After a good night's sleep in an apartment room with a Spa Bath at the Beachfront Voyager Motor Inn, we set off in a north westerly direction for the town of Wynard and a little further beyond to Table Cape, a 12-million-year-old volcano and natural wonder, that at 180 metres high, offered spectacular views over Tasmania's northern coastline Table Cape is a more or less circular extinct volcano with a flat top, its northern and eastern faces rise steeply from the Bass Strait to a height of approximately 170 metres (560 ft) above sea level. Table Cape's top and surrounding areas are composed of fertile basalt soils and are heavily cultivated. The area is renowned for the annual flowering of tulips during spring and accompanying tulip festival.Table Cape Lighthouse is a Tasmanian heritage-listed lighthouse situated on the 120-hectare Table Cape State Reserve. The lighthouse was first lit up on 1st August 1888, it stands about 25 metres (82 ft) high and has a diameter of 8.5 metres (28 ft) at the base.
The first photo is Overlooking Freestone Cove from Fossil Bluff with Table Cape in the background. The second is of the Lighthouse and the third is looking southeast along the coast from the Table Cape Outlook. Our next destination was the town of Penguin but on the way Margaret, our Travel Director, pointed out the red fertile basalt soils. The rainfall declines from the 3 metres annually in the west coast forests but provides sufficient to support the cultivation of potatoes, onions, medicinal opium (The area supplies the majority of medicinal opium for Australia) lettuce and many other crops as well as supporting dairy farming. Later this afternoon we were to visit Ashgrove Farm for a cheese tasting.The last two photos show the fertile soil and an irrigation boom of the kind that were so numerous, and fascinated me, when I visited New Zealand a year ago.
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