Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Burnie, Tasmania. Excursion: Gunns Plains & Wildlife

Wood chips being offloaded at the port in Bernie - the lorry is tipped up

It was a lovely sunny day when we docked in Burnie, this morning, after a relatively easy passage across Bass Strait.

Being a working port, guests could not walk through the port into town so there was shuttle bus into Burnie itself from the pier. Tour busses were also waiting on the pier.

View over Gunns Plains

Some guests getting off looked happy but for one woman - it was a bad start to the morning. I saw her husband shouting at her in front of other guests (who were entering the show lounge to get their assigned bus tour stickers), telling her she was late for their tour. As it turned out, their tour had not been called and had therefore not left without them. I cringed for the poor woman though.

I joined my assigned excursion group on the bus and we soon headed out of the port and along the north coast in an easterly direction before turning off and heading inland. The scenery was beautiful, more so when we stopped at the top of a valley looking down into Gunns Plains for a photo stop. We were able to see the valley a bit more as we dropped down into it, our first stop being Wings Wildlife Park.

We arrived at the wildlife park just in time to see keepers feed the adult Tasmanian Devils.
A wallaby leg was thrown into the pen and the three animals went for it, hissing, snarling and growling at each other. One ran off with the 'prize' and the other two followed it into the undergrowth.

Kangaroo and her joey

We were allowed to wander around the wildlife park under our own steam. It wasn't a wildlife park as such because most animals were in enclosures of some sorts. There were emus, koalas, kangaroos and their joeys, meerkats, wombats, birds of all sorts, a reptile area, and much more. Feeding the kangaroos was a 'hit' for the guests - the joy on their faces was a sight to behold. For a small fee guests could have a close encounter with a baby wombat, a baby Tasmanian Devil or koala.

Our group was asked to be back in an hour but some of the guests rocked up over 10 minutes late - which was a shame because it shortened our next tour a bit.

Heading from the wildlife park, we ventured further through the Gunns Plains valley to Gunns Plains Caves. The caves were apparently discovered in 1906 by a hunter after one of his dogs fell into a hole that formed part of the cave. The guests were split into 2 groups to make going through the caves a bit easier to hear the guides. I went with the second group. Whilst we waited for the first group to get ahead of us it gave my group the opportunity to take plenty of group photographs near the 'Gunns Plains Caves' sign. It seemed to me that group of 18 were somehow related - family members and extended family members. Amongst them was an 80 something year old chap. I was unsure whether he would manage the 200 steps in the caves but he surprised me - he was a spring chicken!

We could eventually head into the caves via a locked gate and door. On entering the passage we descended into the caves via a series of steep narrow steps. The entire tour through the caves was along a narrow concrete walkway with steps up and down and with handrails throughout. When we entered the first of the major caverns our guide switched off the lights so that we could see the glow worms. Later on he lit a candle, giving us an idea of what it was like for first cave explorers. Whilst walking through the caves we were able to see stalactites, stalagmites, an underground river, calcite shawls and flowstones. We had been warned to bring a cardigan into the caves because the temperature was around 11˚C. I enjoyed the walk through the caves, taking in the beautiful sights of what nature's artist had formed and made. For me, it was also a time for quiet reflection on life. I am grateful to be alive.

Back out in the open sunshine it was time to start heading back to the ship. Our bus driver took us back via a different route so that we ended up along the coast near Ulverstone where we were able to see the Ulverstone Shrine of Remembrance clock-tower. The building of the clock tower is an interesting story: http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/2179023/clocks-life-and-chimes/ From Ulverstone we headed along the old Devonport coastal road to Burnie via a small town called Penguin. The coastal road runs parallel to a narrow gauge railway line and on the other side of the railway fence there are breeding colonies of Fairy Penguins (also known as Little Penguins). It was a pleasant drive back to the harbour.

Some guests decided to head back onto the ship, others decided to catch the shuttle bus into town. For me it was time to rest a bit.

The Maasdam has set sail now for Dunedin, New Zealand, a 3 day sail away with a bit of scenic cruising on the last day down the southwest coastline of Fijordland National Park, Milford and Dusky Sounds.