We’re here! Fresh off the boat this morning. First impressions are good, already we can see how some people might compare it to Scotland with it’s lush green fields (no water shortages here!) and the rolling hills. The slightly cooler climate is a welcome change and we are already feeling more relaxed and at home.
We have become suckers for Australia’s big things and so with the guidebook promising a big platypus at Latrobe, a mere 5km away, we were there. Unfortunately, the big platypus wasn’t up to the usual standard of big things, it was actually disappointingly small (certainly no Larry the Lobster!). All was not lost though, a wee chat with a real Tasmanian in the Tourist info office gave us a plan of action for our nine days here and she also sent us up to a good place to spot platypuses in the wild. Despite our patient searching the platypus remained elusive for today but we have got ourselves a mission for the next eight days; to spot a platypus in the wild and a Tasmanian devil and maybe a tiger, although they may be extinct so I’m not sure we’ll get lucky there.
Our plan for today was to explore the North West coast so the first port of call was Penguin. Named by some imaginative (I’m ashamed to say British) explorer who saw penguins when he first arrived here. The town has, as you might expect, made the most of it’s name and every shop, cafe etc has some quirky name like The Groovy Penguin cafe, as well as some statue of a penguin. The dustbins are also quite quirky with their penguins attached to the sides and of course there was a big penguin, who was actually quite big this time!.