Last days in Tasmania

It was hard to leave the Natureworld park, but we had a long drive ahead of us. We forced ourselves to wave goodbye to kangaroos and other animals, and left Bicheno to reach the town of Deloraine before sunset. It was a rather long and boring drive. We had left the coast and the ocean, and spent various hours in the deep inland of Tasmania. The panorama wasn't ugly, but it's nothing special either, just small hills covered with forests and herds of sheep. Definitely very far from the image of rugged Tasmania we'd used to have. We were glad to finally reach Deloraine and enjoy the view over the Great Western Tiers mountains.

The view from the hostel

The hostel in Deloraine was a bit less charming. The place is quite messy and rundown, our double bedroom had in reality five strange bunk beds in it, and the toilet arrangement is less than ideal (the Male's bathroom can only be accessed from the garden outside). But it was actually the owner/manager who disturbed us the most. Educated and polite, but in a very creepy way. Furthermore all over the hostel there are signs explaining how things should and shouldn't be done, and referring you to go and talk to him in case of doubts. As if this wasn't enough, one of the very few guests of the hostel was an even weirder type, who spent all his time alone watching an old 14" TV in the common room. Every now and then he would burst into a loud laughter, or insult the people on TV. I couldn't stop thinking about the Overlook hotel from "The Shining". We would most certainly lock our door at night!

Quite gladly we left the hostel for a short walk in town. There's not much to see, but heavenly choirs resounded when we spotted an internet point open to the public. An internet connection, a rare sight in Australia! A great chance to publish a few of posts in the blog. We spent a couple of hours there, which saved us from having to spend too much time at the hostel. We went back only to prepare dinner and go to bed. Well, not exactly. After dinner we followed a new daily tradition: Anzac cookies! Anzac means "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps", army that fought during the WWI. Apparently this type of cookies were traditionally sent to soldiers by mothers and wives. The ingredients are very simple, but they are delicious, especially with tea. Even in the creepy hostel, we found some comfort in the sweet warmth of cookies and tea with milk.

It's cookie time!

The next day we got up early for the real reason that had brought us to Deloraine: the Cradle Mountain National Park. The most famous park in Tasmania, and also the most expensive with an entrance fee of about 13 euros per person. A bit too much in my opinion. The sky was covered with clouds and we were afraid that rain may come at any moment. Nevertheless we paid our tickets and went in for one of the main hikes of the park. The views were nice, at least until the mist blurred the Cradle Mountain peak out of our sight. The walks are quite easy, even too much. The real highlight of the walk was seeing a wild wombat on our way back to the car park. Wait, no. The real highlight was seeing K quarrel with a large magpie at lunch time, to keep it away from our precious sandwiches. She won and we could finish our meal without much troubles.

Lake Dove from above

Overcast but nice

It's getting colder out here!

A shy wombat

A scary company at lunch time (that's not his poop)

Out of the park at midday, and without much more to do we drove back to Deloraine's internet. Along the way we stopped to see the murals at Sheffield. Not sure if that was worth it either. K was delighted with the Deloraine's cemetery and spent a good half an hour wondering around under suspicious looks of people who were actually visiting their deceased relatives. K pretended to be looking for some ancient ancestors of hers, so that she wouldn't have to explain her passion for cemeteries.

One of the many murals of Sheffield

Deloraine's cemetery

After Deloraine we went to Launceston, our last stop in Tasmania. The rain in Launceston on the first day didn't help us enjoy the city very much. At least K managed to buy a new pair of hiking shoes, to replace her older shoes! She had been looking for new shoes for weeks, so this was a quite big accomplishment. The funny thing is that she has bought Italian shoes (from "Scarpa") on the other side of the world.

The last day in Launceston was better. Taking advantage of the sunny morning we went for a walk at the Cataract Gorge Park, a very nice park right next to the city center. After that we spent some time at a beautiful exposition of wilderness photography. Mesmerising and inspirational. It was mostly focused on the western part of Tasmania, the part that we have unfortunately missed.

View of Launceston from Cataract Gorge

We sneaked back to the hostel (despite having checked out already), heated up our lunch and spent the afternoon on a sofa reading New Zealand guide book and making plans for the next weeks of travels. In Asia we used to have enough time to relax but our schedule in Australia is really tight and allows almost no lingering, so this lazy afternoon was much appreciated! After hours of freeloading on the hostel's (paid) wifi, kitchen, bathroom, sofa etc. we decided it was time to go, the plane that would take us to Sydney was awaiting.