Tasmania was cooler than Aus. but still really fresh and much like our summer. They recon this year is there coldest for ages. Since our last post we've kept up the pace with an additional day in St. Helens (beautiful scenery). Treavelled to Scottsdale, camped in a free camp spot with all the facilities provided by the local council (I guess to encourage tourists) unfortunately it's close to the road and logging trucks ran well into the night. During the day we climbed Mt. Stronach and had lunch with the whole of North west Tasmania as our window.
View from Mt. Stronach
We had a day in Launceston, and had our boots repaired. My fault I'm afraid last year while walking in Sweden we had one very wet day from both rain and walking through deep water so I dried them near the fire in the evening, took about an hour and a half so I moved them closer and it must have weakened the glue on the toe of one boot each, plus melted the side just a little. Anyway the sole came away the day before on these same single boots, one each, so the job needed doing. Launceston City is the second and only other city in Tasmania, relaxed, laid back, plenty of people walking the streets in bare feet! We had a burrito but not as good as Baburitto's in the Trafford Centre. Had a walk around the old colonial architecture, convict built seems to add quedos, and finished the afternoon in Cateract Gorge.
Cataract Gorge
After Launseston we found another nearly free campground in Gowrie Park, just $5, even then one camper tried to escape paying. We had to laugh it's in the middle of nowhere and just a handful of other people there so I guess this guy thought hey why pay no ones here to take money, you're just supposed to put money in the post box. So around 9pm from nowhere a man on a Segway appears checks who's paid and this guy panics running over to protest he only has a $20 bill so couldn't pay. We sat their giggling as the guy really had a panic on.
Great view from the tent and absolutely peacefull. Check out the view
The following day we walked Devils Gorge and then onto Cradle Mountain.
View from Devils Gorge
The Overland Track in Tasmania is a well renowned bushwalk but we had chosen not to do this one partly out of principle and partly because it's a rip off. The Tazzi Parks Authority demand a $200 per person fee in order to walk the track plus the standard park entry fee for national parks in Tasmania of $60. They allow only 34 people a day to walk the track! So the first afternoon we walked around the base of Cradle mountain and Dove Lake and the following day we did the first days walk of the Overland Track and then tagged on another track and peak to circle back to our start point.
Cradle Mountain
Sarah's been missing Stricktly so I gave her my best Brucie impression!
In the evening we had a visitor, cute! So do a Brucie bonus, 'What do you think he was thinking?'
Down the west side of Tasmania we stayed overnight at Queenstown. Once the richest mining town in the world, probably! Gold, silver, opals and pierite now it's just copper but the scare on the landscape is enormous. Over 150 years of mining and blowing the side off all the surrounding mountains. The river that runs through the town still runs orangey brown from it. We arrived late and no one was at the campsite to take our payment, we used the facilities etc. tried to pay again twice in the morning before we left but still the house and office were empty so we did a runner I guess! The next few days we walked up from the other end of the Overland Track at Lake St. Clair. We intended to camp in the secluded hut at Echo Point but by the end of the night this little four bed unmanned hut had 8 people staying in it not including us so we pitched the tent and then another two people turned up! So much for seclusion!
Lake St. Clair early on a misty morning
We saw this burr through the trees. The girth of the tree is so large that with my arms stretched around it I didn't manage to reach half way round its trunk. The burr looks like a bear climbing up the tree
Last day before reaching Hobart again and full circumnavigation of Tasmania, Bushy Park. A little old man called Mike runs his garden as a campsite. He swears like nobody's business and will talk you to death, still refers to 'his wife indoors' who we sadly think was no longer with us as we never heard or saw anyone else. Everything looked homemade, because it was, sheds for kitchen and shower, made out of old bits of wood and metal. The cost was just $7 plus $2 for a shower. To get a shower you filled a 15 litre bucket of mixed hot and cold water to an agreeable temperature, carried it from his outside kitchen to the ramshackle shed turned on a 12 volt little pump and had a trickle shower. I know I made mine too hot but there's no temperature control so I just had to try and avoid the water most of the time while attempting to get a wash. A strange but amusing $2 shower.
A couple of Oast houses we past near New Norfolk
Final 36 hours in Hobart and 1670km since we picked the car up our time was up in Australia. In total we have driven over 8000km through Aus. Starting in Melbourne and finishing in Melbourne last night before our flight to New Zealand today. In the last 55 days we've traveled right up the east coast of Australia visiting all the major cities, some of the great beaches and mountain areas. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were magnificent. Tasmania is a quiet but inspiring island with laid back people and awesome scenery.
Hobart from the top of Mt. Wellington
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