Our Great Adventure: Simon's Birthday Day 135 31/01/2015

You couldn't even see Mount Wellington when we woke up. The cloud was very low and it was drizzling. We decided against walking up but you can actually drive to the top so we thought this was a good second choice (and you never know they might be an inversion!). After reading Simon's birthday messages, videos and "face timing" Simon's parents, we stuffed all our gear back into our packs and cleaned up our van before setting off to drive south through Hobart to where the 22km road starts and winds it's way up to the summit through forest before opening out to a lunar landscape at the 1270m summit. By now the wind had picked up and the rain was horizontal. We paid a very brief visit to the lookout from where we could see anything before running back to the car and heading down. We drove to Battery Point and had lunch at the same cafe we'd been to on the first day here and then set off back towards the airport to drop the van off. It's been great having the van, given us lots of freedom and eating in has certainly helped to reduce the cost of food and support our budget! Despite being cold at Cradle Mountain it's been very comfortable and we quickly got into a routine for making/putting away the bed. We've done nearly 1700 km in 15 days and, whilst we've seen a lot, there is so much more of Tasmania that we haven't seen (although a lot of it is not accessible by road). We were both glad that we'd made the decision to stay here for an extra week before returning to the mainland. And we didn't have to pay the excess for the damage to the passenger door which was an added bonus! We got the airport shuttle back into the city and checked into the Collins Hotel where we were staying for the night. It's a small boutique hotel just by the harbour and close to the shops and restaurants. We had a wandered around the harbour and Salamanca Place stopping off for coffee and then headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out in the evening. We'd booked a restaurant at Battery Point called Monty's on Montpelier's for 9pm which gave us time for a couple of drinks in a local bar (and chance to watch the first half of the Asian Cup featuring Australia, "The Socceroos" and South Korea) before we walked up the short hill to dine. The food was lovely and we washed it down with a glass of bubbles to help celebrate Simon's birthday and a fine bottle of red wine before staggering back down the hill to the hotel. (If you were wondering "The Socceroos" won the cup with a 2-1 scoreline.)