Last night we were in the emergency department of Latrobe Hospital getting my arm checked out. I’ve been getting shooting pains in my upper arm as well as continuous ache and restricted movement for the last five or six days. It finally got so painful that we we went down to the local community hospital in Latrobe at 3am. The registration process included such questions such as ‘Are you an indigenous or Torres Strait Islander?’, ‘Is there another name for UK?’ and ‘What’s your mother tongue?’ (asked after confirming I was English). I didn’t have to have to wait very long to see a doctor who gave me some heavy-duty pain killers and sent me home with instructions to come back in the morning for an X-ray. So 8.30am saw us back at the hospital. The X-rays showed nothing (not surprisingly), and the doctor’s diagnosis is muscle strain which most probably happened when we were canoeing about 10 days ago. No quick cure though, just anti-inflamatories, pain killers and possibly some physio if things don’t improve. What a pain!
We drive to Launceston is Tasmania’s second city in the afternoon. It is situated 64 km from the Bass Strait in the wide river valleys where the North and South Esk Rivers meet to become the Tamar River. On the way we detour down the west side of the meandering Tamar River valley as far as West Head retracing our steps and crossing the curiously named Batman suspension bridge and coming down into Launceston on the eastern side of the river. This is glorious countryside taking in wineries, orchards, and farms as well as historic towns, fishing villages and mining settlements.
We’ve come to Launceston primarily to walk the stunning Cataract limestone gorge which is only a few minutes from the city centre. . There are numerous walks along and up the sides of the gorge. We opt for the easiest; the 1.6km route along the face of the cliff to Cateract Cliff Grounds where a vertiginous chair lift crosses the gorge a the point where it opens out into the First Basin lake. We give the chair lift a miss and cross the gorge at Alexander Bridge, an attractive suspension footbridge that was first build in 1904 and subsequently restored after being washed away in the floods of 1929, and walk about 15 minutes further up the gorge along Duck walk towards the hydro dam before turning back. The gorge is littered with huge boulders and its dark waters are controlled by the hydro dam further up the gorge. At First Basin there is a large park and reserve as well as a huge outdoor swimming pool. Despite warning signs counselling against swimming in the river pool there is a wet-suit clad woman swimming across it. We finish our walk just as it starts to rain and since it is late afternoon by this time we decide to forgo any further sight-seeing. The drive back up the West Tamar Highway provides some stunning views of the river valley despite the rain and poor visibility.