Tasmania

Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania... An amazing island, southernmost Australian state, beautiful place... If I lived in Australia, I'd probably choose Tasmania (after I'd spend a couple of years in Alice Springs and Freo, hehe)... Even though I stayed there for 6 weeks I saw only a fragment of the whole island. And still haven't got enough! Definitely wanna come back one day!

So why have I fallen with Tasmania? What's so special about it? Let's start with the nature. The variety of different types of landscapes fitted in such a small area is breath-taking. Old-growth forests (whole south-west part of the island is one big forest without roads, without tracks - it's pretty much impossible to cross it), mountains and hills, fields and meadows, thousands of lakes and creeks (and the best bit is that any water you find is drinkable! so if you go bush, you just take 0.5l bottle and you're safe - with my West Macdonnells experience, I just love it!), beaches (some of the best surfing spots in the world), rocks and cliffs (incredible number of developed areas of all types of climbing - cracks, trad-climbing, multi-pitch, sport routes, even a bit of bouldering - scattered around the whole island, and I'm not talking about the areas still waiting for discovery!) and animals. If you keep your eyes open, it shouldn't be difficult to spot wallabies, golden possums, wombats, native hens (very funny, nicknamed "The Turbo Chook" can apparently run almost 50 kph!), black swans, Bennett's wallabies, quolls or bettongs (tiny little kangaroos). Unfortunately, it's very hard to see Tasmanian Devils nowadays because they suffer from contagious facial tumor disease and are close to extinction. Tasmanian tiger is already extinct (although some people believe there might be a few still living in deep tasmanian forests, there is even an award of one million dollars waiting for anyone who can provide solid evidence of their survival).

And then Tasmanians. Australian people are generally considered very friendly and based on my own experience, I couldn't agree more. They are also very positive and encouraging. Tasmanians push these qualities even further! It's so beautiful when random people on the street smile at you or greet you! It's so nice when you don't have to lock your car or house and not worry about a robbery (doesn't work for 100% but it's close)! It's so easy to hitch-hike in Tassie (I usually didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes)! ;-)

Of course Tasmania has its downsides too. Cold, rainy and unpredictable weather (not a big deal for someone who lived two years in The Netherlands) and what seems to be corrupt state government. The latter is a tough one, especially for someone who's pissed off with their own country's corrupted, greedy and stupid politicians. Local people can feel that for example in a form of a long and tough fight against eucalyptus plantations and pulp mills. Some filthy rich people have a vision of turning the priceless old-growth forests into paper to become even richer. And the politicians keep failing in their decisions of what's important...

Anyway, if you ever have the chance to visit Tasmania, don't hesitate and take it! You won't regret it! I had absolutely amazing time there!

Hobart

The whole magic Tassie experience started already in Melbourne. It was very early morning, first of the new year and I was sleeping on the floor at the airport. I suddenly woke up and saw a beautiful girl sitting next to me and looking at me. She quickly asked:

"Are you cold"?

"No, not at all", I answered.

"I'm freezing".

So I offered her my mattress and sleeping bag and we fell asleep next to each other. Later on, we woke up again and started talking. We clicked immediately and had a really nice conversation. It was all very dreamy and magical. The reality blended with my dreams because we talked for a while, fell asleep, talked again and so on. But the close connection that two total strangers were able to establish on the floor of the airport in such a short time was real and absolutely amazing. What a strange and special New Year's Day!

I arrived in Hobart later that day and spent a peaceful wine evening with young CouchSurfers James and Jordy and their friends Cahill and Jonathan. Just what I needed after wild Freo times! I was really lucky that James was able to host me even though I sent my CS requests only a day in advance. And they were both extremely friendly, so I stayed for a couple of days. Although I'd planned a detox for my Tassie stay, I got awfully drunk the very next day with another CouchSurfer, Andy. We went to a concert of Wishing Well, which wasn't really exciting but the supporting artist, Lucy Brown, was awesome! She's just 18 and it was her first gig but she was ten times better than the well established "orchestral" folk rock band. What a discovery! Check her out!

I also visited Salamanca Markets, lovely outdoor markets in the oldest part of Hobart, Salamanca, and Taste Festival. Taste Festival is a wine and food tasting festival that takes place in Hobart every year. You can taste heaps of delicious wines and yummy foods. But be careful with the wine tasting, it's very tricky (another detox failure)! I even had a little conflict with very impatient security guy ("Get back from outside the fence!", "NOOOWWWW!!!!"). I don't like tasmanian security guys really, they love their job too much. What I totally fell in love with though is TEMPURA MUSHROOMS, a mixture of different types of mushrooms dipped in a special japanese batter and deep fried. Together with wasabi mayo or plum chilli sauce... divine!!! I couldn't help myself and had to buy a second portion!

There were two other CouchSurfers staying at James-and-Jordy's, Claudia and Lisa from Austria.

It was great because I didn't have to explore Hobart on my (rooooneryyyy) own. One beautiful sunny day, Jordy drove us up on Mt Wellington, which is a must-do for its breath-taking views over the town, harbour and Bruny Island, and the rest of the day we spent wandering around the city (it's really pretty, heaps of beautiful old houses, very good vibe), climbing trees, looking for the best ice-cream in town... usual stuff.

The day after (Tuesday 5/1/2010), me and Claudia decided to make a trip to Freycinet Peninsula.

Freycinet Peninsula

We took off early in the morning, found out that renting a car for 4 days would be awfully expensive and therefore walked a couple of kilometres along the highway (direction Swansea) to get to a reasonably good hitching spot. Fortunately hitching in Tassie is very easy so we quickly got a lift all the way to Coles Bay.

Bought some food and water and started a serious walk. We walked up to the Wineglass Bay Lookout

then down to the Wineglass bay (pretty but awfully overcrowded) and across the narrowest part of the peninsula along a beautiful lake

all the way to Hazards Beach. We wanted to sleep on the beach but it was very flat and we were afraid of high tide so we ended up sleeping on a narrow sandy path just above the beach. The next day, we walked down south to Cooks beach. We found a great spot right at the beginning of the beach and we liked it so much that we decided to chill out there for the rest of the day.

Next morning, we walked to the official camp site at the other end of the beach to refill our water bottles (fortunately, somebody had told us that there are tanks with rain water, otherwise we'd be in a great trouble...) and started the toughest section of the whole track - from Cooks beach to Wineglass bay with Mt Graham in the way. The ascent on Mt Graham was pretty steep and exhausting but the views were totally rewarding.

On the way along the beach in Wineglass Bay, right in the middle, there were thousands and thousands of big red jellyfish. Yuuuuk! Some of them ended up on the sand. Wondering if they were chasing us...

We stayed at the beach over night and the next day we just walked back to the car park and hitched back to Hobart. We even managed to see a bit of the first day of Mona Foma music festival!

Sailing to Bruny Island

At the Mona Foma festival, I caught up with Andy again and he invited me to a sailing trip to Bruny Island. Awesome! Of course I couldn't have missed that one! So the next morning (Saturday 9/1/2010) Andy picked me up, we bought a bit of food, gathered his kiddies and jumped on the boat. Captain Reginald, Andy's good friend, was already aboard.

We sailed to the Little Taylor's Bay, well, we didn't sail really because of a strong counter-wind, we had to use engine instead to get to the bay in a reasonable time. We arrived to the bay, Andy and Laurie caught 10 flatheads and we went to bed. It was lovely weather next morning, so we hung around the bay for a couple of hours and then sailed back. The wind was quite strong, we reached 7 knots a few times. It was awesome.

Launceston

Andy was gonna drive to Launceston, actually to Mt Barrow, which is about half an hour drive easterly from Launceston, next tuesday, and asked me if I wanted to join. He was gonna visit a very good friend of his, Lyn, and work on her house for a couple of days. He also promised he would arrange climbing somewhere near Launceston for me, with his friend, Gerry, one of the best climbers in Tassie. Of course I was in!

We arrived to Mt Barrow late at night on Tuesday (12/1/2010) and we experienced very unusual welcome. We were driving on this mountain gravel road in total darkness when suddenly beams of our spotlights revealed ghost-looking white figure standing at the side of the road and waving at us. God that scared shit out of me!

"Lyn, that's Lyn, that's exactly Lyn, hahahaha!" yelled Andy.

She jumped on the back of Andy's truck yelling and singing and we drove to her house. I was pretty impressed, I wouldn't expect a performance like that from a 54-year-old music educator!

I hung around Lyn's house for the next couple of days - it's a gorgeous old house, full of old stuff (antiques, dozens of musical instruments, etc.), so I spent lots of time just exploring what all the things are for.

Because both Lyn and Andy are musicians, one night they just spontaneously started playing and singing. Andy played the fiddle, Lyn the guitar. I joined with my didg for a while. It was lovely.

One morning, after all night long conversation, me and Lyn decided to drive up on the summit of Mt Barrow to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely mind-blowing!

I also visited Launceston which is a beautiful little old town with spectacular gorge, Cataract Gorge, just 10 minutes walking distance from the centre. The gorge is great - you can go for run there, swim in a lake, climb one of hundreds of routes. All of this just around the corner.

Andy dragged me out on friday night to meet his mate, extremely funny guy, Marty. I really didn't wanna do a big night because I was supposed to go climbing with Gerry at 8:30 next morning. Really. I learned a lesson. I arrived back home totally smashed at 7:30. How could anything else other than a detonation of a nuclear bomb have then one hour later possibly woken me up? I called Gerry a few days later to apologize for that, it was so embarrassing!

But I was luckier than I deserved, after I finally woke up in the afternoon, I was introduced to Marty's neighbour Dave, also a climber, who told me I could join them for a climbing session in Hillwood next day. Yes!

Climbing in Hillwood

Hillwood is a popular climbing area right in the middle between Launceston and the north coast of Tassie. There are dozens of routes of all grades. Most of them are between 10 and 15 metres height but there are a few 30m long routes too. I climbed there with Dave and his friends twice and really enjoyed it. Finally climbing again, after more than half a year!

Cradle Mountain

I arranged a trip to Cradle Mountain with Tash, a friend of mine I met in Launceston. We first visited beautiful Gunns Plains Caves

and spectacular Leven Canyon

then I finally saw Cradle Mountain!

I was totally blown-away, I really didn't expect it would be so spectacular! I immediately knew I had to climb up the summit. Tash had already been there years before so she preferred to wait for me at Kitchen Hut just below the steepest section of the mountain and watch quolls.

The last section was really steep and pretty dangerous, you had to jump from one rock to another - it was so much fun! I met a kiwi guy, Lee, on my way up, so we did the rest of the hike together. He's a cool guy, I'm definitely gonna visit him once I get to Auckland. The views from the top were incredible - mountains all the way to the horizon! I was really surprised how large an area is taken by them!

After we walked down to Dove Lake, I couldn't resist and jumped into it. Shit the water was freezing, yay!

Strahan

We spent the night at Tash's friend's place in Burnie and next morning (Sunday 24/1/2010), I was on the road again, heading to Strahan, a little town on the west coast. Hitching went pretty well till I got to Rosebery - I got stuck there for almost hour and a half. But then I got a lovely lift by Tim and Lou, an extremely friendly couple from Strahan. They kept giving me one bottle of Boag's Draught after another and because I hadn't eaten at all that day, by the time we arrived to our destination, I was pretty unbalanced. I was extremely lucky bumping into them because they were so kind that they let me pitch my tent at their backyard!

Still pretty unbalanced and very friendly, I went to the town (pretty but really tiny) to book a boat cruise to the Gordon River for the next day and spent the evening with Tim and Lou.

Next morning I had a look at Hogarth Falls (not far from the town, it's an easy, pleasant walk) and then boarded the Eagle. The tour took about 6 hours and we first went to the Hell's Gate, the entrance of Macquire Harbour

then visited Sarah's Island (used to serve as a prison for british convicts)

and after that we sailed up the Gordon River to a rainforest.

The tour was pretty expensive ($85,-) but even though I hate organized tours, I quite enjoyed it. I saw a gorgeous part of Tasmania that you can't access by car and at the end of the day, I like boats.

One more night at Tim-and-Lou's backyard and next morning taking off, destination Hobart. The hitching was ridiculously easy, perhaps because it was raining and I must have looked miserable. I didn't even have to thumb, an english couple from Sydney pulled over for me while I was looking for a good spot! We stopped at Queenstown, a pretty weird mining town (wasn't as bizarre as Coober Pedy though) and after a couple of hours of driving, I was in Hobart again.

Tasman Peninsula

When I stayed at Andy's place, I saw a poster of The Totem Pole, a spectacular 70 m high spire. I was absolutely amazed and really wanted to see it with my own eyes. It's on Tasman Peninsula (at the end of Cape Hauy), which is down south from Hobart so when I got to Hobart again, I decided to go there!

On my way to Port Arthur (another significant place of Tasmanian
convict history), I got dropped off at Sorell. I found a good spot
and started thumbing and after a couple of minutes, a van pulled over and I got picked up again. And guess who was in the van! A group of climbers! Nick Hancock, a climbing instructor and a very good climber who bolted many routes in Tasmania, his wife Heather and their two friends, American ladies having holidays in Tassie, all together heading south to a climbing area called Paradiso (close to Remarkable cave and Maingon blowhole, with great views of Cape Raul). After I said I'm a climber too, they asked me if I wanna join, they even had a spare harness! Could have I said no? God I love hitch-hiking!

The cliffs are right above the sea, about half an hour walk from the
Remarkable cave parking. It's a beautiful spot!

We warmed up on a an overhanging 21 and then climbed one of Nick's
routes, an amazing 30m, slightly overhanging 22 (6b). It was a
beautiful sunny day, but the sea was pretty rough and when I was in
the middle of the route, Nick, belaying me, got splashed by three huge waves. It was pretty exciting!

We finished the climbing session with an easy 19. Since Nick knows all the Tasmanian climbing areas by heart, I asked him about The Totem Pole and he told me that there were currently two routes - a 25 (7a) and a newer one, 27 and that two weeks before, some of his friends had stretched a horizontal rope between the cape and the top of of the spire. It was likely that the rope would still be there, so he lent me his harness and a carabiner, saying that I couldn't have missed the opportunity to get on top of The Totem Pole.

I decided to skip Port Arthur and rather focus on The Totem Pole. They dropped me off at a turn-off to Fortescue bay, a place where the track to Cape Hauy starts. I arrived at the bay, had a quick swim and rested a bit on the beach. The sand there was amazing - it was so fine that it squeaked with every step! It was so funny!

When I had enough of jumping and squeaking, I started the track to the cape. It was already quite late, so as soon as I found a good camping spot not far from the end of the track, I pitched my tent and went to sleep.

Next morning (Thursday 28/1/2010), I finally arrived at the very end of the cape. The rope was still there!

I put my harness on and checked out the rope. It seemed to be ok, so I clicked myself to the rope and started pulling my body to the other end. After about three metres, as soon as I got above the 70m void, I totally panicked and rushed back to the solid ground. The exposition was too much. I was soooooo scared!

I wasn't really scared of falling, that would just mean a moment of flying followed by instant death, but I was shit scared of getting stuck on top of the spire or in the middle of the rope (it was quite loose) because it was pretty isolated place and I was on my own.

It took me almost two hours to make myself do it. It was an unbelievable struggle with my own fear! If only there was somebody to push me or support me or do it with me! No, just me and my fear. Every time I looked at the rope swinging in the wind, I started shitting myself and desperately wanted to go back. But that would have been a failure. I couldn't have done that, I really needed to win, I really needed to prove to myself I can control my fear and do it. And I really really wanted to have a picture of me on top of The Totem Pole! ;-)

And some from the middle of the rope.

Shit I was soooo happy when I got there! So excited (massive adrenalin shot)! And after I got back I just wanted to play more! I walked back to Fortescue bay and decided to start an 8h walk, a part of The Tasman Coastal Track, to Waterfall bay. The plan was to get as far as possible and find a spot for my tent. At the end I made it all the way to Waterfall bay and it took me about 6 hours. It was a nice
walk along the coast on top of 200 m high steep cliffs but the unbelievable number of spider webs that ended up stuck to my face really annoyed me. I pitched my tent on the track and fell asleep totally knackered.

Next day, I just walked to Tasman Blowhole and hitched back to Hobart.

On Saturday (30/1/2010), I spent a lovely afternoon at Salamanca markets (I tried Tasmanian "Fruit leather", dried fruit pressed to a thin foil)

and went to see a gig of my first Tasmanian hosts James and Jordy. It was a really cool gig. After they finished, we moved to The Brisbane where I saw another local band All Fires the Fire. They play amazing dark psychedelic rock and the lead singer looks like Tintin. I liked them so much that I bought their CD.

I arranged one more climbing session with Nick, this time on "The Organ Pipes" at Mt Wellington. We climbed two easy but long (45 m) traditional routes (with a great abseil through a cave) and a 25 m long, technical 22. Awesome!

Walls of Jerusalem

On Monday (1/2/2010), I hitched to Launceston again, caught up with Andy and Lyn and spent a couple of days on Mt Barrow, relaxing and preparing for a next trip.

On Thursday (4/3/2010), Andy, his son Laurie, Lyn and me drove to Lake Rowallan and started the Walls of Jerusalem walk. It wasn't a difficult walk but the weather went bad - it was pissing down almost all the time. We arrived to Dixons Kingdom hut wet to the skin. Unfortunately, most of my stuff got wet too and my mobile phone died. Shit. Hopefully it will teach me to put all my stuff to plastic bags next time.

The weather got much better next day, so we moved a bit further along the valley towards beautiful Lake Ball.

I wanted to explore some peaks in the vicinity, so I climbed up steep Wailing Wall and much easier Mt Jerusalem.

The views were amazing! All the mountains at the horizon!

And thousands of lakes!

Lyn went exploring local fauna and flora

and Andy and Laurie spent the whole day fishing. Laurie caught a beautiful trout. Yummy!

We woke up to a gorgeous day next morning,

so the walk to Lake Adelaide and back to the car park was very pleasant.

North-east coast

I had one more week left before I had to leave Tasmania and I decided to spend it around Lyn. We were already very close friends by that time and I really enjoyed her company. She's fun and extremely interesting person and her amazingly varied job history gave her deep knowledge about music, language, physiology, psychology, human brain, Tasmanian nature... It's so easy to spend hours and hours just talking to her. Moreover, she's an excellent vegetarian cook! ;-)

We went to see Avatar one day and we both got quite disappointed (yet another American blockbuster - nice visually but with a primitive story, full of tacky moments), so we watched Team America (a cult puppet film from the creators of South Park) afterwards, hehe. Great contrast.

We also made a little trip to the north-east corner of Tassie. We spent a day at beautiful Little Mussellroe Bay, saw St Columba Falls and visited Lyn's friends Jack and Lizzie on Mt Elephant. Jack takes care of his organic farm and teaches yoga and Lizzie produces and sells the best fudge in Tasmania.

On Saturday 13/2/2010, I sadly left Tasmania.

Right now, I'm still in Melbourne, had to work out extension of my visa, buy a new phone etc. In a couple of hours, I'm going to Wilsons Promontory National Park for a few days and then all the way to Sydney. I'm gonna buy a cheap car there, drive to Brisbane and meet my mum, who is gonna be part of my adventure for 5 weeks! I'm quite curious how this will go, hehe... But I'm definitely looking forward to it!