Even though it was pretty rocky crossing the Bass Straight, we both woke up not feeling sea sick or anything. Maybe even the waves rocked us to sleep.. We would be docking at 7am so I showered first to have time for that whole hair ordeal and then Dave went. Showers on ships are quite small of course, but usually are very hot and have nice pressure, which was the case. It’s really no trouble at all. As I was getting ready, I could look straight out the window at Tasmania. It was still dark mostly so all I could see was a few lights….I don’t Devonport is a large city by any means. After getting ready, we went to the stern of the boat until it was time to disembark. A small quarantine station was set up and we had to put our bags along a painted line so that adorable little dog could come by to sniff them. Course, she comes to mine and sits, indicating that there is some sort of problem. It turns out that my raspberry lip gloss is a bit too much like real raspberries (awesome). I was afraid that they were going to take it away from me but they didnt. We took some pics in front of the boat and then got the car rental. This place (Hertz) got my birthday right and we were given the exact same car that we had in Melbourne – a white Hyundai Accent. It was so so early so we started out with our giant map (it was too big to look at and not block the entire windshield!) towards Penguin!
Penguin didn’t really have anything to offer, per se…but of course we had to go there because of all of the amazing photo opportunities. Penguin High School, the Penguin Supermarket…etc etc. Lonely Planet actually described it as a lovely coastal town so all was good. Also, it said that there was a market there on Sundays so it being Sunday we could hit that up as well. We were there in no time with Dave driving. Along the way, the scenery was just beautiful – rolling hills, blue skies, oceans and mountains in the distance. If just felt so awesome to be here!! We arrived in Penguin, parked along the main road (the only car) and began taking pictures. Most are just Dave and various signs and such along with some of the awesome beach right by the center of town. We stopped at the Penguin Bakery to get some food and we found out a bit more about the market. It sounded like there would be people coming from all over, as the ‘locals’ often complain about the traffic and all. After a quick stop at the Penguin Elementary School, we found parking at the market and headed inside. It was…um,interesting. There were things like laptops from last century all fired up and running…maybe Windows 95? Piles of clothes and old dolls…a small hair salon stall, children’s clothing, gothic stuff, and some touristy stuffed animals and penguin stuff. We both got little canvas tote bags that say Penguin Market and Dave got a little Tassy Devil to commemorate the trip. What a crazy place, Tasmania.
After Penguin…well it wasn’t even 10am! We headed in the direction of Tullah, where we would be spending the night, and decided that because it was in the same direction as Tullah, Cradle Mountain would be the activity for the day. Dave was still driving and we passed through towns that maybe had populations less than my high school graduating class. We were passing fantastic scenery now – not ocean but mountains and huge open field. There were signs for animals everywhere – mostly knagaroo and wombats. Dave stopped a brown lump by the side of the road and stopped the car and then backed up along the road until we were almost in line with it…a giant wombat!! Wow! Well the car wasn’t getting any closer so I got out of the car. The thing took off! Now, maybe the cooler, more animal friendly thing to do would have been to accept this siting from the rear-view mirror and be on our way, but I was out of the car and he didn’t really look to be running that fast…so I took off after him. It turns out, and I feel like maybe this could be useful information, that I run exactly as fast as a wombat. I never caught up to him and got a very blurry photo of him running away from me. Dave was laughing hysterically and yes, maybe seeing me run through the Tasmanian outback chasing a wombat could be considered funny 😉
We came upon Cradle Mountain National Park in no time and stopped at the Visitor’s center to get some info. It tuned out that we had to go to the next visitors center, buy a pass for the car and then wait at some gate if we didnt want to take the tour bus. The tour bus was stopping at all sorts of places that we didn’t especially need to see and if we got off then we would have to wait for the next tour bus. We decided to take our chances with the gate. We paid the $22 for our car to get in and pretty much drove straight through the open gate. The ranger said we’d have some trouble finding parking too but that wasn’t the case either and we got the best spot in the place 🙂 There were all sorts of walks you could take from this area and most looked to be made for people who were dressed for the occasion. We, mostly me I guess, were not. Wow it was cold! Once we got moving though it was ok. Cradle Mountain is a huge mountain with a sort-of crater in it that makes the summit more half-moon shaped rather than just a point. In the mountain though, there is this huge lake called Dove Late. We would be going on the short 15 minute walk to Dove Lake’s boat house. The terrain was a bit muddy and it was sprinkling a bit but we got some really nice pictures with blue sky in the background. Very nice! The view was just stunning. I can see wanting to come here and just hike around the area for a while – it’s just breathtaking. It started to rain a bit but it was no trouble really. I think the mountains must have some impact on the weather as it was perfectly fine once we left the area. I took the wheel upon leaving and returned to the visitors center where we could do a short rain forest walk. It was called Pencil Pine and was filled with pencil pines of course. I don’t know what really makes a rain forest, but this is myu first one! I have to say…not very rain forest-y but still cool. I liked the waterfall a lot. After that, we stopped for a sec at a place where you could see Tasmanian devils but they weren’t wild and $15 was too much. Back at the first center that we had stopped at on our way in, we got chips and gravy that was very very filling and delicious. we have been eating like total crap. Seriously, fried everything, cookies – its no good but it’s really the only option!! To Tullah!
For some reason we would be staying in Tullah this evening. The hotel was beautiful (on their site) but it was a bit in the middle of nowhere. However, it was somehow connected to our mystery activity tomorrow! I had no idea what it could be…I started guessing water things because the Tullah Chalet was on a lake, but Dave said No, even though he said he wouldn’t tell me anyways. Hm. Absolutely no idea. Driving through Tullah (which took about 3 minutes) didn’t give me any clues either. We checked in to the Tullah Chalet and I think we may be the only people staying here….hm. Thats a little upsetting because when Dave emailed they said that no more of the lower level rooms were available so now we have a room with a twin bed, a double bed, and a couch, which is really nice but is far too much room. We relaxed a bit and then decided to check out the lodge. Inside were beautiful windows covering an entire wall facing the lake. The lake is manmade, lake Rosebury, and is really spectacular set against the tree covered mountains. We were truly in the middle of nowhere. The inn keeper and his wife were the only ones around and were playing with their 2 daughters…just running around the place being pretty adorable. They would come around the corner, take a look at us, smile, and run the other way. We sat on leather couches in front of a fireplace and typed on our computers and watched a few 30 Rock scenes (of course). It was very relaxing and much needed after waking up so early this morning. Around 5 we decided to check out the town and maybe get some snacks for tomorrow. We headed into the ‘town’ and stopped at the one store which didn’t really have too much….well maybe this really wasn’t the town center. A drive back up the road proved that it had indeed been the center and we stopped to get gas and kit kats before returning to the hotel for sunset. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy by then so there was no sunset but all was good and we checked out the dinner menus before heading back to our room. Dinner had to be at the hotel so we decided to head down to the dining room at 7:30 where we would surely be dining alone. This of course proved to be the case but we had a great time as usual. We both, also as usual, had the same meal. It was shrimp in a creamy chili sauce with linguini. I liked it a lot and ate all of my shrimp (all 15 of them, well, 14.5 because Dave only got 14 so I split one) and all of Dave’s vegetables too, hehe. That with garlic bread was really an awesome meal after the total crap that we ate today (albeit delicious crap). Even though we are in the middle of nowhere, food is still expensive. That meal with no drinks cost around $60. Ah well. Pub food probably would have been the same no doubt. After dinner we went back to the room where it was absolutely freezing. Dave wrote journals and I focused on finding a 30 Rock episode that we;ve pretty much been quoting all day. That show is SO good. I made my way to the bed where I passed out 🙁 So tired lately! What an awesome first day in Tasmania!
