Saturday 18^th February, 2012

Also today there were dark clouds in the sky when I started. The first stop I made in Scamander and walked along the beach. It started dripping, but did not start to rain. Then I drove over the Marys Pass at Mount Elephant. After the pass there is a restaurant which allegedly prepares the best pancakes of Tasmania. So I had to try them. It is very sympathetically that they also offer gluten free pancakes. I enjoyed my lunch here. Then I drove to Bicheno. Here there are blowholes, but unfortunately it was low tide. I looked around the rocks and went on. The destination of today came closer: Coles Bay. Yesterday I learnt that there is the Coles Bay triathlon today. The closer I got to the village, the more cyclist there were. When overtaking I had to pay attention to the cyclists ahead and the cars and cyclists coming from the opposite direction. With slow speed I slalomed into Coles Bay. As the weather looked better now, I decided to go to the Freycinet National Park. I walked to the lookout platform where could view over the Wineglass Bay. There was a path leading to the beach. As it was only 2pm I hiked down to the beach. It is interesting how turquoise the sea is also here. In the area are big, round rocks. It looks like giants have been playing marble. On the way I met two wallabies. One nearly touched me. Back from my strength and endurance training, it went up over nearly only over natural steps, I did not want yet to go back to the accommodation. So I visited the Honeymoon Bay and the Sleepy Bay. These beaches are small and sweet.

Thursday 16^th February, 2012

Yesterday I somehow noticed that today is “Dirty Thursday” and the carnival starts in Switzerland. I am missing the feeling for time here in Australia. The sky was clouded as I started driving towards Scottsdale. Here I stopped to buy food. Then I drove over the interior towards the sea. At Weldborough Pass I made a short stop and walked through the rain forest. There was much farming in this area and I saw many cattle herds. One was even escaped and stood directly on the road. My way led to St. Columa Falls. To watch the 90 m high waterfall closer, I walked to the viewpoint. At one spot there was a snake laying on the path. As I do not like snakes that much, to be precise I fear them, I stood still. The snake did not show any insight that it should get away. So I had to stamp hard on the ground to say: “Attention, enemy approaching!” After I took some pictures, it moved away. I then enjoyed a nice view to the falls. On the way back I met again an animal, but this time a wallaby. After this adventure I drive directly to St. Helens and informed me about the accommodation. The kind lady from the tourist information gave me a hint and I found immediately a room. As it was just past noon, I decided to drive to the Bay of Fires. The bay is 35 km long and has a white beach. From time to time there are also rocks covered with red lichen. Together with the turquoise sea it looked very interesting. I got the feeling of south sea holidays. I walked for an hour along the beach and went back as the tide was coming in. Then I enjoyed just sitting on the rocks and watch the waves breaking. In the evening I sat a bit at George Bay in St. Helens. Here I could observe rose grey parrots flying like mad through the air. There were also sea birds to watch.

Wednesday 15^th February, 2012

The first stop came very soon. I was a few minutes too early at Tamar Island. A footbridge is leading to the island from which I could observe sea birds. After a few meters it rustled in the reed and something with a tail disappeared below the footbridge. I stopped, looked around and saw two examples of the smallest wallaby species in Tasmania. I was surprised to meet wallabies here as I was expecting for birds and snakes. I went on and saw different birds, which all fled after they heard me. It was a nice walk, but the sun was already burning at 9 o'clock. I went further to the Swiss Village Grindelwald. Yes, that is correct, the village is really called Grindelwald (to the non-Swiss: this is a tourist village in the Swiss Alps). It was founded by a Dutch which was taken with Grindelwald. He constructed here houses in Swiss style and now they are mostly used as tourist accommodations. My next destination is Beauty Point. Here is a platypus and echinda house. I wanted to visit it as I never saw a platypus live. The guide explained a lot over the platypuses and I could watch a few of them. Then the guide changed to the echindas and told us about this animals. There were tree small ones which did not fear humans so I could sit to them. As the tour was over, I went to the nearby sea horse house. Also here I learned a lot about this animals from a guided tour. It was interesting to watch how this small “horses” develop. Then there was also a gold mine in the proximity which I visited. There is an exhibition about the old mine and its miners. They also showed how 2006 the miners were locked in and how they were rescued. Over the Batman Bridge I drove to the other side of Tamar River to Low Head to visit the light house. Along vines, apple and apricot trees the voyage continued without interruption to Bridport. This village is at the sea and I enjoy the beach with a long walk.

Tuesday 14^th February, 2012

A sunny day is awaiting me, thus I decided to explore the surroundings. Launceston is at Tamar River and is the oldest town of Tasmania. First I walked along the other part of the town, as I wanted to go to the Cataract Gorge Reserve. It is a nature reserve around laid a gorge. I walked along the gorge to the First Basin. At the small artificial lake a chairlift goes over the gorge. I preferred to walk around the lake. I saw two wallabies at the path passing the chairlift. I was very astonished that there wallabies also here. One was not shy at all and came very close to me. At the way back I sa in the park of the restaurant a few peacocks with their chicks. Back in the town I walked thorough the reserve an enjoyed a bit the nature. Then I walked along the river to the town. There I marvelled at the many Victorian houses of Launceston. My way lead to Prince's Square which contains a small park. In the City Park I discovered a monkey cage. The rest of the afternoon I was reading in the City Park and enjoying the sun.

Saturday 11^th February 2012

I enjoyed breakfast viewing two grazing wallabies. Then I took the shuttle bus until Dove Lake. There I hiked via Lake Lilla to Crater Lake. As it was not very far from Marions Lookout, I also went up there. The view over the lakes Lake Lilla, Dove Lake and Crater Lake is gorgeous. To enjoy the view I had to pass a very steep section. The steps were nearly to big for me and I had to pull myself on the steel rope. Down the same way for about 30 minutes. Then I walked down to Crater Lake and hiked further to Ronny Creek. The last part was a boardwalk and there I saw a grazing wombat.

Then I took again the shuttle bus to another stop and walked to two waterfalls. The Knyvet Falls can only been seen from the side. On the way there was also a dam constructed by platypuses. I did not see any animals as they only get out shortly before dawn.

In the afternoon it got sunny. I walked for another our on the boardwalk and enjoyed the nature. There were many lizards and I had to make sure I did not step on one. As I wanted to look for wombat in the later afternoon, I went first to the Devils at Cradle Park. There they showed first a film about the Tasmanian devils. The animals are endangered because many of them die due to a infectious face tumour. I could even pet a devil, it has a fine fur. The Tasmanian Devils seemed to be very relaxed and the keeper could go to them. Then it started to rain slightly. It got stronger and I decided to go back to the accommodation. As I arrived it was coming down in buckets.