Tasmania

So I've had the first two of my three jaunts, to Australia and Switzerland; our Austria/Germany holiday is still coming up but I thought I'd do a quick post or two before we leave. I've been back in Tripoli for a few weeks but haven't had internet until this past weekend.

My last week in Australia, I did a whirlwind tour of the island state of Tasmania. This was my first visit there and I was surprised by how very English the weather (it was cold! In an Australian summer!) and the rolling green countryside was, and also by the huge range of agriculture, from nuts to lavender (that’s a photo of the largest lavender farm in the Southern hemisphere*, currently for sale) to poppies (harvested for the active ingredient in painkillers).




I landed in Hobart and saw Port Arthur, the grim convict settlement the same day; the next day we shot up the west coast and did a bit of a hike for the view of Wineglass Bay.






Then across the top via Launceston to Cradle Mountain, Tasmania’s iconic wilderness attraction...







a boat trip up the Gordon river where you can tell the fresh water because it's coloured brown from a local reed...







and a drive south through world heritage areas to the drowned Franklin valleys. About the only spot I didn’t get to was the Huon Valley.




The weather's been pretty nice since I got back but turned nasty just last night and today, with lots of high wind and rain. Makes driving even more fun than usual. Meanwhile, my day was made when I found fresh mushroom at my local store; I had a selfish moment and took all four packs, sorry other mushroom-fans.

* Irrelevantly, but perhaps interestingly for fans of Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, this phrase is associated for me with Jaime ‘Why, yes, in Book 1, I do throw a small boy out a window to protect my incestuous relationship, but by Book 3 you will like me anyway no matter how hard you try not to’ Lanister and his “she’s worth her weight in sapphires” gambit; I doubt lavender would have same saving effect, somehow.