A Taste of Tassie - Part 1
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2003
1
118
169
Trip End
Jun 02, 2007
Launceston,
Australia
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Next morning I was a little bit tired
Adventure Tours Bus
. The Adventure Tours bus came to pick me up. Steve, our guide asked if we wanted to go and chill out on a beach or visit a historic village. Unfortunately the choice was not ours to make we were heading to the village. After visiting Cataract Gorge we spent around 3 hours on the bus heading to Ross. There's not much to do in Ross unless you're over 70 or Japanese. As we drove in Steve pointed out the bakery. He dropped us off at the end of town and after visiting a scottish shop I headed to the bakery. Thinking it was perhaps one of the best bakeries in Oz, why else would they take us here, I went in to buy a cake. I was amazed to find the inside of the shop full of Japanese tourists. Half of the 20 people on the tour were Japanese. They were all taking photos of the inside of the bakery. I realised there was something going on. I later found out that Disney Japan have made an animated film. The guy who wrote the film travelled round Tasmania and stopped at the bakery in Ross. The bakery appears in the film, hence lots of Japanese tourists wanting to visit Ross. I find it quite appalling that a company that advertises themselves as "Adventure" Tours can change their itinerary, as they have done, just to make money. There were some mighty pissed off people on the bus and Steve wasn't too happy about it either. Anyway after another 3 hours on the bus we arrived in Bicheno, our stop for the night. We went to visit a local wildlife park (or should that be once were wildlife park), where we saw many different types of Australian wildlife, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and the Tasmanian Devil
Bicheno Beach
. I honestly thought that a Tasmanian Devil was a mythical creature designed by Disney. They were very cute. We spent a little time on the lovely beach at Bicheno, unfortunately much too cold to swim in, for me anyway.After helping to cook dinner and managing to set fire to a tea towel we headed out to the nearby Fairy Penguin Colony. These were exactly the same penguins I'd seen in New Zealand (aka Blue Penguins), but this time, instead of sitting a distance away from the penguins, we were allowed right up next to them. By the time we got back to the house it was after 11 and I fell into bed.
I was woken the following morning at 6am. Steve had banned alarms going off before this time, but it still felt awfully early. After breakfast we were on the road again. We headed out to Freycinet National Park. We had the choice of walking to Wineglass Bay or climbing up Mount Amos. As my foot was still a little sore I opted for the beach walk and spent a nice hour lying on the beach reading my book. (The water was only 13o - freezing). After a stop for ice cream it was another mammoth drive down to Port Arthur. On the way we passed truck after truck filled with logs. Steve explained to us what was going on. Trees are being logged to make woodchips
Cataract Gorge, Launceston
. Given Tasmania's clean, green image it's quite astonishing that this is being allowed to happen. Apparently there have been corrupt goings on in the government for quite some time now in relation to this. The company that controls more than 85% of logging in Tasmania, after bribing the government, increased profits by 200% and is now worth more than $1bn. What is happening in Tasmania is now being seen as an environmental catastrophe of global proportions. If you want to find out more or log your disgust with the government you can visit http://www.discover-tasmania.com/events/. Anyway enough on that subject. We eventually arrived at our house in Port Arthur and after a game of pool and dinner most of us headed down the hill for the Ghost Tour. Port Arthur is an old convict town. Convicts were brought here and built, worked and lived in the village. Today it's a tourist attraction as many of the old buildings are still standing. On the ghost tour we were taken around in the dark, with lanterns and told of strange encounters people had experienced. It was good fun and maybe a little bit scary in places. The following morning (after the 2 japanese girls in my room had set their alarms for 6am, although we didn't have to be at Port Arthur until 9.30am) we had a few hours to wander in daylight before an ever so exciting cruise around the harbour. We then boarded the bus once more to head to Hobart
Cave
. On our way we visited a big stone arch, wandered through a cave to the beach and travelled through Doo Town. I thought it was a bit of a strange name for a town. I only realised how strange the town actually was when Steve started pointing out the names of the houses - Zanadoo, Just Doo It, Doo me Up, Doo It one more time, and well you can probably use your imagination for the others...We arrived in Hobart early evening and I headed out with some of the people from the bus for a few drinks. The following morning I couldn't believe it, when (you've guessed it) the 2 japanese girls in my dorm set their alarm for 4am. They got up, switched on the light and proceeded to pack their bags - for the next 40 minutes. The ran in and out the room, up and down the hall, rustled their plastic bags, zipped zippers and giggled for 40 minutes at 4am. By the time they left I was wide awake. I got up around 8 after being unable to get back to sleep and met some of the others for breakfast and a wander round the market. As they all went to climb up Mount Wellington I went back to bed!
On Sunday morning it was a 6.30am start. Chris and Hans, who had also got on the bus in Launceston, were the only 2 continuing so we had a whole bus full of new people to get to know, but I'm getting tired now, so I'll finish there for now.....
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