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We’re back in town and moving from the Launceston Backpackers to a hotel for the night before we fly to Flinders Island tomorrow to begin the real journey. We’re looking forward to settling in for a few months and to be done with all this packing and unpacking. The hostel experience has been great though. There’s a huge commercial kitchen here and we’ve made all of our breakfasts and brought in and assembled dinners. There’s a fat cat named Fuji, who is spoken to in many languages and it’s interesting how many people reach out to him. That’s probably one of the reasons he weighs about 20 pounds.

I love checking out supermarkets in different countries and last night’s find was a special refrigerator section devoted to pet food. I couldn’t understand why there was a chicken and beef blend in a sausage but the picture of the cat on the package should have been a giveaway.

We avoided buying any. But right next door was game meat. Remember that cute wallaby in yesterday’s post. Well I found it in the supermarket.

We had chicken.

I also puzzle over the language.

Car rental rates increase, the older the car? I guess it costs more to maintain an older car.

Some sky scenes from Overland Track.

We spent the last 5 days walking 62 kms of the Overland Track, which travels south from Cradle Mountain to Lake St. Clair. It went by in a flash and now some of the days are jumbled together. We had beautiful weather (fine) for many days and constant rain for one of the days, which then led to a wet and muddy walk for the rest of the trip.

The good outweighed the bad by far, which says a lot because the bad was B A D. We met wonderful people along the way. We camped when the weather was nice but usually prepared our food in the huts stationed along the way. We walked the same pace as several other groups so would meet and recap at night. The views were awesome but unfortunately my camera (or I) didn’t save the photo of the Lord of the Rings valley we came upon on our first day. That was before we walked along a plateau where the wind was so strong, if I didn’t have my ?15 kilo pack, I would have blown away. The first day included a fairly steep climb with rocks and a chain for a handhold but the view at Marion’s lookout was beautiful.

I stumbled into camp the first night and then we discovered a problem with our tent. We had used it extensively a few years ago and were very happy with it. it kept us dry and looked very cool. This time there was a problem. it never looked cool nor would it keep us dry in a down pour. The fly was flapping in the breeze. First we thought it was because we weren’t used to setting up on tent platforms. One guy told us he thought we just weren’t finished pitching the tent. By about the third night, we recalled this fly was a replacement for one with a faulty zipper. When we received it, all we did was check the zippers. Not whether it actually fit on the tent. We’ll have some correspondence with Black Diamond when we return home.

We saw wallabies, pademelons (which look like wallabies with fat faces), a wombat, possum, white lipped snakes, skinks and a platypus. We heard beautiful birdsong but couldn’t spot most of them. Somehow we missed the tiger and devil.

The little joeys stick their heads out of the pouch and munch on the grass with mom. There were boardwalks over sensitive areas. Some were made of straight boards but others were somehow milled and cut from wood onsite and was very creative.

But oh the horrors!! Our second longest day, about 10 miles, was in constant rain after a night of torrential rain. This led to washouts on the trail. There was one waterfall we had to cross, about eight feet across, right at the dropoff, which almost brought tears to my eyes. Well we were too far along to go back, my lips and chin got to quivering but with Tim’s encouragement (and laughter afterwards) I made it across. Initially we tried to avoid deep puddles and mud, but after we had to slog through a foot deep river for about two hours, we didn’t care. The water sloshing around in my boots actually felt like a cushion. Some areas had boardwark a foot under the water with rushing currents. But that’s not the bad part.

All this water brought leeches!!! The idea skeeves me. At one point, five hours into the walk, heading uphill, Tim told me I was really slowing down. Well, duhh. But then I saw something, which looked like a black inchworm on my hand, when i tried to fling it off, it was stuck. Then I was able to run with my pack through the mud to Tim yelling, “Ahhhhh, get it off of me!” We had many on us when we got to the Pelion hut that night, but so did everyone else. Then today on the ferry I met a woman who had one in her eye!!!! She said it had been her worse fear to get a leach in her eye. i never even imagined such a thing. Her other fear was being stuck on a train. Now there’s something I can deal with.

I think I shrunk in the rain.

An early wish to family and friends because we leave early tomorrow, or late Sunday in the states, for a six day backpacking trek. I have added a few treats to my pack which even Tim doesn’t know about. I got to join an excellent chef for a Thanksgiving celebration at Coles, the local supermarket; Curtis Stone. I emailed and invited him out to Deal Island but he hasn’t responded…yet.

Today, I had an emergency visit with a local dentist because a tooth or crown cracked. Now, understand I am someone who has gone to the same dentist since childhood. I drive six hours to see my dentist. I never took my kids to the dentist because I thought they could pick up on my fears. Today I found one in a foreign country on the internet based upon the fact they can see me on a Sunday. Oh boy. They were very nice though and even offered to drive me home after my appointment because it’s about a 40 minute walk from here. I think I found a new dentist!

The walk was lovely with gardens along the way. I photographed a couple of examples of something that always puzzled me. Have you ever noticed two family houses where the owners couldn’t agree on the color or trim. It seems so odd to see two halves of a house, which do not match. This house had different roofs, railings and trim but the color matched.

The one below couldn’t agree on the same color but matched the trim. Maybe the wires were a problem.

Even the simplest houses had beautiful gardens. i think this may be a form of nasturtium.

Literally. We went for a hike yesterday in the Freycinet Park, with beautiful beaches, wallaby sitings, starfish, birdsong and trees.

We stopped to get our bearings with the compass I brought from home and found North is South in Tasmania. We need a southern hemisphere compass.

We rented a car and I got to drive on the left. All was fine until we began our trip home and found there were no petrel stations open. The one game in town only accepted its own brand of credit card after hours (6:15 pm!!!).

So we ate at a restaurant where the owner called everyone in town she knew to see if they had a card with the explanation,

” they are a lovely couple but they are from New York…”

We could have used the remaining gas we had to pull into a drive through liquor store, which are present all over Tasmania. Drive through lanes are marked, Express or Browsing. After shopping, the drivers head off into traffic.

At the last moment, when we were almost prepared to find a room and spend the night, a knight in shining armor in a flatbed pick up truck stopped to buy gas and let us use his card. Then we drove home, 150 km or so, in the dark, dodging wallabies and wombats on the road. I saw more wallabies on my drive home than in the park. I should have expected it when my best wallaby photo was taken in the car park.

Wineglass Bay was gorgeous. I think this is what Deal Island may look like and we are getting very excited. Our shopping is done and the boat is loaded because we leave for a six day back packing, bush walking trip on Monday. The boat will leave with everything except our hiking gear while we are away. We will celebrate Thanksgiving in a hut with dehydrated Turkey Tetrazzini; no football.

We saw gianormous oyster shells and starfish along the beach. One area was called Oyster Bay, just like home.

This tree man greeted us at the end of our walk before we almost ran out of gas.

Or so they say on the newscasts here and I have to agree. Long days, the sun and we rise at about 6 am and we both set around 8pm. We get a lot done during the day.

We finally figured out the wine casks. We were thinking large wooden barrels, lots of wine. They are actually sold in 2L or 4L quantities. It’s much cheaper than bottled wine, partly due to quality and partly due to taxation or lack thereof. They are also referred to as Chateau Cardboard and some sort of Ladies Handbag.  The innovation is  a vacuum sealed bag inside the box that prevents the wine from oxidizing once you open the box.  The downside is you get a plastic taste as well.

Some towns only carry 2L sizes in an attempt to combat alcoholism. We seem to have a variety here and will give it a shot. Tomorrow we begin to load the palette on the ship. It’s mostly symbolic but I will feel better if we get started. We’re going bush walking next week, which means we have to load the boat by this Friday. Suddenly the pace quickens.

I finished knitting a sweater I began at home and sent it off in the mail today. Luckily I found some merino, possum wool and started a pair of socks .

We went back to the orchid exhibit in the City Park today. The flowers and trees are simply amazing. Huge, with evergreens growing next to palm trees.

We reflected on this.

We’ve been running along Cataract Gorge on the Tasmanian Tiger trail. They post information on benches where I learned the Tasmanian Tiger is no longer here and had a pouch. We are planning to go on a bush walk so maybe we’ll sight one. Next week we will walk the Overland Track, when all our chores are done. Oh boy. We may find the famous Tasmanian leeches. And here I was worried about white lipped snakes, tiger snakes and copperheads. Silly me. The real threat comes from the jack jumper ant . Here’s a perspective photo . Yow.

Today was much nicer. I saw peacocks and wallabies along the running trail.

We are still trying to work out our wine list. We were planning to bring what we thought was a barrel of wine but may actually turn out to be box wine. We’re in a bit of a tizzy. We can’t even try them unless we buy a box. Beer making is set though. One batch of blonde and then a batch of stout. Yogurt procurement still in process. it sounds complicated unless I just buy a carton of yogurt, use some for my first batch and so on and so on…

I took Tim to the City Park with wisteria, rhododendrons, orchids and snow monkeys. On the way home I spotted this perfect Christmas flower, complete with gold dust. I don’t know what it is yet but I have identified some of the birds here. We saw a flock of galah in the local park. Very pretty.

Those were no sheep outside my first night’s window. They were the Australian raven. They sounded like sheep though.