Woolnorth Sunset Tour

A couple of days before we left home I stumbled upon a tour to the very north west tip of Tasmania to an area that you normally don't have access to due to it being on private land.

Nigel from Woolnorth Tours picked us up from our caravan park at 6pm.  There were just four guests on the tour, which made it nice and personal.

Our first stop was at the crossing to Robbins Island just off the north coast. It is so shallow at low tide that cattle are walked across and machinery is driven across.

We then entered the "Woolnorth" property, which is really historic.  Being 50,000 acres it is the largest property in Tasmania. It currently only runs dairy cattle. There are 13 dairies on the property, each milking about 1,200 cows a day and producing a B-Double of milk per dairy a day.

On the coastline there is a wind farm, which was our second stop.  

You don't realise how tall they are until you compare one with a Ford Territory. 

The blades are 30 metres long.  When you see one lying on the ground you start to realise how big they are.

There are a couple of blow hole caves in the rocks near the wind farm which were working a treat while we were there.

We then hopped back in the car and headed out to Cape Grim, so called as from the sea the rock formation looks like a grim face peering out of the sea.  The two rocks are called the Dough Boys.

The early sunset was looking lovely. 

We travelled past the historic buildings of Woolnorth. The first building is the oldest in north west Tasmania.

The next one was the gaol.

Our next stop was the very top point of north west Tasmania.  To reach it we walked along the beach, where there was lots of sea weed washed up.

So much had washed up in one spot that we had to walk along it. That was quite an experience. 

We reached the point where the Southern Ocean meets the Bass Strait. See how the waves are coming from different directions.

We had a nice wander around waiting for the sunset.

Nigel showed is the remains of a pigmy whale that had washed up recently. 

Meanwhile it was becoming apparent that we were not going to get much of a sunset, as the clouds were closing in.  Not to worry........ Then, as were about to leave a slight red tinge started to appear and we were treated to a stunning sunset.

Now it was time for the final phase of our tour - Spotlighting.  Not with a gun as Mick kept suggesting.

This area has Tasmanian Devils and fortunately they have not been affected by the facial tumours that have affected so many.

On the return trip, we saw loads of little wallabies, known as pademelon, two quolls, which are rarer than devils, an echidna, (which are slightly different to those on the mainland) and three devils.  It turns out that if a devil is chased it will end up sitting down and not moving. As a result we were able to get quite close to one in the wild and get some great photos.

You'll just have to take my word for seeing the others as no photos were possible.

We were returned to our caravan park at about 10pm.  The time went so fast.  Not a bad way to spend the evening.  I'd recommend the tour yo anyone.