Worms

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Tasmania is only a short flight away from Melbourne, yet when you arrive it feels like another country completely. Launceston Airport consists of a runway and a small building housing a check in desk and one cafe. Stepping out of the aeroplane, out into the open air and having to walk across the runway was a new experience for me, and made the airport that much more 'local' - something I would soon find was a feature of Tasmania. Launceston itself, referred to as a city, seemed little more than a small town, and was totally deserted by 8 o' clock in the evening, except for one or two pubgoers (usually tourists). Cataract Gorge, just outside of the town provided the only attraction for several miles, yet was fairly impressive. A scenic river passing through rocks and boulders that could quite easily have been at home in New Zealand, had the area been greener. (Experience of New Zealand gratefully supplied by Lord of the Rings! Real life experience to be had at a later date...)

After a few days in Launceston, I went for a WWOOF placement (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) which made me feel purposeful once again. (It is amazing how useless you feel when you know for a fact that it has been weeks since you last did anything similar to work). After one week mulching, planting, collecting horse manure and making friends in a wormery I felt that I was now able to move onwards to the beach. It had been a good week, with my hosts Anne and Bill providing gourmet meals and having a room of my own for a while. The house was so isolated that it made me realise just how rural people could live, even in Tasmania, and just how vast Australia really is.

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