Last night I took the ferry, the Spirit of Tasmania II, from Melbourne across to Devonport in Tasmania. It crosses the Bass Strait which is known for being rough, but on this occassion it had also been affected by the same bad weather as I had been. The captain came on and told us that there would be 6 metre waves and that we were in for a “rough crossing”. He wasn’t joking – I had a cabin and just tried to hunker down as it was a night sailing, but I have to say I was scared! The boat was rocking and being pounded so hard by waves I thought we were goners for sure…
Still I managed to sleep a bit with the aid of some Boag sleeping pills and this morning woke to find Yenta still upright on the car deck, just with her contents strewn about inside, prety much.
Today we stopped at a lookout on Devonport for some breakfast and to recover, then went for a little excursion onto the dirt roads to see the Keeper Falls, Yenta’s not really meant to be on dirt roads and I found some inbred local to ask his advice on whether or not she could do it, and he said “Maybe. Maybe not. If not, come and find me and I’ll drag you back out with my 4×4”. A friendly lot around here…
Now we’re at Launceston, which they pronounce “Lawn-ces-ton” much to my amusement as Cornwall is the home of the original town of that name, pronounced “Lornce-ton” of course 🙂 I’ve decided to stay the night here, I wasn’t going to originally as it’s just a dull city really, but I’m too tired to drive any further. I’ll throw the kangaroo steaks I have in my fridge on the barbie tonight and get sozzled in Yenta I think.
Did the Cataract Gorge today – it was OK but I was somewhat underwhelmed, and they have the slowest chairlift in history, it’s official…