Yesterday's blue skies and sunshine all gone and replaced by cloud and rain! Again! It was extraordinary that the one day we could see Cradle Mountain was the best day to do so! After packing up we walked the Leven Canyon circuit. The first bit was OK, a short uphill walk to a platform, hundreds of metres up, perched out over the Leven River racing down the valley hemmed in by its steep sided canyon. Then the walk became a staircase. Narrow, though not high, s...

We had been holding off going to one of Tasmania's Big Things till the end, though we had driven close a couple of times on our trip. Nice weather would really enhance a day at Cradle Mountain but with not much time left on the trip it was today or not at all. We woke to the bluest skies imaginable and a complete absence of cloud! Perfect. In the car park, it seemed that everyone else was taking advantage of the perfect day too - hundreds of cars filled the s...

The weather looked more promising this morning so we decided to tackle the trip to Ben Lomond. It was cloudy but we had high hopes of it clearing as we would be ascending to over 1400m. as we drove higher and higher the mist and cloud seems to be rising and we were treated to spectacular vertical columns of dolerite reaching high above us from the roadside with their tops just disappearing into the mist. We drove up Jacob's Ladder, a series of very tight and stee...

We had tried to text a message to John and Heather, our managers at a property in Port Douglas and who had become friends. They left Port Douglas a while ago and we had lost touch, though we knew they lived near Launceston. John now admits to being hopeless with mobiles and texts, so never got our message. However we discovered we had the home number and Heather answered. So a date for afternoon tea was set. In the meantime we parked the truck in town and wal...

We wanted to drive up the big mountain hereabouts in Ben Lomond national park but the weather when we woke beat us. Low cloud and mist and rain was hanging around and a journey to see nothing at all seemed a bit pointless. So a change of plans and we struck out for the north coast, again avoiding the highways and travelling through pretty country lanes and forestry roads. Bridport had a great little café with good coffee where, on the veranda, we watched nothing...