Tasmania - March 7

We arose early to get out of the campground on time. It was a very uninspiring cold, drizzly day. We packed up, had breakfast and took off through the mountains. I suspect that the scenery is beautiful with amazing mountain vistas. It was pretty even through the rain. But everything was covered in cloud.

First we came onto Queenstown. The descent was beautiful - from the top of the mountains down twisty roads into a valley where much of the scenery had been carved out by the local mining activities. It was like being in the Yukon. Queenstown is an old mining town, and the buildings are very colorful; the town's attempt to attract more tourist dollars. There was a small main street, a miner's memorial and everything was a bit rough. We found a little general store selling baked goods, coffee, lunch and renting videos and internet time. After a lunch of a ham sandwich (we had lots of those on the trip) we headed across the street to the local IGA. It was small, carpeted, and sold everything imaginable in 4 small aisles.


Next we headed through to Rosebery, a one-street mining community on a hill. There was a pub, coffee shop, police and fire station, library, post-office, pizza parlour, and of course the Rosebery Mining Historic center. The mine is visible from pretty much anywhere in town. The kids were tough, the shops were seedy, but everyone was friendly. We got a coffee and then headed to Cradle Mountain.

The Cradle Mountain Discovery Parks Wilderness Center was a really nice campground. Each site had some isolation and the bathrooms were super-nice, though completely cold. Sitting on the toilet was a bit painful. Our favorite part was the cook house, where you could build a fire, and do all of your cooking and dishes in the warmth. We ended up spending quite a bit of time in there.

On our first night we did laundry, and then walked a couple of kms down the road for supper. We headed to the "family dining" establishment, but it was at the Cradle Mountain Wildnerness Resort, which was rather posh, like a Fairmont. The restaurant was not exactly your average Swiss Chalet, but was the meal ever good - the best buffet ever. Dessert was the best - date cake with warm caramel covering. Heaven.

We started seeing wildlife almost as soon as we arrived. A kangaroo hopped in front of the van as we were driving earlier, and Paul made a smooth speedy stop. On our walk back to the campground we saw 2 wallabies, and watched a wombat forage in the bush for food - they are so cute...like mini bears. The birds have some very strange calls here - they sound like turkeys and some of the little ones can make a real racket. This is being composed from the caravan while we are trying to stay warm. At least it isn't raining.