A night in National Park

After a relaxing morning and a large breakfast, we headed out of the tiny town of Bothwell at a leisurely pace. Oh the hills. Why are there more hills? When do we get to go down? We continued along rolling hills through dry fields of assorted farm animals that stretched for what seemed like eternity. Had it not been for my map and an occasional street sign, I would have wondered if we were going to hit another town any time soon. As we grew tired of the hills, we came upon our first intersection and took a turn onto a 10km stretch of gradual downhill. Yippeee! We passed several flourishing hops fields and then approached a small town where we stopped to eat a late lunch and briefly check internet (yikes they charge a lot for internet in small towns!). We then headed on to the next small town - national park. We stopped to pick blackberries along the way (yum!) and then entered into a forest of green trees and followed a winding road gently uphill along a flowing river until we finally reached the park.

We arrived around 4 with nothing but rice and pasta in our panniers for dinner. There was a little cafe with all sorts of meals, but they stopped serving everything but scones at 3 (doah - what to do?). Fortunately, the kind manager said it would not be a problem to cook us up something and he sent us off with a scrumptious meal of salmon, salad, and chips (aka fries). We set up camp and gathered up our dirty clothes (which were about all of them) and set out to shower and do laundry. We met a kind couple touring tasmania that offered us some laundry soap and made us some warm tea while we waited for our clothes to get clean (if that is possible).

Next, Mally and I headed down a short path to see Russel Falls. As we entered the woods we saw our first Pademelons.. they are a hoppy creature similar to the wallaby which is like a mini kangaroo. We were amazed to see them hopping about so closely. We stayed there for a while trying to capture them on film as our daylight was fading and we watched as they munched on their evening snack. Others just walked by and we were surprised to see that they didn't stop and look on with us. As we walked down the path a little further and continued to see Pademelons all about, we realized that our initial spotting of these creatures was not rare.

We then arrived at the beautiful Russel falls... a two-tiered fall with a wide facade of streams coming down from high above. They are thought to be some of the most beautiful falls in Tasmania and we certainly could see why. We stood in a trance as we watched the water fall and then walked to a higher platform to watch some more.

When we eventually headed back to camp, we found Pademelons galore out in the trees and the campsite area. There were even Pademelons finishing off the scraps of our dinner and pooping on our picnic table ("Hey - get away! we yelled). Apparently Pademelons are Australian's version of Raccoons... cute from afar, but annoying when they enter your living area.

We ended the night with another walk in the woods to see some glow worms sparkeling in the depths of a large old rotted out tree trunk. A nice way to end an evening before a good nights sleep.

The next morning, we woke up to beautiful skies filled with warm sun and started the day with another walk. We went passed the spectacular Russel Falls again and headed onwards to the "Tall Trees" walk through groves of swamp gum trees (second-tallest trees after the redwoods in CA). The walk was beautiful and it was good to be surrounded by the forest again. A refreshing start to the day...

We then ventured back out on our bikes and headed out of the rural towns towards the bustling metropolis of Hobart. The ride started out on the nice gentle downhill we had climbed the day before and proceeded to travel lower and lower in elevation... (although we certainly noticed a couple hills :o) We passed several railroad tracks and one jumped out and attacked Mally to give her a scrape on her arm to match her other wound. Luckily she managed to free herself from the nasty tracks with just a scrape and we continued along with a smooth journey. As we came closer to Hobart our road ended and connected with Route 1 which turned out to be quite a busy road... not one that we wanted to ride on. We got off at our first opportunity and headed in the direction of Hobart along quiet side roads. We lucked out when we came across the inter-city bike path which ran right into the main city.

We rang up our walking friend, Doug, who offered us accomodation a few days ago and even though he just returned from a few busy days of travelling, he welcomed us into his home. We were thrilled to arrive at a nice, warm cozy home and even more thrilled to leave our tent packed up for the night. Doug welcomed us, gave us a tour of Hobart, and brought us to a tasty Asian restaurant for a yummy feast. The kindness we have come across seems endless.

Today, we are just relaxing a bit, enjoying some reading, and will go out and explore Hobart.