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 NOT for the first time in his line of work, Murray Smith's been thrown a challenge. Think up somewhere, anywhere, to take some visitors from Launceston for a day. His business, Murray's Day Out, does tailored tours for visitors looking for local knowledge and a personal touch.
Sometimes, they employ him for several days or more than a week, but most of the time he takes clients out for the day.
We arrange to meet in Ulverstone, Mr Smith's home town, and he has flagged the possibility of driving up the Leven Valley and having a look at several attractions.
I met Mr Smith on an Arthur River cruise last year when he was escorting a couple of Tasmanians on a journey to the wonderful West.
During our day out in the Leven he tells me that he often takes people whose mobility issues would rule them out of a bus tour because he thinks they should have the chance to enjoy everything the state has to offer.
He is also in demand whenever a cruise ship docks on the North-West Coast and makes regular trips to Hobart for the same market.
With wife Sallie and son Solomon we are a party of three so there's plenty of room in Mr Smith's Toyota Tarago, which is licensed to take seven passengers.
We start the tour with a trip to a place I've never been - the hill at suburban West Ulverstone, which gives a great view of Tasmania's largest town and the Leven River meeting Bass Strait in its centre.
Here Mr Smith gestures south towards Mount Roland: "If Roland's clear, then Cradle Mountain is usually okay." Here's the working knowledge of a man who doesn't want to take clients to a fogbound Cradle Valley when there's so much else to do and see.
We take the old Bass Highway to Penguin and Mr Smith mentions that, in a throwback to the days of passenger trains, the vegetation along the railway line was always maintained by the householders, leading to spectacular floral displays.
There's still much evidence of trackside flora between the old highway and Bass Strait.
Mr Smith says that he often has visitors, drawn by the state's wild places and wild animals, calling Tasmania paradise.
He's also pleased with a comment in his visitors' book from a Briton who praised the educational nature of his commentary.
Mr Smith's banter is humorous, informative, friendly and authentic. ("Americans often ask: `where are your barns?' and I tell them until the cows complain we'll leave them outside.")
Little wonder he was the Tasmanian winner of the tourism category at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards last year.
We meander inland and I mention that I could kill for a coffee, so Mr Smith pulls over at Pioneer Park at Riana. This is a camping ground with shelters, barbecues, playground and toilets. Mr Smith is quickly making coffee, tea and hot chocolate and passing around fruit cake.
Soon we pull over outside Thorfield, a magnificent private garden at Riana, for a quick look.
"I tell people that the day out is like a reconnaissance mission," says Mr Smith. "I show everything I possibly can and it's up to you to come back when you have more time."
We descend to Gunns Plains and slip into Wings Wildlife Park, where Solomon gets to feed trout, an eager goat and eastern grey kangaroos and see devils, wombats and koalas.
Gunns Caves are next and we take the 11am tour with a walking club from the North-West. The cave's stream has platypuses, fish and lobster and superb calcite formations that have fired the imaginations of visitors and guides since its European discovery in 1884.
Then Murray's Day Out moves on to the Leven Valley Vineyard for a pre- lunch tasting and a chat with owner John Weatherly, a wine industry veteran who, with wife Wendy, is selling up and moving back to his family in Bowral after seven years of growing grapes.
The highlights roll on: we have lunch in Nietta, amid the magnificent gardens of Kaydale Lodge, where Robert and Kay Crowden have notched 31 years as a tea-room bed-and-breakfast.
The accomplishment is significant in the fluid tourism industry but there's also a statistic to be proud of - Mrs Crowden tells me she has made 1.8 million caramel cream tarts in those three decades.
After lunch we drive to the Leven Canyon and walk a circuit to the lookout. It's a high point of our day in more ways than one.
The recon mission takes us to Taylors Flats, an out- of-the-way camping ground on the Leven where Solly takes a dip. Mr Smith says it is one of his favourite fishing spots.
Nearby is Mountain Valley Wilderness Holidays and Private Nature Reserve, where owner Len Doherty talks us through various attractions, such as a platypus tour, private cave glow-worm tours and Tasmanian devil feeding.
Our Day Out has lasted from 8am until 5pm (it's usually a seven-hour day) and there's much information to digest. Our taste of the Leven has left us hungry for more so we will return, armed with knowledge and time.
And Murray Smith, a tailor of Tasmanian tours, has won over three more visitors.
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IF YOU GO
WHAT: Murray's Day Out. Personalised day trips.
COST: $140 a person.
DETAILS: See www.murraysdayout.com.au or call 64245250.
PHOTO CAPTION: Murray Smith surveys the countryside from a lookout above the Leven Canyon. Picture David Scott. |
