The routine almost a ritual now, we arose, had breakfast and packed the car. We headed out of Kentish Hills Retreat towards Mole Creek. We came across Marakoopa Cave and decided to investigate. The entry fee was reasonable, so we went on the 10am tour to the Cathedral. The tour was about an hour long and featured many different cave formations. The highlight were the resident glow worms. When the lights were off, they lit up the ceiling like stars.
After the cave, we pushed on and stopped in Chudleigh at a honey stop. They had many, many varieties of honey to sample and had a glass hive on display. We bought a few honeys to eat at our leisure.
We then stopped briefly at a Salmon fish farm. The tour was a little overpriced, so a few salmon based products were purchased and we moved on.
We stopped in Deloraine for lunch, consisting of local bakery fair. We lunched in the “Train Park” featuring an old train that the children enjoyed playing on and an pedestrian suspension bridge. It was also the site of an old and now defunct hydro-electric power station.
With no further stoppages, we arrived at Penny Royal in Launceston. All however did not go to plan. Our initial accommodation was sub-standard with a cigarette smell permeating the entire room coupled with threadbare carpets and dodgy bed linen. A quick complaint later by my wife (who, despite having unloaded all the bags from the car, was not putting up with this!) and we were moved to a better location in the motel into two rooms. It was two rooms with an adjoining door. We had fun telling the kids that it was the door to a Dungeon, and we'd show them through it if they were not behaving! This lasted all of 10 minutes, but was brought to life a little when nanny started scratching on the other side of the door and making scary noises... Both boys were a bit worried then!
We took the easy (and cheap) option and had dinner at McDonalds. After dinner we returned home and took it easy, watched a little tv, played some cards and headed to bed.
