Today was intentionally a breezy relaxing day where we would just pop in to various places on the North Western Tasting Trail and have a look see or scoff food down our gobs. The only thing we had to do was make our way west towards Cradle Mountain. We had booked accommodation at a repurposed church in Barrington, which was about an hour away from Cradle Mountain. We were going to just commute to the mountain the next day because any type of accommodation closer to the mountain was very exhorbitant.

The first stop was to Coles to get some more supplies - water, museli bars and some Anzac biscuits as it was that time of the year.

Rustic Bakehouse

Our first real stop was Rustic Bakehouse in Cressy, which was one of the places we had to ditch yesterday. This establishment was famous for its doughnuts. We had two doughnuts (AUD 10.50) as not to over do it as we had other places to eat at!

The bakery was a cosy little place with a line out the door. It was clear it was popular with locals. There was some nice seating on the road so we sat there and stuffed our faces.

We had two doughnuts - Lemon meringue and Raspberry jam. They were decent doughnuts but the lemon didn't quite hit the spot. I needed more tang.

I had a berry farm in nearby Longford pinned (Longford Berries) but unfortunately berry season was over just a few days prior.

41° South

Next stop was a salmon farm in Deloraine for lunch. We were planning to only have a small lunch as we were going to keep filling up our bellies elsewhere. The first building you walk through is the cafe, where the guy working there gave us a quick intro and asked us what we were after, then he tried to sell us the salmon farm self walking tour. We ordered a 41 South Platter and said we would think about the tour. We headed outside to find a place to sit and eat.

The platter (AUD 32) consisted of the following:

• Hot Smoked Salmon
• Salmon Rillettes
• Salmon burger patty
• Ginseng spice mix (their own recipe)
• Thousand island sauce (also their own recipe)
• Sourdough
• Dressed salad greens

The hot smoked salmon and rillettes were quite good, especially with the spice mix. Unfortunately the burger patty was a bit dry (lol it certainly looks overcooked in the photo) but the sauce helped with that. Unfortunately the bread was a little basic.

A doesn't like it when I take online reviews as truth but I have to say, the reviews for the self walking tour was not that good. I suppose he wasn't that interested so didn't mind that we did not do the tour. After all, it would just devolve into us potentially finding some fish to feed. We retreated back into the cafe and I decided to browse their little gift shop before leaving. The guy did not look too pleased when we declined to take the self guided farm tour. He was a real hustler, suggesting we buy his vaccum packed hot salmon. Whilst it tasted decent, we just didn't have the capacity to carry it around with us.

However, I was impressed with the spice mix, so I bought a bottle home. It wasn't the cheapest thing, 100 grams for $15!

Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe

Our next stop was a cafe that was very obviously raspberry themed. Practically everything on the menu had raspberry on it! It's not my favourite fruit but I didn't mind. A actually really enjoys raspberries but didn't mind if we did not eat here. But I actually had eyes for one thing and it was not the raspberries…

I went with the no bun option as we needed to save space in our stomaches for future stops. So this was presented like a salad. From the menu: “Wild Tasmanian wallaby on a toasted Manu bun with beet and blackberry chutney, Ashgrove fetta, tomato relish and rocket. Served with rosemary salted roast potatoes”.

Unfortunately the serving semed a bit small. I would've thought that because there was no bun, there might be more potatoes or more greens, as this was generally the case. However I did enjoy everything, it was not too sweet and everything seemed to work well together. There was no raspberry in this dish

As for the wallaby? It wasn't gamey at all, it was a light protein option that was quite tame. If you didn't know it was wallaby then you would probably shrug and think it's pork. I suppose it was in a patty form (minced), which is a pretty palatable format.

Because we were sharing one main I thought it might be a good idea to order a drink so not to raise any eyebrows. Self imposed guilt, I doubted the waitress even cared. The restaurant was very busy and full with patrons. We got a Apple and Raspberry juice (AUD 6.50) which I thought was too sweet.

After eating, we took a stroll around the property to have a look at the farm (couldn't see much as it was all in a greenhouse) and its lake.

Van Diemens Land Creamery

Across the road from Christmas Hills was Van Diemens Land Creamery, which was housed in a airy warehouse but had a sleek interior. We had two scoops (AUD 7.50) - their award winning Pepperberry and Leatherwood honey ice cream (two Tassie icons) and Choc Hazelnut gelato.

Unfortunately I was not impressed with either flavour but it was proper dense ice cream/gelato. A did enjoy both, however.

Elizabeth Town Bakery Cafe

Next stop was just up the road on the Bass Highway, a bakery on the side of the road. A was really keen for a classic Aussie vanilla slice so off we went. Personally I am not really a fan, if I wanted to eat a bunch of custard, I would do just that, I don't need to eat it in a vanilla slice. I am partial to the more refined French Mille-feuille or the Russian Napoleon or the Bled Kremsnita.

The vanilla slice (AUD 4.80) was kind of hard to eat. The flakey pastry wasn't that flakey and you couldn't easily take a bite of it and rip it off the slice. The custard was fine, and not too sweet. Even A agreed it was just okay.

Ashgrove Cheese Dairy Door

Further up the road was the Ashgrove cheese Dairy Door, where they opened their cheese factory to the public. There is a section explaining Ashgrove's history and methodology and then another section where you can see how they make their cheese (well, no one was working today) and their cheese storage. There was of course a cafe and a gift shop, where we bought a small block of mature cheddar.

Most (if not all) of their cheeses are hard cheeses, which was really not that exciting. We did a small cheese tasting at the gift shop which confirmed this. I do however, think mature cheddar is exciting, which is why we purchased this.

House of Anvers

Our next stop was a small chocolate factory located in a 1920s bungalow house. Anvers confectionary was started by a Belgian man, an aspiring patissier who moved to Tasmania in his 20s and fell in love with the place. That was a few decades ago, and now they are open direct to the public. The first thing you encounter when you walk into the house is a cafe and gift shop. If you continue on there is a small museum that touches on the history of chocolate. There were lots of antique moulds in various shapes and sizes. We took a small walk outside in the gardens.

On the way out, we bought a box of truffles for ourselves.

Spreyton Cider Co

The final stop of the day was a cidery. A was interested in visiting this and trying out their ciders. The cidery was reaching close of business and there was a guy and a guitar providing entertainment to patrons who looked like they were having a good time. There was a playground outside for kids and lots of seating. A purchased a tasting paddle (AUD 15) and it came with instructions. There were six varieties and you got to get a full sized cider after you finished your tasting.

A‘s opinions (from left to right):

Vintage

This was wayyy too dry. Very difficult to drink.

Young Sturmer 2.0

This was not bad but also quite dry. If you're a fan of dry cider you would probably like it. I personally am a fan of other dry Tasmanian ciders like Mercury Draught/Dry cider.

Apple

This was more palatable for a casual drink. Was not bad and of course sweet.

Pear

Pleasant and sweet.

Sour Cherry

I quite dislike cherry and this was inedible to me. Ippy didn't like either. “The sour cherry was the worst lol.”

Hard Ginger Beer

I also am not a fan of Ginger beer unfortunately. So 2/6 of the drinks were drinks I didn't enjoy.

In terms of tasting, it probably would've been better value to buy just the ciders I could've drank (i.e. def not the last two) and tasted them individually (Ippy edit: I'm pretty sure I mentioned this…) I think my favourite would be either the Young Sturmer or the Apple.

Afterwards, we took a walk around the farm outside. It was basically a self guided tour of the various stages of cider making.

The sun was setting so we decided it was time to go check in to our accommodation, Barrington Church B&B.

Barrington Church B&B

It was really intriguing and slightly worrying to me that we would be staying at a Church for 3 nights. But it was a good deal, so how bad could it be? The guy who ran the place had a lot of reviews saying he was a great host.

We arrived, checked in (which consisted of the host telling us about the facilities and some small rules and giving us a key) then we were given a tour of the property. It was quite nice but I could see that it could get very cold in the winter, especially in the churchy part with the pews. The host had done extensive renovations of the place to get it up to scratch. He said it was unlivable when he bought it.

Our room was upstairs and it was very spacious. There was a working heater which was invaluable as the evenings were quite chilly now we were close to the mountains. We had our own bathroom which was excessively large but it was not connected to the room.

The host was easy to talk to and he had a lot to tell us. It was also clear he did not enjoy the pandemic as it cut off his income. I think we must've talked about the lack of penguins in Bicheno because next minute we were off to Devonport for dinner and to chase penguins.

Lillico Beach

There is a Penguin viewing platform at Lillico Beach Conservation Area, just off the Bass highway. There is a group that do free tours during Penguin breeding season between September and April. However the season had just finished on the 22nd, which was only 2 days prior so it was worth a shot. Armed with red light headlamps, we walked onto the platform and to my surprise, immediately heard twittering and other noises. We saw 10 penguins with very little effort just chilling out and walking around.

My photos were not the best mostly because I decided to use my phone camera.

The reason you use a headlamp with a red light is because they cannot actually see the red light, so it does not interfere with their night vision. If you use regular white light then this will damage their little retinas. Our headlamps were cheap ones from Decathlon that have a red light setting as well as the regular white light and they worked well.

Yay! Another thing ticked off the list! I'd never seen wild penguins in real life before! A had been to Philip Island in Melbourne before but this was way more intimate, it was just us and them, no crowds. A small group of people did come along after we did and was not prepared. They did not have red lamps so they could only hear the penguins. We did walk up to them and flash our red lights at penguins so they could have a glimpse.

Charcoal Chicken Devonport

For dinner we went to the good old chicken shop. It looked like it was from the 80s, signage and all. Unfortunately they were closing and we were not allowed to eat inside.

We ordered:

• a quarter chicken and 2 salads and chips (AUD 14.90)
• another quarter chicken (AUD 5.95)

Cheap, eh? The chicken wasn't bad but the 1 of the 2 salads we got was straight up awful (some sort of seafood salad, garden salad was ok). No pictures but you can imagine a classic chicken shop feed. The chicken came with stuffing!