Tasmania,
Australia
We flew into Hobart on the
southern coast
of Tasmania.
Where we stayed in a
very pleasant
B&B.
In the courtyard behind
it was this
garden and the Convict Cottage.
It was not named for its
residents
but for the laborers who built it in the early days of the settlement.
We traveled over the
mountains
through Hamilton and Derwent Bridge.
Some sights from our
travels.
Along the way we saw
these unusual
Highland cattle originally from Scotland.
Most of the electric
power for the
island comes from hydroelectric stations.
The rugged terrain means
that much of
the water passes through as many as eight stations on it's way to the
coast.
Some of the woods and
streams in
Cradle Mountain National Park.
It seemed like wildlife
was
everywhere.
One of the local possums
came to
visit our cabin looking for a handout.
We didn't oblige.
And occasionally we saw
not so wild
life on the road.
These had no trouble
walking around
the cattle guard bars that were across the road.
Highway warnings that
you won't see
very many places in the world.
One evening we went out
with a
naturalist who had a spotlight so we could see even more of the animals.
We saw about 40 wombats,
this mother
kangaroo with a joey in her pouch and lots more.
A wombat burrow is huge.
It would be easy to
crawl into one.
You may not know that a
wombat's poo
has flat sides and is sometimes cubic.
Our travels took us to
the north
shore where we happened on this open water canoe race.
Near the town of Wynyard
on the
northwest coast is Fossil Bluff.
We were wandering around
and found
our way to King Solomon's Cave.
Named for the glittering
crystals in
one of the rooms.
Other rooms had some of
the longest
soda straw formations we have seen.
Elsewhere were
stalactites and
stalagmites and basins formed by water running along the floor of the
cave.
The trail to the cave
had this
impressively large tree.
Sheep farms near the
northern coast.
Along the coast we found
this
lighthouse and on the rocks we saw cormorants and our first penguins in
the wild.
Nearby was a little
nautical museum.
And while we were there
we were
rewarded with a beautiful double rainbow.
As we were taxing out
for takeoff
from Tasmania the
pilot came on the intercom.
"We have a little
problem with our
computer."
"It didn't get switched
over properly
from ground power so we will have to go back to the terminal."
We didn't think much of
it until we
had to get off and then saw that two fire engines had escorted us back.
Apparently the computers can be left in an uncertain
condition if
they aren't readied for the power switchover.
I didn't mind since I would rather not fly if any system on the plane
is in anything other than a fully understood state.
Here
are links to other
sights in Australia
Western
Australia, Northern
Territory, Alice
Springs, Uluru, Cape
Tribulation,
Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania, Victoria, Wildflowers
See
other places we have visited here.
Go
to our Personal
home page
Go to our Community
page
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to our Science
Fun page
E-mail
Nancy
and
Alan