Letho's Blog

Day 4 – Friday 15 October

It was time to say goodbye to our nice hosts and to leave Northern Tasmania to slowly head back south to catch our flight the next day.

A quick stop at the Preston Falls which were easily to miss but have been one of the great waterfalls so far.

Now further on right through the middle of Tassie where we passed nice the great Liffey Forest in the Central Highlands and the Great Lake.

The normal road suddenly turned into a gravel road and we were a little afraid for our car. If only the land cruiser had been there…

As several times before and most some more times in the future we underestimated the distances and arrived late in the evening in Hobart where we took a hostel.

Day 5 – Saturday 16 October

Even on our last day it was (heavy) rain on and off but since we had to leave in the evening we didn’t let the weather change our plans. The famous Salamanca Market in Hobart turned out to be quite a tourist trap with lots of stands full of souvenirs and food. Well, we got a great Tasmanian devil t-shirt but the market was nothing special.

Back into the car and down 90 k’s to the Tahune Forest to see the famous Tahune air walk – a walk at the tree tops. Heavy rain spoiled our mood but we bravely took some pics anyway.

Quite wet and cold we jumped in our car and headed back to the airport where our airline seemed to show the usual chaos: first our flight was shown as boarding but the gate wasn’t correct so after some time our flight (already late) seemed to have departed but in reality was just leaving from another gate.

And very important: NO pictures outside the airplane as we have been told twice! Therefore, no proof pictures for you!

Conclusion:

Tassie has a beautiful landscape with some nice walks and beaches but also tries to make profit of every little tourist attraction they have (to see the old buildings at Port Arthur one had to pay 25 $). Despite the bad weather it was a nice experience but not as breathtaking as I had imagined it.

We arrived late Wednesday night at Peter’s place deep in the Tasmanian forest near Ulverstone resp. Leven Canyon. We were sure to be on the wrong road (well, it wasn’t even a real road) when we finally found it.

Peter and his family bought some land about 15 years ago and built all the buildings themselves. They even have a hydro-powered site by using the small creek and waterfall that runs across their property to get a generator running and produce electricity. Peter brews his own beer and wine and tries to be quite independent.

Here some picture of his property:

Some animals living there…

day 3 – Thursday 14 October

We went to the Leven Canyon which was around the corner from Peter’s place and did the Leven Canyon Walk.

On our way back from the lookout we went through some beautiful forest:

We drove up north to Devonport because we wanted to look at some aboriginal inscriptions in the rocks there but apart from rocks we couldn’t find anything else.

Except for this very strange thing:

Finally a quick (only 100 k’s) visit to the Cataract Gorge in Launceston and a quick ride on a much praised but a little disappointing chairlift – although it’s the longest single-rope chairlift in the world.

Day 2 – Wednesday, 13 October

Again no sunshine in sight, only drizzle and rain….

We left Hobart on Wednesday to go up north along the Eastcoast and came pass the St John Baptist Church in Buckland. The church’s East Window is supposed to be from the 14th century.

Some of the beautiful scenery along our way:

And the famous Spiky Bridge close to Swansea that was built in 1843 by British prisoners. The spikes might have been designed to prevent cattle from falling over the sides of the bridge.

We arrived at the Freycinet National Park, a Peninsula with beautiful beaches, bays and „mountains“, for example the Hazards.

And then on to Sleepy Bay:

Another wallaby encounter at the parking lot in the Freycinet National Park:

The short walk up to the Wineglass Bay lookout:

The view would have been even nicer if the weather hadn’t been so rainy and misty, but still it was a great view!

From the Freycinet National Park we drove up north / north-west, direction Ulverstone. Some picture of the interesting landscape on the way.

Despite the weather we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

Before going to Tasmania, a lot of research had to be done, basically how to get there because as close as it seems there are still 450 k’s to Devonport(North) and 700 k’s to Hobart (the capital in the south). There are many really cheap flights from Melbourne to Hobart, the cheapest being 29 Aus $ (about 20 €) but the disadvantage was not to be able to take the great LandCruiser. But taking the ferry was complicated and even more expensive than flying and renting a car on Tassie so that’s what we did. We even got a good deal for the car with unlimited k’s (which we really needed since we drove 2000 k’s during the five days of our stay). Arriving late at 10 p.m. at „dwarf“ airport Hobart we got our Hertz Kia Rio right away and drove into town. All went well!

Day one – Tuesday, 12 October

Though having had an interesting discussion about A.I. and other stuff with our CouchSurfing host Byron we had a quite early start and went to one of the attractions – the Cadbury chocolate factory where we learned a little about chocolate making and got some free samples.

Another point on our list was the famous brewery Cascades but then again we decided to see more of the landscape than being inside all the time.

We drove up to Mount Wellington to have a look from above at Hobart but were greeted with a lot of mist – nothing to be seen but still a great atmosphere there.

In the afternoon we went in direction of Port Arthur (where the real criminals were kept) (100 k’s away) and saw some wallabies, birds, quolls and Tasmanian Devils in the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park which are hard to be seen in the wild. Since 1996 the population of the Tasmanian Devil has been reduced due to a facial cancer that is easily transmitted between them. The mortality rate seems to be at 100% since the devils are too weak to fight for food and simply starve. Neither the exact reasons nor a cure are known by now. Poor devils.

Apart from that Inka was able to touch a kangaroo/wallaby and is in a picture with them – mission accomplished!  And lots of baby skippies – yippieh!!

There is even more proof – see the following clip and note what’s happening after ~ 20 secs:

Look how cute Tasmanian Devils can be .. *wanna_hug*

Another fantastic view was the Remarkable Cave close to Port Arthur:

And another look at rocks and water, first the Tasman Blowhole, then the Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen:

Geographically speaking a Blowhole is a narrow opening in the rock at the end of a sea cave. The waves push through it which results in the water splashing.

The Tasman Arch is an example of a sea cave / blowhole that has been much further hollowed out.

After time the arch may break down and the whole structure collapses into the sea. This example on Tasmania is called Devil’s Kitchen.