Friday 10^th February, 2012

Without a big brake I drove from Strahan to the Cradle Mountain National Park. Just before noon I arrived there. First I visited the visitor center. Here I learnt that there are shuttle busses in the park. Cool, like this I can walk from one point to the next. First I took a ride to Dove Lake. Like everywhere in the park, you need to write down your intended way. So I can be sure they will search for me if something happens. Then I started the hike around Dove Lake. Here you can see Mount Cradle from each side of the lake. A beautiful path led along the shore and through the forest. At the beginning I saw an echinda, but it did not let itself disturb while having lunch. Due to the black clouds, I decided to do small walks only. Along one of those tracks I met a Wombat. It was thinking already in the afternoot that it is now evening and was already about to get dinner. After this short encounter it started raining and I returned. I drove to my accommodation and found a hut with everything I need. The rain stopped again I went for a walk into the park. I saw a few birds, some of them of an to me so far unknown species, and a small wallaby. While I was preparing the dinner, there was also a Wallaby grazing outside.

Wednesday 8^th February, 2012

Now starts my journey around Tasmania. In the morning at the car rental office they told me that they currently do not have a car in the category I booked. I could choose between a bigger one (a minivan) or a smaller one. I originally wanted to rent a smaller one, but they said that the smaller ones are all with manual gearshift and I wanted an automatic one. But this information turned out to be wrong, so I got a smaller car with automatic gearshift. After buying food for a week I started toward the west coast. Of my drive toward Strahan I can only say: Tasmania has a lot of water and hills which change over to mountains. The road is like a pass road in Switzerland and I felt like I am arriving at the end of the world. Most of the 320km I drove today as in different National Parks. In Hobart I bought a pass for them as here I have to pay for every day in an National Park. The first real stop I made at Lake St. Clair. I made a short walk, but I nearly could not see upon the lake. When driving further, I saw several echindas. They were walking fast. One of them just crossed the road in front of me and fetched the camera, but until I was ready it was already on the other side and curled up. Next stop was Nelson Fall. A short walk led to it. After I continued with a few picture stops until Strahan. That is the only harbour at the west coast.

Thursday 2^nd February 2012

As our bones were tired we made a lazier day. First we drove to the Dandenong National Park. At the car park we saw many cockatoos and parrots. You may feed them there with prepared feed. Suddenly, shhhh, and all cockatoos flew away. As I still felt the hiking from yesterday, we just made a little walk in the park. And again we observed a echinda. It seamed to take a nap. We drove on towards Melbourne, more exactly to St. Kilda. It is quite a way from the edge of the city until you reach the beach. The late afternoon and the evening we enjoyed with a long walk along the seaside. We closed the day observing the sunset.

Tuesday 31^st January, 2012

Today we slept a bit longer as we did not have big plans. On the Island we first visited a chocolate factory. A sample convinced us that you can also get good chocolate in Australia. After this sweet strengthening we continued to the Wonderland Animal Park. The animal park was a bit sloppy, so we decided also to visit the Maru Koala Park. I was here already last time and this is a small and fine animal park. It is lovely to observe the animals here. The interesting thing was that they have 3 albino kangaroos and one albino peacock. Then we drove to Foster. As we had time, we took the coast road and enjoyed the many view points. While driving Konrad saw another Echinda. As I take a picture of everything jumping in front of the lens, I had to do a 100m sprint to get to the animal. I was lucky it was still there. But my arrival scared it and it run into a trunk and curled up. In the late afternoon we arrived in Foster and went to our accommodation for the next two days.

Monday 30^th January, 2012

We awoke in the early morning as the main street was just below our window. Sow we packed our stuff and went to the ferry. Unfortunately we were a bit too late so we had to wait for the next one. We used that time to have breakfast. With the ferry, a katamaran, we went to Sorrento. On the Mornington Peninsula we drove along the coast. We actually wanted to go to French Island to observe Koalas. But a few drops of rain made us to think it would be better just to continue driving. We enjoyed the nice view to the coast a went a bit walking. On the way we saw also a few parrots. Until noon we had luck with the weather as it was clear in between. But the rain started again as we drove over the bridge which connects Philipp Island with the mainland. As we reached the Koala Conservation Centre it was bucketing down. We waited for 10 minutes in the car and hopped it will get better. Our prayers were answered and the rain got fewer. We used this moment to run to the café. Then the weather went better and better and we finally could go to see the koalas, kangaroos, birds and insects. After we found accommodation, we went to the Nobbies Centre, a place were you could see seals. At least if you go at the right season. There was a very strong breeze and we had to make sure that our caps did not fly away. We followed a boardwalk and at one spot there were many people with cameras. Below the walk there sat a small, 15 cm tall penguin. The penguins here, the Little Penguin, is the smallest penguin species and they come back every evening from fishing. With some skill it was possible to take a picture of it. Also here we met some wild kangaroos, somehow there are many animals on this island. As it was already late in the evening, we decided not to go back to Cowes where our motel was. Instead we made a hike to the Swan Lake. As the name tells, you can observe swans there. But not white ones, as we know them. In Australia the swans are black. We could observe them and other water birds from two observing stands. On the way to the lake ww met an echinda. Konrad explained it as a egg-laying cross-bread between a hedgehog and a anteater. Can you imagine that? In the evening we went to the Penguin Parade. First we educated ourselves at the visitor center about penguins. OK, Konrad knew already quite a lot about them. The we went over the boardwalk to the tribune. As we were there very early, a ranger gave us the hint to go to the bottom. The seagulls made the opening act and entertained the visitors with their behaviour. It got colder and colder as we wore only short trousers and a jacket. Slowly the sun set, now it could not last long until the penguins arrive. But first we saw their enemy. There was a seal swimming in the waves and was waiting for dinner. Hopefully it did not eat too much! At 21:04 it started. The first of 652 Penguins plash at the shore. It sounds like many, but in the spring here there are many more. About 120 of the little animals passed beside us. Cheerful is their behaviour. They arrive with the waves. Then they wait until their group is big enough. Finally they walk in zigzag through the gulls, so they are not seen by the enemies. After the gulls they run as fast as possible over the beach and then up the hill to their nests. Some will walk up to a kilometer. As it started to rain after a while, we went back to the visitor center over the boardwalk. Beside we there many penguins in front of their nests or we could listen them chatting to each other. After we made sure that there is no penguin hidden below our car, we went back to the motel with many impressions.