A busy weekend saw us travelling down to Melbourne for a fly-by 25hr trip encompassing the Cycling Australia Awards dinner and a very brief catch-up with Lucy...way too brief :) The night was a lot of fun...Matt White and I hosted the night and after some early nerves I got the hang of it...with only a few minor blunders!
The next day we headed down to Tassie for the wedding of the year, Mark Padgent and Louise Yaxley...we flew into Launceston, hired a car and with 5 of us packed in tightly...Kate, Richie, Liv, Gunnar and I...we made the drive to Coles Bay. We drove the scenic route which was a little scary at times when it began to pour with rain, the road was narrow and windy with the 25 km/hr speed sign...but it was gorgeous. We arrived at our destination just north of Coles Bay...all shocked by the realisation that we had no mobile coverage for the weekend...ended up being lovely :) We trooped into the 'town centre' - a pub and bakery and small supermarket...ordered burgers and chips and sat on the picnic table on the bay and looked out over the water. It is hard to describe how spectacular this place is...I think for me having the national park and bush alongside the coast is the best thing. The air was so still and quite...you feel like you could be anywhere in the world, and you are oblivious to anything that could be going on in the world.
The next morning we awoke...headed to the bakery for a coffee and then set off into the national park for a walk through the bush. The first destination was Wineglass Bay lookout then down to the bay itself...the photos don't do it justice, it was spectacular. Four of us continued the 'loop' to Hazards Beach we had found on the map and managed to do the 11km loop in just over 3 hrs...you can tell that we are a competitive bunch, at every point we wanted to see how much quicker we were than the suggested time, which was 5hrs for this walk. The only thing to really put us in our place is the fact that the groom - Mark had run this loop the same morning!
The wedding was on the beach, a fantastic setting and the ceremony was beautiful. The reception was at Freycinet Lodge, again such a beautiful spot and there was much eating, drinking and dancing into the night.
The next morning we went to Cape Tourville lookout and walked down to a place called Sleepy Bay. It was a gorgeous day, vibrant blue sky which makes the colours of the landscape even more dramatic. We jumped in the car to make our journey back, very sad to be leaving such paradise but grateful for such a fantastic weekend.
