Down in Van Diemens Land

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Like many other places we've ended up this year, Tasmania was never on our original itinerary. However, after spending several weeks in Bolivia and Peru with a couple from there, we decided it'd be silly not to pop over for a few days since we were in Melbourne anyway, only an hour away.

Arriving midweek, our friends met us at the airport and dropped us off at Cataract Gorge, giving us the chance to take short walk from there back into town with a few hours to explore Launceston that afternoon, which is the third oldest city in Australia (after Sydney and Hobart). Given that our favourite Aussie beers actually come from Tassie, and the tastiest ones of all from Boags, based in Launceston, we thought it would be rude not to visit the brewery. Sadly we were too late for a guided tour that day, but the free museum was an interesting way to spend an hour and I was happy to discover that the company was founded by a fellow Scot. On the last day of our trip, we did manage to fit in the tour and sample some of the local beers and cheeses and wines on offer. Beer with wine sounds so wrong, but it does actually work. I recommend the brie.

We borrowed a jeep for a few days to try and explore some of the mountainous central region and the more remote west coast. However, we fell victim once again to random Australian road signage once more and never made it to Strahan yet. The Liffey Falls, billed as being near the main route turned out to be 45 km away, along increasingly windy and steep roads, thus severely cutting into our limited time before dark (approx 5 PM at this time of year). The falls were pretty enough, although not spectacular, but the rainforest around made up for it, with its ancient trees and ferns which we half expected dinosaurs to appear from.

There are a few important stats to bear in mind about Tasmania.
1. It's approximately the size of Ireland.
2. It's got a population of 480,000 - roughly the same as Edinburgh.

So, scatter those people around the island and you get alot of empty space. As we continued on through the countryside, closer inspection of our map revealed in the legend that many of the 'towns' marked were infact villages or settlements in the 100-750 inhabitants category. Having abandoned the west coast plan, we decided to head towards Cradle Mountain, hoping to have time to fit in a walk in the national park. However, as we finally rounded large Mount Roland (long, rather than high) the sky started to darken ominously and we were 'forced' to abandon that plan too and seek refuge instead at the rather plush Cradle Mountain Chateau. Well, a little extravagance every now and then never did any harm, and we recouped some of the costs by getting free entry to the impressive Wilderness Photography Gallery and free honey tastings in the shop!

Another fact to bear in mind about Tassie is, like Ireland and Scotland, most of the rain falls in the west. So, when it was still chucking it down the next morning, making that walk unviable, we headed north towards the coast without having had even the slightest glimpse of the mountain. Naturally, the sun came out as we approached the seaside so we had a scenic return journey through places such as Brunie, Ulverstone and the wonderfully named Penguin (although sadly the Fairy Penguins weren't visible at that time of day).

Over the weekend, our friends decided to take us for a tour of the east coast, which has some of the most scenic beaches, best surfing and dive sites, although Luke decided that the kelp forests will have to wait for the warmer seasons. We camped overnight at Friendly Beach, so called because the aborigines there had been more friendly there to the newly arrived whites than elsewhere on the island. The current local residents proved to be equally friendly, as a number of wallabies came out to watch us set up and a young one even allowed us to feed him the flowers which were out of his reach on the surrounding bushes. Bearing in mind that it's winter here in the coldest state of Australia, I intially thought we were mad to camp, but it was surprisingly pleasant, listening to the waves beating against the rocks on the other side of the dunes. And the McAdams camping curse stayed away for a change, so we remained dry.

The next morning after porridge on the beach to warm us, we walked up to the lookout and onwards to the stunning Wineglass Bay, before trying to spot whales (unsuccessfully) from the viewpoints by the lighthouse along the coast. After seeing a possum the previous day, we were able to add to the comedy animal tally on the way back, when two echidnas were spotted near the roadside. As we kept as still and quiet as possible, they pulled their heads out of the ground and uncurled to let us see their strange long snouts/ beaks. The search for the elusive platypus has proven to be somewhat harder so far, no matter how many creeks and ponds we stopped to stare at, but we were rewarded with a few sightings - although cynics may doubt their authenticity. Judge for yourself below. In the end, we decided to call on Platypus House to make sure we saw a few and find out about the research into the disease killing off the Tassie species, plus see a few more of those funny enchilada creatures.

Sadly, or perhaps not, given their fierce reputation, we didn't see any Tasmanian Devils. But since I found out they don't really spin, my interest has waned a bit. I'll stick with the platypus for now.

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