Scottsdale and Up Hill and Down Dale and....

Whew what a day!!!

We began with a 10 minute drive north to Bridport. Someone had recommended that we go there, but we aren't sure why. There were a couple of nice little beaches............

The next stop was George Town, which is one of Tassie's oldest towns. They have 3 different museums/displays relating to the history of the town. Firstly  a museum in the town in the old watch house, that has been restored to it's original state for the purpose. It featured a model of the old town, and we were treated to a comprehensive rundown of the history.

They also pointed out the buildings from the original settlement that are still in existence.

We moved on from there to go to a Bass and Flinders Exhibit.

This featured information about the lives and times of both Bass and Flinders, who circumnavigated Tasmania and proved that it was an island.

There was a replica of the Norfolk (which included Matthew Flinders' Cat!) and also one of the

Tom Thumb.

 From there we drove out to the actual coast where the pilot man's cottages have been restored and one is a cafe, some are accommodation and one is a very comprehensive maritime museum.

It seems Ray missed his calling - here is is behind the wheel again.

From there we went south and then across the Batman Bridge to the other side of the Tamar and north again to Beauty Point to the Platypus House.

This was fabulous. The facility has a licence for 5 platypuses (yes that is the correct term for the plural), although they only have 4 at the moment. They are attempting to breed them.

What fascinated me the most was the fact that they have different habits to the platypuses on the mainland. They are not nocturnal. It seems they actually have different DNA so are actually a small sub species.

Very cute - it was hard to take photos with no flash, but we got a couple of  almost reasonable ones in the end. These two pictures (if you can see them) are of Porky. Porky's a bit of a geriatric apparently. A bit slow and keeps bumping into things.

Platypuses close everything when they go underwater - eyes, mouth, nose and ears. So they find their way and their food via sensors (I forget what they are called) in their bill.

 This is what they eat.......... Live!! and guess where I was standing............ I was keeping my eye on them!

One of the most surprising things was the size of their eggs. They are roughly the size of a jaffa - they aren't orange of course - they are white, and they only lay up to three of them.

Next stop the Echidna Garden. Echidnas are the only close relatives of Platypuses. Monotremes. Mammals, but they lay eggs. Apparently their skeletons are identical.

These guys were so cute! They are also slightly different to the ones on the mainland, but that just seems to relate to climate. These appear to have smaller ratio of spines to hair.

Their eggs are much the same size as a platypus, and the young of both animals are called puggles!

So you'd think that we would have had enough of unusual creatures...... Think again!!

Seahorse world!!

Now these things truly are different! They are bred for the pet industry, although the business started for the Chinese medicine market, but proved not to be a very good earner.

There are quite a lot (I think it was around 60) of different seahorses. Australia has the largest number of any country because we have both cold and warm waters.

Now, there are lots of things to love about seahorses. Firstly they are different and cute - that's good, but what is really awesome is that the female gives the male a little tickle up and basically impregnates him!! You've gotta love that!

In the picture below it is the seahorse with the smaller tummy that is actually carrying babies. The ones with the really big, white looking pouches in the front are actually flirting. Showing the female that they have the capacity to carry the babies! Wouldn't our blokes love it if it was the pot bellies that hooked us in!!

The largest number of babies they have counted from one male is 1166. Read it and weep!! They have to collect the babies as soon as they are born though, because the adults will eat them.

So - day over??? Sorry, not yet.

No creatures this time. Off to Beaconsfield to the Mining Museum. I'm not sure now what it was called, but it was certainly about more than just mining. There were great social history displays as well.

A large number of the mining exhibits, especially the ones with big bits of machinery, are displayed in the ruins of an old mine building.

Let me tell you that at this point I had had enough!!

We finished the day in Launceston at the Pennyroyal (maybe more about that next time). We had one or two (?) drinks in the pub and a lovely dinner before collapsing in a heap in our room.