Tasmania - part 2


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Oceania » Australia » Tasmania
June 28th 2009
Published: July 14th 2009
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I wanted to see the east coast so I booked a two day tour with Under Down Under from Hobart to Launceston. It picked me up 7.30am the day after Port Arthur. I thought that was an early start; I was to get much earlier ones in the outback on the mainland! Jason was our tour guide and we had 15 passengers all together, which I have just now realised is a lot of people compared to my other tours I have done more recently! We had people from England, Taiwan, Switzerland, Japan, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Germany and Holland. One of the guys from my trip up Mount Wellington was on this tour!

First stop was a cute little village called Ross. Looked like an English town with it's buildings and autumn leaves, but then again a lot of Tasmania looks like England! Had the 3rd oldest bridge in Tasmania, which looks similar to Richmond, but it had some carvings on it which were so good, the convicts who carved them were set free. There were some barracks here along with three churches, a goal and two gorgeous bakeries. One had the most amazing cornish pasties and the other, fairy lights! Next stop a couple of hours later was wineglass bay, called so because of the wineglass shaped bay. The walk to the view of the bay was tough! We were supposed to carry down onto the deserted beach but as the weather looked like it might turn we went back and went to a few other places instead, sleepy bay and Cape Tourville where there is a lighthouse and dolphin and whale spotting.
That night we stopped at a hostel/cabin in bicheno, a tiny town where people go to view penguins.

The next morning we left the town, stopping to view the blowhole on the way out. We stopped at a very windy St. Helens before we got to the bay of Fires, called so because of the fires lit by the Aboriginals spotted by explorers. The bay of fires is many km's of white sandy beaches with clear water. We had a good climb up the orange rocks and viewed a rainbow there which was beautiful with the beach in the foreground. We then stopped at a lovely waterfall, St. Columbia falls, with a short walk through to it which looked like the rainforest. We also went to Natureworld that day where I saw my first Tasmanian Devil. This is the way most people will see one at the moment as they are dying out in the wild due to a tumor on the face that is spreading. There were a lot of animals and birds there. I particulary liked the deer and the sheep and goat that seemed rather lonely up at the far end of the place! That evening we drove to a village called Ledgerwood. Residents here had painted trees in memory of those who had died at war. Many years later the trees were getting big so the council were going to cut them down but one resident remembered what they were there for and made each of the trees into a carving of the person. They are really good. The photo's I have of them on here are actually carved trees!
Got into Launceston that evening, back to the arthouse. The tour was carrying on through to the west coast including Strahan, a place I really wanted to get to. Next time maybe! Next blog: Cradle Moutain and my little road trip!


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14th July 2009

Loving the info as usual :) Looking forward to the next one. We went out for some belated bevvies for Fran's bday tonight - we missed you a lot and discussed you muchly (all good, of course!) xx
14th July 2009

PS. The Tasmanian Devil looks nothing like Taz, the cartoon version (I used to love that programme) and also, the carvings are fab.

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