Day 4: 24 February 2010 Stanley and the Boroughs

I have known Robyn and Chris Borough for, ooh, 38 years.

David met them only 20 years ago. So it was two very familiar faces that materialised within 2 minutes of my texting a suggestion to join us for champagne on the back deck of the Stanley pub the night before. Their Tasmania trip happened to coincide with ours so it was a pleasure to travel together for a while. Chris is an encyclopaedia of knowledge about Australia, the environment and 4WD travel, and Robyn has every aspect of life on the road totally sussed out, plus she cooks like a dream.

So, first thing on Day 4, we were all off up the Nut. Up off our nuts? It was a cardio-testing climb but worth it for the wide angle views from the top. The Nut is a huge mutton bird rookery and is pocked all over with their nesting holes. But all the birds have flown, even the fat fledglings left behind by their parents to grow their flight feathers and teach themselves to fly. A lesson for baby boomer parents here...

Later in the day we clambered in and about the coastal rocks in the jaggedly vividly beautiful coves of Rocky Cape. There is red lichen that grows in a band on the rocks above the water line. David declared that since someone had to be a hero, it might as well be him that day, and took off up the cliff face. I took several photos of him striking a noble pose looking out to sea while balancing precariously on a high vantage point above the red line.