had to catch up on some school work. We also had a visit from John & Narelle who we met at Port Huon.

Thomas catching crabs for bait on the beach.

But what a surprise....a bit of sun was followed by a cold, rainy night! Just when we thought that we were finally dry!

The following day was cool with glimpses of sun so after an early fish by Ed, Charlotte and Thomas (Olivia is not that committed to get out of bed - just like her Mum!) we all set off to see the Whale sculpture at the end of the National Park followed by the 2 hour walk to the southern most point of Australia.

The girls and the whale.

Thomas and his mate!

After seeing the whale we moved on to walk to the southern most point accessable by foot. We scrambled over rocks and beach and followed the path out to the point. On the way we passed some ruined buildings which were built by convicts to house the families of the whaling captains (I think!). We made it out to the point led of course by Thomas 'rock hopper' Greenway.

We added a rock to the pile. As you can see it was an overcast day and despite the exercise of the walk it was still quite cool. Upon our return we had some nice ham & cheese toasties. Yum. We also enjoyed a visit from Mick & Angela who we met at Port Huon.

In the afternoon Ed wrecked his hands collecting oysters and mussels with Charlotte and Thomas. Olivia stayed with me and we just hung out together. I made a chilli sauce and we enjoyed chilli mussels but the fire. A great way to finish the day. And guess what???? no rain. Yipee!

Thomas an the walk

Olivia up the tree

We were keen to see Hastings Cave and the thermal pools (and the promise of a nice hot shower) so on the Sunday we got going there. We packed the shower gel and shampoo for the hot shower afterwards. Unfortunately the caves were expensive to get into and as we had seen  quite a few already we decided to just pay to use the thermal pool and shower. Before we jumped into the pool we went for a walk and finally Olivia was rewarded with seeing a platypus! We also saw a snake - thank god from a distance!

We keenly got the bathers on and jumped into the thermal pool only to discover that it wasn't that thermal! Apparently it averages 28 degrees! It was cold!!!!! The only thing that made it worth it was the hot shower afterwards!

We then decided to get a bit dirty by going to a cave ourselves. We got some directions and drove to the start point for the walk to Mystery Cave. It took us about 1 and a half hours return to explore the cave. Apparently it has the biggest collection of glow worms. It was a slippery walk down into the cave, but once we turned the torches off it was beautiful! The pictures will not do it justice.

It was a great way to explore and the kids were so excited to have had their first 'real' caving experience.

We spent the end of the day just hanging out on the beach and at the campsite followed by a warm fire and dinner. The kids were tired after the cave walk and went to bed tired and fell asleep straight after another chapter of a Famous Five adventure.