Day 20 - Lounging in Launceston

Ok, so I wasn't actually "lounging" in Launceston, I just thought that sounded good :-), but it was a somewhat intentional "rest" day between hiking Cradle Mountain National Park (the past two days) and hiking Freycinet National Park (the next two days). Yes, contrary to popular belief even I have my limits. ha ha

It actually worked out well as the day began cloudy with a lite rain. So I spent the morning writing yesterdays blog, communicating with a few folks, doing some laundry and chatting with my Airbnb host Philippa over a cup of coffee.  As anyone who travels knows a big part of the experience is meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds and sharing conversations with them.  We talked about Launceston, our dogs and her cats, her children, her brother who is a professional musician (guitar) in Hobart, her upcoming trip to the Blue Mountains (day 11) and a few other things before she had to leave for work. She left me with everything I needed to head out to Launceston, which I did after I finished hanging out my laundry (it had cleared and was sunny at this point).

I drove into city center Launceston (Google, Images) and just spent some time driving and walking around and checking things out. It's a nice town and it was fun just to street "hike". Launceston is the home of Boags brewery (Google).  I considered a tour but knew I wouldn't have time so I headed to the Launceston Cataract Gorge park (Wiki, Google, Images).  It's a river gorge that was formed by the South Esk River, the longest river in Tasmania.  The interesting thing about this park is that it is just a couple of minutes from the center of the city so it's a mix of natural rugged beauty with the river, rock covered cliffs and trees and urban dwelling with a community swimming pool, hiking/running trails and a chairlift (don't know what's up with that).



















As I walked the trails on my "day of rest" I was passed by several runners and I just couldn't resist.  I hadn't planned to run but I did have my running shoes so....off I went.  :-)  I did a short run and crossed a bridge to the other side of the gorge.  This was the steeper side so I decided to hike to the high ridge to get a better view of the gorge from above (pics above).

So after a pretty good day of "lounging" around Launceston I checked out some local restaurants on Google and decided on a place called The Jailhouse Grill where I had a delicious cajun salmon with (of course) a Boag's draught.  :-)

As I read the menu I came across one dish that made me think of my hunter friends/family Toby Wyatt, Steve Allen and Josh Henson.  Here's a dish for you to make....although you'll have to go further than eastern NC, SC or GA to hunt one of the ingredients :-)......

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