Tasmania

Getting in to Tasmania was quite fast and easy...one hour flight to Hobart in the South and 20 minute drive to the center.
Tasmania only has a half million inhabitants and almost half of them live in Hobart. In summer it only gets upto 22 degrees and winter rather mild with 5-10 degrees, but snow can occur at any time of the year.
My hostel was located on the main street, so I walked around a bit, bought some fruits for breakfast and had some dinner and the harbour. Since winds are heavy and the weather changes here within minutes, rain comes and goes, so do also the rainbows.

My tour guide picked me up early morning and got on a bus with in total 22 people. Here we go straight out of a movie: let me introduce the tall thin guy from the Netherlands, that when speaking sounds as if he had a broccoli in his mouth ;). Then Dino, an older guy from Sydney talking way too much, but being a great photographer. Our guide the typical adventurer with a hat on and always some simple jokes. Vicky from Hongkong was sitting next to me and we got along really well. So this was my first impression, you probably get of certain characters when joining an organized group tour.
On our way to Strahan we stopped at different places, that had a maximum lenght of 20 minute walk: Russel Falls, Nelson Falls and St. Clair Lake.

During the drives between the stps sadly we couldn't look out of the window much, windows were covered with mist, but most of us fell asleep anyway.

By late afternoon we reached the little town Strahan. Our guide took us on a little tour by bus to see the place, but after two streets that was it. He took us to the hostel and our host gave us a warm welcome. Meet the vegeterian buddhist Bumpy was the pre-announcement and his attitude was just as funny as his name. We gathered in the kitchen to receive his speach of rules on this property. But in a kind and caring way, just needed to get used to his sense of humor.
Some of us decided to have a quick dinner at a more reasonable take away place than an expensive restaurant. Back in our hostel few of us played a round of Yazzie before heading to bed early.

For this day the group split, so some took a six hour boat ride and the rest of us drove up North for a hike. The 4km one way hike, 3 hours return, took us on muddy paths through dense rainforest. Luckily the morning sky was beautiful, sun was shining. By the time we reached the suspension bridge it started drizzling a bit. Already from the bridge you could see the Montezuma Falls up to a height of 104 meters, splashing water through the forest....either way we got wet, from front or above ;). What a beautiful fall with soo much power due to previous heavy rains.

It wasn't a difficult hike, but still long, so we again slept on the bus. Assuming that we would go back to Strahan, on half way we stopped at the Henty Dunes. Steep sand dunes we had to climb up in order to see the ocean across the wide sandy dunes. Hard to believe seeing such dunes close to the rainforests...what a contrast...

Back in Strahan we got ready for the evening. Our guide hat offered us to visit a local play/theater, which most of us wanted to attend. It started late afternoon and went on for almost 2 hours: "The ship that never was". Two local women and two boys introduced this play as based on a true history of this area in Tasmania and has been performed since 25 years.
Since the four of them couldn't play all needed characters at the same time, they involved some people from the audience. So much fun watching until I had to play the yellyfish, moving a kitchen tool in an open-close way to make it look like.

Our guide picked us up to go back to the hostel for a barbeque, he had prepared for us, to have a gathering on our last evening in Strahan and with our our host Bumpy.

Be prepared for a tough walk in the snow....yes we'll be reaching altitudes with temperature drops to almost zero and there will be snow! Besides that of course weather can change every minute into a different season. The bus took us further up the visitors center to the final parking. Several walking routes were offered, but due to weather conditions we could only walk along the 6.5km lake loop. Further up would have been nearly a climb and too dangerous with snow and rain. Anyway we had the full range of conditions, from sun to rain to snow, but always in amazing scenary. 

About two hours later we reached the bus again, frozen and wet. But before we could warm up, we walked a boardwalk on lower level to find wombats...and we did, so many and so close!

On our way to Launceston we could warm up. Only one stop in a little town called Sheffield. Although all the stores almost closed by the time we got there, the art on walls were nice to look at.

Launceston seemed to be a nice town, but by the time we got there it was time for dinner and next morning again an early start was to be expected...

The city of Launceston was located a bit inland from the North coast, directly at a gorge. To not be stuck in the middle of too many visitor, we were almost the first ones to walk the loop including a bridge over the river. Quite short, but a nice morning walk in the sun, that for a change warmed us and our moods compared to rain and snow from the previous day.

Following the nice weather locations we got to a beach on the West coast, that nearly took our breath away: The Bay of Fires. A long beach within a bay devided into smaller beaches with rocks looking like on fire every few hundret meters. We spent over an hour walking and climbing on these rocks for pictures and views.

The rest of our afternoon we spent at the East Coast Naturworld to get close to kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, Tasmanian devils and some other creatures, that are special to Tasmania. The devils for example were endangered for a while, but have recovered thanks to such centers, that release many animals back into the wild.

Although I am not a group travel person at all, I enjoyed some of the company and got along very well. We met up for dinner in the next town we were staying in and everyone loved to join. Some went on a penguin parade tour, some went back to the hostel, which was perfectly fine to split up. Our guide always gave us options to choose, what we wanted to do.

The Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula offered different hikes and lookout points. Eight of us decided on the difficult hike up to Amos mountain, the rest took the walk followed by thousand steps down the beach and back up. Anyway our hour up the mountain was steep and in some parts a bit of climbing required. We did really well and got up there at almost blue sky looking over the really most beautiful beach!

Back at the bus we were tired but happy...also the rest of us seemed ok and happy. On the way we gave ourselves a treet at Kate's Berry Farm: delicious homemade ice cream and lots of other yummie things.

What great tour seeing really the best of Tasmania as the tour description promised. Couldn't do and see more in 5 days, but in a kind of relaxed way. And with even cool people, which I didn't expect...