Exercising Upper and Lower Body

My turn to drive.  Nervous much?

Wineglass Bay

It was not easy hiking to and from Wineglass Bay

Down at the Beach at Wineglass Bay

Kayaking Cole's Bay at Freycinet National Park

Now we're back in Tasmania staying in our hardwood floor cabin at Freycinet National Park.  Staying at our cabin allows us a free buffet breakfast at the lodge which was wonderful.  I had poached eggs, broiled tomatoes, a Vegemite sandwich, fruit, and porridge.  I had two bowls of porridge while thinking, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"   The porridge was great.  The Vegemite questionable-I can definitely live without it.  Our third day in Tasmania, it is now my turn to drive.  Driving on the left side is scary at first. New neural pathways are being formed in my brain - I am almost feel it happening. Some things, like making a left turn, are easier.  Signaling any turn almost always resulted in the windshield wipers coming on because the turn signal switch is on the right side of the steering column.  The gas pedal is on the right and the brake on the left as usual so that was helpful.  And that post that comes between the windshield and the passenger door window was totally in my way blocking my view all the time.  I never notice the post on the left in my car so why is this post continually in my way? With the oncoming traffic speeding by so near to this post I tended, like my friends, to hug the left side of the road and make the passengers nervous.  Rumble strips on the edge of the road were often heard.  I never took out any signs or mailboxes so I did okay.  Parking was tough.  I would pull into a parking lot and find an open spot and do my best to park between the yellow lines.  When I would check I would always find at least one wheel over the yellow line.  How can it be so hard to park?   I'd have to adjust the car two or three times before I got it right.  Lets hope I never have to try and parallel park!   I am glad I gave driving a try though.  Also very glad I didn't have any accidents!  Today we had a kayaking excursion in the late afternoon. We decided to hike to Wineglass Bay.  We knew it would be a long hike so we packed a lunch and headed out.  The first half of the hike was easier. The path was wide and smooth and the steps were level.  The view from the top was breathtaking.  The second half, hiking down to the beach of Wineglass Bay was very difficult.  The rocks were slippery and far apart.  I really wished I had brought my cane.  I was glad to make it down to the beach.  Our lunch tasted delicious.  A wallaby went from one picnic group to the next begging for food.  He didn't get any from us.  The shape of wineglass bay is really nice but that is not why it is called Wineglass Bay. Whalers named the bay because of the color of the water after the whales were slaughtered.  Well, that makes it less lovely, doesn't it?  Hiking back to the lookout over Wineglass Bay wasn't that difficult.  Going uphill makes my heart pound and my lungs expand but at least my knees don't hurt.  Coming down again was very difficult.  My knees were killing me.  The hike was at least an hour longer than what was comfortable.  By the time we made it back to our rental car (parked backwards next to a planter) we were exhausted.  One of my friends was ahead of us and not waiting by the car like we had hoped. We thought she got lost.  We sat there for about 5 minutes before I noticed that the license plate holder on our car was bent.  Oh, this is not good.  Did I hit a curb?  My friend got down on her sore knees to straighten the metal license plate frame and it truly did look a lot better.  I decided to pop the trunk so we could put our backpacks away when the car did not open.  This wasn't even our car!?!  Somebody else parked in backwards next to a planter.  In fact our car was white and this one was gray.  We found our way to another section of the parking lot. There was other friend waiting for us next to our car with a perfectly fine license plate. We giggled and wondered if that other car's owner will ever notice what a nice license plate frame they now have.  We were exhausted and we still had another excursion to go today.  We went back to our lodge, filled up on cold water, pain relievers and snacks and rested for an hour before heading to Cole's Bay.  We met at the marina and got into double kayaks.  We had to put on life jackets and kayak skirts.  After a brief training we were off.  With a total of 7 kayaks we headed around the bay.  I saw silver gulls, Pacific gulls, butcher birds, sooty oyster catchers, and little ravens.  Our guide showed us some seaweed called Neptune's jewels.  She pulled it right out of the sea and handed me a handful to break up and share with the other kayaks. I handed it out and still had quite a bit left.  The seaweed had little green pearl shapes on a thin stalk.  It tasted pretty good, less salty than I thought.  The seaweed didn't taste great (either actually does lettuce) but for some reason I ate all I had which was probably at least half a cup.  I'm not sure why I did that. We stopped for tea, coffee, milo (hot chocolate) and cookies.  Huge cookies too.  It felt good to stand up again for a few minutes.   On the way back a sea eagle soared above us, showing off. These eagles are rare to see and I watched this one about 10 minutes or so.  It's nice to get a good long look at a rare bird.  And it felt so good to rest my legs and strictly exercise my arms and torso for a change.  Putting the whole day together, my body and I got a good workout.  We kayaked with an extremely friendly guy from Sydney.  He took my photo and said with my unusually large hat I looked like "My Fair Lady."  Such a charmer.  By dusk we came into shore.  We watched the sun set into the clouds.  The moon was almost full.  We slept well that night.  A day well spent.