Elephant Pancakes

Tasmania is famous for it's fresh, local produce. Vineyards, berry farms, cheese factories, award-winning bakeries - don't bother heading to France, just cross the strait to the Holiday Isle and start eating. And that's exactly what Luke and I have done. We've visited the Lavendar Farms at Nabowla (Hmmm... lavender flavoured shortbread - you really must try it). We've sampled the famous cloth-bound cheddars at the Pyengana Cheese Factory (and bought some chilli-infused matured cheddar to have with our biccies and beer). But all this became just a drop in the ocean, after we discovered the famous Elephant Pass Pancake Shop.

The brochure caught Luke's eye at a tourist info stop and you could say that it was love at first sight. Yes, we had to travel down the coast to see one of the top ten beaches in the world, Wineglass Bay at the Freycinet Natural Park, but first, yes first, we had to experience something nearly as amazing. We had to sample an elephant pancake. The pamphlet said that people come from all over the world to taste the delights from Elephant Pass. But with a 20 minute detour from the main drag, a windy mountain climb into the bush where you share the road with some seriously huge timber trucks and not the best road signs, we thought we'd have The Elephant Pass Pancake Shop all to ourselves. Oh, how wrong we were.

The pancake place was swarming with people! The question that now faced us, was would we get a seat? The modest cafe with wooden panels for walls, decorated with random elephant paraphernalia, built on some one's private house block, way up in the hills resembled Pitt Street Mall at lunchtime (well, not quite but you get the idea). After we found a snug table for two (Phew!), cappuccino's ordered and I decide to go with the traditional choice - one pancake with maple syrup, please. Luke, being a tad more adventurous, asks for the rocky road pancake with marshmallows, melted chocolate, cherry sauce and nuts. Of course.

But I'm afraid that's all I'm going to write on the amazing, (could I say life-changing?) trip to The Elephant Pass Pancake Shop. As to whether you should book cheap flights on Virgin Blue, hire yourself a car and quick-step over to Tassie to try an elephant pancake for yourself? Let the pictures make your mind up.



Yours in the great outdoors (and in need of another bush walk to burn of all this tasty cuisine),
Odette