Tassie: 'Welcome to Another Beautiful Day in Paradise'

Just got back from another quick trip (8 days), during the exam period. With so much time between exams—2 weeks between the last and the next—it was easy to schedule something in between, and something I had wanted to do since starting planning trips was Tasmania. A state of Australia (one of eight), but an island unto itself separated from the mainland country-continent, to its self. Like the great ocean road, ill do all of Tassie in bullet form.

Day One:
• I left from Melbourne around midday
• The flight was unbelievably short, from Melbourne to near the southern tip of Tasmania, Hobart. Just 5 songs on my iPod. And some amazing sights of Melbourne as it was a fairly clear day.
• Hobart wasn’t as clear, with colder temperatures (it was 30 the day before in Melbourne, then around 15 in Hobart) and rain threatening.
• I stayed in Montgomery’s YHA (monty’s) that night, which is a really nice establishment apart from being on the third floor.

Day Two:
• 6.35 pickup and the beginning of the first half of the trip, up the west coast.
• I went with Adventure Tours Australia, which offers a 6 day trip consisting of two 3 day parts (which can be taken singularly).
• The tour guide for the entirety of the trip was Khani, a friendly and energetic guy with stories galore and knowledge to boot.
• First stop was Mt field national park, where we walked through the tour trees and visited horseshoe and Russell falls.
• After a quick lunch, we stopped at Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Australia.
• Continuing up the west coast we stopped at the second purest water source in the world, the Franklin River.
• Later that afternoon we pushed over the top of the mountain ranges, and down into the mining communities of the west coast.
• We ended the day in the town of Strahan (pronounced ‘strawn’), on the edge of the Macquarie Harbour (larger than the Sydney harbor and home of Sarah Island, a former convict station referred to as hell on earth)
• That night’s accommodation, and the next 4 nights (save one), was ATA owned—this just happened to be the newest and best.
• Khani is also an accomplished didgeridoo player

Day Three:
• It had been cloudy the day before, and we awoke to rain filled skies. Not surprising as the west coast of Tassie get about 300 days of rain a year.
• We took a walk to another waterfall that morning, Hogarth falls; 20 mins inland through cool temperate rain forest.
• After that a quick walk around Strahan, especially the wood centre (Sarah island convicts initially harvested the prized and old Huon pine)
• The Macquarie harbor’s entrance is narrow and shallow, and referred to hells gates. We went there next for a walk along the sand to the channel and look out to the southern ocean.
• A quick lunch in Zeehan then further up towards Cradle Mountain.
• By then the clouds were clearing and the clouds were lifting. With the west coasts reputation of 1 out of 7 nice days, we took the opportunity to get a good photo of Cradle Mountain across dove lake—Tassie’s most iconic land feature.
• We stopped at Waldheim, Gustav Weindorfer’s cottage. From there and on the way out of the park we saw 15 wombats, which is a record.
• Accommodation that night was in cabins inside the cradle mountain park.

Day Four:
• The weather held (in fact it was better) and in the morning we were able to take the more adventurous walk up to Marion’s Lookout from Dove Lake for an unobstructed view of Cradle Mountain.
• It had snowed (yea, in Australia) a couple of days before and there was still snow on the ground at Marions Lookout and up to the summit of Cradle Mountain.
• After lunch in Cradle Mountain we headed further north through the town of murals, Sheffield.
• The next town over was the town of topiary, Railton.
• The penultimate stop of the day was at Anver’s house of chocolate in Latrobe.
• Finally in Davenport we went to the coast to look out over the bass straight, staying in ATA accommodation to end the first half of the tour.
• As the sun set, the Spirit of Tasmania I, pulled away from dock for its trip to Melbourne.