Tasmania Part 2 – We headed up from Hobart to a town called Mole Creek. We choose this location as it was the closest AirBNB to Cradle Mountain national park – still 1.5 hrs from the assumed start point of our hike. We took the longer scenic route through the lake country – wasn’t what we expected and this was probably the least scenic part of our trip to Tasmania.
Cradle Mountain
The AirBNB was actually a small hotel and they had kept bugging us if we wanted dinner – ended up being a good decision since it as their weren’t many restaurants in the area and we had gourmet family style dinner with 3 other couples. We got some good feedback on some things to do in Hobart and Launceston….but no one mentioned that we park about 10 miles from the hiking area and have to take a bus. But they did push us towards a hike which we thought was too challenging and I’m glad we did it. It was a great hike and we got a great day – about 6 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing.
Launceston
But the result of the bus and longer hike meant that that we arrived in Launceston much later than expected so we had to do a quick turn at the AirBNB and go to dinner as it was getting late – first we grabbed a drink at a local pub and ran into one of the couples from the prior night and only were able to get some bread. Found out that he moved from England to St. Kilda in 1948 when he was 5 – his single mom was banished from the England to Australia with him – and pretty much lived in St. Kilda all his life. We then went to the recommended restaurant and it was closed and some skateboarder dudes told us that there was bar that might have food down the hall of a strip center – and there was – the “Midnight Rambler”. As Americans, we immediately attracted the attention of the owner – a Launceston native who lived a couple of years in Dallas. When I said I was from Oklahoma – he said “F Oklahoma – Hook’Em”. He didn’t know why people said that – I explained it was the college football. He didn’t have any food and we asked where to get a good selection of Tassie Wines and dinner he said “Bar 2” but it was closed too. We said that we liked Two Tonne wines – he said he knew the owner and he sent us to his bistro. The owner/winemaker was gone for the night and the kitchen was closed – but we got a full tutorial on Two Tonne wines but still no food. So found a 24 hour kebab place and finally got to eat. Not gourmet but perfect at that point.
The next morning we started our drive south to Wineglass Bay – but before leaving town we went the city park which was in a gorge – Cataract Gorge. Only 10 minute walk from the CBD, but seemed like a million miles away.
It was a quick trip to the north – but well worth it. Definitely will have a return trip to Tasmania before we leave Australia.
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