Sunday 12th April 2009

Imagine walking through the bush for hours, descending into a deep gorge, sitting there in the sunlight, watching the waterfalls (Apsley-Douglas National Park), listening to the birds and seeing nothing but a couple of wallabies. Then imagine a dazzling white coastline,lapped by clear blue sea, stretching as far as you can see, interrupted only by rocky granite outcrops, splashed bright orange by lichen (the Bay of Fires - wow! According to Lonely Planet this is the new 'must visit' and we can see why). This is Tasmania, that small island off Australia and still you can walk for hours, enjoy the scenery and wildlife & feel as though you are the first person ever to see these things. Tasmania National Parks are a joy; we spent today walking in the Narawntapu NP,on Tassies North coast, it's known as Tasmania's Serengeti for the diversity of wildlife you can see there, especially on the grassland near the visitor centre at dusk - kangaroos, wallabies and, best of all, Wally the Wombat - the first non-roadkill one we have seen (photo-and wombats DO have poo in the shape of a cube, we are not sure why)! We are based in Launceston, sitting on the Tamar River (which Paul says is very like its Devon namesake; although driving through the undulating rural valleys reminds us of the stretch of road between Worcester and Leominster). The Tamar is also one of the islands wine regions - we visited 3 wineries. The Sauv blancs, Pinot noirs and Rieslings are impressive and we speak from experience! Yesterday morning we walked Launcestons main tourist attraction, the Cataract Gorge. Pleasant & scenic enough.