12th April 2011
Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.
Imagine you arrive in a city and get a bus from the airport to your hostel. Through the window opaque with rain and steamed-up from the damp passengers inside you can see nothing of the supposedly scenic city. You are dropped off and find that your room is tiny, cold and ill-equipped, with a knackered little oil heater and nowhere to store anything. It quickly resembles a tailor’s workshop as you hang wet clothes on every possible protrusion. You spend all afternoon in this room because pissing down with rain isn’t really enjoyable exploring weather. The room warms up, eventually. You have to go out for dinner though. You pick a curry house mainly because it’s nearby and after all the rain is still pouring down. Then you suffer a madras made with chunks of grisly old chicken and so feeble and lacking in spice that it seems to have slipped into a korma. Back you go through the rain to try and hang out a second set of clothes that have also got soaked. The fan in the bathroom will run all night because there’s no way you’re letting the warm air out through the only window and otherwise wet clothes + heater will result in a sauna by morning.
Australasia was circled in red on our itinerary in expectation of loving it. We imagined it would be a welcome dose of civility and comfort after the anticipated privations of Asia. But sitting in this tiny room with the rain hammering on the roof and reflecting back on the grotty weather in New Zealand and the day of getting soaked in Sydney it becomes quite clear how civilised and comforting the endless blue skies and constant heat of tropical countries can be. Wandering out to breakfast in shorts and bare feet is nice. And even when it rains, you can expect to drip-dry in about half an hour once it stops and the sun shines down again.
It feels like I spend half my blog entries these days dismayed by the weather! No doubt we’ll feel different tomorrow when it’s lovely and sunny in Tasmania. It just goes to show how deeply weather affects mood. G’night.
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As a native Tasmanian, I can only apologise. Rain in Hobart is particularly wet!! I live in Manchester now (Vanessa and Tim sent me to your blog), and even that isn’t as wet as Tassie once it gets going. Hopefully you’ll get some sunshine too.
Have you been down the Peninsula yet, towards Port Arthur? Good devil spotting down there. My grandfather used to have a resident platypus in his creek at his farm in Lilydale and used to let backpackers go down there to see it, but it was quite elusive.
Local to Hobart is Fern Tree Glade, doable by MTT bus, and I have seen one there, but think I was very lucky. But you have more chance of seeing them in the rain!
Well, it looks like someone remembered to turn the taps off and we’ve had three days of wall-to-wall sunshine. But for all we know it’s still raining in Hobart, as we’ve headed north. We might have a look at the Peninsula on our last couple of days when we turn back south again, as people tell us it’s lovely.