Me and Buffy arrive in Tasmania, picked up our hire car and headed North. The first night we camped for free on the shores of Lake Moulting, where we found thousands of little crabs building their holes ion the still of the night and lots of kids running around early in the morning.
The next day we visited the worlds 2nd best beach at Wineglass bay, before driving North towards Bicheno, stopping to pick up some handmade cheese on the way. At Bicheno we had a nice walk to the sea and saw the Blowhole, plus got within a few feet of 17 penguins coming ashore as we sat waiting for them at dusk.
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| Penguins! |
The next day we went further North to Bridport, where we stayed in a great little hostel overlooking the sea and I was up to watch the European football at 4,45am and also see a fantastic sunrise. Later that day we visited Launceston where we walked Cataract gorge and found a cool old hydro electric power station from about 100 year ago that still has all the working parts!!
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| cheese |
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| sunrise |
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| hydro |
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| a nut at the nut |
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| the nut |
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| doo house |
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| weird fucken vegan dancer tree knob - by a kebab van |
We stopped again that day to buy some salmon, before heading right to the Northern tip of Tasmania where we climbed 'The Nut', in the town of Stanley. A large outcrop of rock standing over two beautiful ocean bays.
After a night there where we met some locals, a strange vet and a scouser, we drove back down south, unable to see Cradle mountain because of the clouds, we stopped for lunch in the strange town of Queenstown, before looking down into an open mine and finally reaching Hobart in time for dinner - a curry!
The next day we headed south again, after climbing Mt Wellington for fantastic views over Hobart. We visited, Pirates Bay, The Tessellated Pavement, The Blowhole, Devils Kitchen and a place called Doo-Town, where all the houses are named 'Doo.......'. 'Yabba Dabba Doo', 'Dooin Time', are just two!!
We then visited the historic site of 'Port Arthur', an old prison and town from when the Brits sent convicts don under in the 1800's, Its a massive place with two prisons, lunatic asylum and most of a town, including hospital and Church. Most of the building are ruins, but some have been restored to show how life was back then. There is also the 'Island of the Dead', - a tiny island in the bay that has 1100 dead people buried on it.On the Saturday we visited Salamanca markets where you can buy almost anything and get entertained from everything from Buskers with guitars of flutes, to modern (crap) vegans weirdos, pretending to be trees!! They were also wearing masks, which I think is to hide their identities so they don't get the piss taken out of them!!
The next day we re-visited MONA - the museum of Old and New art, where the exhibits range from old Egyptian relics and jewellery, through paintings and sculptures, to fantastic modern art and sculptures that defy explanation - plus some really strange, almost pornographic stuff, that just makes you gawp!!
We also did some wine tasting, which made Buffy a little sick!! heehee!
Our last day was spent vegging out in town, before catching the bus to the airport (Which was half an hour late - Bloody rubbish bus company!!)
When we arrived in Melbourne we got a hire car and after booking into the Hostel, we wanted a beer, but the local pub was closing - But this turned out to be a good thing as we found a really great little pub - called 'Prudence Bar'. It was open late, with a great atmosphere and actually playing good soft music on vinyl, changed by hand!! There was even trees growing through the windows of the toilets and a lit up rocking horse hung on one wall. One drink wasn't enough, so we had a couple and then told the barman about how good we though the place was. We very nearly stayed in Melbourne for another day just for the bar, but in the end we left the next morning to drive 'The Great Ocean Road'. (again)
This is really one of the great drives - So whenever I came up behind a slow car, I either over took it or stopped to get a good run, with no slowing down. We stopped a few times to take in the views, for lunch in Lorne and watched surfers in the ocean and also at Erskine Falls.
In the afternoon we walked the Otway Rain forest walk - A 600meter metal walkway through the tops of the trees of the rain forest, before heading to our hostel in Apollo bay. The Hostel here was built for $1million Australian and is superb. I am at the moment sitting of a massive sofa with a beautiful wood fire burning, while Buffy cooks sausage and mash in the most modern kitchen in any hostel I have ever seen.
Life is good at the moment and should get better...we are off again to see Uluru and then to Perth somehow!!
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