A slightly disappointing day in Tasmania. The weather was not on our side for a change: mostly drizzly and grey. Occasionally the sun did peep through but not often enough. We were booked on a full day coach trip with P&O to the Cradle Mountain National Park. I don't really like coach tours at all as I've said before, but this would have been difficult to organise any other way. Anyway, just being on a coach with 40+ people puts me in a bit of a bad mood. J

The drive to the park took about 90 minutes and was through some very scenic countryside. Tasmania is 40% nature reserve, a lot of it is UNESCO World Heritage protected. There are huge tracts of natural and planted forest. The planted forest dates to the time maybe 50 years ago when paper was the mainstay industry here but that has collapsed so the tree plantations remain, huge and uncut. There are large varieties of trees: pines; different sorts of Eucalyptus; leatherback trees, myrtle. There is also quite a lot of farming. Mostly Angus beef these days rather than lamb and fruit as it was before the UK stopped importing food from New Zealand and Australia on joining the EU in the 1960s. These days the main customer for Tasmania is the Japanese who buy nearly all their farmed produce and they like Angus beef, perfect onions and red apples! It's all too easy to forget that when Bob and I were growing up much of our produce came from what had been our colonies and was then the Commonwealth. Butter, cheese, fruit, lamb, wool, etc. all from downunder. When we joined the EU we effectively dumped our old friends right in it. I wonder whether they will welcome us back if the referendum in 2017 goes Out…….. However, we are still a Commonwealth and we should bear that in mind with the vote.

Anyway, Cradle Mountain National Park is clearly a wonderful unspoilt paradise of rainforest, lakes, mountains and natural bush. Unfortunately, due to the thick drizzle its namesake Cradle Mountain, was completely invisible. We didn't see it at all. Bob and I did escape the group and have two lone walks through the rainforest which was lovely. And we did visit the old wooden chalet of the German chap who founded the reservation in the early 1900s and lived there till his death in the 1960s. Whilst we were there, very excitingly, a wallaby came out of the trees and obligingly sat there for our pictures. There are apparently millions of these wallabies in Tasmania - Barrett's Wallaby - it was. Quite big. I would have thought it was a kangaroo if the guide hadn't said it was a wallaby. Anyway, we only saw the one but that was fantastic. I had really wanted to see one in the wild. We are not in a koala or kangaroo area on this trip so in terms of odd animals she will have to suffice.

We were given lunch in the lodge in the National Park. A buffet. Not really my cup of tea and big queues and short tempers. Bob discovered he'd picked up 3 leeches!!!! They were incredibly difficult to kill. He stamped on them to no avail and they wiggled off… YUK!

After lunch we wended our way back to the ship taking about 3 hours. Many of the towns have British names e.g. Devonport, Launceston, Sheffield, Guildford. There has been a lot of mineral mining in Tasmania over the last 200 years, gold and tin. Many tin miners from Devon and Cornwall came here in the 1800s, hence some of the town names. Weirdly they pronounce Launceston, Laun-ces-ton which sounds very odd to my ears.

We stopped in Sheffield which couldn't have been more different from UK Sheffield. A small historic town in farming country. It is famous here as Mural town. Many of the buildings are covered in murals and there is a big competition every year. Had a nice walk round.

Back to the ship by about 5:30. Apparently it's going to be rough tonight as we cross the Bass Strait and back towards Sydney for the day after tomorrow. There is a front moving in from the Antarctic. and Bass Strait is often rough anyway due to it being relatively very shallow in comparison to the surrounding seas which build up and flow through it. Certainly there is a large swell rolling as we turn in pretty early as for some unaccountable reason, we are totally tired out again.