Mt William

Tassie continues to delight. The hottest we have experienced since we arrived is 25 degrees, which we thought wonderful, even though we were surrounded by Taswegians complaining of sunstroke. We have settled into a routine, working most mornings, but having the weekends for touring. Last weekend we went to Hobart, and Cecile dropped me off at Bellreive Oval where I watched the mighty Vics give the Tasmanian pretenders an inspiring lesson on how to be good losers. Cecile went to the Salamanca Market, and the Wooden Boat Show. This weekend we went north east to the Mount William National Park, which was created specifically to protect the endangered Forester Kangaroo. We did'nt see any. However, armed with crampons, pitons, belaying rope and oxygen, we did climb to the summit of Mount William. 216 of the hardest metres I have ever done. Another lesson learnt in Darwin is the daily picnic, and today we travelled to Meadstone Falls to consume our Pate and Avocado baguettes. Yum.

A tale of two cities

Hobart versus Launceston
Derwent versus Tamar
Cascade versus Boag
South versus North

Tassie is such a small place, often stigmatised by the mainlanders. One still often hears stories of two-headed tassies, cousin-love and Irish jokes recycled as Tasmanian jokes. And yet the island is divided by the North/South rivalry.
We love it all. Both cities are charming in their settings and architecture. we like the fact they are large enough to offer almost all a city should, but small enough to be explored on foot. Either are within a stone throw of stunning natural attractions : Mt Wellington and Huon Valley for Hobart, the Cataract Gorge and Tamar valley for Launceston, to name but a few. Small is definitely beautiful as far as we are concerned.
Oh! And by the way, well done David for suggesting summer in Tasmania! Cecile thought why not Northen Queensland?

Animals

Well, we just had a truly wonderful experience - our bosses Vicki and Geoff, in addition to running the holiday park, are wildlife rescuers. They have a lovely 7 acre bush block just outside Bicheno and use it to raise orphan animals. They have wallabies, pademelons, possums, kangaroos, they have even looked after an echidna. Of course most of the orphans have been created by the Tasmanian roadkill epidemic, but they told us one appalling anecdote about some local ruffians who wanted a couple of wallaby babies as pets, so they shot 2 wallabies with babies in their pouches in order to get them. After a week they couldn't be bothered with the work involved, and dumped the babies at the local nature park. Luckily Vicki and Geoff were there to nurse them, and these orphans are in the pictures as adults, roaming the countryside, but occasionally popping back to say hello. Vicki even makes latex teats of various sizes and shapes to replicate the real thing in each species.