Tasmania - Cataract Gorge Launceston and Bay of Fires

Cheers world,

Okay, today we left a bit later than before, at 7:30am. (NOOOOOOOOOOO, still too early) We had to pick up four new passengers and then stopped at the Cataract Gorge of Launceston for an easy and short 45-minute walk around the beautiful gorge and we saw two wallabies (or even pademelons? Not sure).

Back in the bus we drove for 1.5 hours until we arrived in Scottsdale for a short break before we drove for another 1.5 hours to our lunch stop in St. Helens. Despite the long drives we enjoyed the nature around us as it is absolutely stunning and worth seeing. Just 30 minutes away from St. Helens is the Bay of Fires where we had a three-hour stop to jump into the ice-cold but wild water to fight with the waves, lay at the beach and explore the surroundings. This was absolutely great! The name originated from the cooking fires of the Aborigines around the bays.

At 6pm we reached the little fishing town Bicheno and got our belongings into the Bicheno Backpackers hostel. After dinner most of us joined the guided penguin tour after sunset and came back delighted by these little cute creatures. As I have already seen penguins in Melbourne I did not join the tour and spoke to some other backpackers. Everyone has another interesting story and journey behind them and also in front of them. One question to me was: What will you take back home from your trip to Australia? I did not have to think about that too long: the friendly conversation opener “Hello, how are you?” We need this more in Germany to be able to connect with the next person before we start into the whole real business whether it is in the supermarket, in a shop or in a bus.
Anyway, the next stop: back to Hobart!

Yours wave-fighting Stefanie