Tasmania 2017

We had a great time, saw lots of wonderful countryside and wildlife. We only had rain on 3 days, so our impressions of Tasmania are particularly positive. Hobart was gorgeous, but the crazy Tasman bridge does my head in. The idiot ALP government want to put a cable car in at Cradle Mountain but think the appalling cycling conditions are fine - extremely steep and exposed and narrow and the only way to cross the Derwent for 10km.

We flew in around dusk from the connection in Melbourne, got the hire car and drove to Richmond where the Glenns live. They have a magnificent stone house on Coal River and, yes, we saw a platypus there. They are hard to see, twilight only, and very shy. Not so echidnas or wombats, or pademelons (like east coast Quokkas but with finer hair), we saw quite a few, along with a number of tiger snakes.

Unfortunately, bad weather was forecast for the next day in the afternoon, I had planned a paddle (plastic twins) tour of Hobart so we had an early first day (5am WST) but it was worth it. And probably the second best way to seee Constitution Dock (where the Sydney to Hobart ends up) - lunch was eating fish and chips in our boats afloat in the dock.

The afternoon was spent at the Tasmanian Museum of Art and Science, a weird mix like it was selected by someone's eccentric old aunt. There was a very nice cutaway model of Mawson's Antartic base and a very poignant display of the Tassie tiger - complete with actual film footage.

The very early start meant an early evening with the Glenns putting on a lovely dinner.

A much later start to day two where we drove the Viennese to Mona (the new modern art facility - the Viennese registered 'fat car') and we returned to meet Graham. He is the guy who has house sat for us in the past and we had had hoped this time, but no, he just happens to be Tasmania. But of course. So we do a quick walk around the Hobart Botanical Gardens, very old, great setting and the miserable weather went well with the tree ferns. Lunch was even better and typified how these 'tourism businesses' work - good and expensive coffee and food subsidise entry fees . . . I have refrained from adding the food photo. Dinner was Japanese in town where we shouted the Glenns - one cannot put a price on company (and the Glenns are very good company, Niki and Suz seemed to hit it off quite well with them) .Being located closer to the airport than Hobart, also helps simplify things.

After a late breakfast we drove up the east coast to Bicheno. At Swansea we stop for short walk around a headland full of mutton bird nesting holes (short tailed Shearwaters) before continuing.

Our accommodation at Diamond Island Resort is booked for 3 nights. The rooms are right on the beach and there is a Little Penguin platform with lighting and a member of staff giving brief talks every evening. After numbers plummetted, big changes were made and the penguins appear to be making a bit of comeback. Lots of fun to watch but hard to photograph because they only come out after dusk and no flash is allowed.

The following day we drive back south to the Freycinet Peninsula to hike up and down the saddle out to Wineglass Bay, across the isthumas and back along the Hazard Beach walk, spectacular weather. This was the first of many top 10 short walks of Tassie we manage to tick off.

Our second day in Bicheno saw Suz and I try for a swim, nipple depth only, it was just so cold and bracing. We walked around Diamond Island, short walk in low tide and I was lucky enough to see some penguins sitting out the day in big cracks in the rocks. We walked down to the town of Bicheno (2km tops) for lunch and then Suz and I walked up to Whalers lookout, the local hill by the sea. In the mid 1800s, there was a huge amount of whaling along the east coast of Tassie but it did not last and local populations have still not recovered. Another Echidna sighting.

They are like wombats in that they will just go about doing their thing.

That night we also went out that night to a Tassie Devil event where they had a breeding and research centre. After cheese and crackers and wine (apple juice for me), we watched 6 Devils eat most of a recently shot pademelon for our entertainment (and their nourishment). We bought a number of overpriced teatowels, again with the cross subsidies, but we all appreciate the game being played. There are currently adverts on TV about how the Federal government is spending $200b on the military hardware while the rest of the country trying to tackle the real threats to this country on microscopic budgets. There has been some success with the Facial Cancer issue but they are not yet out of the woods. All three of the Devils we saw the next day were dead by the road - being pure scavangers, they are particularly vulnerable to traffic.