Launceston

The view up the Gorge from the Lady Launceston

We left Bicheno (Tasmania's Tidiest Town - 2006, thank you very much) on the 7th and drove around the east coast to Launceston where we've been for the past few days. The weather continued to cooperate and we were able to get out and enjoy one of Tasmania's prettiest cities. We drove up the Tamar River valley the first day just to enjoy a scenic drive, and stopped along the way to visit a Platypus breeding exhibit. It was quite well done...probably the best views of the little guys in their tank that we've seen. Usually you only get a glimpse inside some nocturnal habitat with the lights so dim you can barely make out a thing, but this one was really well done. Will try to load up a video that Rita shot at the end of this. It was almost as good as the one we saw in the wild on one of our hikes in Queensland about 4 years ago.

We actually did another organized "tourist" thing the second day - went on a short 50 minute cruise on an 1890's era steamer up and down the estuary. It was another pretty day so the views were terrific. The boat looked like something out of the African Queen.


A panoramic view of part of Launceston Town


This is the lighthouse near Georgetown near the mouth of the Tamar River, and which has guarded the approach to Launceston since the town was established in 1804.



And this is a photo of our little cottage in the old section of the city. It was built in 1850 in an area known as "The Shambles", and apparently was used to house workers at a local slaughterhouse up the hill. Now it's a trendy self-catering accommodation.



Rita queing up to board the Lady Launceston for the ride up the river

It was a great city for walking so that's what we did...walked our legs off up and down the gorge, as well as exploring all of the little town. Lots of history here. Guess it was people from Launceston who sailed across Bass Strait in 1835 to establish a settlement at Port Phillip - modern day Melbourne.

We departed Launceston earlier this morning and flew into Melbourne - picked up another rental car - and drove down part of the Great Ocean Road to the little town of Lorne on the coast. Along the way we passed gorgeous beach after gorgeous beach. This is supposed to be one of the world's great scenic drives and if the rest of it looks anything like what we saw today it should be pleasant driving tomorrow and Monday. For info, one of the beaches we passed was Bells Beach - which Kevin & Mike would know is one of the great surfing beaches in the world.

Tomorrow we continue the great meander towards Adelaide. You can drive there from Melbourne in 8 hours if you take the motorway, but we're taking 5 days to poke along and enjoy the coastline. We're actually heading for Cape Jervis about 2 hours south of Adelaide, from where we catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island on the 15th. Looking forward to seeing more critters once we get there - supposed to be Koalas all over the place, along with the usual assortment of animals direct from the Star Wars Bar scene.

Meant to mention that Rita said she saw an Emu on the way to Freycinet Park one day last week. It's one Australia's icons (looks like an ostrich). They're usually pretty shy so she was lucky to see one in the wild.

Here's the video of the platypus I promised earlier...for Makenna.