Previous posts Philips Island and the fairy penguins 

Melbourne

January 30

After flying in to Hobart from Melbourne last night, taking the bus in and finding our hostel we ended up on the third floor. I didn’t pack light enough, It’s st.ill too heavy. We settled in and set off to get groceries at Woolworths. Yup, they still have them and they sell food.

Up early we feasted on our hearty breakfast of coffee, a protein drink and a banana and waiting for our tour bus to show up. We booked this tour online and knew only that it was supposed to take us to the places in Tasmania we most wanted to see. It turns out the company “Under Down Under” is locally owned and operated and our guide’s name is Holly.

More than half of Tasmania is designated National park and after just one day we can see why. What a treasure! Our first stop was the the Land of the Giants and Russel Falls. We thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful hike through old growth forest with screaming cockatoos overhead. We drove another hour or so, got out and did another 40 minute hike. Next was a stop at Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Tasmania. We climbed higher and higher into the mountains covered in forest where we saw a couple of wild fires burning in the distance, evidence of fires in the past and one still smouldering right beside the road. Stopping at view point above Queensland we could see evidence of the devastation done by mining gold and copper over a hundred years ago. You still can’t drink the water there. Our destination was Strahan; a cute little town on the ocean and settled into our hostel where Sue and I shared a room with 5 other women from England, Germany, Holland and one fellow Canadian. After a delicious barbecue prepared by Marie (our hostel  hostess) and Holly (our tour leader), a nice walk to the beach to watch the sunset we settled in for the night, very happy with a great day in the land under the land down under.