Firstly, a big thank you for all your comments and concerns on the last blog, much appreciated.

So, here is the first blog from Tasmania, the most southerly state of Oz. We sadly left Bill's on the Gold Coast, after having spent a lovely Christmas there, and flew back to Melbourne. Waltham and Winnie were still there, in their field, as we had left them and Winnie started first time, phew! We managed to catch the last day of the Ashes Test and met up with Mick Barette, a long-time friend of Bob's from Jersey and also with Dave and Judith Cotterall, both of whom Bob was at college with - a great day!

Then the dreaded day came to board the boat! The Spirit of Tasmania does day and night sailings for the 9.5 hour crossing from Melbourne to Devonport. We chose the night sailing, thinking we would sleep through the worst. The Bass Strait is a notoriously rough patch of water and I was NOT looking forward to this. All the local shops had sold out of seasickness pills, as had the boat, which was not a good omen. I stocked up on ginger and I already had some Kalms so they had to suffice. I have to say the boat was modern and very comfortable, as was our cabin. We had a lovely meal of Tasmanian lamb in the restaurant and retired to the lounge to watch the Brisbane tennis. So far so good, but we were still in the large Port Phillip harbour area. At 11pm, just after we retired to bed, we left this and the boat started rocking and rolling. It was not pleasant, even Bob said it was rough! I did get a bit of sleep but not much. The next morning, when we were woken at 5:45am, all was calm again. I had survived but felt strangely woosey, as if jet-lagged, all day.

But hey, we had arrived in Tassie, the home of the Tasmanian Devil, good food, wine and fantastic scenery! So many good reports so Tassie had something to live up to! We had decided to head out west first to try and avoid the crowds on the East coast who were still enjoying their Xmas holiday break.

Our first little jaunt was up the valley to Fernglade where you can apparently see platypus at anytime of the day. It was a beautiful walk but, alas, no platypus were spied. However, we did encounter a Pademelon family and the baby was delightful. Pademelons are part of the wallaby family. We picnicked and were leaving the park, thankfully in Winnie, when I saw a snake in the road. I screamed, Bob swerved, the snake struck at Winnie and I was in pieces. We had been walking there, and there was a 2m long snake slithering across the road! Tassie only has 3 types of snake, all venomous, and we had seen one on our first day. I was not happy but, I have to say, we haven't seen one since although I have been on the constant lookout as you can imagine!

I had read that the fairy penguins, that we had fallen in love with on Phillip Island, come ashore at various different places on Tasmania. There are organised tours, but you could also see the penguins by yourselves. I picked the site at Burnie because you could just walk over the road to the beach and watch the penguins arrive each night. So that was what we did! And wow! We 'rugged up', as the Aussies say, and went and waited as it grew dark. We must have picked a good spot as we watched the penguins emerge from the ocean and waddle towards us. We actually held our breath as they passed within feet of us and made their way to their burrows behind us in the dunes. There were a few people watching too but they then left, and Bob and I were left alone to take it all in. Then, to our surprise, we heard noises behind us and two chicks had emerged from their burrow directly behind us. It was too dark to take photos, and we knew from our Phillip Island tour that flash hurt their eyes, so we just watched in awe. The following evening we returned to the beach, exact same spot. Again, everyone left after the penguins had done their dash across the sand. We waited and, again, the chicks emerged. Then Bob grabbed my leg, I turned and we watched as two adults went by him, so close we could have reached out and touched them! Just one of those experiences that we will never, ever forget!

Reluctantly we left Burnie and headed for the Tarkine, a wilderness area of Tassie that was going to stretch us from a camping point of view. We headed to Arthur River, deep within the National Park. Camping was by permit only and no facilities apart from toilets. We picked a reasonably level site and then set off on foot to reach 'The Edge of the World'. There is nothing between here and Argentina - truly mind-blowing! The next day we cruised up the Arthur River, which was an unexpected highlight. This river is untouched, no logging, no damming, no nothing, so everything is as nature intended. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, took us on a bush walk and we learnt SO much about sclerophyll rainforest and why eucalypts eventually die off and give way to rain forest, how and why ferns host other plants etc etc! We fed sea eagles, captured them swooping in on photo (well almost!) and saw their nests. After an awesome bbq lunch in the rainforest we headed back and set off for our next free camp, Julius River. This was our second night without power, but our solar panels stood up to the test and we were fine, even recharging our phones. After two days of showering in the van, and washing up, we were running low on water but decided we could do another nights powerless camp. These sites are a lot cheaper and, to be honest, so much nicer as you only get the 'true' campers, who know how to behave on site, and not the holiday-makers who let their kids run riot! So we headed back to the north coast to Stanley where the local golf course let you camp for an $8 fee, including as much water as you need! We were straight up the chairlift to the top of the 'Nut", a volcanic plug that you can walk around with the most amazing views from the top. It was at our campsite at Stanley that we witnessed the most amazing sunset ever!

Now, you know what a wuss I am about mountain roads. Well, I can honestly say that some of the roads on the west side of Tassie resemble those we encountered in New Zealand. Once again I have been gripping my seat and murmuring "Move over, move over" constantly to poor Bob. So we had never even mentioned about going to Cradle Mountain, which is a 'must see' according to all the guidebooks. Fortunately, I have been following a Facebook site on the best of Tassie, and had just read that the road into the visitor centre was fine for motorhomes, and you could then get a shuttle bus. So, off we went. We reached said visitor centre only to find that the carpark was 'rammed', as the Aussies would say, and the campsite across the road was full. Having only been on almost empty sites so far we were amazed and I actually went in to make sure, but, no, the nearest site was 45km down the road. OMG, what a road! I was driving, as Bob had been driving all day and it was only 'just down the road'! When will I learn?! It was the longest ever 45kms with so many hairpins that I lost count, steep drops at the side, and a very steep long way down to the river and a very steep long way back up! We also came across the lowest speed limit we have encountered, on one hairpin it was 15km/hr, less than 10 miles/hr!! But the worse thing? We had to go back that way again in the morning but this time Bob drove!!

Saying all that, next day Cradle Mountain was amazing. We got there early and parked Winnie next to her 'friends' in the carpark. We took the shuttle bus to Dove Lake and decided to do the 6km walk around the lake. We had to sign in and sign out again, very organised! The views were out of this world - the sky is SO blue here and this makes everything look so clear and bright (not sure this is a good thing as there is apparently a huge hole in the ozone layer here, suncream is a must even on a cloudy day!). The greens stand out against the blue and even the stunning photos we took don't seem to capture the contrast. My hip seemed ok too, bonus!! I won't rabbit on but have a look at the photos, I'll let them do the talking. Tassie is living up to our expectations and more, so far!