Tamar Valley

The expedition team did a good job of finding interesting places to visit on our extra day in the Tamar Valley while we wait for the winds to calm down.

This morning we went to “Platypus House” and hugely enjoyed the antics of a lively family group of platypus swimming in 4 connected ponds. This one is eating a fish it just caught.

The same facility also has Echidnas, which are so funny. They have learned that they get fed whenever the guide comes round with a group. So they cluster by the door and it’s hard not to fall over them. The guide puts out a little food bowl for each of them, but the biggest male gobbles his food as fast as possible and tries to get round all the other bowls before the females have finished. The first extra shows our delightful young guide kneeling behind two jostling echidnas with some of the group sitting around and MrHCB providing scale. The echidnas rushed around between our legs. It was like being in a garden with a group of over-excited pet hedgehogs :-)

Later we caught the shuttle bus to the nearest small town, called George Town (after King George III). It was very sleepy on a holiday Saturday afternoon, but we enjoyed the walk. The second extra is a detail of a large sculpture on the river bank and the third extra of mosaics set into the pavement. There was a wonderful craft shop with locally made furniture, glassware and art works. If it had been in the UK I would have spent a lot of money :-(