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Published: February 4th 2010
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Launceston
A quick look around before leaving. Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to the blog! Don’t worry though, just a few more blog entries to the thrilling conclusion of our Australia trip!
Saturday, November 14 was the 4th day of our Tasmania tour. But it was like beginning a whole new tour because we were now following the lead of a new tour guide! Unfortunately things started a bit behind, our new tour guide showed up a bit late. When he finally made it though, things got rolling.
First we found ourselves in Sheffield. This was a tiny tour, but its main attraction was an annual mural contest. The town also had tons of permanent murals on many of the local buildings, which were really cool to see. That afternoon we arrived at Cradle Mountain. We checked in our stuff and prepared ourselves for our scenic trek.
Before our walk though, we all visited the tourist centre in order to familiarize ourselves with the trails. Unfortunately, no maps were available. So it was suggested we take pictures of the model of the mountain and keep them with us as references. It makes sense in theory, but the screen of a digital camera
Bus
Everyone start getting pretty cozy during the long rides. is not exactly the greatest thing to try and use to find your way through unknown territory.
By 1pm, we started our walk. Talk about some amazing views. Cradle Mountain hosts quite a few walking trails and many tiny lakes. There was even a bit of snow at the higher elevations, but don’t let that fool you, the weather was cool but definitely not freezing.
Cradle Mountain was definitely one of the highlights of Tasmania, if not Australia for both Hillary and myself. Such great views and fresh air. The scenery was very typical of the island state. Very green and mountainous. Our hike spanned 4 hours, with a few steep areas, but it was definitely over before we knew it. On our way down, we chose a different path which took us along some grassy fields where we were able to spot one of the cutest Australian animals you’ll ever see! The wombat! Sure we’d already seen wombats before, but these were wild and practically within arm’s reach. Not exactly camera shy. And really quite big.
That night we all cooked up a fairly big dinner back at the cabin. Way too much pasta actually! We
Sheffield
Small town, big views. spent the whole evening sitting around chatting and snacking on our leftover bowl of penne.
Sunday morning we did another walk at Cradle Mountain. The day before, we had climbed up to Marion’s Lookout, so this time we took the easier route and did the Dove Lake Circuit. We were given the option to climb up to Lake Wilks, but that meant keeping a brisk pace for the 2 hour walk. Seeing as this could be our only time ever in Tasmania, Hillary and I made sure we seized this opportunity. It was a quite a workout (and one other friend from our group joined us, Mette) but it was worth it.
That afternoon we checked out the Henty Dunes. The way sand dunes are made is really cool, and it’s so weird to see how the sand slowly swallows the bordering tree line. We had a great time walking around the dunes, but when climbing down one of the steeper hills, one of our tour mates face-planted right into the sand. As you can imagine she was finding sand behind her ears for days.
For the evening and night we stayed in Strahan. This was a
Sheffield - 2
Some amazing murals. little port town with a great small town atmosphere. We all went out to dinner that night to enjoy some of the local seafood, which is awesome. We all ended up heading to bed pretty early as you can imagine. Nothing helps you sleep like a full day of fresh air.
Kevin
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