Tasmania

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Hi everyone, were now in Tasmania with Sue and Brian, caught the ferry yesterday morning, took nearly 10 hours, lots of sleeping on seats, wandering about aimlessly, wishing we could get off this ferry !!! Nothing in sight, bit rocky out in the sea, took a sea sickness tablet just incase !!! Expecting the worst but all fine. After endless hours at sea ! Land in sight, hooray, off we get in the car with kayaks on top, head for Devonport, not too far away from the ferry as it was late. So we stayed at a caravan, mobile park by the beach overnight, lovely little place, then in the morning had our breakfast and after a little walk down to the beach headed off to Launceston, a small town, very pretty, old colonial buildings, felt you were back in time. We went to the park where they had Japanese macaque monkeys which were interesting to watch, then walked to the local brewery called Boags Brewery. From Launceston we travelled towards the mountains and into a National Park called Ben Lomond, headed for a road called 'Jacobs Ladder' (Google it). Oh, very windy and steep and high and a bit scarey. Oh, before that we followed a sign called 'Carr Villa' which took us to an old snow ski lodge from the 1920's which was not in use anymore. We were in the middle of nowhere but saw some lizards and a strange insect and plenty of mountains surrounding us. From there we reached the Jacobs ladder road and when we reached the top of it looked for the cafe as we saw a sign at the bottom but really wasn't expecting to see a cafe as there were no people, no vehicles, no nothing around ! Then we came across a ski village (no snow), said it was the highest pub in Tasmania. It was a lovely lodge with old fashioned ski's and ice skates and nic nacs hanging from the walls, with a lovely log fire burning. We were the only people there, so we ordered soup, while Brian decided he was going to walk/climb a mountain, we were happy in the warm lodge. Outside there was that mountain chill but the scenery was breathtaking. It was a real gem finding this ski place, had some chalets and a small hotel, absolutely beautiful. After that we travelled towards the next place called Bicheno (Google it), this is where we are staying for 2 nights. We have rented a house right on the beach, at the moment I am sat here listening to the waves, having a glass of wine, heaven.

Tasmania has stunning scenery, it has a population of about half a million and is about 37 per cent the size of the UK.

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