Tasmania - gorgeousness got a name

Oh where to start...!! Tasmania was a location we had dreamt of going to for a long time, and it totally exceeded expectations!! What a beautiful country and wonderful, friendly people!!!

Our journey in the land of Tasmanian Devils began in Launceston, a relatively short flight away from Sydney, and even closer to Melbourne. Unforunately, the ferry was no option, costwise flights within Australia are unbeaten (if you book early enough!). We stayed 2 nights with Anthony and Leeroy, a wonderful couple and their ever full of energy dog called Bam. They literally saved our bums leaving Tasmania as they drove us all the way to Bridport and back, but that is another story. Still don't know how to ever thank these guys enough!

Launceston is a quiet little city in the north, but you'll anything you need here. A mobile number was the first  :) After our iPhone magnificently rejected the SIM card, completely froze and then consequently needed to be restored, it downgraded itself to have less functions than the old Nokia 6110 that I so preciously lost in the middle of Nepal.... Pfff. But enough about that; it's part of travelling. You lose things that are dear to you (are you sure you want to take your favourite T-shirt?? Think again!!), but you will gain so much!! Experiences, friends, tons of stones and shells (We somehow keep collecting these things...) and new underwear :)

Launceston showed us our first little wallabies (pademelons), a beautiful gorge, a free swimming pool :) and three new friends (including Bam, the dog :D)

Our friend Rosemary picked us up to go to Bridport, all the way on the northern shore. We camped in the garden, played with Rani and Sammy, the dogs, and chopped wood. Just like home (got a call on the same day from my mother asking if Jan couldn't come over to chop wood :D, such a coincidence !). We rented Rosemary's 1994 red Renault 19 (which is by the way still for sale!!) to cruise around. 

So armed with a speedy vehicle and loads of camping equipment and food (thanks again Rosemary!) we set off. A little twist of fate made us go around the other way as planned: West first. We needed to stock up on/replace gear in Launceston. When packing away our tent, one of the poles snapped!! grrr!! Please remind me why we bought THIS tent? And not a cheap 30 dollar one?! So we spent 3 hours looking for a replacement part, finaly found the right diameter pole which we needed still to cut to the right length with a saw. Universal spare parts, right. 

The other thing we bought was a 12V adapter for the laptop and phone. Who would have thought that  12V cigarette-chargers are different in Europe than in Aussi?? So, now completely independent from any campsite (which we would only have used for power and the occasional shower - but who needs that?) we were finally really on our way.

First stop: Lake Parangana. A free campsite hidden in the bushes. Tasmania is full of free camping places; most of them equipped with nothing, but a flat surface and a nice view is all you need! Thanks to our friends in Launceston we had a book full of these hidden treasure sites :). We chose Lake Parangana due to its proximity to the Walls of Jerusalem national park. In the morning, we woke up with a view on a misty lake on the shadowside of thr mountains; the temperature of the lake being warmer than the air. It was simply beautiful, and hard to get up :) We arrived later at the parking lot near the track than wanted, but still made our way up to the mountain. It's only a relatively short walk, but steep at first. Our gaiters (snake protection) worked as a sauna :D and without wind the sweat was dripping of our noses. The area was pretty dry, most parts that normally are swamp were easily passable and many of the pools that would have been nice for cooling off only a few cm deep :(. But it's gorgeous! We did ourselves a favour and did not camp at the designated campsite. It has nice wooden plateaus to camp on, but no view (and hundreds of possums in the night!).Only 200m further/higher, you are on the plateau, between the mountains and next to the lake. Absolutely amazing! Mount Temple straight ahead, mount Jerusalem on the left behind it, the impressive Eastern Walls on your right all the way and green lichen at your feet. We put our tent up on the softest lichen ever (careful to leave no trace though!) you could have slept on their without any matress and continued to mount Temple without luggage. A bit more than an hour run up and down, through fields with tons of wallabies hiding under the trees. They seem to be pretty accustomed to people, and not too shy! Crackers with cheese rewarded our top conquest, whilst enjoying the full 360 degree view. We felt in harmony with nature. 

West-Kentish provided us with another free campsite at Lake Barrington. In the evening we spotted our first possums, right next to our tent, looking for food! Funny creatures, a little cat-like, but they can be really annoying when it comes to fighting for (your!) food, as we experienced in many other campsites. From West-Kentish, we drove to Sheffield, known for its murals. With nothing else to offer, some clever bloke thought it might help the town in terms of tourism to start painting the walls of all the houses. Apparently it worked :) We found a second hand store run by a lady. Outside the street and store is full of funny advertising slogans like "voted the best looking staff in town". When a French gentleman pointed this out to the owner she simply replied "unfortunatley I wasn't working that day". :) And you know what? They sold tapes!! Finally music for the car! (9 tapes for 2 dollar :D) Armed with Kiss, Alannah Myles and Christopher Cross we continued on our way.

It's then not too far away to Cradle Mountain: it's reflection in Dove Lake one of Tasmania's most iconic pictures. We're still disappointed by ourselves that we didn't climb Cradle Mountain itself. Jan didn't feel 100% well and Mar was lazy. It was late in the afternoon anyway. But the Dove Lake circuit is such an easy hike around it that it is almost wheelchair accessible :) (it does have some stairs though!) but it enabled a wonderful swim in the fresh, not cold, lake. The area is pretty similar to Walls of Jerusalem (which was just as pretty!!) and start of the Overland Track, which is heavily regulated. Meaning it costs 210!! Dollar to start walking with prebooked start dates, unless you do it in the winter months (from May onwards). Not in our budget, sorry. We understand that there will otherwise be so many tours here, the nature can't handle it, but we'll have to do it another day. Tasmania is full of beautiful hikes, why pin ourselves to just this one?! 

From Cradle mountain our track led West. In Zeehan we detoured to the key hole shaped tunnel which was used for mining. What we didn't realise before is that Tasmania is full of mining. Coal copper, gold, silver; you name it they dig it. The area is deserted, the large memorial site abandoned, reachable by a 5 km bush road that leads to nowhere else. A bit sad, empty and creepy at the same time, deserted by all. It's a quiet little town, we experienced the contrary in Strahan. Being the only real tourist attraction in the West (as it has the Queenstown-Strahan historic Railway) busloads of tourists where thrown out here. Our friend Anthony loves it here, we ran away to where it was quieter. The Ocean Beach is a little pearl not to be left out. We spend three hours just playing with the waves, running from the current and collecting shells. (please note, the ripcurls and currents in Aussie and Tassie should NEVER be underestimated!)

We spent the night at Lake Mackintosh, which was almost occupied with all long-term campers and caravans. Their generators disturbed the evening calmness and their white boxes-on-wheels blocked almost the whole view, but it was just for a night. Lake Mackintosh is one of the many dammed waters; much of the rivers in Tasmania are used for hydro-electric energy. In fact, we almost didn't find a lake that was not artificial!

We passed the entry to Frenchman's cap. Felling stressed about having too little time we skipped the 3-day track. A shame, a this year, due to the extreme dryness, it would actually have been possible to do the track without getting stuck in a swamp up until your armpits :D.

We kind of rushed onwards, quickly took a look at Lake St. Clair, which is pretty, but actually should be enjoyed by a walk to really see its beauty. From the visitor's centre it is just a lake. We continued through to Mount Field national Park; the only skiing area of the Island. No snow though. The road leads through an area that has been damaged by bushfires all the way. Trees with leaves turning red, and blackened stems stand like silent witnesses along the road. 

Wanting to do at least some hiking, we put on our hiking boots to explore one of the signposted tracks. The 10-15 minute hikes actually took only 2 minutes :D) showing the different vegetation on the way, alpine lichen to gumtree areas. Here, we've seen some of the tallest trees (70-80m!) on wheelchair accessible tracks (why didn't we just leave our flipflops on? (or "thongs" as they say Down Under). 

It's been sometimes hard to find a (free) place to sleep. We almost didn't manage to on the way to Hobart. Reluctantly we turned into a paid campsite, only to find the gate closed, the place unattended and the phone not answered. We finally found a place past New Norfolk, in Lachlan. Not meant as a campsite, but perfectly suitable! Persistence sometimes pays off :)

In Hobart we tried to get connected…; none of the cafés with internet had something that worked, and even Mc Donalds didn’t get us online. But who cares about being connected in Tasmania? Many times there wasn’t even a phone reception! So we drove a long way south, past Geeveston where we didn't get to see the platypus :(, until we couldn't drive any further; we made it to the southern most part of Australia, South Cape! As we were late in the afternoon, it was hard to find an empty spot. Fate decided we ended up sharing a little green spot with Jo & Zac, a really really lovely couple that we stayed with in Hobart later on as well! As a little miracle, Jo brought her kayak and made it possible for us to go paddling in the southern hemisphere!! (we had originally planned to rent us some kayaks, like in Åland, but budget restrictions made us cancel this. 60-70 dollar a day per person is simply over the top. And that is already with a long-term rental discount! Jan paddled until he could see the Antartic (sea;))!!! With waves crashing onto the kayak, and the wind in his back it almost looked like Mar was going to have to find myself a new travel companion :). But then he came surfing on the waves back, like in a movie :D. We spent the (really!!) rainy evening under Jo & Zac's tarp, another one of those little gem moments. Thanks again guys!! :)

The tent (we borrowed Rosemary's to "save" ours for a while as it simply seems to be less durable than expected) just kept us dry, although we woke up by the dripping of water on our face :( our breakfast was accompanied by wallabies, so used to people that you could almost stroke them. Jan took the kayak for another spin, lost his sunglasses in a waterfight :S and the weather cleared up. We decided late in the afternoon to do the South Cape hike anyway. You can't travel all this way south and then be too lazy to do the 2 hour hike to the Cape!!

So off we were, making our way through the bushes down to the beach. Purple berries all around on the way, some huge caterpillars and even a wallaby showed its face. Some brave people take up this walk just to go for a surf on South Cape beach. A 2 hour hike....most (kite)surfers back home wouldn't even consider walking further than 5 minutes! Thumbs up! We just reached the black cliffs near the beach before sunset. There are simply no words to describe the beauty of it. Just the two of us, on the southern most point in Australia, camping underneath the stars. We’ve seen reports that an Aurora has showed itself that night,….. I spent 2 hours staring the southern cross, but nothing showed itself. :S

From South Cape, we continued back to the capital. Hobart showed its best side through the kindness of Jo & Zac. Our own room, a hot shower, a balcony/terrace to die for and a view over the city. We were pampered, and even celebrated Jo's birthday together. Thanks again for letting us be part of it!! Apart from relaxing, checking our mails, sorting pictures and going downtown for sunglasses shopping, we didn’t do much. We drove up Mount Wellington, right behind Hobart. We should have hiked up, as it is a beautiful track, but sometimes things go slower than you want and time just seems to be slipping through our fingers! So we ended up with 4 wheels rather than 2 legs, but still with a marvelous view. The area around Hobart has many dolorite stones (same like basalt with us back home, just cooled off at a different temperature and speed, and thus a different structure. We stumbled along the top between the big "crystals", some of them looking like the Easter Islands. The prettiest part of the town :)

We continued further  north, towards Tasman Peninsula. A "slight" detour of 200 km :) which didn't bring what we expected; I think it was too much driving and too little enjoying, simply because we left late and had to really look for a campsite again.... Limestone bay next to the old (coal or copper?) mine offered us a little grassy muddy spot between many caravans. And.....possums! As soon as we started cooking, (it was already dark) about 4 pairs of glittering eyes appeared; loudly battling over food that was not theirs in the first place! One of them sneaked behind us and tried to steal the bread from underneath the tent apsis :), one of them didn't show any fear and went straight for the  stove. Two of them waited in the trees above our tent, another continously stumbled over our lines and pegs (I don't think they see well?). We tried to scare them by hitting a water bottle loudly on the ground. I even touched them on the bum with it: useless. It was hilarious, we were running around waving our arms like a madman. As if it was a pacman game where you have 15 seconds to eat the monsters and then have to hide as they keep coming back. During the night Jan woke up as something was touching his head. As the tent was quite small, his head reached the outside of the innertent. A possum had thought that the rear apsis was nice and dry, and Jan's "fur" a warm and cosy place to spent the night!! (time for a haircut?)!!!

We didn't get to see the Tasmanian Devils; it's quite rare nowadays as well. The poor devils have been infected with a terrible facial tumor disease that kills much of the population. The Tasmanians are now desperately trying to save some by putting the healthy ones in a zoo or reserve and the sick ones in quarantaine. The 60 dollar entry was a bit much for us both. That is really one of the sad things about Australia. It is a beautiful country, but many of the beautiful things only work if you bring along a lot of money; one of the main reasons why we wanted not to come here in the first place. But fate decided different and there we are, enjoying it anyway!!

After nearly two weeks, we arrived on the place that we actually wanted to see first: Freycinet national park. The cool thing about Tassie's parks is, that many have free campsites. You only need to pay a permit once for a vehicle, which allows 2 month entry and bringing up to 8 people into the park. That settled, you can go there as often as you like. Unfortunately, Freycinet is a beloved destination for many, and it took us a while to find a spot. Our friends tipped us to drive to White Water Wall. Already in the dark, we managed to finally find the entrance to the path after we had driven past it twice. A 4WD path... As Jan ambitioned to be a rally driver ;) (I'm sure he'd make a good one) and our friends convinced us it would be not too rough, we ventured in. 500 m before the end we stared into a big dent in the road, with no passage around it. There was no other option, we had to turn back. We ended up on the official (payed) campsite. Grrr. That was NOT what we wanted. Only 2 possums to scare off that night.

With beautiful hot weather we woke up, doubting whether or not to stay the night in wineglass bay. The really tame wallabies accompanied us on the parking lot. Really cute!! But also a bit sad, as it means that many people must be feeding them. Not cool. As with southcape, we would have regretted not to spend the night in wineglass bay. It was picture perfect. White, sandy beach with clear turquoise waters, set in a mountainous area. Simply gorgeous!!! The track can be accomplished much faster than is signposted (unless the track is flat, the signposted minutes are all way off what you really need). Unfortunately, we weren't fast enough. You would not believe it if the photos didn't testify it. Blue skies on the top; black sky half an hour later. We ran for the campsite across the beach. 50 meters too late; we were soaked and headed for the toilet :) It must have been about 2 hours before the rain became just a little less, so we cooked some food while sheltering on the toilet seat. For the first time we used our raingear, our hats and gloves again; you might not believe it, but we were freezing.

We used the 5 minute rain-shower break to pitch up our tent on the edge of the beach. A big black moving shadow in the water turned out to be a stingray!!! Beautiful! At dusk, a pirate ship rolled in, a little freaky scenario. An almost deserted beach, mirky weather and a silent black sailing vessel. Like an obscure scene from Pirates of the Carribean :D

This night, we didn't get visited by possums, but a little wet wallaby spent 3 hours waiting for our tent. Soaked, like a wet cat his eyes begged for us to let him in (which of course we didn't - Keep the wild wild please!). But I felt sorry for him. :( The good thing about rain is, that it allows you to write, draw and catch up on the reading!

The next morning was a different world: as if nothing ever happened, the sky was blue again and the water even clearer than before. Swimming!!!! And then...dolphins!! It couldn't getany better. A group of 4-5 dolphins swam the coast up and down, just playing with the waves. The night before we watched "the Cove"- a documentary about the dolphin slaughter in Japan. Unbelievable, we have no words for it. The live ones in wineglass bay made us shortly forget the horror of it. We took the long walk back across Hazard beach, and once more regretted having too little time here.

Next on the schedule was Bay of fires. Named after the fact that Aboriginals lit fires here, not after the fact that many stones on the shore are covered with a beautiful orange red lichen; it makes it look like the bay is on fire! We camped on the rocks, strolled up and down the beach, collected shells and played frisbee (yes, we are still carrying one since Oslo). And, we tried to fish. It's hard without a fishing rod and only a line, but we tried anyway. Unsuccessfully though. We start to pack up our things, thinking it has been a perfect trip, only a shame we didn't get to get some fish or abalone's.

And just when Jan finished that sentence, a bearded guy with a mini kite comes up to us and asks us if we are doing good? A the same time he crashes his kite and answers himself: "oh I guess I am not doing good :)" I like his sense of humour :) I tell him we are useless at it, but try anyway. He simply asks us if we would like to go spearfishing. It's as if it was meant to be. Jan gets himself dressed into Stefan's shorty, and armed with a speargun and  a big metal weight tucked in his wetsuit for neutral buoyancy he is off and actually catches a fish! A little bit small, and of a kind that is too bony to eat, but a fish! Sad that we already been in the water for some time, he's soon freezing. While Mar paddles Stefans kayak across the inner lake towards his place, Stefan and Jan collect quite a few big fish and enough abalones :) to feed us! Stefan basically squats a wonderful place in Sloop Lagoon, and apart from some basics, he's pretty self sufficient. The "Hulk" (his garden in a tent) is wonderful, and the salad from his garden delicious. (pay him a visit when you get the chance!). We admire him for how he lives and thinks, and how he spends his life being really free. But meeting with Stefan also showed us that we do want more security than that (maybe a comfort for our parents to hear?); we learned again a lot about ourselves through those that we meet! 

Time just flew by and it was hard to say goodbye. A little sad, as we wanted to spend some time with Anthony and Leeroy in Launceston again. We left late, it was dark. Luckily, we were pointed out to drive via St. Mary’s, otherwise the journey would have taken twice as long. In Tasmania, roads by night can be really dangerous as there is so much wildlife on the streets!! Any corner that you turn might have a wallaby, an echidna or a wombat waiting for you. Roadkill is so common unfortunately, that there are literally dead animals on the street every 100 m or so. I think we only slightly hit one wallaby :S ; the car didn’t even have a scratch so I think (wish) we missed it in the end.

As said before, the next morning, Anthony literally saved our souls by picking us up from Bridport, so we could drop off the car. Hope to get the chance to return the favour one day! Unfortunately as we didn’t have much time in Bridport, we forgot Jan’s insulin at Rosemary’s, but the express post in Australia functioned within a day. Not bad! And then we had to wake up from the dream ….. three weeks were simply too short! Two hours later we arrived on the mainland again… next entry: Melbourne!!!!!