Tasmania-Mania

We're still trekking around down here - so this is a note from a verrry small library in southeast Tassie. What an amazing state. We arrived with backpacks and Youth Hostel cards and rented a bright red Kia Rio. Pat actually fits! All four of us fit, and there's even room for the bread and peanut butter and jelly jars!

We've road-tripped the entire loop of the island, going clockwise. Hobart, Strahan, Cradle Mountain, Launceston, Freycinet National Park, Port Arthur, and back out of Hobart tomorrow.

Every twenty minutes on the two lane "highway" the scenery changes from beautiful to more beautiful to beautifully interesting and back again. We've had times we felt we were in eastern Oregon, Napa Valley, France, west of Pinecrest, and Marin County. Yet we also saw a devastated area from copper mining. Almost everywhere are the eucalyptus trees.

It's unspoiled, unsophisticated, undeveloped, and unbelieveably great. Today we passed a farm that overlooks, all by itself, a perfect white sandy beach for miles. Just like that. We found it by going on a backroad, naturally, a la Pat Mollahan! We also passed two road signs that made me laugh: Break-Me-Neck Hill and Bust-Me-Gall Hill.

We hiked up in the Cradle Mountain National Park on a trail like Cleo's Bath X 15, all you Pinecrest-ies! Ross was our trail blazer. Yesterday we trekked again on a longer hike out the coast line to a perfect beach that is only accessible by foot or (little tiny fishing) boat.

We patted Tasmanian Devils! We also learned they have had a bum deal and that we all need to learn to love the little guys. They are really quite endearing - and endangered -, although we decided to not actually hug them . . .

After roughing it in our Youth Hostels making our picnic dinners each night, we splurged and ate out. I asked the receptionist where was the best fish and chips in town? (Town's population being about 340) "Oh, that'd be the Fish Van, right next to the hotel on the corner." I didn't remember any building next to the hotel on the corner. That's cuz I hadn't seen the Fish Van. He must drive his boat right into the harbor, walk the fish up the path into the back door of the Van. Then he pops it in the fryer for you and serves it up for $6.00. If you don't mind eating at the picnic table out front in a little sea wind and you love the simple life, this is the place for you. Please pass the squeeze bottle of vinegar! Mind you I'd been pricing fish and chips for days (when all prices are at least double anything in the states, be it food, pop, hotels, or shampoo), and had found nothing under $10.00 a basket, with most being $16.00. Don't you know how good a bargain feels when you're traveling? And then it's delicious??!

On that yummy note, we'll leave you for now!