Riverside is a suburb of Launceston around 6km from the centre. The place that we were staying was a further 2km up a steep hill – which made it a bit of trek to Launceston if you wanted to walk. We should know, because we did walk it one time and it took just under two hours to walk the almost 8km to our destination – yes, a pub with craft beer. Was it worth it? No, the beer was average and we arrived home in the dark at 10pm!

Anyway, our accommodation was a converted loft above someone’s garage. It was actually a lot fancier than it sounds (it was a triple garage and the place was very spacious with full cooking facilities). It was very close to the Tamar Wetlands area and also to a suburb called Trevallyn, which had a nice bush area with walking trails. We went to both of these places for after-work walks.

The most famous attraction in Launceston is the Cataract Gorge, and we went for a visit on one of our day’s off. It was insanely crowded (in our eyes.. :-), but what can you do when it’s summer holidays in Australia…

We had day trips out to Narawntapu National Park and Ben Lomond National Park, as well as a failed trip out to the Deloraine area where we found all the walks closed due to previous rain and storm damage.

Launceston itself was pleasant enough, especially the Vietnamese restaurant that we found 🙂