So long, Tassie

With thanks to Maria Island Walk for this famil

So the alarm goes off at 4am, and half an hour later you're standing under a streetlight while half a block away there's a police car with its lights flashing and a bunch of dark figures doing something unidentifiable while you frown and hope your bus will turn up soon. There are better ways to start a day, really.

It's bad enough, having to leave Tasmania after such a short visit. Less than a week - but oh, it was good! The Maria Island Walk was wonderfully done: really well organised in an unobtrusive way; with excellent, knowledgeable, laid-back, friendly and funny guides; comfortable accommodation, good food, and bottomless wine; stunningly glamorous scenery; and adorable wildlife (not including the tiger snake). 

I would have liked longer in just Hobart, which is a cute little city with a lovely harbour, full of historic houses, museums, restaurants and gardens. They're already gearing up for the end of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which feels as though it's going to be almost as big as Christmas. I bet it's fun.

But I"m on my way home: a 50 minute flight Hobart to Melbourne, 5-hour wait there, and then another three hours home plus a two-hour time change forwards, so it's going to be about 6pm by the time we land. Then bus, then ferry, then car, and maybe I'll be home by 9pm? Long day.