Tasmania Day One

If you live overseas you may not know much about our wonderful island state of Tasmania to the south of mainland Australia. I think it is our smallest state and has a population of a little over half a million people, compared to the not much larger Victoria with five million. It is separated from the mainland by Bass Strait, named after sea explorer George Bass. The strait seas can be treacherous at times.

It's capital city is Hobart to the south of the island on the Derwent River with the other major city being Launceston inland on the north coast on the Tamar River, where our Dyke Friend, T, lives.

Its west coast has the cleanest air in the world and is quite wet. The east coast is much drier. Hobart is usually a good bit cooler than Melbourne while Launceston is pretty close to the same weather as Melbourne.

It is a bit of joke how a map of Tasmania might look a little like a women's body part. Please do not send me photos of your Map of Tasmania. Everywhere we stayed is on the map, Launceston, Stanley, Queenstown, Hobart and Devonport.

On Friday morning at 6.30 we set off to collect our Hair Dresser Friend, A. We were cross as she apologised profusely for being nearly twenty minutes late. R and me are so punctual and it is annoying that others are not. But it really didn't matter. We queued in our car in the street leading to the ferry. Eventually we drove on. There were two cruise ships in port which probably delayed our boarding. The Spirit of Tasmania left 45 minutes late and consequently after the day sailing we arrived 45 minutes late to the port in the small town of Devonport. It took an hour plus to drive to T's house in Launceston and once there we had pizza T had prepared and a cheese board. We didn't stay up late.

Departing Melbourne. I took photos of the area where we live but I could not pick it out, not even in high resolution photos, yet we can see the ferry out in Port Phillip Bay. These are just close up local Port Melbourne photos.

We passed a large container ship in the bay.

Mount Eliza I think, on the Mornington Peninsula.

Wow, you can see the brightly coloured bathing boxes at either Safety Beach or Dromana.

A pair of tourist pleasure craft shot out from Queenscliff to check out The Spirit.

Queenscliff with the white lighthouse slightly left of centre. Line up the black lighthouse with the white light house and ships could safely navigate through the narrow Port Phillip Heads.

Far right is a Norfolk Island Pine, lit at Christmas and visible from a long way away. Far left is the Point Lonsdale Light House.

Here we go. Arriving at Devonport.

The voyage was rough at time with lots of 'drunken' people swaying side to side as they walked along the passageways. We had reserved reclining seats with elevated footrests at the rear of the ferry and we were pleased to have them. We bought a sandwich each once on board with coffee. We had a gin and tonic at some point and then a quite nice hamburger to eat for a late lunch.

While it was bright as we arrived in Devonport, by the time we reached T's place in Launceston, it was nearly dark.