Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We were told to be prepared for temperatures ranging from the 30’s to the 90’s.  I had been watching the weather in Australia for weeks before I left home and was more concerned with the heat than the cold.  I don’t get cold often so I thought I would be fine, but this has been a wet and windy chill even with lots of layers.  I’m wearing the same outfit every day which are my warmest clothes!

I’m glad it’s not just this southern gal who thinks it’s cold.  We have two people from Wisconsin, 1 from New York, 1 from Minnesota, and 2 from Alaska!

There are abundant sheep and dairy cows along our drive through the countryside.  It’s spring and new babies are everywhere!  There are two main types of sheep raised…Rommeys for meat and Merinos for their wool.  Sheep are sheared once each year in the spring.

Periodically we see dead trees painted bright blue.  Some are small and others are very large.  Here is the story…  A father and son were struggling in their relationship; the father thought his son was lazy with no direction nor plans for his life.  After asking the son to clean out the family’s garage, the son finds a can of blue paint.  He decides to paint a dead tree with it and proudly shows it to his father.  The father is angry and disappointed that his misguided son spent time and energy on a worthless project.  After the son commits suicide, the guilt-ridden father starts a foundation to bring awareness about depression and suicide prevention….The Blue Tree Project.  It does make you think.

We stop in the small town of Ross, population 270, with a median age of 56.  It’s a lovely village, and I wander through shops talking to the clerks and owners.  It is known for its  intersection and the buildings on the four corners - “temptation” or the tavern, “recreation” or the town hall, “salvation” the church, and “damnation” or the local jail!

I’ve seen native wildlife in sanctuaries, but I’m also seeing wallabies and pademelons along the highways.   They are most active in the mornings and evenings, and we are looking for wombats and the elusive Tasmanian devil too.  Kangaroos are located more in central Australia, and koalas are extremely difficult to find in the wild.  Wildfires in recent years decimated the koala population.

We arrive in Cradle Mountain with snow on the peaks, but only rain on us.  Yes…more rain and steady.  At the gift shop, I find possum fur gloves!  My cheap ones from Target are a throw away that I didn’t think I would need.  Possum fur is used in weaving especially in New Zealand, but these are coming with me now!

We cruise on a nighttime wildlife spotting drive, but it is so cold, and the windows are fogged up.  We open windows, wipe them down, and find a few wallabies and pademelons and one wombat.  Lights shining on water droplets sparkle, and yes, it continues to rain!

Remember the jet boat ride and the hard landing I had on one of the bounces?  I look in the mirror, and my thigh has bloomed with a blue and purple bruise covering the entire back of my leg!  There is nothing to do but limp which now matches the limp on the other side from the fall I had in my driveway two days before I left on my trip.  It use to only hurt to walk every other step.  Now every step hurts!  Thank u, Lord, for ibuprofen, and I keep on trucking!

In the interest of keeping our guide informed, I tell him I have something to show him….not trying to expose myself and show him dirty pictures but it is of me w/ my nightgown pulled up exposing ONLY my thigh.  He is aghast…maybe more from my leg than the bruise!  Poor boy, he may have nightmares for years!

I figure I am now 3 for 3….a fall at home hurting my left hip, a head cold and cough I’ve battled here since Day 2, and now an injury to my right leg.  I’m sure life will improve from here!

In the morning, we head up the mountain for several short hikes.  It is predicted to start snowing at 1 PM when temperatures, now in the high 30’s, start dropping.   Today I even have compression socks underneath my wool socks, five layers of clothes, and my new possum fur gloves and a toboggan!

The landscape is beautiful with virgin forests lined with moss and lichen, rushing streams and small waterfalls, ferns, grasses, gum trees and a few early wildflowers.  I take a couple of pictures, but I don’t want to expose my camera to the RAIN!

Cradle Mountain, named for the hollow in the rock formation which looks to hold a baby, is hiding behind a cloud today.  We head down the mountain and northward and hopefully to warmer drier weather!

Lunch is in Sheffield, a small town known for its murals which has become a tourist attraction.  Each year a contest is held with a new theme, and applicants send in a postcard with their mural ideas.  If selected, the mural is painted on one of the town’s walls with information about the artist.  Since they have run out of walls, bus shelters were constructed with murals painted on them.  Mural park holds a number of these shelters …bus shelters but no public transportation so no buses!

We arrive in Launceston or “Lonny” and after drinks in the hotel bar’s tram which was lowered into the hotel during construction, we head to a “real” Australian pub.  Dinner is surprisingly good…pumpkin soup and garlic bread for me…but others ordered salads, fish, scallops, shrimp, and chicken.  We play Keno…three games for $9, and we each pick a number.  We win $3!  But we lost $6!

Our driver, Don, is a clone of Santa with a bushy white beard and hair and a merry twinkle in his eyes.  I never knew Santa had an Australian accent!

Tomorrow we visit a duckbill platypus house, a winery, and more penquins at night.  I better prepare for another busy day….and rain???