Tasmanian Odyssey Part One

Our first week in Woodbridge, Tasmania, courtesy of the Moon family, was a wonderful experience...

We arrived late at night but woke up to this fantastic view across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island. Just breath-taking!

I got the chance to meet my cousin Gerard, who, with his late wife, Margaret, took the £10 crossing in 1965 with five children under seven!

Brave souls.. but what a brilliant move!

It was two of Gerard's sons and their families who so generously accommodated us for the holiday!

Here's Colin on the walk back from the beach up the paddock at Gordon and Sonya's house....

Somehow Lucinda always seemed to race him!!

We visited Salamanca Market in Hobart and then went on to the "Tasting", an annual event where stalls selling all types of food set up in the Market Hall and then you take the meal of your choice to the waterfront to share...

We went out fishing in Gordon's boat

We saw Sea Eagles

and one swooped for some steak which Gordon threw for it..

And YES we did catch some fish. The Flatheads over 32cm we could keep, so they made a tasty lunch...

Our "Welcome" barbecue was the ideal opportunity to bring out the special beer mats we'd had made by Caroline, owner of A Little Bit Vintage. The surname Moon was a perfect, as we'd asked Caroline to put "we're over the Moon to be here" on the mats.... They were the icing on the cake, so to speak. Thanks Caroline!!

We walked along the shore of Peppermint Bay..

and encountered native hens

and hundreds of plover

This Tasmanian Devil was at the Wildlife Park but we heard them at night preying on the many dead wallabies - the casualties of road traffic

We went to Richmond and saw the oldest surviving bridge in Tasmania. It was built by the convicts..

We had our first experience of temperate rainforest when we visited nearby Snug Falls, just up the road from Luci's school, Snug Primary. What a lovely name for a school! At this point there had been no rain since October so there was very little water in the Falls. We returned in the last week of the holiday to a very different scene.

And for us there was some time to relax...

Despite his age (50) Gordon could still do a pretty good roll on the trampoline!

Well that's part of the first week's adventures...

We were enchanted by the island and by our newly found relations. What an awesome family!

Photos of other weeks to follow!