Benanna in the land down under: May 2013

A few years ago, on a cold, late night train journey back from the bleak suburban town of Crawley, UK, when we were still just workmates - we had a conversation about Tasmania and how nice it had looked on a program we both saw the night before. Fast forward a few years and we are living just an hour and a half away from Tassie!

Taking advantage of the Anzac Day public holiday we popped across the Tasman Sea and arrived in Launceston, Tassie's second city, early on Thursday morning. We picked up our hire car and drove in to town to stock up on food before heading for our little cabin in the woods. Tasmania is basically empty. We finally found some people watching the Anzac Day parade - a very touching event that happens across lots of cities and towns. The day is taken very seriously here with older veterans all the way through to school children taking part. And some fine marching bands.

All the shops are shut until midday as a mark of respect so it was time for breakfast. Tasmania is renowned for it's fine, fresh produce so we tucked into our first meal...baked beans on toast and a bacon sandwich. Well, there was plenty of time for pork belly and goat's cheese! With still some time to kill before the shops opened we headed to a beauty spot, right in the middle of Launceston - Cataract Gorge. Ben spent a good hour terrified out of his wits - first on a chairlift with just a thin bar which takes you very slowly over the lagoon at the bottom of the gorge and secondly on the wobbly bridge crossing back over the water.

It was all very pretty. And empty.

We stocked up on food and started our drive to Cradle Mountain National Park - a couple of hours inland. Along the way we spotted a new wildlife warning sign - one totally unique to Tasmania...

Watch out for Tasmanian devils!

After driving through Railton, Town of Topiary (really, http://www.townoftopiary.com.au) we arrived in the small town of Sheffield. With all our links to it's namesake in Yorkshire, we had to stop. While Railton has it's clipped bushes, Sheffield has it's murals!!

That's a Tasmanian Tiger in the mural. An extinct marsupial.

Time for some of that infamous Tassie gourmet fare...a cheese toastie! It was a very good one though.

We pressed on and arrived at our little cabin late afternoon as a blustery weather front moved in. Our cabin was amazing and could not have been more perfect for what we wanted. Thank you Cradle Mountain Highlander Cottages!

Firing up the extremely effective wood burner

Cosy, cosy, cosy

Only the sounds of trees blowing in the wind and lashing rain

The next morning was pretty wet and windy, but optimistically we set off for Dove Lake at the foot of Cradle Mountain. We couldn't actually see Cradle Mountatin due to the cloud and mist, but it was still very atmospheric. A stunning landscape that reminded us of Scotland...and then there would be a weird Pandani tree and you'd realise you were really quite far from Scotland.

On the way back to warming ourselves up in the cabin we were finally rewarded with what this trip to Tassie was really all about - wombats!!!! Almost definitely the coolest, and cutest, animals on the planet.

The next day was gorgeous sunshine and we set off on a mammoth hike. Slightly longer than we intended if truth be told, but covering a number of peaks, a very windy plateau, a stretch of the Overland Track (a famous 5 day hike route) and a sheer rock face which saw us sliding down on our backsides. Here's some highlights....