Languishing in Longford

Back when I had full capacity of thought, I had anticipated that we may be a bit wrung out by the time we arrived in Tassie. I had booked 5 nights on a powered site to make sure we had NYE covered and to let us rest. What a smartie I was!! When we arrived, Dunc, Lexie and I lounged around all afternoon, snoozing and not doing much, and Angus complained because ‘Mr fully rested’ wanted to do stuff that the rest of us just were not up to. Fortunately there were ducks EVERYWHERE to entertain him!

We had a wonderful time in Longford. We had the time and space to sleep in, laze around, re-pack half the cupboards, walk the caravan park every night, Dunc made some changes and renovated the bus a bit, Angus fed the ducks every chance he got and Lexie made friends with any girl close to her age.

We also ventured out and about a bit, though upon reflection, we didn’t see as much of Launceston as we could have. We DID get to Cataract Gorge on our first day out and everyone enjoyed the chairlift and suspension bridge. We attempted a reasonable hike to the Duck Reach power station, but I couldn’t handle the whining of the children and the 3 of us piked it just after halfway and Dunc hiked on without us. We returned to the swimming pool and the crazy children actually swam in the unheated pool.

We made the mistake of letting Lexie assume her duties of “Activities Officer” without supervision and ended up driving 1/3 of the way across the entire state to Mole Creek Caves. Relying on a 10yo and a GPS meant that we were driving for a good half hour before either Dunc or myself thought to question WHERE exactly we were going! Whoops… The caves were absolutely amazing and well worth the drive afterall. 

We also stopped into Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary since we were out that way. The children got to actually HOLD a baby wombat and we all got to pat a Tasmanian Devil. Not such a good thing in the end, as it appears that I am just as allergic to Wombats and Devils as I am to dogs. L I spent the rest of the afternoon with streaming eyes, a horribly scratchy throat and itchy itchy legs.

If you ever get to Tasmania, we thoroughly recommend Trowunna as the place to see Australian wildlife. You can get so close (touching and holding) to so many varieties of animals. Just don’t bother paying the $2 for a bag of feed. The kangaroo part has an enormous trough full of the same stuff, which you can grab and feed from too.

We also spent some time exploring the town of Longford itself. There is a wonderful working farm from the convict era, which is listed on the World Heritage List. Brickendon was just lovely and we had a (freezing cold) relaxing morning exploring the grounds. We were all looking forward to playing a murder mystery game called ‘Skullduggery’ throughout Longford, but apparently that no longer runs. Lexie was most disappointed, as she had really been looking forward to that. Apparently it runs in 2 other towns as well, so we’ll wait and see if we have better luck in Ross or Oakford.

And because Mr Wildlife hadn’t had enough with ducks and Trowunna, Angus and I checked out Tasmania Zoo for an afternoon too. We had a great time wandering around while Lexie and Duncan had some home time at Bertha.

Longford was a perfect start to our trip – slow and steady!