A hangover morning! Too many varied bars and too many varied alcohols. We staggered down and had our morning repast once again in the hotel. At least the coffee is good. Strong enough to kick you in the head and shake loose the night's play.

We started out the morning with a climb to the summit of Mount Wellington. The highest peak in Tasmania (possibly in Australia) it was covered in snow the day before (the picture we took.) A long, winding road took us to the top, so we didn't have to do any real climbing. We stopped a couple of times along the way, and managed to take some outstanding photographs. What a view. You can literally see most of the island of Tasmania from the summit, and they even point out what you should be able to identify.

WOW! Was it cold and windy! Neither of us were really prepared for the wind. It was stiff enough to knock us over, and a couple of times we thought it might actually. There were a couple of serious boardwalks. They gave wonderful views, but of course my fear of heights wouldn't allow me to get close enough to really enjoy it. We made it down the mountain without incident of course. Still, mountain roads are usually narrow, and driving on the left and letting large tour buses get by on one and a half lanes of total road isn't trivial. I only hit a ditch once, and never actually drug the brush.

Since we only managed two hours with the mountain, we got into town reasonably early. We had a booking for a horse ride at 3, and that left us two plus hours to spend in town. So, I convinced Colleen we had to see the distillery. The Lark Distillery in Hobart actually gets part of its malt from Cascade Brewery, and since we had been on that tour, they made mention of this Lark Distillery. It is a single malt whisky lover's dream. I sampled a very smooth single malt, and had an interesting raw single malt and a single malt liqueur. The raw single malt I will have to pass on. It was very much in need of some aging. The liqueur was interesting, with a nose of Anise, but I would pass on that as well. They also offered some schnapps. All in all, I found a couple of good ones, and saw enough quality scotch to make Judge jealous. We bought some obligatory souvenirs, and I bought a small bottle of a single cask single malt for Colleen's dad.

Our next stop for the day was the horseback ride. Now, to be honest, I have never ridden a horse save a couple of circles at carnival pony rides as a child. So, I had some degree of apprehension about the ride. We got there, and he gave me a fairly spirited younger horse. Low enough that I wouldn't fall and break anything seriously. In the end, it wasn't much more than an adult version of a pony ride, as I did get to hold the reins, and there was no circle, but I wouldn't call it a horseback riding experience as much as it was a horse walk experience. 5 Mile Beach (so named because there is literally 5 miles of shore with passable beach) was a fascinating bit of land. The tide recedes fairly far from the coast, so we ended up walking the horses through a lot of wet sand, but it did offer us the chance to see some very pretty country and gum shark eggs. I think if I get the chance, I'd be willing to try again, though I probably need some form of riding lesson so that I get more of a riding experience.

Back into town and a shower to get the smell of horse off of us. Then, it was time to find some dinner. We had walked past an Indian Restaurant on the wharf, and Colleen thought we should try it. It did not disappoint. Saffron Indian Restaurant had some tasty stuff. I had the hottest Vindaloo (and possibly the hottest food I have ever eaten) and Colleen had some very tasty Chenai Curry. We both left satisfied with our dining choice.

This town is an interesting enigma. We couldn't find a single convenience store. We both wanted to stock up on some supplies, and there were few to be had. We found two grocery stores, both closing at 9PM. We found a petrol station with a convenience store, but it closed while we were parking the car. In the end, we did manage to find a 24 hour store and scored some tasty ice cream. The diet starts over when we get back. :-)

Bed was early, and we were more than ready. A good day, and once again busier than we had planned, or hadn't planned as the case may be. :-)

It's Colleen! As much as I had hoped we would be "riding" horses, it still didn't disappoint me! My horse was named Patch, and was as uneventful as you can imagine. He was trained VERY well, to stay behind another horse! I kept trying to get him to walk next to Jazz(Derek's horse), but no go. Still, it was very cool, as I had not been horseback riding since I was maybe 11 or 12. Derek and Jazz seemed to get along very well-both stubborn as hell!!lol! There was also a very beautiful horse named Ruby(don't know what breed), she was sweet as can be. Our trainer/walker claimed the rights to her! I have to give my props to Patch, he was very gentle and sweet; and I felt like he responded to me when I coo'd him. Go to Double SS Wilderness rides if you're ever in Tassie! G'Day!!

Cheers!