Wednesday 15^th February, 2012

The first stop came very soon. I was a few minutes too early at Tamar Island. A footbridge is leading to the island from which I could observe sea birds. After a few meters it rustled in the reed and something with a tail disappeared below the footbridge. I stopped, looked around and saw two examples of the smallest wallaby species in Tasmania. I was surprised to meet wallabies here as I was expecting for birds and snakes. I went on and saw different birds, which all fled after they heard me. It was a nice walk, but the sun was already burning at 9 o'clock. I went further to the Swiss Village Grindelwald. Yes, that is correct, the village is really called Grindelwald (to the non-Swiss: this is a tourist village in the Swiss Alps). It was founded by a Dutch which was taken with Grindelwald. He constructed here houses in Swiss style and now they are mostly used as tourist accommodations. My next destination is Beauty Point. Here is a platypus and echinda house. I wanted to visit it as I never saw a platypus live. The guide explained a lot over the platypuses and I could watch a few of them. Then the guide changed to the echindas and told us about this animals. There were tree small ones which did not fear humans so I could sit to them. As the tour was over, I went to the nearby sea horse house. Also here I learned a lot about this animals from a guided tour. It was interesting to watch how this small “horses” develop. Then there was also a gold mine in the proximity which I visited. There is an exhibition about the old mine and its miners. They also showed how 2006 the miners were locked in and how they were rescued. Over the Batman Bridge I drove to the other side of Tamar River to Low Head to visit the light house. Along vines, apple and apricot trees the voyage continued without interruption to Bridport. This village is at the sea and I enjoy the beach with a long walk.

Saturday 4^th February, 2012

After we packed everything in the backpack, we visited the rest of Melbourne. We passed the library and went to see China town. Next stop was St. Patricks Cathedral, the catholic one. We enjoyed the chill in Lord's house, as it was warm outside and already in the morning the sun was burning on the skin. On the way to the aquarium we saw here and there a wedding and our one returned to mind. In the aquarium we marvelled at many foreign fishes. Here we also found the crocodile from Maru Koala Park which was on holiday here. It will go back when its new home will be finished. To get a bit distance to the city we walked in the Fitzroy Gardens. There we visited Cooks Cottage. This is the house where the explorer James Cook was born. It was moved to Australia. It is a small English cottage and they show how the people lived back then and told about the voyages of the sailor. In the park we could everywhere read that we should not feed possums as they then multiply and damage the trees. In the evening we had again an appointment with Zoe and went into a Japanese restaurant. It reminded more at a beach bar than at a restaurant, but was very cosy. Despite the full stomach we decided to have a dessert in the Italian barrier. Brunetti had a big assortment of culinary delights which we immediately tested. We gladly accepted the suggestion of Zoe to drive us to the hotel at the airport.