Tuesday is Launceston day

Firstly I should have mentioned that on our way down to Port Arthur we passed through scenes of devastation caused by the recent serious bush fire. It is very distressing to see houses burnt down to the ground and in one town they have lost almost everything, their school, shop, garage and bakery have all gone.

It had been agreed that Simon would drive us to Launceston on Tuesday and so we had to get up at quarter to six to be ready for him to pick us up at seven o clock. Simon is a fount of knowledge and the two hour trip passed in a flash. He dropped us off outside the supreme court opposite some sixty or so people who were milling around. As we picked up our rucksack the court opened and they all milled in, perhaps they were jurors, who knows?

We set off in search of the tourist information office, which should have been relatively easy as all we had to do was to follow the large blue and yellow "i's" which had been conveniently placed on lamposts. Or so you would think. The signs took us to the old information office which very helpfully had a map in the window of where the new one was about half a mile away.

On arrival we explained that we were from Launceston in Cornwall and immediately got a lesson in pronunciation. We felt truly humbled. We did get a map and some instructions on how to get to the gorge, which is one of the major sites. This turned out to be very close to where we had been dropped off and so we trudged back. The gorge is spectacular but it took us a good twenty minutes to walk it to a little cafe at the top where we had a coffee and a piece of orange cake.

We descended by chair lift, which was a great experience however, this left us on the wrong side of the hill and we had to walk back into Launceston. How strange that both places are so very hilly.

One of our hosts had given us a contact in Launceston College and Jason met us at reception before showing us around the school.It was the first day back for students after their long summer break and there was the general milling around that one would expect. It is a strange feeling to be in a sister school on the other side of the world.

After our visit we walked into town and had some lunch and then just because we are gluttons for punishment we walked around the shops, failing in our objective of getting some postcards of Launceston, nobody seems to have made any postcards of the place.

By this time we had walked about eight miles and stupidly we decided to walk to the Queen Victoria museum which is meant to be one of the best small museums in Australia. Interestingly the museum had no postcards and so our postcard hunt was well and truly stymied.

The museum would have been great had the gallery on colonial art been open. It was closed for refurbishment, which is pretty much the story of our journey. We walked around the museum and really enjoyed an exhibition of high school students' work. As Simon was picking us up at three we had a drink in the cafe there and the very kind girl behind the counter, who obviously thought we were starving gave us a free greek salad, as she would only have to throw it away otherwise. It must have been our impoverished look.

Simon picked us up and we drove home  the back way via Callington Mill a restored cap windmill and then on through Richmond a lovely little town.

We were truly exhausted on our return and almost straight after tea went to bed.