2 Heads are better than 1 !
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
87
131
Trip End
Jun 2009
Hobart,
Tasmania,
Australia
Friday, September 5, 2008
Hobart was sleepy to say the least, a nice harbour, where we took the liberty of sampling the local seafood - Well a fish basket with battered fish, scallops, crabsticks and prawns - bloody lovely
Cheap.. not cheerful
! After a walk around the town, a coffee and hot chocolate, the cold weather had begun to come in, so we headed back to our cold hostel to get our heads down for a few hours until the following morning. We awoke early, to catch the bus out to where we would pick up our van - frustratingly close to the airport, where we had been the previous day, the bus dropped us about 1-2 km away. It wasn't an issue with backpacks on we started to walk along the road, relishing the chance to get back in training for life back on the road. However 5 minutes into the walk, we saw a van head towards us, slow down and stop. "Are you picking up a camper van this morning" a voice shouted out ? "Yes, how did you know ?" It appeared that another van had seen 2 lonely walkers and phoned back to the base saying that he thought we were the renters and could he come and get us - Ah very nice, although we were happy to walk, you can't pass up a free ride !!We got on the road, picked up some provisions and headed for our first port of call - Port Arthur. It was late afternoon when we finally arrived so continued along the coast to the Remarkable Cave, which was indeed remarkable, with the intention of coming back in the morning. That night we utilised the van and free toilets atop the very windy cliffs above the cave and freecamped. The rain battering it down, the waves crashing below, the wind howling & a random driving to the cliff edge reving his engine for a minute of so, with no headlights then bombing off with a wheel spin gave us both the willies to say the least. The morning brought calm, blue skies and sunshine and after reflecting on the previous nights adventure we packed up the van and headed back to Port Arthur Penal Colony. Built in the 1830s as the end of the line for some serial criminals, it was meant as an experiment in new advanced ways in which to "RE-EDUCATE" repeat offenders. Brutality and immense hardship were the order fo the day when the prison first opened, however very quickly it was used to try new methods in which to rehabilitate
Remarkable
. The layout of the prison with the Govenor on one side of a bowl and the church on the other meant that prisoners were mindful they were always being watched by the Law and God. The remote location of the prison and the landscape negated the need for walls and should a prisoner decide to escape it was either the ocean or a narrow corridor of land guarded by chained, half starved dogs - which was nice. A fancinating place, which is now world heritage listed. The ghost town which remains is made even more sorrowful with the massacre that took place there in 1997. Part of the tour included a crusie around the bay, taking in 2 islands. One of which was the first ever Prison dedicated to Children. At this time children as young as 7 or 8 were being tried as adults with hanging being permitted at 9 and transportation at the tender age of 10. However their sentences would always be served in adult prisons. Upon receiving a sentence at Port Arthur they, were for the first time, segregated from the adult prisoners and treated as children.
The next couple of days saw us travel up the east coast where we tackled the trek to Wine Glass Bay, in the Freycinet National Park, an amazingly pristine beach with crystal clear turquoise waters, one of the top 10 beaches in the world, we still thought that Lopez Mendes was better, but it came a close second !!
We continued north stopping in at Nature World where we fed and patted wallabies, watched Tasmanian Devils being fed (they really do make the noises and run around like nutters!), Rachel cuddled a wombat (she nearly ran off with it under her coat as well.. ), saw our first Koala and spoke to the not very happy Kookaburra. The place was run by an english guy who after years of running the rat race in London decided to pack it all in and buy it with his family, 9 years on he doesn't regret the decision
Convict Rach
.Onwards and upwards collecting our first Stripped Trumpeter enroute - which was nice, before arriving at a bleak and cold Cradle Mountain National Park. It was again late in the day when we arrived at the visitors centre and after a particularly unfriendly and even colder than the weather, reception from the information lady we decided to head to the camp site and try our luck with the weather in the morning. After a particularly cold night, due to the electricity being off, so no heat in the van, we woke to rain quickly turning to blizzard conditions. A bushwalkers weather warning had been issued and snow was still apparently waist deep on the way up to the summit. We decided that this was not going to be our day. After driving to Dove Lake which sat at the bottom of Cradle and a wintery walk to the boat shed and back, we still couldn't see the mountain and so decided enough was enough.
We got back on the road and did some serious driving south, taking in the sleepy seaside town of Strahan and the dismally depressing settlement of Queenstown which is surrounded by nude mountains created after many years of overmining the rich mineral ore it once contained and the resulting acid rain through the subsequent smelting process. We finally made it to Lake St Clair, 300km later, to find a beautiful woodland lake side campsite where we were greeted by a wallaby and his mate the pademelon - which was nice
Isolation for Rach,... Bliss for Kev
. All for $20 per night (the campsite in queenstown was going to charge us $30 for a glorified carpark!!). We continued to have rain, sleet and snow but decided that the location outweighed the weather and stopped for a second night. On our final morning we were blessed with blue skies and the views which we had been missing for a number of days, and feeling refreshed after 48 hours of relaxing we once again hit the road, continuing further south. Throughout the trip it had been one of Rachels wishes to see a Duck Billed Platypus, however so far the little critters had managed to elude us both. A Brief stop in Mount Field National Park and then onto Tahune Forst Reserve did not improve the situation, even with early morning and late night riverside vigils - Rachel is now a firm believer that they don't actually exist.
At Tahune on the second to final day we experienced a canopy walk 20meters in the air, 600 meters long, giving you an amazingly different perspective of the forest.
We finished Tassie with fish and chips as we had began, plus a game of putt putt, that's crazy golf to you and I !!
Comments
Tasmania was great!
I recently visited Tasmania and really enjoyed my time there - I think I'll have to go back again to see everything I missed!
I found a very helpful website too with lots of info on where to go in Tasmania - http://www.discovertasmania.com/destinations