I write this on the fourth day into the journey. But it is our first night paying (more than $10) for accommodation. The first night we camped near Tumut, NSW. Our second night was on the Spirit of Tasmania sleeping in a recliner chair for no additional charge. The third night was camping in Ridgley, TAS in a little back paddock belonging to a fellow named Marcus who advertises it on WikiCamps, he charges $5 per person for a spot to camp. Despite our camping and outdoor activities, there are no Southern Lights yet to report from Tasmania on our trip.
As I am not posting daily as we did in Europe, I will quickly go over a few notable things we have done so far. On arriving in Devonport and having a free shower, we headed West. Visiting the town of Penguin, which was notable for its rubbish cans. Burnie, where we came back to for dinner. We also visited Wynyard where we saw some fossils along the coast line.
This giant penguin in the town of Penguin is getting abused by seagulls. I have met him before back in 2016 in a trip with a friend.
After Penguin we headed to Wryland to check out the beach and fossils. According to the council website and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery I was reading, these fossilised shells are 23 million years old.
After camping in Ridgley (last night), we came to Cradle Mountain for a walk. It couldn’t have been more wet. It wasn’t looking good in the parking lot, or the drive up there, but climbing the mountain was a whole new experience. As the wind came up the ridge and over it the rain was falling the wrong way, it was going up.
In order to take a photo I needed to clear all the water off my phone as my jeans were soaked completely through. My rain jacket didn’t matter that much, although it did keep my beanie dry. It would have been colder but the exercise kept us fairly warm.
Shortly after the below picture was taken, Mitchell made the wise and confident decision to call it and turn around, it was a bit too wet and time was running out for the last bus back from Dove Lake.
We had plans to camp in the best of locations by a river in a tent. However, the rain was too much. Mitchell found a great deal for a cabin on Cradle Mountain.
As I only brought one pair of shoes, and I didn’t wish to head out without shoes, Mitchell took the clothes to the laundry and picked up some dinner for which I was very grateful. Sadly, the very fancy restaurant here was very sad pizza.