Today was perfect chilling out. It was much needed after a few heavy days of climbing in 35+ degrees.
I am at a YHA backpackers and I have my tent set up out the back in a little grass area. It's great because I pay 10$ and I still can access all facilities, cook dinner in the kitchen, use all utensils and also access the bathroom area.
To my luck there has been a great group of people coming through on a tour. In the group is a few Germans, Indian mother and son, American, Austrian and a lady from Cairns. I also met a nice Japanese guy here who's brought a bike on a bus tour. It's interesting to listen to foreign perspectives of other Australians and also what they think of Australian way of life. So far the response is that Aussie people are pretty laid back...
I went on a cruise today that was amazing. It went through the ocean and into the gordon river. The cruise also passed the areas where they farm salmon and trout. This looked weird, like something from the dday location from WW2 (I've attached photos in the blog) The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of mentioning, respect and even credit to the Aboriginal people of this region, who managed these lands for tens of thousands of years. The captain of the boat asked us to spare a minute for the huon pine loggers who lost there lives and also for the convict settlers in the area. I thought this guy was joking, until I realised the others around me saying how sad it was about the old loggers doing it tough. The only thing that deserves any spare thoughts or any spare minutes is to the convicts who escaped, learnt and lived off the land, and aboriginal people in rare circumstances, and also objected to the British union.
Tomorrow morning I am planning to head towards Hobart. I am hoping I miss the fire affected areas as they are south east region, sort of near Hobart. It's a shame because this place is great, I have contemplated kayaking down the Gordon river and camping in the rainforest for a few nights. I also wanted to explore the aboriginal sites in the area. The only problem with this is I'll end up spending to much time in Tasmania and will affect the rest of my trip. I will definitely be remembering this place as I know that I will be coming back for sure.
Some things I found interesting about the aboriginal culture here was that the women did all the fishing. This was not explained any further, however I have heard this with other indigenous groups as well. I think I may have heard that this may be associated with women having higher body fat percentage and physically being able to withstand colder temperatures, which in this case the surrounding oceans are very chilly, particularly in winter.
So for tomorrow I hope to get at least 100km in, but with some heavy hills I'm not sure how I'll go..
Good fortune- Reused a glad wrap bag and filled it up with the food off the boat, which I ended up having for dinner
Bad fortune- The tour group leaves at 7 am tomorrow :(
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