Today we drove to the end of the road south on Tasmania to Cockle Creek. In this area at the southern point of Tasmania there were 4 whaling stations in the 19th century. Within 20 years they had decimated the whale population here and closed down. The whales came into this protective bay to calf and raise their young. I don’t know if whales have come back to this bay yet. On the way we passed lots of apple orchards. A nice change from the grapes winery.  
On arrival we made a short walk along the coast over the beach. At high tide, crossing is not possible so we did not do the full 2 hr return walk to the ruins of an old whaling station at the mouth of the bay. Today’s campsite is close to the end of the road in the bushes next to the beach. On a rock in the bay, we spotted some penguins so we were hopeful to see them come ashore tonight. 

Reluctantly we left the beach and moved North again. On the way we stopped at Hastings Caves. They are in the middle of an old growth forest. Fortunately the logging of the huge Stringy bark Eucalyptus was stopped in 1919 when the caves were discovered. Along the road in you see the enormous stumps of the removed trees. In the temperate forest you can still see how it used to be. Large trees and some medium ones around and on the ground many fallen ones covered in moss.

The cave itself is also worth the detour. A guide took us on a 1 hr tour around together with some 20 others. It is a dolomite cave so the growth of the different features is slower