AUSTRALIA - DAY SEVEN - Cradle Mountain

Previous Blogs: Day 1 Portland & Honolulu | Day 2 Oahu | Day 3+4 Melbourne | Day 5 Williamstown | Day 6 Launceston | Day 7 Cradle Mountain | Day 8 Road to Hobart | Day 9 Port Arthur | Day 10 Apollo Beach | Day 11 Port Fairy | Day12+13 Southern Ports | Day 14 Kangaroo Island | Day 15 Kangaroo Island | Day 16 Kangaroo Island | Day 17 Adelaide | Day 18 Adelaide | Day 19 Adelaide Hills | Day 20+21 Uluru | Day 22+23 Alice Springs | Day 24 Darwin | Day 25 Darwin | Day 26+27 Port Douglas | Day 28 Daintree | Day 29+30 Gold Coast | Day 31+32 Brisbane | Day 33 Brisbane | Day 34-36 Hawaii

Click photos for a larger image...

We hit the road today with overcast skies - YET AGAIN!. First stop was Devonport a seaside town North of Launceston about an hour.  The coastline is pristinely gorgeous. Our first real day driving on the "wrong" side of the highways, doesn't take too much practice before you get the hang of it. Left turns are easy, right turns are the challenge!  Of course, if there is no one to follow, you revert back to right hand ways.

Wendy loves Lighthouses so we had to find the Mersey Bluff Lighthouse.  Or as she calls it, the Candy Cane.

Note the channel entrance, channel markers are opposite in Australia to the US. Red is on the LEFT. Just to make boating just as complicated as driving!!

The captain Wendy chatted with in Melbourne told her the history, and it was the USA that actually messed things up.  We had set the standard internationally and then sometime in 1938 (?? guessing here!!) we decided...screw the rest of y'all, we're gonna do it our way.  Thus, North America is the only place the red and green markers are opposite.

PENGUIN!  A lovely little humorous town noted botanist, Robert Campbell Gunn, observing the large numbers of fairy penguins along the coast decided that the name was appropriate. He named the settlement in 1861.

Everything in the town is themed with penguins, even the trash cans have penguins on them! There is a giant penguin giving homage to the famed botanist, where countless tourists (including us) must expend megapixels.

Wendy saw the word CANYON on a sign and immediately made us take a detour.  We had no idea how far away it was, what it looked like or if it was on the way.  No worries there's not a petrol station for the next 200 km!!

Leven Canyon was a lovely little diversion.   It was a 10 minute hike through a rain forest to get to the lookout point.

We finally arrived at our home for the night, the Cradle Mountain Hotel. What a fabulous room! Split level with bed and bath on the top level and living room on the bottom and a small balcony.

Nice bathroom with Jacuzzi tub and separate shower.

Wendy will be enjoying those jets later for sure!

There is a boardwalk through the local forest.

We also had one of the locals welcome us to the room... and he really didn't like it when we shut the door on him!

Also from our balcony, right below us we had another visitor...

This is a pademelon, a family member of the Wallaby and the kangaroo - but much smaller. Too cute when they hop around on their back legs! Pademelons are only found in Tasmania.

And finally....

Really?? I though it was a pile of sticks...

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!

Um....OK....it was on back roads no one has driven on in 30 years.  No other cars in sight so I could Ef up without a head on calamity!!

Two hours and I didn't kill us!  WOOT WOOT!!!!!!

Bruce...please don't make me do the CBD or highways!! 

A couple of my fav's today but not my best work.  Hey!  Cut me some slack....I'm trying not to kill us driving.  The pressure is immense!

(L) Don't wake the fly dammit!!!