Launceston

We have been a bit busy the last few days, hence no time for posting to the blog.
Our last couple of days at Cradle Mountain were terrific.  The weather gods decided to keep the rain at bay and provide beautiful blue skies for us.  Having done the 8.5 km Cradle Valley Boardwalk we decided that a leisurely stroll around Dove Lake would be appropriate for our tired legs.  It is pretty close to 7 km around the lake and it was not quite the stroll we had anticipated.  There were a couple of up hill bits that made our muscles say ouch.  After such a work out we had to retire back to the trailer and partake of a couple of beers to recover.
Next morning we decided, that as it would be our final walk that we would do the big one.  Not as big as some might do but big enough for us.  Up the side of a mountain to Crater Lake, down the other side past Wombat Pool and around to Dove Lake.  Great walk, again about 7 km, we loved it.
They are so well organised at Cradle Mountain, with regular shuttle buses running from the information centre to Dove Lake about every 10 minutes, there is absolutely no need to make the drive.  The road is very windy and has many single lane sections, so using the shuttle is a no brainer. It's free if you have a Parks and Wildlife Pass - bargain.
So we left Cradle Mountain with some very happy memories and headed off on the short drive towards Launceston. I say short as we have become so used to the great distances we have travelled in the outback that a 2 hour drive up the road is a snack.
We eventually left the wildness and wilderness of the west coast of Tasmania behind us and we arrived back in the lush green dairy area that surrounds Launceston.
We did stop off at Trowunna Wildlife Park so we could get up close and personal with some Tasmanian Devils.  We arrived just in time to hook up with a tour of the park and to see some of the Devils being fed.  They are apparently quite solitary creatures, just getting together for a meal.  They save energy apparently when they collectively all rip into a carcass, as opposed to doing it by themselves  The keeper produced a wallaby roadkill to 5 Devils.  With a lot of bone crunching and several attempts at tug of war they managed to demolish the whole wallaby in under 10 minutes - not a bone or scrap of fur to be seen.  Amazing.
So now we are based about 10 minutes out of Launceston, very rural.  We drove into town late yesterday for a quick familiarisation tour, ended up at Sea Port, which is a riverside dock area that has been redeveloped and had a fantastic dinner at one of the restaurants.
Today we organised ourselves for the rest of our stay.  We are doing a tour of James Boag's Brewery tomorrow, then on Thursday we will be doing a cruise up the Tamar River into the gorge.  Because Friday is Good Friday and nothing much will be happening we plan on going to the gorge and doing some of the walks.  So there are lots of things for us to look forward to.
Earlier today after doing some shopping we took a drive up into the Tamar Valley, it is just so beautiful, so green and it came as quite a shock to see that it is quite a wine producing area.  We later stopped off at the Tamar Island Wetlands and walked  a couple of k's along a boardwalk hoping to see an abundance of wildlife, but it must have been the wrong time of the day as we only saw black swans and a couple of other birds. Still is was a very pleasant walk.
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