Tasmania; one of God's best bits.

Oh my word - this place, state, little tiny island, is absolutely fabulous.

I landed in Hobart, the state capital, and wondered around for an afternoon taking in the sights of the tiny fishing city. Pretty little places, Georgian style sandstone buildings, fishing boats and unique cafes. I stayed in a nice, though a tad cold, hostel that night, before embarking upon my tour the next morning.

I was picked up at 7.30am on a cold and frosty morning and myself and 14 other people went to Freycinet National Park, which is famous for Wineglass Bay. I was told that it is called this because when whaling used to be occurring in this bay, the blood from the whales would seep down and into the sea and the bay would look like a giant glass of red wine. Of course, as sad as this is, I was more disappointed that we would be having no wine at Wineglass Bay. Anyway, also in this National Park we went to Sleepy Bay which is small and just granite boulders convered in orange lichen. You could get right up to the sea. Amazing. That night we stayed in the quiet town of Biceno in a nice hostel with a nice pub (as it's all about the pubs on tours) though, sadly, I left my glasses there... Ooops.

The next day was better then the one before. In the morning we visited Natureworld, where we fed kangaroos and wallabies, saw koalas and wombats being fed, many many birds and the feeding of the ever famous Tasmanian Devils. If this wasn't cool enough we then went on to the Bay of Fires, voted Lonely Planet's Tourist Destination of 2009. It's simply a strip along the East Coast with many B-E-A-Utiful beaches. One of which was called Cosy Cove, where you can camp for four weeks without any charges! And it's superb. We climbed all over the pink granite boulders and played like children, determined to get to the highest one and then best the others. Next, we visited Mt Columba's waterfall. One word: Stunning.

Our final day was Mount Cradle. We had the BEST weather, according to the Lonely Planet Guide, only one in ten days is sunny, and only 56 days in the year can you see Mount Cradle. Our day was one of this lucky days. Myself, the guide Ian (legend), and two others climbed to Marion's lookout, a fairly differcult climb (where chains are bolted into the rock to aid you) but a quick one, being half an hour. We didn't go to the summit (as much as I would have loved to) because that's a seven hour hike, and I have converse on, something that Ian kept teasing me about. It was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. We then had Devonshire Tea (cream tea for us english folk) in a chateau, and drove back to Launcesten to go to the pub and get a chinese takeaway after finding four litres of 'wine' for ten bucks.

Oh, such good times. Met amazing people. Saw amazing sights. And would do it again in a heart beat.

Next stop - Cairns.

Nic

xxx