Tasmania-Land of the Devils
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| For a while there it seemed that I was not destined to go to Tasmania. Arriving at the docks one beautiful summer night in January (summer in Australia), a sudden wind storm-blowing at 100km/h or 60mph-caused both the ferry to rip free of its moorings and also for the car ramp to snap in half (see above). It was a bit exciting to be there and see it first hand but it set me back more than a week in my travels. |
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| Not deterred I finally got my car on the ferry about 10 days later and took the 12+hour journey from Melbourne to Devonport. No-I did not get a new car-just snuck a quick shot while getting into my old wreck. |
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| And so began the best month ever! Tasmania was one beautiful sight, sound and taste after another. We (my travel companions you can see below) stopped many times along the road for cider, beer, wine, cheese, chocolate, berry and ice cream tastings-just to name a few. |
The original goal upon arriving in Tasmania was to spend a few weeks picking fruit-a common job on the island. But luck wasn't with us and most of the fruits were just out of season. I spent only one day picking blueberries -a total of about 26kilos or 57lbs of blueberries for this local farmer. And I probably ate nearly as much. The pay wasn't great but turns out he's also an amateur brewer and threw in a bottle of his latest brew to sample.
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| Once we realized that there was no work to be had, we decided to stop wasting time and got on the road. We stopped at Bay of Fires on the east coast-named because a sea captain noticed many fires burning there upon arrival. But the name works double time because the lichen that grows on the rocks is bright orange and it almost looks inflamed. |
Next we hit up Wineglass Bay. The picture on the left is from my early morning run and the one on the right is after the hike up to the lookout. Again, the name has two possible birth places. The curve of the beach is like a wine glass, but also the area was used for whaling way back, and the water would have been stained a nice red! And I personally thought that the way to the two bays meet (picture on the right) looks like the stem of a wineglass......so who's right?
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| MY FIRST JOEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After nearly a year in Oz I finally saw a baby Joey in his mother's pouch. Unfortunately it was because the animals in the park have gotten so used to visitors that they come begging. But it was so cute! |
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| I adore fun, matter of fact names like this one. "Wow, this cave is remarkable." "Thank you for solving the problem of naming it." Remarkable Cave's name derives from the fact that when the water recedes, you can walk from this point though these tunnels out into the ocean. And when you look though the tunnel from this exact point you can see that the outline of the hole in the background is a map of Tasmania! |
This old barn caught my eye one rainy day. I stopped to try and capture the beautiful colors of the barn and the pastures around it. During my photoshoot I noticed this barbed wire fence that was covered in fleece from all of the sheep that have gotten caught in it over the years. It's little details like this that make being on the road extra special-not just the big touristy spots.
However, that doesn't mean those big touristy spots should be ignored.
On that same rainy day we checked out a few other points of interest, that because of the stormy weather, were that much more spectacular. The Blow Hole-where water comes rushing in from the coast and bursts out of the opening and the Devil's Kitchen which was a swirling rush of humongous waves, crashing into the sheer cliffs. One of my travels buddies (who's English was minimal at the time) looked out of the cliffs, then at me and said, "This is definitely the best day ever." I agree.
Two of the best hot chocolates of my life, although the one on the right was leagues ahead. Both were a chili chocolate made in house.
When you travel with a world renowned chef and a French girl you become more aware of the simple things in life-like the herb garden at a botanical garden in Hobart. They kept leaning over to rub the leaves and then smell them and talk about all of the wonderful dishes they could make with these herbs. So I had to pretend I knew what I was doing too.
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| The Tasmania Tiger, inaccurately named for its stripes even though it's a marsupial and closely related to the Devil. For many reasons it went extinct in the 1930's, but it has taken on the lore similar to the Lock Ness monster and Big Food, such that people are constantly on the lookout for evidence of its continued existence. |
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| Mt. Field National Park-one of my favorite hikes in all of Australia and one that wasn't even on our radar till it was recommended by our Couchsurfing host. Sitting among the peaks of the mountain range were all of these little finger lakes, each one blue and crystal clear. |
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| Having created my Couchsurfing account years ago, I did not get into it until Tasmania, thanks to one of my travel companions. Our second experience put me in contact with this motley crew- two Belgiums, a French girl, an Argentinian and a local Aussie (our gracious host). Since then I've surfed my way through the rest of Oz, and onto Thailand and Taiwan. It an amazing way to meet both locals who give you great insight and other travelers who share your love of traveling. Plus we lucked out because it was Mardi Gras or Pancake Day in France-so we had some delicious savory and sweet crepes made for us. Thanks ladies. |
I did manage to throw some more sophisticated culture into my trip (unless we can agree that wineries are sophisticated). In Hobart we stopped in at the MONA-Museum of Old and New Art. On the right, a cement mixer made from laser-cut steel which looks like it would be a better decoration for some 19th century balcony. And on the right-a bit-fall machine uses an algorithm to gather words from the Internet and then spells them out in precise internals of water droplets. It was mesmerizing.
Leaving Hobart for a few days my friend and I set out to dig up as many oysters as we could from a little known spot called Cockle Creek on the southern coast of Tasmania. Although the oysters ended up being a disappointment we were able to eat THREE huge seafood meals that we collected ourselves. Running our fingers through the riverbeds of the creek gave us more than enough cockles (~small clams) and mussels plus our campground neighbor donated a large crab and some abalone that he had dove for that day (probably about $100 worth!).
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| This little guy is called a pademelon-the smallest in the kangaroo and wallaby family. They are much more friendly and curious than their cousins and were hopping all around the campground without a care for the humans. Or maybe they did care ;) |
After our delicious, fresh-caught and free seafood dinner, we camped out and woke up to hike to the southern-most part of Tasmania-making it the southern most part of all of Australia (so: northern-most, eastern-most and southern-most points of the country-check, check and check). The Southern Ocean-known for being extremely dangerous to sailors, was very ominously marked with whale bones.
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| One of our goals while out hiking was to always find a unique and beautiful site to have a picnic. We tried out this log one day in the Lake St. Clair National Park and while beautiful, it was a bit difficult to keep all of our things safely on the log. |
Arriving at Cradle Mountain National Park I slammed on the brakes to catch a shot of this wombat on the left. We were so excited and proud of ourselves that we had caught a glimpse of the adorable, fluffball. However, the next day we saw about 20 wombats (including a few babies). We definitely felt a bit silly for our initial reaction-but still just as excited to watch these pigs crossed with bears.
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| Looking at this picture now I can see how people might think it's photoshopped-that this background is fake. But I assure you that it's not. This was the start of a short walk around Dove Lake, seen in the background. At the end of the walk I decided that after 4 days of camping out without running water I needed a shower! So I forced myself to take a dip in the frigid water. My goal was to bob under for 10 seconds but within the first second my body was so shocked by the cold that I gasped, sucked in water and surfaced-coughing water out of my lungs. But at least I was "clean" again. |
You can see the peak of Cradle Mountain above my head in the photo above. The next day we set out on a 20km/11mile hike that took us to the peak. Below left was the last hour or so of the hike. Giant boulders are piled on top of one another and we had to jump from one to the other. It was tiring and challenging but it made for a nice break from some of the straighter trails we'd hiked. As you can see from the photo on the right-I was super pumped to have finally arrived at the top.
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| I'm constantly reading signs and posts and I love when I find something that makes me smile or laugh. Can you tell why I took this picture? |
Tasmania was dotted with small, older towns that had some beautiful well-preserved buildings and houses from the last century or so. In Stanley we walked the main drag admiring the houses and the gardens. Everyone I saw stopped what they were doing to say hello and tell me a bit about what they were doing in their gardens. And no one I met had two heads (mainlanders joke that Tassies are inbred-much like our southerners).
Thanks again to my sister, I knew to be on the lookout for platypuses and after nearly an hour of searching we found one swimming about in a beautiful, peaceful river. Later that night we took a tour with a local group who show you the nesting spot of the Fairy Penguins which are the smallest of all penguins.
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Welcome to Penguin, Tasmania where EVERYTHING is penguin related. |
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And the whole reason one goes to Tasmania-the DEVILS!!!!!!!!!!! These guys are extremely shy and were one of the few animals that are nearly impossible to see in the wild so we headed to a nature conservatory where we got to witness these little buggers really tear into a kangaroo leg. At one point while one of the caretakers held the leg over a fence, a few of them were hanging onto the meat, feet dangling in the air. Quick fun facts: Devils have one of the most powerful bite force quotients for their size; females have a rear-facing pouch; and mothers give birth to about 50 pea size babies, but only the first few who make it to the pouch will survive and grow. |
