The next day in Tasmania the weather was beautiful too - nice and hot and sunny. I had planned to go to the wildlife park down the road but the (crazy) guy who worked there said it was expensive and not as good as the one in Bicheno - the next town I was staying in, so changed my plans again! Drove just down the road to some beautiful sights, caves, archways and dramatic cliffs all along the coast, and I had a good walk all along the tops of the cliffs in the National Park there, all through gum trees and heath, was really beautiful. The walk took me to Waterfall Bay, which believe it or not, had a waterfall running down the cliff into it, was gorgeous. On the walk back I saw an Echidna which is like a cross between a hedgehog, a porcupine and an ant eater! It was looking for bugs in a tree, wasn't well hidden and didn't seem to be bothered by my presence! Very cool. Then drove onto a place called blowhole which is where a cave had formed then the roof at the back had collapsed so there was a pool with massive waves coming in and crashing was really cool. There were cliffs there too with massive waves was excellent! Then went and had lunch on the beach on the other side of Eaglehawk neck which was deserted (like all the beaches) and had white sand dunes. Eaglehawk neack was called that because lots of scary looking dogs guarded this narrow neck of land that led to/from Port Arthur as this is where the convicts had to come through if they escaped. Then I headed off for Bicheno which was also a long way, but a did go what I thought would be a short cut but it turned out to be a dirt road so had to go very slowly. It was great though as it went through lots of forest and countryside like in the photo. I was hoping to go to the wildlife park that day but didn't have time as I didn't get there till 4.30 so that ruined my plans too!!! Chilled out outside the hostel and can't really remember what, but then later after dinner I went on a tour of a penguin rookery, which was a private and protected area of land just for the penguins that have been using the site for breeding and nesting for 1000's of years - how amazing! We learnt so much about them it was great, they spend most of their time in the water and only come on land when they have babies! They have 3 babies but only the fittest one makes it - they let the weaker 2 starve how mean! We were able to get so close to them it was brilliant - they weren't scared at all, and the gut leading the tour was shining his torch right at them! They were so funny to watch running up the beach towards us, then to their nests behind us in the vegetation or even across the road - they hardly get run over though as their hearing and sight is very good! We even saw some baby chicks in a nest box they had made for them - very cute. Must have seen over 100 and were about 2ft away from them - just so amazing. The weather in the night was all windy and woke up to nsaty windy and wet weather. Still braved the wildlife park - nothing would make me miss that! Took a lady with me who was staying at the hostel as it was only 7km away and thought I may as well come back to the hostel for lunch anyway. As soon as we got there it was feeding time, as we arrived just before 10am! Got to see Tasmanian Devils (including babies!), wombats, koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, and lots of exotic birds that are actually native in a walk through avairy (you would have loved that Nikki and Krystal!!!!) Got to stroke a Tas Devil and a wombat as the guy picked them up for us, and there were kangeroos hopping around everywhere it was so funny! They were very tame, and came right up to us as you can feed them but I didn't buy any - got to stroke though - so cool! Was really good morning but got very wet. Had lunch in the hostel then I was planning to go to one of the most famous and beautiful national parks where there is a place called Wineglass Bay but decided not to as even though the weather had improved I didn't trust it would last. Also it meant driving out of my way and walking a long way which would have been really annoying if when I got there the weather got bad again and I had no views and got really wet (like in NZ a few times!) Also if I had done that I would never had made it to Launceston that night which I wanted to do to be able to see all the other wonderful places! Also I wanted to see a place called 'Bay of fires' and a brillant big 90m waterfall which I wouldn't have had time for if I had gone to Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately Bay of fires wasn't great because the weather was terrible, but saw a really nice lagoon and some very orange rocks. The waterfall was spectacular, especially after the rain! The walk was only short, through massive lush tree ferns all dripping in the rain and lots of mist all around in the hills. Luckily the rain had stopped then so was really nice. I was the only one there in all these places, Tasmania is so remote and even though it's full of tourists it's big enough that they don't bump into eachother too much, well especially when the weather isn't great! I think I chose places that day that people don't go to as much too so it felt a bit special. The rest of the drive to Launceston was a nightmare - it was an A road but wiggled all over the mountains and hardly went through any towns - those I did go through were smaller than 500 inhabitants and ghost towns, and I hardly passed any cars the whole way! It was very lonely and that was the worst driving day. It took me nearly 3 hours to get there after leaving the waterfall and didn't get to the hostel till nearly 9pm! Only just made it before the reception closed! The guy in there was a bit funny too. So glad to be in civilisation and making dinner, went to bed straight after that! Spoke to a lady I had met in the hostel in Bicheno - she was about 70 and was French, now living in England. She was such a moaner it was unbelievable! Also spoke to a German girl in my room who was nice, we agreed to go for a walk together in the morning to Cataract Gorge jsut down the road. Oh dear my computer is flashing saying 5 minutes remaining, will do the rest later - I am very impressed how quickly I have managed to write these 2 days though - good eh?