After huddling up indoors during the cold winter months, there’s nothing quite as invigorating as a springtime road trip out in the crisp mountain air. A tour of Tasmania’s North West during spring will not only bring all five senses sharply back into focus and help you to shake the nine-to-five grind out of your system, it will also introduce you to a world of peace that you’ve never imagined.

The city’s strategic location along the Mersey River and the Bass Strait coast means that visitors are in close proximity to stunning mountain, beach and river scenery at all times. Take a refreshing hike up Cradle Mountain, famous for its range of captivating scenery, including ancient rainforests, rugged mountains and icy mountain streams inhabited by platypuses and other native wildlife. Even a short walk through the surrounding national park will make you feel as though you’ve stepped into a primeval paradise, where the cares of the modern world have never existed.

Back on lower ground in Devonport, you can also learn about another one of the area’s most impressive natural surroundings – the Bass Strait itself. Explore the history of these ancient waters at the Bass Strait Maritime Centre, and learn of the region’s colonial history and tales of shipwrecks that haunt the coast. Visitors can experience all the challenges of crossing a dangerous strait by captaining a virtual vessel in the centre, or – if you’re confident in your sea legs – you can even take the helm of a real fishing vessel during a two-hour voyage into the strait.

If you’re eager to learn more about the mysterious world below the waves, visit the nearby Seahorse World in Beauty Point, the only seahorse-breeding centre in Australia approved by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. Devonport is also your gateway to Launceston, where you can take in the sights and sounds at a local restaurant, or even a festival or two.

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