Tasmania

Well worth a look!!

25.01.2008 - 29.01.2008 22 °C

Day 1

I've met several people on my travels who have told me that going to Tasmania is a waste of time as you can just visit New Zealand for the same price and see similar sights but on a grander scale. Complete nonsense - I had a fabulous time in Tasmania and there's quite a few things that New Zealand can't possibly offer, as you'll see.

We got up in Melbourne at silly o'clock in the morning and after a short one hour flight arrived at Hobart at 8:30am. By the time the others arrived at 9:30am we had our 7 seater car from the rental company and were ready to rock and roll.

Tasmania is a fascinating little place (well, a similar size to England actually) that many people seem unable to comprehend. Two people in our group didn't know Tasmania was part of Australia. It is of course one of the six states of Australia, along with the two previously covered in my blog - New South Wales and Victoria. Its capital is Hobart, a proper city with an economy, a big port and even an international test match cricket ground. Tasmania has a total population of about 500,000 people. There's no international airport so you can only fly into Hobart or Launceston from the mainland.

We checked into our hostel, the Pickled Frog in Hobart, strolled into the city centre for a bite to eat and left for our first destination, the Tasmanian Devil Park, at 1pm.

I learnt two main things from seeing the Devils at the park. The first is that they're nothing like the cartoon character Taz, not just in looks of course but in character. They go a little bit wild at feeding time but for most of the day they just lounge about on top of each other, sleeping in the shade and just generally being peaceful. The second thing is that the Devils are facing a serious extinction threat due to a mysterious facial cancer that scientists are still trying to work out - it's believed that the Devil population has halved in the last decade. It's a big issue for the people of Tasmania having lost their other icon, the Tasmanian Tiger, and having to work out how to deal with the highly intelligent European red fox that somehow appeared in 2001 and is threatening to wipe out the Devils due to their decreasing number - previously the Devils were taking care of the foxes but now the foxes are getting more and more food and increasing in number.

The highlight of the park was the kangaroo feeding. They bring out a huge bucket of green grain and you just fill your hands with it and wander over to some roos and let them munch out of your hands. At one point a massive one came bounding towards me while I was feeding a smaller one, grabbed my hands with its front paws and selfishly gobbled up the rest in no time at all, leaving the smaller one to go and find some food elsewhere. Cool. There was some other stuff going on including a bird of prey exhibition similar to the one I saw in Devon last year, and then we moved on to Port Arthur at the very bottom right of the island, a former penal colony with a rough history and also the home to a gun suicide massacre in 1996.

Port Arthur was advertised as an inescapable prison - like Alcatraz - this reputation was helped by the shark infested waters that surround it. One person managed to escape by covering himself in a kangaroo hide and hopping across the plains but gave himself up when the guards started to shoot at him so they could have something for dinner. Prisoners were hooded and forced into complete silence, and also had to build most of the buildings that make up the colony. Boys as young as nine were sent there for stealing toys. Prisoners were subjected to psychological rather than physical torture and many inmates tried to kill themselves or others in an attempt to escape it. 1,646 people died in the penal colony during the 40 years it was open.

Looking around the old buildings was interesting without being exciting. We were a bit late and so we only got a twilight pass and a few of the buildings were closed when we got there. Still, we saw it and ticked it off the list of things to do in Tasmania, then drove back to Hobart with some beautiful sunset views on the way.

In the evening we had a few drinks and a fantastic curry that gave me truly horrendous wind, then it was off to bed ready for a busy day - as they'd all turn out to be in Tasmania.

Day 2

Today we checked out the east coast of Tasmania. We started off by taking a 2 hour drive to Coles Bay/Freycinet Park and marched confidently up the walking path to check out Wineglass Bay, one of Tasmania's most famous attractions. Pretty soon we were reduced to piles of sweat crawling up the steep and seemingly never-ending trail, battling against the humidity and the slippery path. We reached the lookout point after about 45 minutes and discovered, to our absolute horror, that it was full of Chinese tourists who had no intention of getting out of the way. Marvellous. Just in case they were about to head down towards the bay we grabbed a quick kodak moment over their heads and quickly rushed down the path ahead of them.

The weather wasn't the greatest, overcast and humid, so we didn't spend very long on the beach. A quick bit of snorkelling, spoilt by some pretty meaty waves, and then it was time to walk back up the path to the car. Ouch. I had to change t-shirts when we got back as mine was drenched with sweat. Pretty gross but unavoidable.

From there we drove all the way up the coastal road to St Helens, our stop-off for the night, where we checked into the YHA and went to the RSL for some food and, to our great surprise, some live entertainment from a local band. I really can't describe how bad they were - we were literally in tears, the (old) singer couldn't sing at all and the guitars were hopelessly out of tune. I immediately didn't want to stay in St Helens for more than that one night.

One more journey before we tucked into some drinks - to Binalong Bay to see a bit of the Bay of Fires, a stunning stretch of coast formed by huge rocks turned red by iron ore. We spent about 15 minutes there until it went dark, and then went back to St Helens to see what was going on in terms of evening activities - it was, after all, Australia Day, so surely there'd be something to do?

If you're ever in Tasmania do not, under any circumstance, stay in St Helens. It's the hickiest of hick towns, everyone is related to each other and there's an ongoing competition for best mullet that even the women take part in. As you can probably tell, I wasn't impressed and couldn't wait to get out of there. Fortunately we only had a few hours to suffer before we all flaked out at the hostel and got up even earlier in the morning for a huge journey to the west side of the island.

Day 3

It took just over 4 hours to reach Cradle Mountain National Park from St Helens. Our accomodation was in the park itself - Cosy Cabins YHA Lodge - so we checked straight in and headed down to the various walking routes, which we did in the following order:

- Pencil Pine Falls
- Knyvet Falls
- Enchanted Stroll
- King Billy Track

The walks were quiet which gave us poetic license to explore off the pathways in a few places, in particular the two waterfalls where we got as close as we could by jumping across the rocks in the streams, sometimes a bit precariously, but that all stopped for me when I spotted a big black snake disappearing into a crevice on a bank near one of the falls.

Fairly exhausted and hungry, we strolled into the main Cradle Mountain Lodge for some expensive food and drinks in front of a steaming hot fire in leather armchairs overlooking the lake. Lovely. Then back to the cabin for drink, a few games of cards and a well-earned sleep. Trekking around Tasmania is certainly hard work.

Day 4

Monday was pencilled in as a day of boozing in Tasmania's second city, Launceston. First of all though we had to get there, and on the way we stopped off near Mole Creek to check out King Solomon's Caves.

I'd never been to a cave before and it was pretty much as I expected, although I hadn't anticipated having to hand over quite so much money for the pleasure. The caves were cold, about 9 degrees, and quite narrow and tight in places. One thing's for sure - I was soon wishing I'd worn a bit more than a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops down there. By the way, in Aussie lingo I was wearing a tee, boardies and thongs. Mate.

As good as the caves were I was glad to get out of there to warm my feet up in the sun, and to get away from the tour guide who spooked me completely. Within 2 hours of driving we had arrived in Launceston and checked into our hostel, the Backpackers Hub. And within half an hour of that we'd started drinking in the bar.

We broke off the drinks at 5pm to get some food from the city centre. It was Bank Holiday Monday, after Australia Day, and so a lot of places were shut but we found somewhere reasonable and stuffed our faces before heading back to get changed for a night out in Launceston.

Everything was shut when we went back out. Everything. Not a boozer in sight had an open door. When they have a bank holiday in Launceston they do it properly, no exceptions. Deflated, we went back to the hostel to drink at the bar (thank god they had one, most don't) and the night petered out into one of tiredness. A bit disappointing, especially as we'd been assured that there'd be stuff to do, even on a Bank Holiday. Never mind, the next day would prove to be much more fruitful.

Day 5

Launceston is a great place. A bit too quiet for my liking but from what I saw it was much nicer than Hobart and there's plenty to do. We strolled up the road from the hostel in the morning and checked out the Chinese monkeys in the city park. They were great value for money (free), fascinating creatures to watch in a strange sort of Big Brother way. And then we drove to Cataract Gorge, the highlight of the day and one of the best bits of the Tasmania trip.

The Gorge is a beautiful piece of scenery and they've enhanced it by introducing and maintaining lush grass, a big swimming pool, walkways and wildlife such as peacocks and wallabies.They actually make the money to pay for all this by charging just over 5 pounds for a return ride on the cable chairs across the gorge. It's great value for money, well worth it for the views, and the locals get to enjoy the water or the pool for free. There are even spots to jump off the rocks into the water. Unfortunately we had to leave at 1pm and make the 3 hour drive to Hobart so that the girls could get their flights back to Sydney.

Before going to the airport we checked out Salamanca Square in Hobart, which was very posh although affordable to eat. Then, when we'd said goodbye to the girls at the airport, we drove west in the vain hope that we wouldn't be too late to see Russell Falls, one of the main features in any illustrated Tasmania book.

Not only were we there in time to see it but we were also late enough to sneak in without paying. Brucie Bonus. More leaping about where we shouldn't have been, and yet more steep paths, and then back to the Pickled Frog in Hobart for our last night in Tasmania.