What time is it there?!

.......that little place off the bottom of Australia known for having the worlds largest carniverous marsupials and somewhat 'British' weather.

We decided to go to Tasmania before we start our trek around the mainland because we are currently in the middle of summer (sorry to rub it in to our UK readers who we hear are experiencing the worst winter in recent years) and the Tasmanian climate with relatively warm days (about 23) and cool nights, so you can sleep, seemed a much more appealing option than 47 degrees at Uluru!

The island can only be described a beautiful. It is picture postcard stuff with stunning scenery, chocolate box houses and a patchwork quilt of farmland. Imagine England on the one or two beautiful days we get in the summer where the sky is clear blue, the clouds look like some one painted them on and all you can hear are the birds tweetering in the trees and you have Tasmania.

It’s all a bit like driving around the south west of England really, particularly as most of the town names are the same. Bridport, Lulworth and Weymouth are all on the same stretch of coast, and Exeter, Devonport and Launceston are not far away (although the pronunciation of the latter has no silent letters here).

One difference is that instead of oil seed rape growing in abundance, Tasmania grows opium poppies (legally, for medical purposes!). Not sure which is worse ..... we both got hayfever to match any summer in the UK.

Almost 40% of Tasmania is national park land and world heritage sites so we did alot of exploring the land around us on this trip and took in some wonderful sights and monumental exercise.

We decided to tackle the island in a clockwise direction, not for any specific reason. Although it looks quite small on the map, the roads aren’t very straight and there is alot of wildlife hanging around which makes the roadkill toll on Kangaroo Island quite small in comparison.

Luckily, once again we didn’t add to the toll but it did mean some quite violent braking for wallabies, spotted quolls (imagine a big ferret with cartoon spots) and echidna’s to name just a few.

Where there is no nearby natural feature to attract tourists several towns seem to have taken matters into their own hands and invented some kind of quirky attraction. Hence the funky mail boxes, strange topiary or murals on every available wall which have made for some fun photos that we have put in separate sets ..... you don’t have to look at them all! It made us question if the villages in the UK have the same sort of rural competitions going on with their neighbours .... answers on a postcard please.

Fancy living in a town called Penguin? Where there is a huge fiberglass penguin and all the litterbins are decorated with said creature.