A Tour of Terrific Tasmania

Across on the 'Spirit of Tasmania' to Devonport, a pretty easy trip with ourselves and our car. A quick drive across to Penguin, then on towards Cradle Mountain. We ended up sight seeing and managed to nearly run out of petrol...ironically right near a place called 'Nowhere else'. Thankfully with the orange light glaring at us as I put the car into neutral at the top of each hill we managed to limp into Barrington general store and fill up!! Some beatiful walks, then a drive to Cradle Mountain. Gypsy (the nickname for our GPS) was in fine form and managed to mark the Voyages Cradle Mountain Lodge in the middle of a lake...we weren't fooled though and a quick backtrack and we managed to find out destination.

Not quite what we had expected though and we decided to stay there the one night, then keep on going...so much for our relaxing 5 nights in a Voyages resort!! However, what we did worked out far far better.

Being the unconventional hikers, me in a leather jacket and sneakers, Billy running along anywhere that was relatively flat, and Kimmy in knee high boots we set out to prove to the 50 other serious hikers that in fact you didn't need a professional walking pole, hiking boots, gortex jackets etc.

Next morning after stuffing ourselves at the buffet we decided to check out the Devil's park. A small park just near the Cradle Mountain National Park visitors centre, we learnt about their plight against facial tumors and got to pat a fairly docile little guy. If you haven't got up close and personal with a Tassie Devil, do so, they're very unique little guys!! I also learnt about 'boy looks', Kim had sworn she had seen two wombats on the drive that neither myself or Billy had seen, I mentioned her ability to spot 'Wombat rocks' to the girl looking after the Devils, and she assured us that Kim had most likely seen Wombats and they were quite prevalent, and that in fact me and Billy suffered from the male disability entitled 'boy look syndrome'...apparently all males suffer this crippling affliction!!

After that, and with our eight year old (Billy) in tow, we headed across to Cradle Mountain itself to do a walk! Ambitiously we decide to do a 3 hour hike up to a lookout and back down, including sections marked 'Hard' (on a scale of Easy, Medium and Hard). Billy was fantastic, and although we only saw one Wombat (after Kim again spotted it) it was enough for us to decide that perhaps there was something to the 'boy look' syndrome. Being the unconventional hikers, me in a leather jacket and sneakers, Billy running along anywhere that was relatively flat, and Kimmy in knee high boots we set out to prove to the 50 other serious hikers that in fact you didn't need a professional walking pole, hiking boots, gortex jackets etc. In fact, it was quite fun once we realised that wildlife was few and far between (too cold apparently and the wrong time of day), to throw INXS on my mobile phone and have that blaring as we all sang Baby don't cry walking up steep steps towards the summit!!

An LCM and a shared chocolate milk, some photos of the beautiful view at the top and then back down again through the 'Hard' section, which surprisingly was the most fun and Billy loved it exclaiming that we should have gone up that way as well. Hanging on to chains a necessity lest you tumble on a fairly steep decline towards the bottom. 3.5 hours later and we had reached the car again, very impressed with ourselves and particularly with Billy. Who would have known an 8 year old could (quite easily I might add) hike up and down a mountain without a complaint ;-)

Still half an afternoon left, we headed to Strahan to find some accommodation. We ended up staying at Rigsby Cove which was a beatiful little place, a waterfront apartment, 2 bedroom self contained for only $150 per night...gorgeous. Ducks greeted us at the water immediately outside the lounge room.

The next day it was onto the Wilderness Railway, which was a fantastic ride on an old Steam Train, and because it was winter it wasn't at all crouded. Tom the guide was a delightful chap. It was a days' outing and lots of fun. Apparently it rains 8 out of 10 days there, but we had seen two gorgeous days with no rain and blue skies (still cold though). We learnt about the building of the railway and the mining operations nearby, as well as the poisoning of nearby rivers. Beatiful views through the rainforest and plenty of stops and short walks. Fish and chips for the second night in a row for dinner, fresh out of the ocean nearby, best fish and chips we have ever had I have to say.

The following day we headed to Launceston via Lake St Clair - which is the South side of Cradle Mountain. We did a walk there of about about 1.5 hours, which was nice, but didn't have the wow factor of Cradle Mountain. Billy had no issues again which was great, the best part was jumping from rock to rock in Platypus Bay and managing not to fall in! No platypus however.

We arrived in Launceston thanks to a shortcut given to us at a Cafe in Derwent, which knocked a full hour off the drive, and was awesome fun as I negotiated the dirt road at fairly break-neck speeds in the Subaru! I'm sure I'll remember Tassie as one of the best places to drive if you are that way inclined, however, I'm sure Kim and Billy would have rathered I went a tad slower as if you get car sick at all you really wouldn't have had a hell of a time (thankfully neither of them do).

Launceston we asked at the Coach Motel for a room, and they wanted $205 for a pretty crappy motel room, single room with bed/lounge. We declined and ended up for $195 staying at Peppers Seaport, which was a stunning modern hotel with a beautiful big bedroom, lounge and kitchenette. A bad movie (Land of the Lost) and a well earned sleep.

The following day was Hollybank Treetops which was fantastic. Cables hung between platforms suspended high up in the trees, like a flying fox but with a harness. Great fun, the longest run being over 400 metres over a river!! I was in tandem with Billy, which gave us extra weight so we went faster than most others, definitely a plus. I believe my childhood fear of heights has been somewhat dissipated as I really enjoyed it and gave no second thought to the fact we were well over 20 metres off the ground.

That night a second chance on the movie theatre and Transformers 2 turned out to be a good (albeit Blokey according to Kimmy) movie. Mind you $11 at the lolly shop beforehand was a fair rip off - but I guess cinema food is expensive anyway, so you expect that.

Last day and we headed towards Devonport to board the Spirit again. First stop however Cataract Gorge where we jumped on a chair lift to cross the gorge, apparently the only customers so far that day as it was raining on and off, and fairly heavily too. We had listened to Billy's wish to go to Tasmazia (a garden maze) since we saw signs to it on the first day, so decided to give in and head there on the way back to Devonport. Great in theory, but about half way there (Gypsy had been very helpful) the rain started to really bucket down, at parts having to slow down just so you could see out of the windscreen with the wipers going full ball!! We made our way to Sheffield, the mural town, and grabbed some hot food from the bakery. Sheffield has beautiful murals painted on many buildings and walls throughout the town which display scenes from Sheffield and the surrounding areas from many years ago. The rain eased as we made it to Tasmazia and we spent a good couple of hours wandering around the various mazes and crackpot village. Of course Murphy's law states that when you're one turn away from reaching the goal of the major maze you head the other way, and it takes you another 40 minutes and a much more difficult entry point to get there (crawling on hands and knees through a tunnel when it's very wet is not exactly fun...unless of course you are 8 years old)!

After Tasmazia we headed onto the Anvers Chocolate factory and decided it would be really cool to start one back in Victoria...equipment didn't look too complex, the only problem would be the extra 40kgs I'd put on. A lovely piece of caramel and banana cake, and an apple pie with cream, coffee and of course $20 on chocolate to take with us and we were off to Devonport.

A few hours to kill and a hole in my Rivers walking shoes meant I had better buy something a bit hardier for South America, so a few shops later and I found a pair of gortex based shoes I think will do the job. Hungry Jacks for dinner (Kim is converted now and cannot believe how Maccas stays in business), then onto the boat for a very rough ride home.

After the peaceful journey across with waves apparently lapping around the big boat, the journey back had 5-8 metre swells and it felt as though if you did fall asleep you would be thrown against the wall at any time. The morning came and both Kim and I were pretty tired...Billy however was up and at them, stating 'what do you mean you didn't sleep?', 'I didn't feel anything'. Oh to be eight years old again!!

Taking beach road back to Edithvale was a nice end to the holiday and we look forward to the next one.

Apologies for putting the entire trip in one entry, that's what happens when you write it after you return, hopefully South America I'll put something together every day or two.

Tassie rocked btw, go in Winter, there's noone on the roads and you can drive like a bat out of hell (disclaimer: be safe and sensible at the same time of course). Walks are great, and places like Strahan are so peaceful. Even places that look large on the map are small compared to anywhere else (though we didn't get to Hobart this time around).