Tassie Adventure - Days 11 & 12 - Closing the Loop

My second day in camp started early with a 3km walk to the West Coast Wilderness Railway - a nice, easy stroll along the Esplanade to Regatta Point Station, ready for a train ride.  But first a breakfast at Tracks on Point - the cafeteria attached to the railway station.  Known for its burgers, the breakfast menu is popular with the train crowd, so I arrived extra early to ensure I got a table.

Next, a 50 minute ride through the Teepookana Forest Reserve through the old Teepookana township and onto the Lower Landing station. What a rich history this train line has seen. Built out of necessity when copper was discovered, it was once the way through to Queenstown and bustling townships along the way. 

 The commentary on the train covered the pioneers who founded the line, the rebuild of the line following its closure and the use of the line today as we followed the King River along its course.  Over 100 locals are employed by the railway in the current day, so not only is it a great tourist attraction, but a significant employee within the area.  There are over 40 bridges in just the 35km stretch that has currently been rebuilt, including one bridge that was shipped all the way from London, put together like a jigsaw puzzle and lowered into place using barges and temporary parallel railway lines.  the engines have been re-built a number of times, first to remove the need for the coal fires (no longer a steam train) and ran on oil.  The second conversion enabled the engine to run on recycled automotive oil, and the entire company is working towards ecologically sustainable practices.

The stop at Lower Landing station offered a lovely rainforest walk with commentary on the local flora and fauna, and a free honey tasting.  The railway is used to bring in hundreds of bee hives every year to assist in the pollination of the leatherwood trees, and having tried the leatherwood honey, I must say it is a worthwhile effort that they do so.

Back to Strahan (and trying not to fall asleep with the gently rocking of the train) for lunch at The Kitchen, where I had a typically Tasmanian delight - a curried scallop pie and a Hurst soft drink while sitting on the Esplanade and watching the water stream by.

Next stop, Ocean Beach where I got a bit more than my feet wet and experienced the absolute strongest pull of ocean waves.  The beach was almost deserted (no surf lifesaving clubs around this area) and I spent a lovely hour talking to the Pacific gulls - some of the largest seagulls I’ve seen in the Southern Hemisphere - on par with the big guys I found in Seattle.

The rest of the afternoon was spent just following the streets around Strahan, before returning to Westerly Seafoods for prosciutto-wrapped oysters battered and dipped in soy sauce and a quiet night in my tent.  

Early morning pack-up next morning and it was time to tackle the 99 bends on the road to Queenstown.  I hadn’t originally planned to travel this way, however Hayden assured me I had to visit Queenstown as it was the home of our favourite AFL coach - Chris Fagan.  I’m so glad I explored this beautiful town as there were some hidden treasures in and around town.

First stop Spion Kopf (Spy Hill) a beautiful lookout that takes in the entirety of Queenstown, but is a tough climb up the side of the hill.  Lots of history to tell stories about and when I messaged Hayden to let him know I was in “Dad’s” hometown, he asked if I could find the old gravel footy field.  Didn’t take long on the top hill to look to my right and see it right below.

I made my way down the hill and had breakfast at the Tracks cafe - this one is part of the Queenstown railway system - and then back on the road to Launceston via the bottom loop.  Stop off at the Iron Blow Lookout, which has the most spectacularly blue waters, the Franklin River Nature Trail, which took me down to the banks of the Franklin River, a river that I learned so much about in the 80s when the Tasmanian Government was talking about damming it and the associated protests and subsequent decision not to do so.  Final few stops before the final night at Hadspen was a visit to Lake St Clair - the end point of the Overland Track, where I witnessed a few groups completing their multi-day trek.  Then onto the geographical centre of Tasmania before cruising over some dodgy gravel “highways” to stay just outside of Launceston.

My final day was spent at Tasmania Zoo - where I spent hours wandering around all the enclosures, watching the animal and birds, and listening to keeper talks.  I loved that they had signs up to talk about the natural habitat of the animals, the threats they face in the wild, their typical behaviours and other interesting little tidbits.  I love zoos and the chance to see animals from around the world, but couldn’t help but feel sad when I read about how the African Painted Dogs would hunt and spend their days, only to see them lazing around in the sun, not hunting.  Lions who would roam the savannahs in their enclosures not hunting, just lazing in the sun.  But then I watched something really interesting.  The lions are on one side of the zoo, the painted dogs on the other side of the zoo.  While I was sitting watching the painted dogs, the lions began to roar.  I watched those dogs go from prone and laying in the sunshine to upright and on high alert, sniffing the ear and listening to the roars.  While they may not be in their natural habitat they are still hard-wired to respond to sounds that their ancestors have lived with for generations.

Another cute little animal, the Binturong’s interesting fact on their sign was that they smell like buttered popcorn.  As I was walking past their enclosure the second time, the wind changed direction, and there it was - the smell of buttered popcorn.  When I mentioned it to one of the keepers, she mentioned that it was actually the the scent of their urine - they would rub their feet through it, and track it around.  I suggested that they should get a popcorn machine in the cafeteria, because I was craving popcorn after smelling the scent.

I had two animal encounters while at the zoo - and got to cuddle a Tasmanian Devil joey, and a baby wombat.  I don’t think I could smile any wider in those photos.

My trip to Tassie has been phenomenal and we are already planning a return in December, this time with Brendon in tow.  We will do a lot of the things I didn’t do this time (Bruny Island, Port Arthur and more of the North-East) and a few of the things I did do that I knew Brendon would enjoy.  

Tassie Adventure - Day 10 - Farewell Cradle, hello Strahan

After a much warmer night’s sleep I hopped the shuttle one last time up to Snake Hill for a gentle, mostly downhill walk down to Ronny’s Creek along the boardwalk. 

It was very quiet and I felt like the only person in the world for most of it, with only a single hiker going in the opposite direction during the whole walk.  Lots of evidence of wombats (square poo) and perhaps a couple of devils as well (furry poo) and even the elusive echidna (long, oval poo), but the only animals sighted today were wallabies.

While the sun was working to come out, the mountain was draped in fog which led to some different photos to the day before.

Back on the shuttle to the Interpretation Centre where the Rainforest Corcuit was a quick 20 minute delight, complete with views of Pencil Pine Falls and a walk through the centre learning more about Tassie’s World Heritage listings.

Final shuttle back to the Visitor Centre and a short drive back to Devils@Cradle where I spent another hour watching the Devils doing laps in their enclosures and quolls stalking around theirs.

The drive to Strahan included a stop in Rosebery and Zeehan to look around and the tent was set up by 2pm.  Went to the local shopping centre (an IGA and a pharmacy side by side) for supplies and then up to the Water Tower lookout for views across the town and its waters, and then to the People’s Park for the 3km return walk to Hogarth Falls - a lovely rainforest walk with a waterfall reward at the end - lots of people out doing this one today.

On the way back to camp I stopped at a little food van - Westerly Seafoods and for $30 got the scallops and chips option to take home and eat on the water’s edge at camp. 15 succulent scallops and the perfect crispy chips well chicken-salted made for the perfect end to the day. 

Sat now in the camp lounge charging my devices and chatting to some fellow travellers from NSW and looking forward to tomorrow’s booked adventure (and planning my return trip here with Brendon).

Tassie Adventure Day 9 - Bucket List Ticks

After the cold temps overnight I got up in the morning and packed the tent up, prepared to sleep in the car for night two. I was warm in the tent with an alpine rated sleeping bag, but was aware of the cold the whole time (if my hand ventured out of the bag the cold would jolt me awake). So car camping it is tonight - lucky I have a system now and it’s comfy.

Today’s activities started with a trip on the shuttle bus out to Dove Lake where I had to decide which trail to do. The weather is so variable here that that involved packing for heat, rain and everything in between, so a slightly heavier pack than usual with plenty of water on board.

I opted to do the Dove Lake Circuit - a 2-3 hour, 6km lap of the lake. What a way to see a piece of everything that Cradle Mountain has to offer. The trail is made up of well maintained boardwalks, earthen tracks, stone and wood stairs and is grade 2 moderate. It takes you right down to the water’s edge and high up over the mountain ridge so you can stand and purvey how far you have come. Landscapes vary between open hilltops, covered rainforest areas and there are so many waterfalls and bubbling brooks that feed down into the lake.

As with the previous day the weather came in and out - it was lightly raining as we left so the hiking poncho got a workout and although it never came off, we had patches of sunlight, blustery winds and light misty rain throughout the walk.

Not a lot of animal life around, but plenty of birds.  I played tagged with a French family who would stop for photos, then catch me, then stop for photos then catch me again. It became a little joke as we would pass each other - “see you soon”.

At the 4km mark stairs became the thing as we climbed over the ridge of the mountain. I have had a tight right Achilles for a couple of days now and the up and down of the stairs did nothing to relieve that and was quite painful, but happy to finish the walk in just a minute over 2 hours.  

Was feeling like a rest was needed so back to the cafe at the visitor centre for some lunch, where I had a home made beef pie and my first coffee in Tasmania. Both delicious!  A little shopping in the gift shop and back to camp to get ready for the night activity I’d booked.

I spent those couple of hours tidying up the car and my luggage, and made my way to the camp kitchen which is a huge circular structure with a beautiful toasty warm fireplace in the centre. Pulled up a chair and warmed my cold toes and caught up on the rest of the footy game I’d been watching (go Lions!) and then scrolling the net. A few more travellers arrived and started chatting - of course they were from Wellington Point (just down the road from home).

The night activity was so worth the money I paid.  Devils@Cradle is a wildlife sanctuary that is actively breeding and managing an emergency population of Tasmanian Devils and Quolls.  As I drove into the parking lot I even saw my first wombat in the wild, so had to walk back down the driveway to get some photos and videos of him too.

I booked the Sunset Experience and Sarah our guide absolutely made our day with her commentary about the quolls and devils.  We got to pat one of the boys (Noah) and watch first hand how powerful those claws and teeth are. We had a feeding viewing and let me tell you those teeth can just chunk through bone in a way that would make an orthopaedic surgeon shudder! And we got to experience this drinking some delicious Tassie wines, eating Tassie sweet treats and sitting around a campfire toasting marshmallows. 

It was such a beautiful experience and Sarah was so passionate about her work and her animals that I just had to buy some souvenirs in the gift shop. The best souvenir I bought was an adoption certificate for Noah, knowing that the money goes directly back into the sanctuary and protecting these two beautiful species.

Home now tucked up in my car - and ready for Strahan tomorrow - after a bit more walking at Cradle.

Tassie Adventure Days 6,7 & 8

The primary reason for my trip to Tassie was for the Devonport Triathlon - the World Para Triathlon Series and Oceania Championships.  Essentially it is three days of racing, setting up for the next race, racing, setting up for the next race, and so on and so forth.

It was great to catch up with so many of my triathlon family - some whom I had not seen in person since pre-COVID!  Others I keep up with on the socials, but so good to be able to talk to them face to face (although I should have tied down Sue S for more Spanish practice, but she was busy as head referee for a number of the races.  There were almost thirty of us in total I think, and a number of people who I had never met before, but got the chance to get to know - technical officials are some of the funnest people I know - with the best stories to tell!

The days are long, and we are on our feet for most of that time.  This event I was in Transition and also worked the Mount/Dismount Line.  Talk about concentration.  While we video the athletes in this area to ensure we can identify infractions correctly, we actually eyeball every foot as it lands either before or after the line to ensure athletes are following the rules.  It is exhausting, because your brain is in constant analysis mode, and your feet ache at the end of the day after being on them all day.  But it is pretty cool to be involved in such a high-profile event that gets live-streamed across the world.

The final night dinner was held at Valentino’s in town, and was a great chance to chat and share stories and drinks with my like-minded friends.  As exhausting as it is, I do love this particular volunteer gig and am probably 50/50 on attending again next year.  

So at midday today I packed up camp and headed for Cradle Mountain where things could not be any more different.  On the mountain today we’ve had hail, rain, sunshine, wind, more hail, then rain, then sunshine and while it’s 4 degrees outside, apparently it feels like minus 1.  Thankfully the holiday park I’m camping at has a beautiful camp kitchen complete with a huge fireplace that we can eat and play in to keep warm, so I’ve been in there for an hour or so before I head to bed.  The hail has softened up to sleet now, and there’s talk of possible snow overnight - crazy stuff!

I made my way to the Visitor Centre following camp setup, and have got me a shuttle bus pass to the National Park.  First shuttle was to the easy trails at the start of the park, where I had a lovely amble (on my sore feet) around the Enchanted Walk.  No wombat sightings yet, but there were some beautiful wallabies, and the padmelons have been lurking around my campsite as well. 

Tomorrow I’m off to explore the park further, so I’ll keep you in the loop.

Tassie Adventure - Day 5 and someone else is calling the shots

Solo travel is not for everyone.  It can be daunting to camp alone, eat alone, do activities alone but the planning to do what you want to do, when you want to do it is pretty awesome!

However sometimes that can be a bit of a drag, and if you’re really lucky, someone will come along and offer to spend the day driving you round to tick off things on their bucket list - and they are either things you wanted to do, or would like to do, but probably wouldn’t if you were travelling alone.

Today, I had the fabulous Monica pick me up and drive me along the North Coast.  After a quick catch up with some old and new members of our triathlon family, we set off for our first destination - the Table Cape Lighthouse.  Tragic backstory - only weeks after opening the lighthouse keepers’young son passed away and there is a memorial to him and a marker on his grave.  To this day it is tended and there have been many little momentos left for Bertram in his honour.

Next stop the tulip farm. Now sadly there were no tulips, as it is not the season.  Which is really unfortunate, as I can only imagine what the fields looking out to the lighthouse must look like cram-packed with beautiful flowers.  The farm has set up The Patch in the off-season, with rows and rows of dahlias of all shapes and colours, along with a corn maze and sunflower beds.  The fat bumble bees that were busily collecting pollen were everywhere - they are so cute with their fuzzy, fluffy fur covered bodies, and the noise as they buzz around is fascinating.  Monica and I had a ball exploring the different garden beds and trying to get lost in the maize (but Monica was an ace and got us out before we had to call for the air-sea rescue.

Lunch was well-spent at Hellyer’s Road Distillery, where we indulged in a hot and cold platter, maybe a cocktail and a decadent dessert.  Sad to learn they are remodelling and may be removing the kitchen, which is a shame, as the food was amazing.  The share platters gave the chance to have a tasting of just about everything that was on the main menu, but as bite size pieces.  Of course, the Tasmanian cheeses on the cold platter were top grade and were complemented by the cheese kransky, salami, pickles and fruit and nuts served alongside.  And don’t get me started on the Apple Crumble Cocktail - it was such a lovely blend of whiskey, cinnamon and cloudy apple cider.  Like drinking a liquid apple pie.

Our final destination is the seaside town of Penguin, where, funnily enough you can’t see little penguins come in because their shoreline lacks the vegetation for penguins to nest and hide.  We walked along the beach and Monica taught me about sea glass - we found a few different colours - green, brown, clear and a cloudy teal.  Very pretty and a lovely little reminder of my trip to Tasmania.

Ok, our final last stop was the Mersey Bluff Lighthouse, which is situated just up over the hill from my campsite.  This one is painted red and white, and like most lighthouses I’ve visited, has some of the best views in town.

We finished the day with dinner at the local Irish pub, where I had a really nice seafood chowder which unfortunately wreaked havoc on my gastrointestinal system, causing vomiting and gastro and hot and cold shakes overnight - just what I need to prep for a day on course for the first of three days of triathlon duties.  

So until tomorrow let’s see how it all shapes up.

Tassie Adventure - Day 4

Lots of driving today to get from Hobart to Devonport, where I’ll spend the next four nights while officiating at the triathlon.  But as with Monday’s adventure, while I plugged in my final destination, any of those cool brown signs that show tourist information may have had me veering off course.  In fact, I spent so much time taking off in the other direction that I swear Siri had an attitude with me by the end of the day, sternly telling me to do u-turns and come back to the planned route.  She would have been exhausted re-routing for all my meandering.

Saw many of the old heritage towns today as I started on the heritage trail, of particular interest was Steppe’s sculptures and Steppe’s homestead but one of my stops, Liffey Falls, took me onto another trail, and up over the mountains where I found myself in alpine country (1300m +) in the midst of a storm.  So pair rain with mist and low cloud that only allowed about 50m of vision ahead, on winding mountain roads, and by the time I pulled up at the falls, my brain was happy for the rest. 

Unfortunately the storm was still raging overhead when I arrived.  Having spent a lot of time reading about tragedies in national parks of late (there are literally volumes and volumes of books available happy to tell you about lightning strikes, bear attacks etc), I opted not to walk the 45 minute return trail, and will try to get back there next week on the way back to Launceston.  A few hikers were venturing out, but I just wasn’t willing to take the risk.  If you want a good national park lightning story, look up the one on Half Dome in Yosemite that claimed 2 or 3 lives - that will be enough to tell you why I wasn’t risking it!

Made my way into Devonport, did a bit of shopping for the next couple of days camping and then onto Mersey Bluff Caravan Park to set up camp.  It has been raining here all day, and the caretaker thanked me for bringing the rain from Queensland, as they haven’t had rain since before Christmas, which is evident from the crackly brown grass everywhere. 

Camp setup and I made my way through town to tick off a few of the sites on my to-do list, including the Spirit of the Sea statue (Neptune or Poseidon, you choose), the Lillico Penguin Conservation area (too early in the afternoon for them so just had a look around and read about them), and then at a bit of a loss I decided to go to the Tasmanian Arboretum - billed as a museum of trees.  

My grandmother on my dad’s side, was a natural gardener.  She had the greenest of thumbs and could grown anything.  She transformed the gardens of her retirement home into a veritable nursery of camellias (her favourite flower) and driving by, to this day, 26 years after her passing, you can still finds remnants of her gardening prowess around Maleny.  My sister definitely got the greenest thumb from Nan, and I got a love of green things, but sadly I can even kill cacti.  My home is where green things come to die! But I love a Botanical Garden, and now I can say I loved the Arboretum.  

Acres and acres of trees, planted in continental groups, so you can explore the junipers of North America, the Australian Wollemi Pines, the Japanese camellias - all surrounded by foliage from the native area.

But best of all, and I know I said yesterday was the best day ever, there is a large lake in the centre of the property surrounded by all kinds of water plants, and teeming with platypus.  One of the advertisements for the arboretum claimed you can see platypus at any hour of the day.  Now if you’ve ever tried to spot them in the wild, you know that it’s pretty much dawn and dusk hours, and they can be very clever at hiding.  Well in this lake, there were three of them just playing around, diving under and resurfacing, flicking their little paws in the air like they were waving and living their best platypus lives.  I spent over an hour just sitting and watching them - got a few pics, some video, but difficult to get a good pic as it was 4 in the afternoon (the sun won’t go down for another 4 hours here) and overcast, so a lot of shadow on the water.

How do you top that for an afternoon?  Couldn’t think of anything else, so by 7pm I’m back at camp tucking into dinner.  One of my staples that I like to try in new towns is always a combination chow mein (crunchy noodles) from a local restaurant.  Tonight’s choice from the Sky King restaurant was delicious - the perfect balance of protein and vegetables, complete with scallops, calamari, fish, prawns, chicken, beef and pork.  And the crunchy noodles were perfectly salted to enjoy in the chow mein and as a snack after.

I’m about to settle into my little tent for the night. I have about 6 padmelons grazing on the grass around my camp - they are quite unphased by me being here and one of them was close enough that if I wanted to reach out and pat it, I could have.  There’s a lot of scat around the campsite, of many shapes and sizes, so will be interesting to hear the wildlife once it gets a bit darker and quieter here.

Tomorrow I’m meeting up with one of my Tri buddies, and she is going to take me exploring.  The word distillery may have been part of the adventure, so I am really looking forward to something that I usually wouldn’t do on my own - yay for travel buddies!  See you tomorrow peeps.