14.09. - 22.09.19 Tasmania

So we spent our last week in Australia with the same people we spent our first week with, Emma and Brian. Months ago, we planned a trip to Tasmania together. This way, we would have seen all but one state. Sorry Western Australia, you were just too far away.

For once, we left all our travel planning in the hands of others. Emma and Brian did a great job and booked all our flights and accommodations.

The day before our departure, a very unfortunate event occurred. Unfortunately, Brian's mother, who had been terminally ill for some time, passed away. Despite this, he decided to come to Tasmania with us, which we appreciated. However, Emma and Brian had to leave earlier to attend the funeral.

The flight to Tasmania was very short, and our rental car was waiting for us in Launceston. It's difficult to get around without a car because even though Tasmania isn't very big (about the same size as Sri Lanka), it is sparsely populated. The approximately 500,000 people are mostly concentrated in the cities of Launceston and Hobart. In between, there is a lot of nothing again. In this case, hilly nothing, because Tasmania is the most hilly state in Australia. This results in many beautiful landscapes, similar to those in our home country.

We spent the first few days in Hobart, the capital city. It's a relatively busy city and attracts a lot of international visitors. We visited a nice Sunday market and strolled through the different neighborhoods. One afternoon, we drove up Mount Wellington nearby to experience a wintry breeze and play in the last snow of the winter.

On the second last day, we took a trip to Port Arthur. We made a short stop in Richmond for the famous Tasmanian "Scallop Pie". Port Arthur used to be one of England's most remote and largest penal colonies. Nowadays, it is a World Heritage site, and the well-preserved and restored site can be explored for a few hours.

We saved the visit to the famous MONA art museum in Hobart for our last day. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the museum is closed on Tuesdays, so we had to skip it.

On Wednesday, it was just the two of us going to Strahan, a small village with 600 inhabitants on the west coast. We stayed in a beautiful cottage with panoramic windows and a stunning view. Here, we enjoyed some peaceful walks in the surroundings, including waterfalls.

The last stop was Launceston, where we stayed in a very cozy, ultra-kitschy apartment in a wildlife retreat. We could watch the wallabies with night cameras as they ate the food provided by the operators. However, when we wanted to visit the city center on the last day of our stay, the heavens opened, and it poured and stormed until the night. On the morning of our departure, the sky was clear blue. Well, at least we had a cozy time.

Back on the mainland, we spent our last evening with Emma's family, as her mother had her birthday. Another nice Australian roast dinner before we embarked on our long-awaited departure from Australia the next day.

It's hard to believe that we actually spent 11 months in Australia. It was about time to move on to other countries. Despite the sad farewell to Emma and Brian, whom we hope to see somewhere in the world again soon, we were extremely excited about the next part of our journey. It's difficult to summarize such a long time, but the word "multifaceted" probably best describes it - in every aspect.