Tassie day 5

Today was an early start... Up at 5:30 to start the second 1/2 of my trip, up the west coast of Tasmania, spending a lot of time in the cradle mountain NP. First stop was in Mt. Field NP seeing a couple water falls, Russell falls was great, and also saw the biggest trees in Tasmania (perhaps all of Australia) on the tall trees walk through very old growth forests (+2000 yrs old). Next we headed to lake st clair, had a hike before lunch, got to know Anne a little better, a german girl who was travelling after being a nanny in Sydney for the past few months. This hike also beginning my frustration with the platypus!!! (still elusive!). Hiking, over lynch and on the bus I was starting to meet and make friends with my new group. So far I know Anna(Germany), dan(uk), tina and amanda(WA,WI =USA), there's also a couple from the UK, a couple Chinese girls, a girl from the Czech republic, a Swiss girl and a few japanese ladies. And carl, our crazy goofy dreadlocked bus driver... Much more interactive than erica (who happens to be his girl friend) so far I feel very lucky to get another fun group! After a lunch of tuna salad wraps we hit the road... Weather on the west coast is much more random, much more wet but have had luck with hikes, it did drizzle but cleared. Made a stop at the franklin river, in franklin gordon NP for a great hike and lots of exploring... The franklin is one of the last rivers in the world that starts and ends untouched entirely in a national park, pure mountain spring water!!! No human contamination, no farm runoff, no dams, very clean... In fact a few people filled up their water bottles, however it's stained brown from the tannins in the roots of the button grass that grow in the area. It's very damp here causing tons of different mushrooms to pop up everywhere. Our next stop was a beer run in the ugliest town in Australia, Queenstown. It was an old mining town that's refining process back in the day released toxic gas and created acid rain killing all of the surrounding old growth forest and wildlife, leaving the ground posioned! they said until recently not even a single blade of grass would grow (infact their footy field is still gravel). We stopped for the night in Strahan, a sleepy fishing village. Had a Aussie/Asian dinner, beers, goon and finished the night with ferris bulers day off. We all were very tuckered out, to bed by 11


-- Post From My iPhone

Tassie day end of day 3 and day 4

Like i said the end of my day 3 was the end of the tour for everyone but me in the tour group so there was a plan to all meet for dinner and drinks. Most of us were at one hostel but Sivan was at another and was suppose to meet us at 7 but we never met up... Later find out that she basically went up one staircase while we went down the other... :-( she even went looking for us down where all the resturants were but didn't find us, so she didn't get to say goodbye to everyone. We had some great indian food, service was a little iffy, then we went to murphys irish pub for beers and a little live music, said goodbye to trine and anna (Denmark) then Ross(uk), christina(Germany), katinka(Netherlands) and I played pool till like 3 till they kicked us out...at one point a fight broke out between a few fishermen, I almost get in the middle of it, a little scary, funny thing tho they got kicked out and by the time they passed the window outside they were best buds again arms over each others shoulders.
The next day (day4) I had a free day in Hobart.., I slept in, did a little laundry, wondered the streets and around dinner time met up with Ross again and headed out. luckily with a well timed email and my amazing iPhone, Ross and I were able to meet up with Sivan for dinner! I thought I wasn't gonna be able to say goodbye. She was gone all day at a cruise along the coast so I thought I would try to run into her when it came back by waiting at her hostel's front desk but no luck. However half way through my burger I got an email that she was still in town and really wanted to meet up, she joined us, Ross left early and her and a I talked over a couple beers, even discussed current affairs regarding Israel and the USA. So at least I got to say goodbye and get a big hug! A good night for tommy.


-- Post From My iPhone