5/12 Adventures in Tassieland: Day 3 (Happy 100th DOZ Post!!!)

You may recall that of the 24 beers purchased the night before, we only drank 18 of them that night. This was deliberate-- a bid to save beer for breakfast to help with any hangovers and give an overall rosy start to the day. So we woke up a little later and a little less rough than the morning previous and took off, beers in hand, to sample some of the sights of the Tasman Peninsula. First stop was Roaring Beach, a surfing spot half an hour down the coast (this is the stagnant water that pools on the path to the beach, but it's a much nicer picture than the ones I took of the beach itself so there you go):
Next stop was a little look-out over the ocean. It was nice, and Joel reckons it's his favorite spot on the whole coast, but I was really blown away by the next stop: Remarkable Cave. You access it by a steep descent of maybe 120 wooden steps (I saw a wild wallaby hopping across the path!):At the bottom of this wicked little ravine is a tunnel bored into the rock by thousands of years of erosion by the tide-- what it has created is a little inlet through which surfers can paddle out, and a beautiful little cave that, ridiculously enough, takes the shape at the top-front entrance of the coastline of Tasmania. It's really stunning. You're on this metal walkway and at high tide the water swirls up underneath you and in the morning the sun shines right through the map of Tassie in the rock. Beautiful stuff.We returned to the shack via Nubeena, where Luke tried to buy bread from the corner store and the "bloody cunts" behind the counter were really hostile to his presence, giving smart-ass remarks about not being sure they have anything he wants there, and throwing his change on the counter and turning their backs in a not-so-subtle "you don't belong" gesture. If I'd known they'd be such bastards, I would have gone in myself and started asking questions about the Port Arthur massacre (dude walked into a nearby cafeteria in 1996 and executed 35 people and wounded 37 more. Largest single-man gun massacre in world history-- Va Tech barely breached the top 5).

At the shack we had a wicked breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, mushrooms, hash browns, and cappucinos before packing the fuck up and driving back to Hobart. Dropped off the boat and headed to Joel's for a shower. He had to work, so I went to dinner with his parents, who have a beautiful house on the hillside overlooking Hobart:At dinner with us were Joel's aunt & uncle, his French-Canadian girlfriend, his brother, and his brother's South African girlfriend. They took me to a nice little Italian joint where I had veal parmesan and several Italian beers. I got talking whiskey with Joel's mom, who introduced me to Glayva-- a Scotch whiskey liqueur made with Seville oranges, herbs, and honey. She called the waiter over and asked if they had it, which they didn't, so she convinced the dude to go to the liquor store around the corner and get us some, which he did. She then instructed him to heat two brandy glasses and pour the Glayva in, which he did. And it was good. Really fucking good. If I can find it in the states, I have a new favortie drink. We drank until almost midnight then went back to Joel's where it was high time to pass out on the futon downstairs.

Drink Count: 10 (slightly less fuzzy)

Part of the weekend's damage, left in the back of the parked boat along with 6 reeking fish heads: