Little Britain

A pastoral view.
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There is a lot about Tasmania (or what I have seen of it) that reminds me of Britain.  I base this mainly on three things.  One, many of the place names are very familiar - Sheffield, Swansea and St Helens for example (there is even a Mersey River!).  Secondly, at a distance, much of the country side has a very green rural British look to it.  Think Snowdonia, the Lake District and probably the Scottish Highlands (though I've not really explored much of Scotland).  Of course closer inspection reveals entirely different flora and fauna to that back home.

Me with Cradle Mountain in the background (somewhere).
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And lastly, the weather!  I think 'heavy showeres' best describes conditions throughout my time at Cradle Mountain.  The lightweight pac-a-mac I put in my case as a bit of an afterthought before commencing this trip fully came into its own.  However, given that Cradle Mountain forms part of the largest cool water rain forest in the world (I'm told), I guess a little rain is not that surprising.

The big disappointment was tht the rainy, misty weather masked what at other times are spectacular views of the mountain ranges and surrounding scenery.  All was not lost though.  There are many breathtakingly pretty boardwalk trails though the woodland and there are wallabies and wombats to be seen.

A Bennet's Wallaby - you can tell by the dark edging round the ears.
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We also visited a Tasmanian Devil wildlife park and saw these intreging creatures at close proximity. Apparently their numbers are declining in the wild due to a rare but transmittable form of facial cancer.

So what of the accommodation?  We stayed in woodland spa cabins with wood burners and a 'help yourself' complimentary decanter of port.  Well that was my first evening sorted - a spa bath followed by a couple of glasses of port and a good book by the fire - sublime

Another evening I managed to pull together a small team for quiz night at the on-site Tavern Bar.  We won getting 24 out of 25 questions right and beating all the Aussie teams.  Highly competitive?  Moi?  The prize was a bottle of Tasmanian Pinot Noir which, as team captain, I have taken custody of - think I might have to share though!

A wombat
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Am in Sydney now and will update on my experiences here later in the week.