G is busy watering the batteries, and as it is only 11 C on the thermometer (forecast 29 so it should warm up as the sun rises), I'm happy to be tucked up down below.
As local people say, the weather here only lasts for 10 minutes! In calm and warmth we watched a front approaching yesterday. Weird pinkish coloured cloud due to bush fires inland. Suddenly the wind changed by 180 degrees, and the temp dropped by about 10. From 5 knots it went up to 30. As we are safely attached to a mooring buoy we only watched, glad we weren't out at sea. A few hours later all was calm again.
Last weekend we did some inland stuff with B and B. Spent Friday night with them in preparation for an early start on Sat, and drove to Mount Field National Park, about an hour NW of Hobart. Luckily quite a bit of a climb before we parked the car as we were able to get some fantastic views as we climbed higher. The big difference between here and NZ is that it is very dry, something that we hadn't realised before we came. So the slopes have gum, wattle, and various thick-leaved low growing bushes, all very crunchy underfoot. There are also shady valleys with streams where tree ferns and mosses grow, and we had lunch beside a couple of small tarns with boggy peaty growth around similar to the Lake District. Saw one little pademelon,(a small type of wallaby, and tracks and droppings of wombat. Plenty of dead possums along the road but no live ones. B is a great one for brewing up, and had a trangia and real coffee and tea in his rucksack so we were able to have two tea stops en route.
Otherwise our exploring has been Hobart based since we got back from our long weekend sailing with them. Plus a bit of work on the boat. The winch handle socket that we use for unfurling the mizzen sail has collapsed from metal fatigue so it has had to be dismantled. How to replace it is the next knotty problem. I think I mentioned the little sea horse that rode up on the anchor chain, well we have also had tiny crabs flushing through the toilet - all alive alive o oh.
February 2, 2010
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