Tassie day 6 and 7

I'll catch you up on the end my tasmania tour. (currently in Adelaide, but I'll post another about getting here.)
After a morning of fighting for the shower, haha, only 2 showers and like 15 girls! We had the morning free to explore the town of strahan, I headed straight for this park with a hike down a stream to a waterfall, with the promise of platypus! We had a couple hours, enough to do the hike, walk around the old mining town and get a coffee or what ever... I spent the whole freaking time camped out hunting myself a platypus... And guess what? NO PLATYPUS!!! No coffee, no climbing to the lookout looking for south America (haha, I guess from this town if you head exactly west the first land you come to is S America). After a short bus ride we stopped at a beach to dip our toes in the southern ocean, a couple of the girls got soaked when a big wave came out of nowhere... Too bad they didn't have a spare pair of jeans and shoes, not to mention it's cold and rainy today. Next stop was the hently sand dunes, looked just like the dunes in oregon until we explored a little and found all the different tracks... Tons of tasmanian devil tracks! Very surprised, very cool. Passed on the quad tour... Was cold and rainy and they were a little expensive. After hiking around a while, learning about the flora and fauna we ran down this really steep part back to the bus and fried up a few sausages for lunch. The rest of the day was bus travel through very interesting (sometimes a little hillbilly scary) small town and made our way to the cradle mountain region. Made it just at dusk, which was perfect because that's when the animals come out! I got up close to a wombat! Think of a cross between a teddy bear and a potbelly pig... Very cute. Also saw lots of mini kangaroos. And watched the sun set... Couldn't get a good picture tho... No one could, weird. The bus driver dropped a few of us off early to walk the rest of the way back to the camp ground to see if we could spot any night activity. Not the safest thing, there was a full moon but that was about it! I did happen to take a picture of a mystery creature, I say it was that assumed extinct Tasmanian tiger! Saw a few other things, no positive identifications but assume either wombats or wallabys. Made it back to the cabins safe just in time for stew and played cards and drank beers, girls were drinking the goon (box wine)... Also a few possum sightings on the way to the bathrooms.
Next day we had almost the whole day to explore the cradle mountain area. Started with a hike around dove lake with great views of the cradle mountain! It was actually clear most of the day so I got some great shots of the peaks! Was told a cloud usually parks right in front. Finished the loop around the lake just in time for a lunch break! Hopped on the free shuttle bus back to the lodge for some coffees and hot chocolates, then anna, sabina and I headed out to do another hike while tatiana and amanda stayed warm in the lodge. Tariana was the Swiss girl and I had to laugh at what she wore for the hike... Very posh, white coat with fir hood and was carrying a designer handback instead of a backpack. The sign for our hike said it took an hour, we figured that was taking your time so we did it quickly since we barely had enough time before we had to meet the rest at the bus. By the way the rest of the group that didn't do the lake walk (easy hike) did the monster 5 hour up the mountain and back down trek that included a few points where you had to use a chain to pull yourself up. Well it took us just about an hour and we kept up a good pace. It was a beautiful day and thoroughly exhausting! We all basically crashed on the bus making our way to devonport for the night, just in time to watch the sunset next to the lighthouse. Saw a few aboriginal rock carvings. Ordered pizzas for dinner and played drinking games all night! Tina (the American) drank way too much and ended up puking in the middle of her dorm room! Haha, and kept saying "I'm so wasted, this is umm like the most wasted I've ever been" oh you know the type. Pretty sure she finally pass out waiting for the shower.
The next morning was sad, I was parting ways with everyone, my journey was over, didn't even get back on the bus! All the girls didn't understand I was leaving now and got back on but all ran off to give me one last hug... Very sweet. Instead of heading back to launceston and coming right back I was going to take the 12 hour night ferry tonight that leaves from here back to mainland Australia. So I tied up my bag around back of the house using my cool metal backpack netting and headed into town. Had a McD's breakfast... Walked around town, tried calling mom like 10 times but she never answered... It was mothers day here, but a day early there. Went to a movie to pass the time, star trek, it was freaking sweet! I only got about 1/2 of the inside jokes or references they made about the old movies and lots if camios of old cast. I'd give it two thumbs up! Way up. Spent the rest of the day basically exploring the whole town (it's not that big) Then I made my way back to the ferry terminal around 6ish to board.


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