I'd never given much thought to penguin locomotion before, but it's true that they waddle in a strange way. I now know that this is because they don't have knees and so propel themselves along by leaning forward while moving from side to side and letting gravity push them along. It all makes sense now...

We got to see fairy penguins on Bicheno beach as they made their way back to the burrows from the sea. They leave at 3 or 4 in the morning, swim around for 140kms and then return at around 10 at night. They looked exhausted as they struggled up the sand, and you just wanted to pick them up and help them along as they're so small and sweet and keep falling over.

On the way to Bicheno, we went to Ross, a village notable for its old bridge and a bakery where a Japanese cartoon character called Ki-Ki is meant to live. Apparently it's become a kind of pilgrimage for Japanese visitors to Australia. We also stopped along the coast and at a wildlife refuge, where we saw Tasmanian devils up close. It's unusual to see them in the wild, especially now as their population is being decimated by a terrible tumour causing virus. I read that organisations are considering setting up devil communities on remote islands so that if the disease spreads then there are some healthy creatures left. A lot of Tasmanian native animals are under threat from feral cats and foxes.

On our penultimate day we went to Coles Bay in Freycinet National Park, where Sandy, Julie and I climbed Mount Amos for a stunning view over Wineglass Bay. It was a short but pretty strenuous climb as much of it was sheer granite rockface. We were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves at having hiked all the way up until we passed a bunch of kids on our way down. There's nothing like watching a six year old scramble over rocks like a wee mountain goat to make you feel old and lardy. They may have rained on our parade a little bit, but we were still smug at having got to the top of the mountain and back, and decided to tackle the 600 steps up to the Wineglass Bay lookout for a different perspective on the same view.

We went to Port Arthur on our last day and spent the morning looking around the grounds. The landscaped site was beautiful but it was an eerie and depressing place, and it was sad to think of the misery endured by so many. They experimented with solitary confinement and prisoners were known by a number and never spoken to or allowed to speak. Even in the chapel, they had to wear hoods and stand segregated from each other. Perhaps the worst thing is that this is still going on in the world today in places like Guantanamo.

The coastline on the Tasman Peninsula is spectacular, with lots of cliffs, caves and blowholes. Back in Hobart, five of us who'd got on really well met up for dinner at The Ball and Chain and then went for a bevy at Knopwoods in Salamanca Place.