Redcliffe House Swansea

Today we have sleep in and then served a delicious breakfast from local produce cooked by 'Chef Peter'. We then went for a walk down to the beach and through the Piermont property finding some blocks of land for sale right on the water looking out to Great Oyster Bay. It is very pretty here and well worth staying. We think much better choice than Bicheno or Coles Bay. Then off to town to Trellis Café for great coffee and to update the travel ...

... float down on lilos. Perfect weather and lush green surroundings. Then we headed further south into the national park & camped at a couple of different nice spots. A general rule of mine now, is no longer than 3 days with no shower facilities, or 4 if there is good water for swimming! M & I climbed the tallest mountain in Australia while J&A looked afta the lads. Tops view! From there we headed to the coast, coming ...

... feeling too well, so we decided against continuing on for the walk down on the beach (much to Hollie's disgust). It was already a fairly challenging uphill walk that included 600 steps to get to the lookout. A short boardwalk around Cape Tourville revealed some more beautiful coastline and then the girls went for a well-earned swim at Honeymoon Bay. By this time the sun had completely disappeared, so the water was nowhere near as beautiful in colour. Even so, we reckon it has ...

... risotto type thing' we listen to the waves some more, drink more beer and enjoy our last night in our wee camper, STILL engaged! Day 8 - Breath-taking Wineglass Bay and final campervan day, boo hoo! Final day blurb still to come............................. Final day blurb still to come............................. Day 9 - Hobart and back to Sydney for the arrival of The Hogarths!!

... 10 Stunden gefahren und waren gerade mal an Sydney vorbei. Wenn man mal auf die Karte guckt, kann man sehen, daß das wirklich nicht so weit aussieht. Aber es sind so an die 900 Kilometer (also weiter als von Düsseldorf bis München). Wir sind an Canberra vorbeigefahren, weil alle sagen, daß es dort einfach nur langweilig ist. Soll eine sehr schöne Gartenstadt sein in der man wohl als Entertainment Wäsche beim trocknen zusieht. Nicht so ganz unsere Sache.

... Then we headed into Launceston to run some errands and get some food before heading out to Ulverstone to park up for the night. Up early to head west towards the Cradle Mountain and the St Claire Lake region. The weather wasn't half as nice here and was completely miserable so we ended up driving through the beautiful landscape and only taking a short walk at the lake.Again everything was beautiful and reminded us of the Lake District and ...

... so we got in around 12. We ate a quick lunch and then headed into the park. It was pretty awesome. Like I said yesterday, New Zealand was green and lush and beautiful everywhere we went, but so far Tasmania has trumped it in the coastline department. The skyline was dominated by The Hazards, a group of three granite mountains. We climbed up most of one on our way to Wineglass Bay. One of our travel books calls it one of the best ...

... fire in the fireplace, and great people. We made a splash when we entered with our battery operated lantern that Rob had given us.... Justine had a great breast of chicken filled with shrimp and a delicious cream sauce, I had the Bark Mill special pizza and beer /one glass of beer from Launceston and another that is produced in Hobart... maybe that was 3 from Launceston - I just needed some grease and junk food. After dinner ...

... got me a bed in a dorm of 4 - first night on my own, with clean linen and a kitchen. Again, met a few folk and found out more about the local environs and other parts of Tassie, as well as Vancouver where I hope to be heading at teh beginning of May. Next day, headed south for approx 30 mins in the car to Coles Bay on the Frechinet Peninsula, a national park area. The attraction here, was mainly to visit Wineglass Beach, said to be in the world's 'top 10 ...

... with white sands, blue water and rugged rocky cliffs. Eagle Hawk Neck is a thin strip of land with water on both sides that separates the Peninsula from the rest of Tasmania. This was a barrier to any convicts trying to escape from Port Arthur. Tessellated pavements are some interesting rock formations formed by years of erosion from the ocean. A few kilometers further we saw the Blow Hole. It is a cave-like hole formed in ...