Raining with a Chance of Sheep

Tasmanian bay and sailboats 

Tasmania was not at all what I expected. While there are ‘mountains’ that ring the coast, the interior of the island is rolling hills covered in lush green grass and herds of sheep. The mountains do get touched with snow, but the foothills host redolent, temperate rainforest plants. The wind-swept beaches and hills reminded me of Scotland, but without the castles; the weather lived up to the best traditions of Scotland, however. It takes no more than six hours to get anywhere in Tasmania, and the roads are good, so we rented a car. Our seven day road trip took us to most of the island, but there are still many sites we didn’t see and events we didn’t experience. This is one of those places in the world we want to visit again.

Hobart to Launceston

It’s a lovely drive from Hobart to Launceston, with opportunities to pop over to the beaches to touch the sand and to find that the water is, indeed, very cold. The Tasmanian Wool

Raw Wool and Wool on the Hoof

Centre in Ross affords an opportunity to learn about the wool industry, tour their small but substantial museum, learn about the town, and do a bit of shopping. Local artists sell finished wool garments, as well as hand spun and dyed yarns.  I’d never seen or touched raw wool directly from shearing and didn’t know how it was graded; I still wonder how the grading was done before the advent of technology since the wool fibers are measured in microns. The wool from a black sheep isn’t black, but a muddy brown; wool texture changes based on fiber size, but also on the variety, gender and age of the sheep. The raw wool feels oily.