Up bright and early to begin our Tasmanian adventure, we made the beach near last night's accommodation our first stop. This is Hawley Beach near Port Sorell, slightly east of Devonport.

These rocks just took my fancy (drystone wall Kay?)......

When Ray and I travel by car, we have a rule. If you see a brown sign and you can, you follow the direction it points in and see what's there.

This was a bit tricky in Victoria because they don't put the mileage on the signs. Luckily Tasmania is like NSW and the mileage is there, so you know roughly how long it will take you to get to the end.

The next couple of photos come courtesy of a brown sign. They are taken from Braddon's Lookout which is near Leith on the North Coast.

The lookout is on the former site of the home of Sir Edward Braddon. Braddon was a premier of Tasmania at one time.

We were on our way to Gunns Plains to see some limestone caves there. We have both seen caves before, but I have never seen glow worms.....

I'd love to be a glow worm

A glow worm's never glum

'Cos how can you be grumpy

When the sun shines out your bum?!

Sorry - couldn't help it.

Anyway, I think this was the best caves tour I have ever been on. Run by NPWS it was very informative as well as informal.

The only thing that was a bit off was when we reached the realm of "too much information". I really can't bring myself to blog the info, so if you want to know you will have to have to google it. Something like - "what causes a 'glow worm' to glow?"

I took rather too many photos in the caves, but I won't bore you with them now.

The guide informed me that I was showing my age when I gave him an explanation of how you remember which is a 'stalactite' and which is a 'stalagmite'. The cheek of the man!!!

Okay, okay......... the tights come DOWN when the mites run UP!

(and a column is formed when they meet)

Here's Ray and I in the caves.

Our next stop was Penguin. Where we were hoping to find - penguins! - go figure! As it turns out penguins don't come to Penguin any more.

The first thing I saw when we got out of the car was this church. I'm not sure if "quaint" is a word you should use to describe a church but it is very quaint.

So - off in search of penguins.......

One near the beach.........

One outside the visitor info centre.....

and lots and lots of them hanging around the garbage bins all over town!!!!

We had a pie near the beach where you won't find any penguins!!!

We continued on our way with Stanley as our next destination. We were still on the hunt for penguins.

On the way there was another brown sign and what a treat we found at the end.

This was Table Cape Lookout. Fabulous views in all directions. (Still on the North Coast)

On arriving in Stanley we stopped first at the visitor info centre and were told there were penguins!!! Yay!! and there was a tour. we booked the tour then booked some accommodation at a B&B.

This is the beach just below the house, which could be seen from the back veranda - or the dining room.

Stanley is an anachronism. As such, it's quaint, but not kitsch. Very nice.

The photo of the buildings above (one of which was a chocolate shop - I'm on holidays!!!!) was taken from the pub across the road. We went there at drink o'clock, but then went for a walk to the wharf to have fresh seafood for dinner.

This is the beach on the opposite side of "The Nut"

This is a view of "The Nut" from the front veranda of the house we stayed in.

We didn't go up 'The Nut'. The chairlift wasn't working and it was very windy, and I was absolutely not going to walk up it.

We stayed in our rooms until 8.45 and then went on our penguin tour.

There were only 4 of us and the guide and it was very up close and personal. the guide uses a red shaded torch as the red glow does not bother the penguins. Although we stayed a very respectable distance from the penguins it was an experience like no other for me. I have seen the penguins at Phillip Island, which was a very contrived way of viewing them. the experience we had in Stanley was fabulous.

I had read up on NPWS guidelines on the best way to film the penguins and have some great footage. I will upload it to a separate post here if I have all the equipment and I can work out how to go about it. Stay tuned........