Tasmania

---

---

Early start and trip to the airport to head to Launceston (4.30am start). Arrived in Launceston and immediately headed for our first destination – Cradle Mountain. Stopped of in a quaint wee town called Deloraine – this is where we saw our the platypus just cruising about the river. Quality spot. Then on we went up and up the mountain range. Cradle Mountain is absolutely teeming with wildlife. We went for a quick wee walk once we arrived and met our first Pandemelons – wee small wallaby things that look like furry basketballs. Next appeared the Wombats – they were everywhere. As a result there is wombat do-do everywhere. It is quite distinctive and looks like little mounts of brown coal scattered around the place. Oh and when Ciaran got back and took off his shoe there was a dead leech in his sock. It was a really close call as if it had bitten him we might never have heard the end of it! We had a really good “Spotlight Tour” up into the national Park and spotted Wombates, Bennet’s Wallabys, Pandemelonsand Brush tailed Possums. The tour guide was a real “Biology Man” and knew loads of stuff about the animals and plants that we thought Deirdre would have absolutely no interest in, but she did. Next day was our wedding anniversary. Started pretty badly as Ciaran forgot to get an Anniversary card. He made one, which was surely much more special, but this didn’t wash and Deirdre had a sour bake for about an hour or so. Then we did a big walk around the national park. The weather was pretty crap – rainy, windy and cold. I suppose you might expect that being in Tasmania up a mountain in the winter. Was a great spot though with amazing bug mountains and forest. The forest has been untouched and is really ancient, just like something out of Lord of the Rings. It was a mammoth walk, and we arrived at Cradle Mountain early afternoon. The mountain in winter is constantly covered with cloud, so we didn’t actually get to see it the whole time we were there. There was a rally cool lake at the bottom of it so we got to see that at least. Back to the lodge we were staying in before embarking on the “Wombat Wander.” There were no other children in the lodge, so we were the only ones on the tour. It was hosted by the “Biology Man” again. There weren’t many Wombats on the wander so he took us to the forest and showed us all about the trees and plants. Really interesting stuff.

---