Me and mom!
Originally uploaded by Heather and Rob.
Our adventure continued with a trip to Strahan, a beautiful west coast town with plenty of convict history to boot. The highlight of Strahan was a peaceful riverboat trip up the Gordon River, and a stopover at Sarah Island. Sarah Island is an old penal colony, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest town - so escape from the actual island proved another ordeal altogether. This particular location was reserved for really bad men and repeat offenders - it was the penal colony of an island that was all a penal colony to begin with. The men imprisoned on this island were set to work building ships. So, in the more kind days of the colony, men were quite lucky to be sent here; they learned a useful skill and were well fed. However, during days of harsh punishment, and after advent of solitary confinement cells, life on the island could be unbearable.
So, after days in the water-saturated west coast wilderness, we headed to the thriving town of Hobart. AND Hobart is a gorgeous city! It's situated right on the southern coast of Tassie, with over 200,000 people, a great coastal economy and some of tastiest crayfish I can imagine! Mmmm...
After a night in Port Arthur, another penal colony for the baddest of the bad, we made our way up to Bicheno on the east coast of Tassie. In Bicheno, fairy penguins make their way to a rookery on the shoreline every evening around dusk. We had the timing a bit off... so we trecked our way down to the beach after dark and spent a sleuthing hour looking for penguins waddling out of the water. With no such luck, we wandered back to our hotel and nearly walked right over a couple of penguins who were spending the night in a drainage pipe on the side of the esplanade road! Penguins!
The next day, Rob flew out from Launceston back to Melbourne... and then on to Queensland to get back to work. But mom and I continued on to Devonport to catch the Spirit of Tasmania ferry back to Melbourne. That night was spent in a raucous large backpackers hostel - complete with partying groups of uni. students and yelling throughout the night. Ahh... mom, just trying to give you the feel for the real Aussie travelling experience! ;)
The ferry ride back was quiet and not particularly interesting, except that the view arriving back into Melbourne is lovely.
Back in Melbourne!
Our favorite events in Melbourne: dinner on the tram car dinner tram... decked out with old timey red-velvet curtains and gold trim, with unlimited wine and champagne, an entertaining Spanish-Australian waiter, and, I quote "the best dessert [mom has] ever had" - what a great dinner!
Then... a night at the Penguin Parade - watching the penguins march onto shore at dusk on Phillip Island.
And... a walk above the treetops on the Otway Treetop Walk, high above the gum trees.
Finally, a drive back along the Great Ocean Road, where we saw koalas in the wild!! And the requisite surfers surfing big waves. And the proud sea stacks, termed the "Twelve Apostles"... though there are no longer 12 apostles; many have collapsed into the ocean.
We had a super adventure. Yay for adventures!!! Thanks for coming to visit, mom. Crikey, you're a true blue Aussie lass now!
