It was an eventful start to our 2 week Tasmanian holiday. We woke to find our morning Qantas flight, direct to Launceston, had been cancelled and we were rescheduled onto flights via Melbourne. As if this wasn’t bad enough our pre-booked taxi was delayed, and at one point we were even notified there was no driver for our van, but a taxi did eventually turn up. We deduced that the flight issues were caused by the Swift Effect: there were Swifties everywhere! I suspect they needed to have more flights from Sydney into Melbourne, for the start of Taylor Swift’s concert tour, and hence why our flight was diverted. The journey was rather uneventful after that, thankfully, and we made it to Launceston by 2 pm and were pleased to see sunshine and blue skies, given it was wet and gloomy when we had left Sydney.

Our accommodation for our one night stay in Launceston was at the Sebel which proved to be a good choice of lodging as there was a bike shop right next door that, of course, Mark had to visit. On our arrival at the hotel the concierge announced that we had been upgraded to a larger room, but, here is another travel lesson. Beware of the so called ‘upgrade’ and I suggest you check out what that really means! In our case, it meant we were ‘upgraded’ from a light-filled room with a balcony and a view to a dingy room with windows facing out to an internal space and looking straight into another building. Needless to say I returned to the front desk and asked to be downgraded back to our original room.

It was around 3 pm by the time we were settled and ready to head back out so we took a stroll out towards the marina and then back into the city to check out if there was a ‘high street’ and to find some cafes that might be worth a visit for the following morning. One thing we did find was a great craft beer venue, St John Craft Beer Bar, where Mark tested out a couple of beers. This is a place worth visiting if you like craft beers and are ever in the area. It was then back to the hotel for Mark to assemble Dagwood Defy before our 6.30 pm dinner booking at Black Cow Bistro.

Our dinner booking wasn’t until 6.30 pm but we decided to head there a bit early, thinking we’d be the only patrons at the early hour of 6 pm but what a surprise we got instead; the place was almost full! Clearly, everyone else had received the same memo that we had (thank you Gordon!) about this place being a lovely dining venue with the crowd being a mix of locals and international tourists. As the name Black Cow suggests, the focus was on steak and so I ordered my favorite scotch fillet and Mark chose a Porterhouse. Both meals were lovely but we did note that the diners at almost every other table had ordered the ribeye to share so we obviously didn’t get that memo. I would highly recommend this restaurant if you’re ever in Launceston but make sure to book well in advance and, also, share the ribeye!

We woke to a beautiful morning so Mark went on a ride whilst I did some yoga and then we both went for a walk along the Tamar River. Mark later found a nice cafe for breakfast, The Local Hideout, which was only small but quite popular and is another venue I’d recommend if you’re in the area. Check-out from the hotel was at 11 am and we had some time to kill before collecting Judy Reidy from the airport so we took a drive up to Cataract Gorge. Our next two nights were to be spent with Gordon and Judy at their lodging in Devonport.

We had enjoyed our short time in Launceston and found the place to be quite interesting. The town has quite a number of beautiful grand old buildings and arcades, on par with those in Melbourne, but there seem to be more structures in the city than people! The place is very quiet. We had walked along a section of the Tamar, just up from the Peppers Silo Hotel, and I’d noted to mark that it was an area just begging to be developed. However, I don’t know what for as we’d seen so few people in our time here and I don’t know if any further development would prove viable. For now, there was just a collection of old caravans, some with solar panels, and dumped cars lined along the waterfront forming a small shanty village.