Louise Down Under: The Tasmanian Experience: First Days

Forgive this long period between posts. WiFi was surprisingly hard to come by once we got out of Hobart, the Tasmanian capital. . .and when we could find it, it wasn't up to much! That fact did not impede on the wonderfulness of the trip, though, in spite of John having some worries about an impending proposal deadline. My only misgiving is that we only had one week. A month would have allowed us to scratch the surface a little deeper! In fact, it's the first place in Australia where I could envision myself living.

I initially thought the title of this post would be "And here's another breathtaking beach. . .", much as an

couple of our extended camping trips in Idaho/Montana could have been called "And here's another beautiful Alpine Lake." Which one was it? The one pictured above is definitely Sandy Bay Beach, which was our first stop in Hobart. We stayed in the Hill House Airbnb (highly recommended) hosted by M and G, and this beach was down the hill. . . a lot down the hill. . .from it. The hills in Hobart reminded me of San Francisco. Very very steep, but no worries of snow and freezing so they often go straight up and down very steep hills. Our trusty rental car was up to it, fortunately. In fact, he was really quite great in every respect.More on driving later!

The poster on the right was in downtown Hobart, or the CBD as all of the business districts here seem to be called. There is a lovely humor in things Australia that I so appreciate. Even when the news commentators are skewering something or someone, it's done in a way that brings laughter. There was a bit on Trump (they have a 30 minute in-depth news show on America every week. . .can you imagine?) that had us laughing and crying simultaneously.

So. Tuesday we flew into Hobart, explored all day Wednesday, including a hike up Mt. Wellington (we could have spent a week exploring trails there), and then off to Bicheno, a well-known beach on the East coast of Tasmania. On the way, we stopped at the beach to the left, Kingston Beach, and headed on.

Brilliant Flowers on a yet-to-be-identified tree

Here's a word about driving in Tasmania, though I expect we'll find it on the continent as well. Roads are narrow, and almost all of them are only 2 lanes. The exception is highways around cities, where they are often 2 lanes each way. But none of them have shoulders except for the main routes, signified by a number only. For example, "The 1". The others are designated "A", "B", or "C" (C being a very narrow winding, sometimes unpaved road), and they are all very narrow by our standards. Add that to the fact that you're driving on the left now, The turn signals are where the windshield wipers should be, and vice versa, and you have a challenging driving situation. Thank goodness I insisted on an automatic transmission! Add that to the fact that many of the drivers are tourists from countries that usually drive on the right side of the road, and you have a prescription to be careful. It's not a fast place to get around in, and it can be a very dangerous place.

It is actually amazing how quickly you can get used to it, though. After a week, John and I both felt comfortable enough to take on city driving pretty easily. The speed limits are typically 100-110 km/hour (equal to about 60-70mph) on the traversing roads, and we got comfortable with that speed only on the roads with shoulders. This makes me smile, envisioning myself as a pretty hip person, but driving like an old lady. Still. Life without injury is quite a behavior modifier. And the natives feel free to pass, so it all works out. We'll do more driving in the future, especially in New Zealand, but I'm glad we've had that first experience. For today, I'll close with some more images from the first two days. As usual, the flora and the bird life is extraordinary.