The Tassie A-Team
Trip Start
Feb 16, 2008
1
12
33
Trip End
Jul 22, 2008
Strahan,
Australia
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Although I'm a little toured out as I write this, I wanted to do some outdoor adventure stuff in Tasmania, so I decided to do a 3 day tour that advertised adventure...this is "Anne Adventure" afterall. I get picked up at 7:30am by tour guide/bus driving Jas or Jasmine, a tall, blond, laid back as far back as you can go, Aussie from Western Australia, who by the end of the trip, I really admired. I had actually met her the night before when I offered to take a photo of her with some Japanese tourists. She remembered me, which was pretty cool. There were only a few people on the bus, so I moved towards the back, where, you know, the cool people sit. There were these two English blokes, Pete and Mike sitting back there (ok, the real reason I moved to the back of the bus - wanting to meet some cool guys). We chit-chatted while we waited for others to show up. Pete and Mike, I knew off the bat, I'd get along with. They are both funny as hell, especially Pete. Jas played music the whole three days, and Pete was singing along, especially that first morning - loudly, to everything from the Beatles (they're English, so of course) to the Coors, to the Barbie song. It was good stuff. Pete and Mike are headed to NZ after OZ and then to LA and NYC. They were both very excited about America and love America. Lots of fun conversations, almost too many to recount, but many of which I will not forget any time soon...Behind me sat Claudine (I'm thrilled to have met a real CLAUDINE!) from Quebec, and Florie and Marione from Belgium. The three of them spoke French most of the time. If I had any clue how many French speakers I would be meeting, I seriously would have brushed up on the French before I left.
My objective that morning was to find a pay phone to call Mia and wish her a happy birthday. Mission accomplished in this little town where I met a man with a red alpaca. I've seen alpacas in Virginia, Rhode Island, and now Tasmania. Who knew?! He asked if I'm Canadian and I said no, American. He replies, "I was just trying to be nice..." The conversation that took place next was our discussion about Americans behaviour abroad. His thoughts and experiences were often sad but true. He was more impressed with the younger generation and said, especially with the upcoming election, that there's hope, isn't there...I later learned that a lot of times people will ask if you're Canadian before they ask if you're American when they hear the accent because Canadians get offended. I apparently sound REALLY American, because I've only been asked once if I'm Canadian.
Jas drove us to the Crazy Cabins near Cradle Mountain National Park, a couple hours from Launceston. We'd have the choice to do a number of different "bush walks or walks" (hikes) around Cradle Mountain. I was hoping to do the hike with other people - adventure is much more fun and exciting with other people. So discussion in the back of the bus ensued and a decision was made - summit Cradle Mountain. The map said it was about a 6 hour return. It was noon and the last shuttle back up the the Crazy Cabins was at 8:15, so plenty of time. It was pretty cold in Tassie, a little snow up on the mountain, which we were all determined to reach. The map and Jas explicitly said that the climb can be quite trecherous in inclimate weather, you know, snow...
So, seven of us set out - Pete, Mike, Claudine, Florie, Marione, and Guido (from Holland). We hiked, chatted, took lots of photos. Made it to the snow just down from a spot called "Marion's Lookout" where, with the help of my $2 bendy tripod, we got some great photos of our group in the snow. All of a sudden it started snowing, really snowing, big wet flakes, as this big dark cloud descended upon the mountain. (I would like to take this opportunity to thank NASA and the makers of Goretex.) You could no longer see Cradle Mountain, yet we kept going...up to Kitchen Hut, which has this little emergency shack and where the uphill really begins. At some point on our "walk" we named our little group the A-Team, by the way. The A-Team had to decide whether we'd keep going or not. It was some serious uphill already and I could really feel my legs working and we all knew we'd be feeling it later...I was on the fence, a little worried about the weather, but knew that if I didn't keep going, I'd probably be disappointed in myself. We then got the basically the point of no return, a place that had already gotten much steeper and we'd started a little bouldering. The summit was another 2 and 1/2 hours (return) or we could take the winding road to the left. Pete and Guido were in for the summit. Everyone else, not as vocal, but on the fence. I decided I was in. If anything, we could always turn around. We all kept going.
For the next few hours, my body remained in fight or flight. I had to stop and breath deeply several times and talk myself into going farther. The rocks were bigger, the trail steeper, and everything wetter. Plus, the dark cloud was still hovering and dropping snow on and off. The day before, I read this story of a plane crash in the Andes in the winter. The survivors made it through 90 days before a few were able to find help. I kept that in mind as I climbed. As long as we are slow and careful, we'll be ok, right? I also had visions of Frodo and Lord of the Rings...speaking of Hobbits, quick sidebar - Mrs. Henel, this one's for you...at one point, one of the English blokes announces that I look like the chick from "Lost." He even said, "how do we know you're not really her and just on holiday..." The observation has gone international!
So, we climbed and climbed, met other climbers along the way who'd made it to the top. We kept going. We met a small group on their way down from the summit, a guide of about 40 with two older women...I said to myself, if these ladies can do it, so can I, even though I was scared out of my mind. Often too, as we climbed, I wanted to shout "Look out below!" like my nieces do when they go on hikes in AZ. I was dirty, wet, cold and wondering how much farther we had to go...Through most of the day, Guido was our protector. He usually stayed towards the back or would wait if someone was a little behind. Mike was nice and stayed with the girls, while Pete and Guido disappeared in front of us. They made it to the summit and then came back down to help the rest of us get there. Eric this German guy with a very sarcastic sense of humor showed up behind and helped Guido boost me up at one point where I couldn't find a foot hold for the life of me. We reached the summit, which was a wonderful relief. We hung out, took photos and could see hardly anything because Mr. Dark Cloud was still lingering. As we made our descent, I was happy to be on my butt the whole way, happy to be going down. We took a long trail around the other side of the mountain, with Eric the German, and his friend Alice. Lots of good conversations. We even saw some wallabies! We ran into the guide with the two older ladies -- one of whom is 82. I am so glad I didn't quit! In total, it took us 6 and a half hours. Not too bad, I'd say! We stopped a lot to take photos, and I wonder if that's factored into the estimated time. We were happy to be back, happy to be warm, happy for food. Many of us hung out in the warm kitchen that night eating and talking.
Day 2
Flat "walk" to a waterfall...lots of waterfalls that day. One waterfall's view was from a suspension bridge. I couldn't help humming the theme song from Indiana Jones as I crossed...Some of the walks remind me of movies, which in a way, is kind of sad. One particular walk was dark and reminded me very much of the fireswap from "A Princess Bride" except there was no threat of fire or rodents of unusual size. (Mawwige...)
That afternoon we went to the sand dunes near Strahan (prounounced Strawn), where we stayed that night. If we wanted to, we could do a 4 wheel drive ride over the dunes. I am of the mindset with this trip, as I may have mentioned, that if there is something I want to do, I am probably going to do it...within reason and what not. But, yes, I want to climb mountains, jump out of airplanes, take helicoptor rides, etc...I've never been 4 wheeling, much less over sand dunes, so I was in! I ended up being the only one from the group interested, so it was me, the guide, and this other couple in their 50s. The woman was scared out of her mind that the 4 wheeler would tip over, so she went pretty slow, compared to the Sawkiw leadfoot...The guide and I had to wait for her so we ended up chatting quite a bit. He mentioned that sometimes there's quicksand out there -- something, he said, that Hollywood has actually gotten right. We had an amazing view of the ocean from up there on the dunes. If you look at a map of the world and go west from Tasmania, the next bit of land is Argentina. Yep! Tassie is at a latitude of about 40 degrees. South Africa is 180 km north still from that latitude. So, if you think about it, the WIND coming from Antarctica up and across 2/3rds of the world's ocean is pretty gusty, pretty cold. The air just north of where we were 4 wheeling is the world's measure for clean air. I was sure to suck lots of that stuff in! After the dunes, we headed down to Ocean Beach. Again, winds are pretty gusty there, water pretty cold, but of course, I jumped in up to my knees and did some serious frolicking and laughing. I don't know that there's anything serious about frolicking, but I was that day. It felt wonderful and I'm sure it helped those calf muscles from being sore. The waves were huge and I couldn't help but think how powerful Mother Nature can be. I could have stayed out there for hours. Unfortunately, the bus was calling and we headed into town to the bottle shop, the grocery store and to the next set of cabins for the night. A bunch of us BBQ'ed, drank a little, and had some serious conversations. One thing that's been nice about my travels is that I've been able to eat pretty well --- lots of fruits and veggies. I've taken it upon myself to try all the biscuits (cookies) in Australia and had a short lived affair with a jar or two of Nutella, which takes me back to my days in London. This night was good because I was able to talk with some of the other people on the tour, like this lovely, older couple from Holland, Bart and Elizabeth. A lot of the conversations I find I have with people have to do with travel, relationships, the differences between places and people. As I've mentioned before, I love learning about people's experiences, why they are doing what they're doing, etc. It was a really really good day...
Day 3
Drove through some of the mining towns, another short walk to a waterfall, spectacular scenary! One interesting bit - we drove through Queenstown, an old mining town, surrounded by big mountains. They first found gold, then silver, then copper. The mountains had been over-mined so much, that in the mining process, sulfur is emitted into the air -- lots of it, and acid rain fell in some of the areas. NO vegatation has grown back on parts of these mountains. So sad. We drove up and through the area. At one point, Bart turns around and says - "like Colorado?" and I said "NO. Colorado MUCH bigger!" It was cute. We stopped for lunch at Lake St. Claire and our little group of 7 decided we needed to take a team photo on top of this giant rock. It was a little difficult getting up there, and we all almost didn't fit. We were also being attacked by bumble bees and entertained by little geckos. The quote of the day was, "I'm going to handle your ass." I'm writing this for me, so I don't forget. The story would be too long, but I'm laughing as I type this. Are you still reading this?!
Made it to the Pickled Frog Hostel (not my favorite - pretty smelly) in Hobart, where Jas dropped a few of us off. The whole tour group was meeting for fish, chips, and beer later that night along the water in Hobart.. It was a great time! Another opportunity to chat with everyone. I enjoyed learning more about football (soccer) from Pete, Mike, and Guido. The three of them will all be leaving NZ just as I arrive, it looks like, so we may try to meet up, which would be pretty cool. The Tassie A-Team exchanged emails and I hope to keep in touch. I love Tassie! If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it! Beautiful!
Comments
Freckles!
I KNEW that persona would follow you to the other side of the world! Listen- watch out for black clouds & Polar Bears, Kate! Miss you!! love- J