Mid- Semester Break

Originally, for our 12 days of break, Becca and I wanted to do the Overland Track. It just so happened that Cradle Mountain experienced the most snow since 10+ years that weekend, so that became out of the question. We needed an adventure, so we set off with a permanent marker and some cardboard to explore Tasmania.
Below is a map of Tassie, I have highlighted the grounds we covered on our 7 day trip (we came back a bit early because I have to write a paper!)Our final destination was to be Tomahawk beach, which is at the very northeast tip, in the Waterhouse Conservation Area. As you can tell, we went a little off course.
Our first stop was Launceston, we were lucky enough to catch that 2 hour ride there with a wonderful woman who took us to the Cataract Gorge, and then bought us both a cuppa! Her parting words were "serendipity."

Peacocks were everywhere, standing on the tables and chairs. I even saw one perched in a tree!
We spent the rest of the day walking around town admiring the architecture.

Our night was spent in Irish Murphy's people watching. The only tid bits worth noting was watching an untalented cover band and a gay guy buying us 2 pints of beer.
Off to Scottsdale! After about twenty minutes of waiting on an scarcely trafficked road, a woman picked us up who took us half way there! She left us on Sideling lookout, which Becca and I both agreed we would not mind camping on if we could not get a ride into town that day. Now this is where our journey gets a bit confusing!

Shortly after having said that, we were picked up by a couple on holiday from Melbourne. They didn't know where Scottsdale was, but they were going in that direction. Turns out, they were going to pass by Tomahawk beach as well and did not mind having us along for the ride. Along the way we stopped at the "Eco-Lodge," apparently the structure breathes. We also saw the "dead-soldier-tree carvings" which were tree's planted in memory of dead soldiers that eventually died as well and then were carved into these monumental statues to prolong their memory. They were kinda weird.

Next was Ralph's Falls! The wind from the lookout was bitter cold.

Then the Bay of Fires! ...again. By the time we were nearing Tomhawk it was getting late and the little lady was getting terribly car sick, so we were let out in a tiny town called Derby, only 35km from Tomahawk...we were so close.... The locals at the pub that night told us that the road there was a remote gravel road, and the best way to get there would be to go back to Scottsdale and up to Bridport, which was our original plan. I am going to fast forward through that part, since it was mostly just traveling.
Despite being non-eventful, the rides we got were by far the most interesting. One woman who picked us up was going to a funeral and was trying to adopt her 5 and 7 year old kids to me because she didn't want them to grow up on welfare, seems as though she thought about that 7 years too late. The other woman who picked us up (we only got rides from women the whole trip!!) had 5 kids in the car and squeezed us in the back. She had a total of 9 children, the youngest of them was 4 months old, sitting in the middle of the backseat in a washing basin, not strapped in. The others 2, 3, 4, and 14 were all climbing around the seats, eating spinach and spitting it up in their hands and wiping it on each other, as well as sticking their gum up their noses and putting it back in their mouth. Needless to say, I was very happy to get out of that car. The lady also told us how much she hates Tasmania and that she doesn't smoke dope but her partner does. Oh yeah, can't leave out the bit about her 17 year old sister(??? just as confused as I am about that), who is a virgin, mind you, getting her nipple pierced.

So now that leaves us back in Lonnie! My roommate, Chris, meets up with us there and we head to the West Coast!

So we check out what we missed on the Overland, once we saw the snow we felt better about our decision not to hike it. The trail was complete slush! From there we drove until we hit the coast, just in time to watch the sunset on Ocean Beach...
The last day of our travels we went "sand boarding" in a dune park, I do not have any pictures of that, just videos, which I promise will be uploaded soon! Now that I am home I need to get to work on my paper! Enjoy!