The city girl within me got more and more terrified as the bars on our mobiles faded away
Going to Tasmania, I’d anticipated wild animals, mountainous
hikes, unpredictable weather and stunning views. And I was right.
Tasmania is all of those things, but until you’ve been (or
read a blog by someone whose been, thank you) it’s hard to really imagine. For
most people outside Australia, Tasmania just conjures up images of the
Tasmanian devil (both cartoon and real). Until coming to Australia I hadn’t
thought much about it at all, and knew it just as the little island underneath
the big island. But when I heard it being described as the cheaper New Zealand,
it seemed like a good option for mid-semester break.
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| Our Route |
We started our trip on the west side, which has been described by Discover Tasmania.com as ‘one of Australia’s last true wilderness frontiers.’ It’s an incredibly pretentious sounding statement, but I have to say it sums it up pretty well. The London city girl within me got more and more terrified as we progressed down the road from Launceston into the rainforests of the west. As the bars on our mobiles decreased and faded away, I knew I wasn’t in
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| Height of fashion on Cradle Mountain |
On our first night in rural Tassie we drove around in the dark for a few hours searching for a campsite. Driving at night around Tassie isn’t recommended because of the wild animals. A sad reminder of this was the amount of roadkill lining the way. Me being me, I’d downloaded an app to help find free campsites. But, alas, Android being Android, it didn’t work and helpfully sent us into the middle of a horse paddock. We finally found a place and I promptly had my first experience with boiling water to make in sanitary (rather than relying on a helpful tap).
The next day was Cradle Mountain where we were greeted by
torrential rain. The walk round the lake, however, was beautiful and we spotted
a few rainbows. The hike to the summit was less my forte as it involved
scrambling over rocks uphill. We couldn’t actually get to the summit because
the weather was so bad but I wasn’t particularly complaining about our decision
to abort mission. Instead, we did a Wombat walk which was adorable (and, yay,
no rock scrambling.)
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| Wombat Walk |
The drive down to Hobart the next day was pretty stunning.
There are so many terrains in Tasmania that we were driving through a green
countryside one minute and surrounded by dark orange woodland the next. We had
more of a city-day, getting a lunch by the harbour and visiting the botanical
gardens. To my delight dismay, there aren’t camping options near Hobart
so we had no choice but to rent
cabins for the night. Such a shame of course to sleep with a roof over our
heads and on mattresses.
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| Museum of Modern Art |
Wednesday was also spent in Hobart, visiting MONA, the
massive, world-famous art gallery in Tassie. As this is an art blog, I’ll
probably do a more thorough write up of it at some point, but in summary:
vaginas, tattoos, Madonna, and lots of art. Would hugely recommend.
Of course no day is complete with just culture, so we headed
to Mount Wellington and did a short walk around it. As it was all horizontal,
and I didn’t have to lift my leg near my chin to climb it, there were no
complaints from me.
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| The penal colony at Darlington |
We spent the night in Triabunna which is a great little
coastal town with a supermarket!! (Not that I spent most of the western side
looking for signs of civilisation or anything.) From Triabunna, we caught the
boat to Maria Island, which is a stunning national park full of wildlife as
well as having one of the best preserved convict probation stations in Aus. It
doesn’t have any roads so the only way to get around is mountain biking. Which
sounds all great at first.
And then you realise you haven’t really cycled since
Amsterdam a year ago. And Amsterdam is tarmacked, not sand and mud. And, to be
honest, Amsterdam hurt your bum too.
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| Painted Cliffs in Maria Island |
Yeah, so… um… I personally
loved the cycling part. My thighs, bum, back, hands and shins didn’t. I mention
shins because they probably got the worst bruises. Not because I fell off the
bike. But because I kept dropping it onto myself as I walked it back.
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| Relief after surviving the bikes on Maria Island |
Needless to say, I spent a few hours waiting for the others
back at Darlington, the historical township on the island. On the bright side,
I now know a lot about the history of the place so hit me up for any fun facts about the convicts there.
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| Freycinet |
We all somehow survived the cycling and lived to see the
next day, which we spent in Freycinet, a beautiful national park encompassing
Wineglass Bay and the Bay of Fires, two must-see sights in Tassie. We did a
hike for a few hours which was pretty manageable (despite how out of breath I
was) and well worth the views. The others decided to climb Mount Amos as well,
but I was scared off by the signs yelling DON’T CLIMB UNLESS YOU’RE AN
EXPERIENCED HIKER. Which, as you may have guessed, I am not.
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| Bay of Fires |
For the final day, we started winding back round to
Launceston to catch our flight home. On the way we stopped off at St Columba
falls, another example of the different terrains to be found here. Then I
finished the trip by finally purchasing a t-shirt with Tasmanian Devils on it.
Yes, it is made for a child, but as the saying goes, if the top fits, you buy
it.
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| Walking to St Columba Falls |
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| St Columba Falls |
We really did get to
see so much in such a short time, it’s well worth a visit. And on the bright
side, despite my constant terror of most forms of wildlife there, I didn’t
actually get bitten by anything…
Nope, that happened back in Melbourne two days later. When I
was bitten by a spider in our garden…
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| The Aftermath. |
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