tasmania!!

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Ok, now i'm going to tell you about one of the most amazing places ever!!!

So, on the 15th of December Gem and I caught the airport bus and arrived with plenty of time to catch our flight… the turbulence was atrocious… so so bumpy, but we held hands and landed safely!! The view flying over Tasmania was absolutely breath taking.. you could see the roads and there were no cars on them, no houses just amazing scenery!
There was a man from the car rental place waiting for us and we clamoured in and he took us into Hobart.. the van when we saw it was exactly that.. a van!! It was white and had two seats in the front. When I had arranged it with the company a few days before, I asked what was included in the van, expecting an answer of ‘sleeping bags, a stove, a cool box’ I was treated to an answer of simply ‘a mattress’!!! and that exactly what there was!! The back of the van literally had a mattress in it!!
So we sighed the papers and got in the van, I was driving first and it felt brilliant to be back behind the wheel!! The gears were clankly, the heating didn’t work and he leaked green stuff.. but we loved that van!!
Our first stop was Port Arthur, right down south in the Tasman national park.. the beaches were amazing and as we drove along we realised we hadn’t seen one other car the whole time! We stopped at a couple of gorgeous beaches and coves and generally enjoyed the views. As we drove back up the coast it was starting to get dark and we squealed with excitement every time we saw a kangaroo on the side of the road!! We arrived in Sorll and desperate for a cup of tea, we went into a 60’s bar… it was brill and although they were closing they made us a pot of tea, and even though it was disgusting, it was lovely!! It was pretty late by this time so we decided to stop. We parked on a green verge outside a few houses… and it was bloody freezing!!! Excuse the language nanny but I mean it was really really cold!! We both put on almost all the clothes we had with us and just had to snuggle together to keep warm!!!!

Morning couldn’t come quick enough and I think we were both grateful to get up and get back on the road! We had parked close to woolworths (which is the equivalent of tescos) and bought some essentials.. including a massive mink rug!! We bought some pillows and food and then felt equipped for the trip ahead. We travelled up the east coast, taking turns to drive, singing our heads off and “oooing” and “ahhing” at the scenery! It was clear as we went further up that we had left the ‘towns’ behind us… there was just nobody around.. if you look at a map of Tasmania, you’ll see town names, and so we would kind of plan our route from town to town, but when we got there, there was literally nothing there!!! Occasionally there may be one house.. imagine that, having a whole town name for your house!! And when we reached the 3rd largest town, we followed the signs to the town centre, and it lead us to a post office.. that’s it!!
We stopped at a little beach and had a bit of a picnic and a snooze, this is the life!! When we got back on the road, we were in our own little world when two little birds flew across the road… by some feat gem managed to hit both of them! We turned around and went back to see them feeling ever so guilty, and bless, they were both lying still on the road, one was slightly squished but the other was perfect.. as we watched them, deciding whether or not to hold a funeral, a massive bird swooped down in front of us and grabbed it in its beak!!!
It was turning to dusk as we drove the derelict roads to wine glass bay when we noticed a sign saying fresh mussels and oysters, so we pulled up to the tiny little house, where they were selling freshly caught muscles.. I think we must have been there only customers for a while so we chatted to the woman and I asked her if she ever saw her neighbours, she calmly stated that they owned 160 acres and everyone around had about that much land, so neighbours were literally few and far between!!
We bought a tray of steamed muscles and took them down on to the beach and ate them, they were warm, the sun was setting, and we were wearing our Christmas hats.. it was lovely!
We drove on and got slightly worried that our petrol was running rather low… now petrol stations are also few and far between.. and also bless the petrol pumps they do have.. they literally have one pump, really old school style and the person in the shop comes out and fills it up for you.. it really is like going back in time! I think its probably because they are desperate for some company and want a chat, but its nice all the same.. and puts the busy queues for petrol outside tescos to shame!!
So we headed to Bicheno and pulled up at a tiny petrol pump.. only to find it was closed!! Oh dear.. with the red light gleaming at us, we noticed a sign for a campsite 20 meters up the road.. we decided to stop there and then get petrol in the morning!! After locating our site we set up camp in the back of the van. We sat in the back, dunk wine and chatted till the early hours, it was fun! And that night, with our big snugly blanket which, made all the difference, it was lovely and warm!

And the next morning we had our first shower for 3 days… amazing!!!

We finally got some petrol and a cup of coffee from a local shop, and I have to say, Bicheno was one of my favourite places, it was such a sweet little village.
We had a decision to make though… do we continue up the whole of the east coast, or go inland to see the mountains.. although the sea views and the coast was gorgeous, we decided we had already seen quite a lot of it, so we headed inland… and wern’t we glad we did!!!!
It was the most surreal place ever.. one second its like being in a rain forest, the next a desert, and the next its like the English countryside. It so unspoiled.. I’ve travelled to a great many places and tazzie is the place which has had the most impact on me.. its untouched by humans.. like how the world would have been hundred and hundreds of years ago. When you stand outside, all you can hear are the sounds of animals and the trees, and at night time, you can see past the first few big stars that we usually gaze up at, and see the next layer, and the next, and the band of the milky way shines down, crystal clear!
I think the mountains was where we really fell in love with Tasmania.. we took Monty (yes that was the vans name… Monty the mountain goat.. and yes, much of our time was taken up making songs up about him!!)
So yeah, we took Monty up the side of a mountain.. not that we knew it was a mountain at the time!! We found ourselves on this steep, gravely path. With no way to turn around, we put him in to first gear and willed him up the hill!!! The road looked like it hadn’t been driven on for years, and we kept passing the strangest sights, trees in piles like elephant graveyard.. it was a bit sketchy really!! The views were fantastic and when we got out the car the sounds of the animals was over whelming.. the monkeys were making a racket.. (well, we thought they were monkeys, they certainly sounded like them, but we were later informed that they were actually cockatoos… gutted!!) (gems just now informed me that they were kookaburras, oh deary me!!) but whatever they were, they sounded cool!!

We stopped in a clearing so we could go for a wee, and suddenly looked around us.. the whole area was full of bones!! Carcasses and skeletons of animals.. we think it must have been a dingos den or something, but it was amazing!! Trust us to pick that one place to stop!!!
We carried on and although we had gone for ages up the side of the mountain, we never seemed to come down!! We arrived in a tiny village, Maydena, that literally consisted of a petrol station, which doubled as a café, and saw the first human for nearly 20 hours!! (still no other cars!!) we filled up and as it was still light, planned our next trip into the Mt field national park.
The drive was amazing (lads, you would have loved to do it in your minis!) the whole trip was along the side of the cliff with lake Pedder at the bottom and there was not one other person on the road. With the sun starting to set, we decided to find a good spot to watch the sunset, and it was quite a mission to decide which of the perfect views was the best!!

We sat on the side of the cliff, laid a blanket down with the lake spreading out below us and watched the sunset. We both felt so content, it was so peaceful (well, apart from the annoying flies!) We played cards and chatted and it seemed that every time we looked, the sky had changed colour again (hence the thousands of photos of the same place!!). When it got cold enough to admit defeat, we got back in the van and made to drive back to the little village for the night. By now it was really dark and we had to drive about 5 km per hour… no, this wasn’t because of our poor driving skills but because of the animals.. it was amazing we literally saw hundreds!.. now, we’ve both seen kangaroos and wombats etc at the zoo, but it is nothing like the thrill of seeing them in real life.. Tasmanian devils zoomed around the van, possums sat in front of the van, heads tilted inquiringly, kangaroos bounced along the side of the van and wombats just sat at the edge and looking cute!!

It was amazing, we eventually arrived back into some kind of civilisation and parked the van in a nice spot overlooking the mountains. The next day we decided to see some of the local sights so first port of call was the wildlife park, it was really nice to correctly identify all the animals we had seen, rather than guess at them! (hence the monkey / kookaburra mistake!) The wombats looked exactly like massive guinea pigs and the Tasmanian devils looked like kind of over grown rats, and although they were sweet, none on them made the noise I was expecting after watching the cartoon! ;-) the chap who worked there told us loads about the animals, but to be fair, we were more intrigued with his personal life.. he literally lived with the animals (in the grottiest caravan ever) and never really spoke to anyone apart from the animals… he seemed very close to Wongle the wombat… hummm!!!) he he!
So after the park we had a little chill by the river, we fell asleep in the sun for a couple of hours and when we woke up we went to see some waterfalls… they were cool and we even did the advanced trek up the hill to see it from the top! We crossed the rocks and sat on a fallen tree trunk lying across the river and took in the view! On the way back down we were discussing the fact that we hadn’t seen a snake yet (even though we had looked pretty hard) when suddenly I saw something slither across the path.. lo and behold it was a snake!!! A big black one.. our earlier confidence disappeared and we both clutched hold of each other and squealed like the scardy cat girls that we are!! Luckily it slithered away into the trees but I was ever so excited!!

We got back in Monty and took him to ‘New Norfolk’ it was a tiny village by the river and we actually found a pub! We sat outside on an awesome terrace, the balcony was made of glass and looked other the mountains and countryside! We had a few schooners of cider and decided to have our first proper meal for days! We had steak, which was gorgeous and continued to enjoy the cider.. once when I went up to the bar there were a few customers and they treated me like royalty! They were amazed by my accent and the fact I was so far away from home, I asked them if they had ever been to England and they looked like I had just told them the sky was falling down!! One said she had been up the east coast of Tasmania and they others sat and nodded, looking impressed!
At 8:30 the owner came outside and told us he was closing up, we must have looked at him in shock because he confirmed that all the bars around there closed before 9!! Ha ha!! we found a little spot in a round clearing and settled down for the night, falling asleep to the film Kes!!

The next morning we drove back to Hobart, as we made our way along the roads we chuckled about the strange names for everything out here.. its almost like they had run out of good names so stole names from things they had heard… there was a rocky cave area called “remarkable cave” a beach called “eggs and bacon bay” and a mountain called “the other side of the hill” it certainly made the places a bit more interesting!!

We arrived in Hobart and felt strangely uneasy, it all seemed so busy and built up! I didn’t like it one bit!! After getting lost for a couple of hours we found ourselves at the docks and chilled out for a while before driving to the airport and it was an emotional one saying goodbye to Monty! We watched him leave with tears in our eyes!!!
We had a few hours to kill so ate super noodles and read our books!!

We got on the plane and as we took off we decided to treat ourselves to champagne!! Wooo!!

So that’s Tasmania for you! I’ll probably think of some more stories and keep adding bits!
Heres one of the songs we made up…


“Monty the mountain goat,
he had a white and shiny coat,
he took us here, he took us there,
how fast we went, he didn’t care,
through the trees and by the sea,
he always stopped when we needed a wee!!”

I hope you like the pictures… lots of love to you all and...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

x x x x x

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Photos

our mussels.. yummy!!
hope your proud of me dad and abz!!! and i loved them!!

elephant graveyard
in the background you can see all the tree branches in piles.. very strange!!

sketchy!!
the animal remains we came across!! ooo!!

the petrol station!!!!
how would tescos cope!?!

our sunset!!
view over lake pedder

barbar does tasmania
this ones for you dad!!

he he!
heres us looking like fools, trying to fit into the self timer!! hope you like the santa hats!!

on the beach
it was hard to find a space for my towel it was soooo busy!!

ooo!!
looking cool... not that there was anyone to see us!!

one great sign!
for ages we thought it meant "watch out, kangaroos will lift up your car" till we realised it was warning drivers they may hit kangaroos!!!

this was a a town!!
you cant really see, but the front of the house was all glass... looked wicked!