Sundog on Donnelly Street.

Afternoon Tea in Bellingen

We stopped in Bellingen for afternoon tea.  There is a nice hillside garden beneath the street of cafés.  It began to rain again so we hurried to get our coffee and sat outside under the awning.  It was a pleasant downpour, and the sun even came out to give us a bright double rainbow.

It took about a year but I finally discovered how I prefer my
coffee in Australia: a long black with cold milk on the side.

Downtown Bellingen in a spot of a sunny shower.

Fortescue Bay

We stayed at Fortescue Bay on the Tasman Peninsula.  We took a morning hike which was billed as easy and suitable for families but proved contrary to our expectations.  And leeches!  So many leeches to be flicked off our clothes.  Overall it was kind of mucky and not too much fun, but we did see an amazing rainbow as we set off, and an echidna on our way back.  So, in the end it was not a complete disappointment.

Tasmania

Beautiful rock cliffs of the Great Western Tiers

We had a great holiday in Tasmania!  It was amazing how much wildlife we saw in our nine day trip.  We saw countless wallabies, three wombats and not one but two echidnas, kangaroos and a possum, not to mention all the birds: Tasmanian Native-hens everywhere, the green variant of Crimson Rosellas only found in Tasmania, gulls and cormorants, plovers and oystercatchers on the coast, and an enormous eagle very close up as it scavenged from what looked like a Tassie devil on the road.  Sadly, a lot of roadkill--mostly wallabies, but quolls and possums and possibly a couple Tasmanian devils.

The landscapes and geology of Tasmania are absolutely stunning.  It was amazing how much of the island we were able to see--from Cradle Mountain in the north and over the Great Western Tiers through the Central Plateau and past the Highland Lakes, to Mt Field National Park which is home to Tasmania's swamp gums, the tallest hardwood trees in the world, south to Bruny Island and the Tasman Peninsula, and Freycinet National Park and Bay of Fires along the eastern Pacific coast.  It's been a bit daunting to start going through all the photos from our trip -- and I haven't even looked at the photos from the second camera ... Suffice to say, it may be one or two weeks of Tassie blog posts.

The original plan (though not accurate to the route we actually followed.)

Dove Lake circuit at Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park

Echidna at Ronnie Creek in Cradle Mountain National Park

Sleeping wombat at Ronnie Creek (Cradle Mountain NP)

Foraging wombat at Ronnie Creek (Cradle Mountain NP)

Resting wallaby on the walk to Penguin Island

Our walk to Penguin Island near Adventure Bay, Bruny Island

Amazing rock formations at Mars Bluff on Bruny Island

Tessellated pavement near Eaglehawk Neck on the Forestier Peninsula

Tasman Arch near Eaglehawk Neck on the Tasman Peninsula

Wallaby-greeter at our campsite on Fortescue Bay

None of the wallabies at Fortescue Bay seemed to mind us at all

Morning rainbow at Fortescue Bay

Whaler's Lookout above Bicheno

Tasmania's eastern coastline on our way to Bay of Fires

Bay of Fires rock throne

Rainbow.. bright

Yesterday there was the brightest rainbow I think I have ever seen. I left Saumarez Homestead in the afternoon and it immediately began to sprinkle (much to my chagrin). The sprinkle turned into full-on rain, but the downpour stopped when I reached the sealed road at the airport.  The clouds rolled away, the sun came out... and the sky began to shine.

The rainbow stayed with me the rest of the way home.  It may have been a cold and wet winter afternoon, but it was one of the best bike rides ever.  Somewhat fortuitously, I think, Reid left work early and saw it on his drive from Uralla as well.  He agreed: a first-class rainbow.  (Good enough to even blog about.)

Byron Bay Vacation Day 4: Koalas in Lismore and Bald Rock National Park

From Byron Bay we began our return trip to Armidale.  We stopped in Lismore and went to the Koala Care and Research Centre, learned a lot about koalas and saw some reeeeeally reeeeeally cute rescues, a mother and her nearly-grown joey.  (The joey was about to be released but the mother was still recovering.)  Then, on our way into a nearby park, we saw a koala sleeping in a eucalyptus tree.  I take back everything I said about koalas not being cute.  They are absolutely adorable.

It only took three months on this continent, but we finally spotted our first koala in the wild!

I honestly don't know why some dumb passionfruit made the cut for the blog
but all the Australian ibises I photographed in the pond didn't.

We walked through the park, hoping to see more koalas, but we didn't.  It was a nice little walk around a pond with lots of ducks, ibises and various other unidentified birds.  We also saw some passionfruit growing on the fence around the park.  For some reason I find it kind of funny.

Lismore is also a really beautiful town, covering a couple hillsides, but a little bit of a pain to get through using the google maps app. (For some reason it could only get us through town on some winding neighborhood roads that took us up the steep hills and back down again. I am certain there is another road.)

From Lismore we drove west to Tenterfield, the air growing cooler and cooler as we left the coastal area and climbed in altitude over the Great Dividing Range.  We've come across many small cars towing trailers or boats or other seemingly too-large loads since we've come to Australia but on this leg of the trip we encountered the most ridiculous one yet: some little Holden car towing an enormous camper (at least twice as big as the car towing it) on the way down a steep mountain grade (and we had to wonder how they ever possibly got up it.)

We arrived in Tenterfield shortly after noon and took a detour north to Boonoo Boonoo to Bald Rock National Park.  Driving in we saw a feral boar in the middle of the road, which was kind of surprising.  We ate lunch in the picnic area, paid the parking fee ($7; it's worth noting that this is the first time we've had to pay to go to a National Park), and set off for the trail to Bald Rock.

There were a handful of kookaburras just sitting silently in the trees above us.
This magpie really wanted our peanut butter sandwiches.

Unexpectedly, climbing Bald Rock was the highlight of our whole vacation.  We weren't really sure if we were even going to do it--we didn't want to stick around too long or get home too late with two and a half hours left in our drive, but once we arrived at the base of it and climbed a little, we figured we might as well go all the way to the top.  Looks are deceiving--it's pretty hard to tell, but you really get way up there.

Jumping, as we do.

Still climbing..

Reached the top!  No, not there yet..

This rock very generously took our token tourist picture for us.

Still climbing...

Looking east from the top

Looking east

Facing north

Wait... more climbing, actually

To the northwest

Down and out to the east

Toward the south

Looking west

Lines and lines of clouds.

Going down was harder than coming up.

Still going down. (Those trees are taller than they look.)

Better than climbing Bald Rock was the ten seconds after we were back among the eucalyptus trees and it began to rain, just a little bit.  Because surely, coming down that thing when it is wet would have been treacherous. (We were wondering how many fatalities this park has claimed. I don't really want to look it up, though.)

Better than not getting rained on on Bald Rock were all the wallabies and wallabies with joeys we saw on our drive from the Boonoo Boonoo area back to Tenterfield.  They were everywhere, just waiting at the side of the road to see if it was safe to cross.  They were even cuter than the koalas.

And then we saw a rainbow.

Thus concludes our vacation to Byron Bay.