-- From Arthurs Lake to Cookle Creek

After a getting up illuminated by the sun under a cloudy sky I noted that in the early morning the outside temperature was of 4°C and inside of 12°C, brrr.

I found that Mondays were followed very quickly. Out thus I looked for a cybercafé in Longford que nenni, moreover it was the Easter Monday administrations, library, and banks were  closed. I headed to Launceston, second city in population in Tasmania, where I hoped to find one. Visitor Centre informed me that indeed there was one and that it can be open. Eh well yes and there was a Internet connection cable for laptop. I left around 2.00pm to drive to Evandale charming town very British with pretty small extremely well maintained houses and oh happiness a park where to bivouac for overnight.

From Evandale I visited sites of the Heritage Hwy which was open in first half of the 19th century. By 1819 the road of about 160 miles connected Hobart in the south to Port Dalrymple in the north. The vestiges of this era are numerous, civil and worship buildings as well as dwelling houses often out of sandstone. The most remarkable are the church of the Tabernacle in Perth, the Bridge in Ross built by convicts and the mill in Oatlands of style Georgian.

My bivouac was at the edge of the Lake Dulverton on which played of black swans, splendid.

On April 07, after having consulted my mailbox at a Online Centre in Oatlands I drove to Hobart where initially I made the wheels permuted then I solved other small problems. There remained two on standby. In the beating rain I went to Treasure Island Caravan Park, at the edge of Derwent River, at about ten kilometres away to the town centre! I remained two nights there to visit the city in public transport.

The following day after 45 minutes by bus I was in the centre of Hobart to go to the Visitor Centre to take documentation in particular the booklet Hobart's Historic Places which counts 51 buildings worthy to be seen. Obviously I did not visit all of them. Hobart is a deep water port at the estuary of Derwent River surrounded by seven mountains of which the Mt Wellington. Once again I strolled the Walking Tour proposed by the Lp. I retained more particularly the Tasmanian Museum with the inevitable room devoted to Aboriginal art and a very instructive exhibit presenting Antarctic Expeditions.

A small room exposes the settlement of Tasmania by convicts, they were more than 70,000 including 13,000 women from 1803 to 1853. The model prison of Arthur Port is presented with punishments inflicted to convicts.

By strolling to go to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania I passed in front of the oldest hotel in Hobart.

Of course I stopped at the Constitution Dock, the finish line of Syndey to Hobart Yacht Race, where some boats were at ring. It was a long walking day in streets at the waterfront among the skilfully restored sandstone buildings. In spite of a black sky very threatening it did not rain.

On Friday March 09, it was a duped day as there were it already much. I wished to go for a walk in the Mt Wellington, but at a junction of the road a signpost indicated: Light vehicle only! I went my way. Arrived about midday in Huonville I went shopping then I stationed a few kilometres away at the edge of Huon River to assume my disappointment. By driving I took a picture of the hills surrounding Hobart covered with dwelling houses.

The following day in Cookle Creek wather was favourable for a trekking to visit South Cape Bay then at the back a track active to Whale sculpture. This on-line trip added up 19,6 km GPS whose trace is put in prospect with a Ranger's map. I walked during 4.30 hours in a landscape of forest and beach. The temperature was lenient. I met an Australian who last year walked the Way to Compostelle from the city of Le Puy (France).

Objective, interpretive panels do not hesitate to quote  French explorers who discovered these landscapes before the English. Back harassed I harnessed myself to put on page a short factual report of this trekking.

On Sunday April 11, on the move to Huonville where I published my website the following day, I made a detour to see the Airwalk at Tahune overhanging the Huon River. It rained, certainly the landscape is dramatic but that was not worth a detour and A$24. Back on the Hwy I bivouacked in Franklin at the edge of the Huon River wide estuary to prepare the publication of my website. The sun made a short appearance, time to reload the batteries partially.

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