Tassie- Ferns, Myrtle, moss, rain, Honey Farms, Cheese and Chocolate, bushwalks and natural wilderness

	Pam, the Magpie, at Henty Sand Dunes

Learning Korean gun gun style

I took the budget trip to meet the Taswegians or as sometimes called the mutton birds, which does not make much sense since the mutton birds only stop in Tassie on their 30,000 kilometer migration.  (The short tailed shearwaters negotiate an incredible 30,000 km journey from the Arctic Region all the way to the southern parts of Australia. Once on the shores, they return to the same burrow every year where each pair lays just one egg.) 

 I call it the budget trip for several reasons. First, it was the cheapest that I could find and I was again like a 20 yr old sharing a dorm with 4-8 nineteen year olds. At the Hobart Hostel a karakoe bar was just a floor down, but it sounded like it was in the same room until one AM.

 Melissa,  (I hope to see again) who
shouted me a vanilla slice famous in the
historic village of Ross

Lovely Aleine from Berlin who
 was an AuPair in Alice Springs

At the Launceston "Backpackers" it was the kind of place that I set my roller suitcase down on one side of the room and it followed me back to the door since the room had settled at such a slant. The first night most everyone opened some type of pasta, the universal cheap food. My bag of pasta was passed from traveler to traveler and when I departed from the group I passed mine on to an appreciative Aleine. I guess that I am glad that I went on the least expensive trip and spent very little money because when I arrived home I had a ticket in the mail for going through a red light (don't have a clue when) for $465.00. It kinda put a damper on my evening to say the least. I opened my 187 ML Black Thursday Sauvignon Blanc which I saved from my Quantas flight.
 I was about as mad as a gumtree of galahs and feeling rather maggoty as the Tassies would say. After getting my bike stolen and now the ticket, I was feeling a bit like if I bought a kangaroo, it wouldn't hop. Oh well. Like said on the Apple Isle, "She'll be apples."
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Tassie was great! As figured, it was usually wet and cold, but I didn't seem to suffer like the other tourists. I must still have Colorado, thick blood, um, and that extra padding. Photographically speaking, to have had more blue in the skies would have been nice, but rainbows appeared often. The morning and evening light was spectacular.

 

From Bonorong

Morning in Strahan, Gordon River

Strahan

Strahan

David

I began the journey from Lanceston  although being a circular tour most began in Hobart and so I had three guides and that many groups of travelers. David was our first guide who could easily have been a leader of an Adventure Trek group. He began our days with the morning song of Blue Skies (wishful thinking) and was always good fun.

Wombat hides in button grass at Cradle Mountain

Wombat was our other main guide and his name couldn't have been more apt. I did ask where his  
name originated, but only got a grunt in reply. Wombat grew up on a dairy farm outside of the northwest town of Sheffield. He was the most amazing resource: great storyteller, environmentalist, and as Australian as Meat Pie. 
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From Launceston we traveled to the east cost. The myriad of  granite rocks are   brilliant orange.  I would have thought that the name Bay of Fires

came from the orange colored lichen covered rocks but the assumption was wrong. When the English first arrived, the bay was full of fires lit by the Aborigionals. ( Before British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Parlevar. Some historians point to introduced disease as the major cause of the destruction of the full-blooded Aboriginal population. Warfare and private violence was likely more devastating. Most historians regard the Black War as one of the earliest recorded modern genocides. Benjamin Madley wrote: "Despite over 170 years of debate over who or what was responsible for this near-extinction, no consensus exists on its origins, process, or whether or not it was genocide" however, using the "U.N.definition, sufficient evidence exists to designate the Tasmanian catastrophe genocide.) Thousands of years later the landscape of the Parlevar and petroglyphs are visable.

The area was one of my favorites. I could easily have spent some days camping on the beach and simply admiring the changes of the surf and tides.

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Tasmania is only one of three remaining temperate wilderness areas in the southern hemisphere.

Russell Falls

 The region provides pristine habitats for plants and animals found nowhere else. The area is a last refuge for animals that have
become extinct
 on the mainland.

Dove Lake

Tasmanians were the first to have a Green Party and protesters in trees. The state has done much to preserve its natural beauty. Although there are mining towns in the west that have not been restored properly, work continues to be done to reclaim a healthy ecosystem.

The Tasmin air is the cleanest out of anywhere in the world. The Franklin River claims to have the purest water, and Coke-a-Cola Company capitalized on it by calling its marketed water Franklin. Probably doesn’t come from anywhere near the river since the water is pure but full of tannins and unappetizingly brown. The island’s energy was 100% hydroelectric, but it is now used on the mainland and so it has dropped to 75%.  Still sounds good to me. Of course becoming hydro-powered meant damming wild rivers and flooding special areas, so the project is controversial.  Wind farms are also taken seriously.

hairpin bends

Queenstown

Queenstown will take many years to recover from the copper mines. It is much like towns in Kentucky.  Driving into the town we turned 98 hairpin bends without me getting sick! The ginger pills here must be full strength!

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Each little town had a scheme to get the tourists to slow down: real looking Tassie Tigers (now extinct dingo-like marsupials with stripes) or rain jackets on sale.

Although Tasmania has plentiful resources including minerals, timber, fish, and agriculture it relies on tourism. One third of its population is unemployed. 

 The town of Sheffield has become the town of murals (some good, some not so good).

 

Do Town requires each home owner to have a clever “Do name”: Much Ado, Didgeridoo, Doing Little, Do Time, Do Tell, Scooby Do, and  Do Nix were a few that I remember. 

Oh, memories of Destination Imagination. 

Ross prides itself by looking English and has the second oldest bridge in the country. Other towns slowing down point are their convict-built bridges.

Bridestone is famous for the largest lavender fields in the world. Poppies are legally grown to supply the US with morphine. 

 Strahan has demonstrations of Huon pine woodworking

and the longest running play in Australia, which I did laugh through.







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The Huon pine is perhaps the oldest living tree in the world (debate remains between it and the bristle cone) alive for more than 3000 years. It is able to resist disease and pests because of its special oils. It is the best-known material for shipbuilding. Dead wood stands throughout the island (very few termites), and since the huon is so rare company helicopters are used to scout dead huon. Huon pines reproduce through pollonation and vegetatively. They do this by layering. Tree branches reaching the ground start to root and establish themselves as a new tree, which eventually breaks away from the parent.

We drove through the area where friends were evacuated in January due to the fires. Half of the houses in town were burnt to the ground, but it was amazing to see how quickly the eucyptulas were coming back. Many trees here thrive on fires to germinate seeds including the Banksia and the Acacia.  

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Of course Hobart can speak for itself, but it now also has the MONA, often compared to the most impressive art galleries worldwide.

Hobart reminded me of Portland, Oregon. It was hilly, rainy, with rivers, and had an outdoorsy feeling. Portland's recent fame is their food carts where Hobart had similar, but floating in the harbor.

floating food stands

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Installment at the MONA

I am still not sure what I thought of the notorious MONA museum, but the water drops lasting two seconds and falling four floors creating words of recent news were great.

I had a long bike ride to the museum and went back to town by ferry. The Salamanca market in Hobart is legendary and a great wander.

The Museum of old and New (MONA)

The back side of the MONA ferry

a room in the MONA gallery

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The bird population seemed quieter than all the other places in AU, which at first left me uneasy. I have become so accustomed to the constant cawing, laughing, and singing. Perhaps it was just too cold for most birds, but I got up close to the kookaburra by the beach at the Ring of Fire. It is about the size of two fat robins with a beautiful streak of blue in the wing. Seeing it so close was a highlight of the trip.

The huge wedged-tailed eagle, native to Tasmania, is the second largest bird on Earth, just smaller than the condor. While driving down the highway I spotted one on the side of the road and then up on a phone pole- great luck to view the pair.

Australian Pied Cormorant

Then down at Wineglass Bay a cormorant landed on a rock beside me and had a quiet rest. He wasn’t the least bit shy. I have always longed to see one since I read Island of the Blue Dolphins as a child. Did you know they are webbed? I didn’t.

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When the first English settled Tasmania they were sure that devils roamed the forests. Their screams, glowing red eyes, and the little pointy ears, which were glimpsed while angling lanterns toward the woods helped settlers draw their conclusion. The forests were feared because of them. Hence, the name Tasmanian Devil.

The Tassie Devil will probably be gone in the next decade. They have a form of cancer that is contagious and spread since their genetic matter is so close. When feeding, they rip apart food in pairs and spread the cancer. About 90% of the devils are gone.

Save the Devil organizations are all over the island. Under Down Under Tours are also involved. If they find devil road kill, they collect samples and take notes to be sent off to a lab. Fortunately, none were found on our trip so that I did not have to play lab tech. (I’ll leave that up to you, Claire.) Those of us that signed up to assist, if needed, were given a year’s worth of free entry to the national parks in Tasmania. It is transferable;
so if you know of anyone traveling to Tasmania
 in the next year, let me know, as I have a pass.
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Port Authur was really too beautiful for what it stands for.

The convict past defines the recent history of Australia. The Port Arthur tour revealed many stories of the convicts’ horrific lives. The system was known as a machine for grinding rogues into honest men. It broke most. Those who landed at the prison were multiple offenders sent for more than stealing an apple or silver spoon although many were shipped to Australia for such. If accused of a crime in England and the criminal had a skill such as a shipbuilder or a mason, they’d be the first to be sent to Van Diemen’s Land. The premise was that convict labor would “civilize” the remote area.

Not many prisoners tried to escape with the ominous surrounding sea and forests.

It really looks to pretty to be a prison, but was haunting

The most likely escape route was an isthmus so starving dogs and soldiers were stationed there. Billy Hunt is famous for his escape attempt. He skinned a kangaroo climbed in the hide and tried to cross the strip. When the dogs barked and the soldiers arrived he thought they would turn around only spotting a kangaroo, but both dogs and soldiers were hungry and they lunged and shot at him. He tore off his costume rather than be shot.  Creative as he was, he never managed to escape.

There was a village in addition to the gaol. 

Wineglass Bay is an iconic Tasmanian vista. We hiked up to the lookout and down to the beach where I rested with the cormorant before heading back. It was the hardest trek of the week and my knees thought so too.

It was so wet and cold at Cradle Mountain, wait, it was wet and cold the entire week, but really wet at Cradle Mountain. Mountain climbing was slippery and a bit much for me. The walk around Dove Lake was plenty for most of us.

And so winds down a week of touring an island that I never dreamed I’d see. It was beautiful, but I am glad to be back in my own (well, Viv’s actually) bed. A bed that doesn’t cave in or make me imagine bed bugs!

Now, can I say, “Happy Spring”? I doubt another big storm is on its way, but I do remember that May when . . .

Wishing you all a purple patch. Planning your visit anyone? It is worth the long plane ride!

Glossary:

purple patch: good days
She'll be apples: everything will be ok
Apple Isle: Tasmania
Magpie: coming from South Australia or a talkative person
Van Diemen’s Land: Was Tasmania’s first name but no one wanted to settle there with the reputation of it being a penal station, so the name was changed To Tasmania.