A Day of Coincidences or Driving In Tasmania

View from the shotgun seat is very strange.  I keep wondering where is my steering wheel and pedals?

The license plate on our Toyota Camry hybrid.

View of Hobart, Tasmania from Mount Wellington

Beach on Tasmania

Today we flew out of Melbourne and landed in Hobart, Tasmania.  As we landed I saw a woman on a large beach looking up at our plane in astonishment.  We were really close to her.  Here in Tasmania we were to rent a car and drive around the island for 3 days.  My traveling companion, Pat, was brave enough to drive first.  We could learn from her mistakes. I tried to be helpful by studying the maps and reminding her to "Stay to the left!"  I imagine I was projecting some of my own anxiety and I can only hope I wasn't too annoying.  We were assigned a Camry hybrid which was a great car for the road and also for those safari road trips at dusk where we could silently sneak up on animals.  The air in Tasmania smelled clean and fresh; like a pine forest in the mountains.  Since there is no major industry in Tasmania the air is not polluted.  We found our hotel but had to wait hours until we could check in.  We drove to the marina downtown to park the car and relax a little bit with some coffee and soda.  A bottle of Coke Zero, in Australia, costs anywhere from $3.50 to $4.50 per bottle.  Ouch.  Yours truly has given up soda now and let's hope it will be an occasional treat instead of a 2 cans per day habit.  We asked our waitress for suggestions for a local beach. She suggested 7 Mile Beach. She said the beach had lots of shells. We found our way to the beach and stopped at a convenience store for picnic supplies.  I got a vegie burger (made out of corn, peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes), tomatoes and cheese.  While waiting for my burger I read a local newspaper with an article about a global warming skeptic named Lord Christopher Monckton speaking tonight at the University of Tasmania.  Personally, I believe global warming is a real thing and that this Monckton character is full of hooey and probably promoting his theory to pad his own wallet. When my burger was ready we headed to the beach.  While on the beach an airplane suddenly appeared out of no where and flew right over our heads.  This must have been the same beach we flew over this morning.  Coincidence #1!  We enjoyed our lunch and a long stroll on the beach. We drove back into Hobart and checked into our hotel.  We found out that our planned excursion, a bike ride down Mount Wellington, was cancelled.  Instead we decided to drive up there in the car.  We found our way there but miscalculated the traffic lanes and ended up on some other mountain instead.   We stopped there at a park to figure out how to get to Mount Wellington.  One man we talked to gave us (not entirely accurate) directions and also introduced us to, of all people, Lord Christopher Monckton, the global warming skeptic. Coincidence #2!  I shook his hand but did engage in debate about the subject as he obviously wanted me to.  The only words that came to my mind was "full of hooey!" so I wisely kept my big mouth shut.  Once back in the Camry and with the windows fully shut, I felt relief after expressing my opinion of Lord Christopher Monckton to my companions who, I think, were a little shocked at how upset I was to meet some guy on a random mountain in Tasmania. They didn't read the article that I did.  After that encounter we drove our way up to the top of Mount Wellington, a place described in detail by Charles Darwin on his voyage.  The road up was winding and narrow.  Kudos to our brave driver who not only navigated driving on the left but did it on a mountainous road at dusk.  She did great.  The view of Hobart and the surrounding Tasmanian countryside was beautiful.  We were high enough to be past the tree line and into the alpine ecosystem.  I've noticed that the Australians speak using a rising inflection in their sentences so that some statements sound like questions.  It's contagious.  I'm starting to sound like I am asking questions?  When I'm not asking questions?  But only making a statement?  I can't help it.  Their words are different too.  The triangular yellow road sign says "Give way" instead of yield.  Give way.  More polite don't you think?  "Overtaking" means passing as in "Overtaking lane 2 kilometers ahead."  "Footpath" means sidewalk.  Interesting place, this Tasmania.