South Cape or dare I say Mordor

Zok and I have only just started watching the first season of 'Lost' but as the four of us walked single file, mile after mile, through this landscape, I kept expecting a rustling sound to start racing towards us. Actually I can't think of any Australian animals that race, trundle perhaps, and bounce; absolutely, but still I couldn't shake the feeling. As the miles continued on and on, we'd meet other people coming from our destination (a sort of vague destination that Monty kept referring to as "The Southern Most Point" before Antartica).
These people were actually full of tidbits such as 'bloody lot of march flies on the beach', or 'just another seventy minutes or so until you get there'. As I stated this whole 'there' thing was vague but I did know that when we arrived to the elusive there, lunch would be happening and as I was dearly regreting my lack of breakfast I firmly held lunch as my goal.

Hazards Beach

I have only just noticed that I have put up the same photos twice here and there. Zok and I are very caught up in using all the apricots from our tree. This ongoing event to the left and right of my computer has been dividing my attention. I love Monte's photos and I spent a lot of time watching him take photos, so that I could glean some tips. The consequence is that I didn't take many myself. Here are a few more from the Freycinet Park, we didn't swim at Wineglass Bay, we waited until we were on the other side of the penisula, a spot called Hazards Beach. Both beaches have a lot of quartz in the sand, making the white sand sparkle. Monte explored more than we did, and saw much more-Zok kept reiterating that we'd be coming back. A promise I plan to hold him too. There were stingrays in the water here, but I didn't see them close up, they may have been a smaller variety called skates. Monte saw fairy penguins up the beach as well. I was the first in the water, even though I forgot my bathing suit (can you believe it) and I had to swim in a tank top and underwear. Classy!

Australians get excited about seeing squirrels

Wombat Walking

Currawong

Beach Wallaby

Common Brushtail Possom

Spikey echidna butt

Cole's Bay Tasmania

Cole's Bay to me, seems to be the place Tasmanian residents go for vacation. I hear a lot of people talk about camping or having some sort of bush shack going towards or nearby Cole's Bay which is on the East Coast of the island. Cole's Bay is also next to Freycinet National Park where Wineglass Bay is located. Cole's Bay was our first destination. Zok and I had been only once before and that time we didn't take the trouble to hike down to the beach or along the Hazards mountains. I am much, much sportier than I used to be. I was the only member of our group not to get sunburnt, and I was feeling pretty smug about that until I noticed that my lips were a bit burnt, or chapped badly. I also got bit by a 'jack jumper' which is some sort of large, biting ant. I now call this insect "jerk jumper". The bite is no longer painful, or itchy, but ten days later the bite is still visible. Monte & Roberto saw so many animals that I will have to post animal photos on their own. We saw wallabies the first night near my house, a seal at Fossil Cove, so many wallabies, and wombats in Cradle Mountain we almost didn't stop anymore to stare at them, echidnas very close up, dolphins near the shore by South Cape, possums on our porch, currawongs tapping on the window, pademelons, and even a Tasmanian devil, whose sightings are getting rarer due to the disease no one has been able to halt. Of course I feel even more aware of how good my life is as I continue to read about the fires and deaths due to fire on the mainland. We have cool weather and even some rain here.
I am deeply grateful for all I have.

Back to the beginning

Monte & Roberto are now in Sydney. I was sad to see them go. I was so happy that we got to see as much as we did. I don't know when I would have gotten Zok to go to Cole's Bay or Cradle Mountain, but I think now I can get him to go back. I am going to start now at the beginning of their arrival. The first day was really the only slow day that we had. I took them the long way to Fossil Cove and we had a simple lunch before getting ready to go and pick up Zok from the airport. The very next morning we left early for Cole's Bay.
The first day was Roberto's birthday, well his Southern Hemisphere birthday. I got an always delicious cake from Heidi. Cake pieces went everywhere we did, and there was a day of mourning, when we had finally eaten all of the cake.
Monte & Roberto have the exact figures, which I assume will end up on Monte's blog but I think we did a lot of bush walking, and we saw so many critters, but I am getting ahead of my story...

Seattle on my mind

The day before yesterday, I was swimming in this glorious part of the Ocean, on some part of Hazards Beach. We were in this huge basin, that had large waves rolling in, but I could stand between the waves just floating, as if in my own small wave pool. The beach was made of white sparkling sand, mostly small grains of quartz rock. The coast has huge boulders covered in brilliant orange.
Yesterday I stood looking down from a high cliff at the Southern Ocean where the waves were so huge I could not imagine trying to enter the water.
Today is our day of home-to rest up for Cradle Mountain.
I was thinking of taking Roberto, and Monte to the Saturday market, of buying fresh fish to BBQ, of a quick swim in our bay...
I woke to the very steady beat of rain!

Yeah, I live here: Part Two

Monte & Roberto arrived late (a second and lesser but still inconvenient airline change that was forced upon our visitors) Sunday Feb. 1, and then Zok came in even later Monday night. Since then we have been non-stop.
Coles Bay, Bay of Fires, the Southern-most point of the island. We have done a lot of walking, swimming, and animal sighting.
No time for blogging or even movies.
Tomorrow is a bit of a rest and then we are going to Cradle Mountain.