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After
our Los Angeles trip, we took a 6 week driving trip to Tasmania, with
stops in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. We had a chance to spend 5 days
in Sydney visiting our friends on Heartsong 3 and also interviewing with my
(Jeff's) old company - NCR. The Sydney ferries are an
inexpensive way to take a tour of the harbor and a great way to get
around. We had lunch at a restaurant we had last visited in 1986.
Canberra, the capital of Australia and a fairly new city, was lovely.
Unfortunately, we needed to get to Melbourne and only had one day there.
We visited the capital building, took a tour and also attended a session in
their House of Commons. Very interesting.
Then,
it was on to Melbourne for a couple of days and a trip across the notorious Bass
Straits on the Devil Cat, a high-speed car ferry built in Tasmania. We
drove our car on and rode in airline-style seats with a large table and a great
view. While Bass Strait often has rough seas, we had great weather and
were quite comfortable. Surprisingly, the catamaran had a motion that made
quite a few others uncomfortable.
After
arriving in Launceston, we drove a couple of hours to 
Tasmania's
east coast, had some fish and chips and waited for dark. Locals had told
us that Fairy Penguins run up the beach just after dark. We hit the beach
with our flashlights and found plenty of penguins. They sure are
cute. The next morning it was kangaroos, wallabies, tasmanian devils and
wombats. It seemed like there were kangaroos
everywhere. One of our favorite things to do was to go out at
night and hunt for animals with a flashlight. We saw roos,
wallabies, 
bandicoots,
possums, potteroos, plenty of birds and even a couple of tasmanian devils.
The devils have a
fierce growl but were quite timid.
We visited Maria Island, a former penal colony that is now a nature
reserve. Kangaroos and birds everywhere. We even saw kangaroos
hopping down the road.
The street signs were great. Gail's challenge was to get a picture of
each different animal road sign. We have quite a collection.
Next
stop was the infamous Port Arthur, home for the toughest, most
unmanageable convicts in Australia. English convicts were transported to
Australia. If the convicts committed more crimes while serving their
sentences, they were sent to Port Arthur.
We spent two days looking around the convict town and spent an evening
with the spirits of Port Arthur on a ghost tour. The church (left) and the
guard tower (right) were built of sandstone. With no pollutants, these
buildings are almost as pristine as they were 150 years ago when they were built
by the convicts.
We
were able to walk through the prison building (left) and see how small the cells
were. Life was rough for the convicts. But 
today
it is beatiful with green lawns, a pristine waterfront and a protected harbor
with very few boats. Of course, there are animals everywhere.
We did a bit of hiking while in Tasmania. 
The
locals call just about everything a walk whether it be a simple stroll along a
lake or a torturous climb up a steep
mountain. While some of the "walks" were much tougher than
expected, we never quit (although we thought about it a few times) and
experienced some truly spectacular and pristine scenery - mountains, beaches,
lakes, caves, trees and, of course, animals.
In six weeks we covered 4,500 kilometers (2800 miles) and only saw a tiny
piece 
of
Australia. The three weeks in Tasmania were wonderful. Everyone was
friendly and the accommodations were cheap and clean.
We enjoyed the scenery but really enjoyed the
wildlife. We never did see a platypus although we tried numerous
times. The one animal we really wanted to see was a Koala but it turns out
they are not native to Tasmania so we stopped at the Australia Zoo - home of
Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter - just an hour from the boat. We never 
did
get to see Steve but we were treated to an interesting crocodile show and we
finally got our picture of a Koala. They sure are cuddly.
