I could get into this...

The first couple of days have been great!  We've had phenomenal weather, which we are told doesn't happen very often.  We're heading over to the West coast of Tasmania today, at which point we are expecting a fair bit of rain.

We got off the ferry about 7 pm on Monday night and found a quiet beach just outside town for a dinner of red wine, cheese, and hummus.  Eric was afraid to put up the pop-top as he thought that might make us too conspicuous.  However, we were joined by a couple of other campervans, and the police rolled through about 3 am - more to check on our safety, I think, than to harass us.  We're just going to have to get used to the fact that we will be asked to leave at some point, but that's not a big drama really.

View during dinner - tough

I began the second day with some stretchies on the beach.  I think sleeping on a cushion laid over wood is going to require some limbering of the old muscles!  I always feel better when I have a good stretch, and for once I'm not going to feel rushed and skip it.

We spent the morning doing errands in Devonport before driving through Penguin to get some hot cross buns at the bakery, doing a short walk to a lighthouse in Table Cape, and then settling in for the afternoon at Sisters' Beach.

Last time we drove this stretch of coast, there were gorgeous purple flowers everywhere (pic below from last time).  It turns out, Tasmania has the largest legal supply of opium poppies in the world for use in a variety of pharmaceuticals!

For Americans, hot cross buns are only sold around Easter and are basically raisin buns.  I suppose there's nothing all that special about the, but somehow the scarcity of only being able to buy them around Easter makes them so appealing!

We had a long walk down Sisters' beach followed by a refreshing swim and a play in the waves. While our teeth were still chattering, we thought we'd take advantage of the outdoor shower in the park - brrr!  Then I epilated my legs sitting on a picnic table - all class.  Eric had a good laugh, but that's the price of having a non-yeti wife when living in the wild.

I made our first hot meal to warm us up, a nice pasta with fresh zucchini, mushrooms, green onions, and eggplant.  Imagine my disappointment when the campervan filled with a horrible smell!  Turns out it wasn't my fault for once, though.  The fridge can run off the battery when we're moving or plugged in or gas when we're parked away from a connection, but apparently it wasn't venting properly.  Looks like we'll be in Melbourne for a few days cutting new holes in the van in April, but at least we didn't burn Turquey down on day two!

This morning we started with a 30 minute hike up and around a hill to a cave, and now we're squatting in a park in Stanley in view of The Nut using the internet before we head in the western wilds of Tasmania.  In another hour or so, we should be in territory we didn't cover in our last trip, which is exciting.  It's hard to believe that on our last trip to Tasmania with my sister, Piglet, we made it to Stanley with several walks along the way and then finished with a 3.5 hour trek in Cradle Mountain at dusk all in one day.  It's a bit of a different pace this time!