Monday 12th November 2007

I don't remember anything about last night! Apparently, when Nikki and Steve got back to the hostel at 7.30pm, I was fast asleep - and I didn't wake up again until 8.30am this morning. Thankfully, I was feeling much better.

Me and Nikki took a walk to the shops to get some supplies, but when we got back to the hostel at about 10am, the manager said we weren't allowed to use the facilities (check out was 10am) - so he let us brush our teeth and then we left. Nikki and Steve had been chatting to some people in the hostel last night and they'd recommended a place called the Bay of Fires, which isn't very far away - so we thought we'd start the day there.

The Bay of Fires was fab! It's a group of unspoiled beaches - where hardly anyone visits, because when you park the car you have to go on a little walk. The further you walk - the better the beaches. They all had lovely white sand, the water was turquoise and they were surrounded by green countryside, so they were all pretty special. The views were fantastic. We walked for about an hour and we got to a beach on which there had only been one person before us today (we followed his footsteps). We bumped into him and he said that it was pretty tough going from that point on, and it involved a lot of climbing - so we called it a day (he probably wanted it all for himself). By now we'd driven as far North as we'd wanted to, so we started heading inland. Pretty soon we were passing past this tiny place called Pyengana, which was apparently well worth a detour - so we thought we'd check it out.

Our Lonely Planet was right - it was DEFINITELY worth it! First we stopped at one of Tasmania's highest waterfalls - St. Columbia Falls, which are 90m high. We had some lunch in the sunshine and then went on a walk through the bush, down to the foot of the falls. It was stunning - and very loud. As we were leaving we even had a drink of water from the stream (like dogs). On our way back out of Pyengana we stopped at a small roadside café, which is also a cheese factory. Everything there is made on site. It was really hot by now, so we all had a home-made ice cream and sat outside in the beautiful countryside surroundings.

Back on the road, we drove straight through Launceston (because we're going there at the end of our trip) and on to a small place called Deloraine. We found a small hostel called Highview Lodge YHA and checked in for the night. The hostel is quite 'kooky', much like my Nan's house - with loads of clutter, but plenty of character. Another good thing was, out of the back window we could see Cradle Mountain - where we plan on visiting tomorrow. Me and Steve went to the bottle shop to get some beer and then we settled in for the night.

WE LOVE TASMANIA!