Tasmania

Cataract Gorge, Launceston
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We decided to go to Tasmania for a week in January as break from working. We’d heard a lot about it and thought it sounded cool so we found some cheap jetstar flights and off we went. We landed in Launceston on January 27^th in the evening and I drove the hire car from the airport to town, my first drive in Australia! When we got there, we tried with great difficulty to get some food. It was a Saturday night but everything was closed by 9pm! It was crazy, the deadest town we’ve ever been to. We finally managed to get some food at a Mexican but couldn’t do anything after that because everything was closed! They pronounce Launceston Laun-ses-ton rather than the Cornish town of Launce(s)ton which is weird. Like saying Lei-ses-ter instead of Leicester! Anyway, the next day we had a quick look round Launceston and went to Cataract Gorge – lovely. We got a chairlift across the gorge which I found a little scary with only a bar to stop you falling to your death!

Cataract Gorge, Launceston
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Later that day we drove to Cradle Mountain. What started as a lovely, t-shirt-wearing, sunny day in Launceston turned into a freezing, nose and ears frozen, cold day at Cradle Mountain! Again I drove there. It was amazing to see the fire-damaged trees on the way, it was like a desolate, burnt-out desert forest. Wish I’d taken a photo. Anyway, we got there and had a lovely spa cabin with a pretend log fire and spa bath. As soon as we got there (and checked out our cabin), we changed into our winter clothes and went on a cold, wet and windy walk around where we were staying. It was great, one of my favourite places and the weather just enhanced the excitement of it – so cold and empty except for plants, trees and wildlife. We saw a wombat and wallabies on that first walk and it was after photographing a wallaby crossing the road that the camera fell to its death :-( I was distraught. Manoj tried for ages to fix it but the lens hit the concrete and dislodged. Luckily Manoj managed to fix it for long enough to upload the photos onto the laptop but after that we couldn’t even switch it on. Luckily Manoj had his film camera so we used that – hence the reason there aren’t many digital photos on this blog entry.

The ghost tour was great fun but freaked me out so much!

Cold in Cradle Mountain!
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Anyway, the next day we walked around the National park, visiting Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain and Crater Lake. We were lucky in that the weather was lovely (cold but sunny) during our walk except later on it started to rain and go dull again. It was during this walk that a wombat walked right up to us while we were eating lunch! I don’t think it wanted any of our lunch though as it seemed oblivious to us. I managed to photograph it with Manoj’s camera but then got a bit scared and jumped on the bench (I heard they bite!). Anyway, after the lovely walk we came home to our pretend log fire and spa bath – unfortunately it filled with brown muddy water because they only filter the kitchen water. No harm though, it was still a nice warm bath!

First Wallaby sighting
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The next day we visited Mole Creek Caves and saw some great formations and crystal things, like a different world. We then drove across to the East coast to St Helens where we spent the night. The next day we drove to the Bay of Fires, the world’s second best beach apparently, it was amazing, pure white sand and clear, blue ocean stretching for miles. We were the only people on the beach and were determined to swim no matter the weather! The weather wasn’t bad – blue sky and sunny, just incredibly windy. We still managed a dip. We then drove to Wineglass Bay where we stayed for two nights. The walk there was beautiful – great views. We also saw two black Tiger snakes slither across the path in front of us! When we reached the beach we were lucky to have great weather again and went for another swim. We saw about five dolphins diving in and out of the water. A fantastic sight.

Manoj in Cradle Mountain National Park
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The next day, we drove to Port Arthur – an abandoned convict prison. We did the tour and learnt all about the convicts coming over from England in the 17/1800s. They lived in pretty terrible conditions. We went inside a punishment cell with walls three metres thick and no windows, it was horrible. We also did the ghost tour which was great fun but freaked me out so much! It was at night and the guide told us of all the terrible things that happened there – and sightings of ghosts and stuff, very scary! After Port Arthur, we visited Hobart. Luckily it was a Saturday so we got to go to the market which was nice. Hobart’s a nice little town but not very lively! We had a great time in Tasmania, the wildlife and countryside were fantastic, not too sure about the towns though!