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Published: February 26th 2006
Henty Sand Dunes
Trying to stop the sky from falling down...9 days of Tassie...
(prepare for a long read...)
Day One After my one night in Melbourne I flew with JetStar (like easyjet) to Hobart. A great suprise then occurred...a girl I met in Batemans Bay and who I travelled to Narooma with was on the same flight as me! It was so cool to be in some unknown place the other side of the world, then to see someone you know (well had met before anyway...)! We shared THE biggest piece of Mars Chocolate Cake, we couldn't eat it all in the slightest...mmm I want some know talking about it! The flight was only an hour long and went very fast. At Hobart airport which was so tiny there was a cute little sniffer dog checking for any fresh produce which wasn't allowed to be brought into the country. It also went on the luggage carousel running like on a treadmill sniffing all the bags! So cute! Arriving in Hobart, Sabine and I swapped numbers as we were at different hostels, so we could meet up in the evening. I stayed at a hostel called The Pickled Frog. It was an old pub that had been converted into a
Afternoon swim...
You know, just going for a swim with a mountain behind me... hostel. It was nowhere near as nice as the YHA hostels I've been staying in. The kitchen was horrible. There were 2 sinks, one saying DO NOT USE, so I looked over the side and just saw loads of ants crawling out of the plug hole and up the side...I ate out the 2 nights I was in Hobart...
Day Two Today Sabine and I hired a car for the day. We drove to the Huonville to go on this airwalk. It was a massive construction that allowed you to walk high up amongst the trees (the trees are huge in the Huon Pine area). It was great to have a different view of things from so high up but I still prefer walking along the natural ground rather than a metal walkway. I had a massive bee follow me the whole day which was nice. Every now and then I would just have to wave my arms about like a weirdo to rid of it! Having the car was great as it just gave us so much freedom. We went to see the biggest tree in the southern hemisphere after the airwalk. It was huuuuuge, 405 tonnes! I tried
Lushness...
The purest air in the world, end of. taking a photo to show its size but it was difficult to capture. It was cool in the car as I brought my tape adaptor with me, so we were playing music from our mp3 players. I have had a German song on my iPod for aaaages with the chorus only being in English, so Sabine finally gave me a translation of it which was great, but not what I was expecting!
Day Three I had to get up really early today as the tour guide was picking me up at 6:15am in front of the hostel. When I got up though, there were still some guys up in the lounge area. I came out from the bathroom and one guy ran up to me and said 'I thought you were going to be someone scary, but your not, YOUR NOT!' then he gave me a massive hug! It's moments like that which I love about travelling, as your meet so many strange but great characters! It makes me laugh 😊 All in all there were 21 people on the Tassie Tour and Mark the tour guide/driver. We set off from Hobart following the River Derwent to its source via
Delicious...
Had to put a hand in the photograph to show just how big it was... Mount Field National Park. We started off by doing a short walk just so we could get to know each other and introduce ourselves to the group which was good. Hard to remember everyones names at first though! Later on in the day we climbed to the top of this small mountain overlooking the Franklin Gordon River NtPk, the view was astounding and the feeling was wonderful, just being ontop of a mountain, in Tasmania, with people from Japan, Holland, Scotland, Taiwan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Hong Kong...its something a few years back I would never have thought I would be in a position to experience. That brought a massive smile to my face 😊
Day Four Bright and early again we eased into the day with a flat walk through the rainforest to Montezuma Falls, 10km return. The falls there were the highest in Tasmania and the sound of the water falling was beautiful. You had to cross a wobbly bridge 2 at a time to get to the other side which was a bit scary. I managed to get some photos but was really frightened I'd drop my camera! Returning back to the van we decided to
Out to dry...
I love my travel washing line...no pegs needed... cook a barbeque. It was delicious, chicken and peppers in wraps :p then a guy called Talib brought out a box of oranges, and I ate one! It was sooooo good, so juicy! I think I've finally gotten over the whole texture thing with fruit and am just enjoying all the flavours I've always liked but in juices! We drove further up the west coast of tassie and went to Ocean Beach where it officially has the cleanest air in the world. All cities are measured against this air which is zero. If you kept going west from this coast in Tasmania, the next piece of land would be South America so the winds have just been travelling past ocean instead of through other towns/cities making it so pure. Before going back to Tullah where we were staying, we went to the Henty Sand Dunes, also known as Little Sahara. Some parts were so steep you kept sliding back down trying to climb it! Some of the guys had a competition to see who could jump the furthers off the steepest dune. It looked painful so I just ran down which was just as much fun! The amazing thing about
The lushness that is Tasmania...
I think this photo shows how much I love Tassie... the dunes though, was how it was just pure sand for ages, but behind you was the most freshest greenery, so you had the two extremes right there. Back in Tullah some of us went canoeing on the lake which was suprisingly warm. I paired up with a girl from Holland, and to determine who was the strongest (who would then have to sit at the back) we arm wrestled. England vs. Holland. Unfortunately England lost...
Day Five The big challenge...Cradle Mountain...
We could pick what hike we wanted to do, easy, medium or hard. We all had to start off with medium one and then could either turn around and walk back or carry on to climb Cradle Mountain. I was feeling adventurous so carried on. Already I had gone from extreme temperatures of being boiling hot and just wearing a tshirt, to freezing and having to put on all my layers. For the next hour it was soooo cold, I felt like I was at home again. And because we were so high up it was really misty and my legs were drenched with the wind blowing the mist into me. It was too dangerous with the weather
Fairy Penguins...
It was so difficult to get a decent photo of these cute little penguins, as you weren't allowed to use a flash because it would damage their eyes... to climb the summit of Cradle Mountain so we just climbed the face of it. I didn't realise how much climbing was actually involved, so some of it was quite difficult. The views that you got though from that height were amazing, especially once the mist had cleared up. It was just everywhere you looked was gorgeous perfect scenery. Towards the end of our 5 hour trek my knee started to weaken and I had to use my bum alot on the descent of the mountain. It was totally worth it though. Talib played some arabic music from his phonePDA when we were at a lookout, it made the feeling even more atmospheric. I'll never forget the feeling of being so high up and seeing just miles of such luscious untouched land and different angles of Dove Lake. And looking back from where we started and what we had just climbed across gave you such a buzz, I still can't believe I achieved that, and I don't care that my thighs absolutely caned for the 3 days after...
Day Six Today we picked up some new people for the last days of the tour and lost a couple as well
Island of the Dead...
Taken at Port Arthur on our little boat trip. I can't believe how many bodies are resting on this tiny island... in Launceston. We did a small walk around Cataract Gorge which I struggled with, my thighs just felt so tight and bruised, I wasn't the only one though! By this point I had made really good friends with two girls from Japan, Namiko and Minako, a girl called Miranda from Taiwan and Martin from Hong Kong. I was helping them all with their English and in return being taught Japenese. It's so interesting and logical, and I think I may learn it whilst I'm at University. It will be a challenge which I am up for 😊 I've already learnt quite a few phrases and how to write Wagamama (which actually means selfish!). Mmmm there's a Wagamama restaurant in Melbourne, I think I may have to go there! We spent the afternoon and evening at our very own beach house in Bicheno which was fantastic. It was cool to have this huge house all to ourselves. I went for a swim down by the beach before dinner, so cold but very refreshing. After dinner a group of us went down to the seafront to sea the Fairy Penguins (mini penguins). They were so cute, alot of them still babies and
Tawny Frogmouth...
I want one, they are so cute. The little hairs above their beak act as sensors and trigger it's mouth to open, showing its frog like mouth... all fluffy! One male penguin was looking after some eggs because the mother must have died at sea, and would stay there until he could hold out no longer and would have to leave to get food, he looked so lonely...
Day Seven Frecinet National Park was where we spent most of today. Again there was the choice of a long flat walk, or a climb up Mt Amos. With my thighs still being in utter agony I opted for the flat walk which I think was wise! They only hurt walking downhill so walking up to the lookout of Wineglass Bay was fine. It's called Wineglass Bay because it is shaped like a wineglass and when whaling was still around the sea would often be red 😞 Sitting on a rock on the beach a cute little Wallaby hopped over to me and started sniffing at my camera, so I started taking some pictures and it kept going right up to the lens. I love how the bounce around with their mahoosive feet, even the babies have such huge feet. In the evening we were at another house all to ourselves in Port Arthur. We played lots of games, pool etc and I got some people playing BlackJack...ahahaha...I've now arranged a night out to the casino in Melbourne sometime next week...
Day Eight The last day of the tour we spent at the ruins of Port Arthur, where alot of the convicts were sent to. It was so difficult to imagine what it would have been like all those years ago, when it looks quite pretty in fact now. There was also a short boat cruise which went past the island of the dead, where all the convicts were buried but without tombstones and a service. Our last stop of the tour was at a Tasmanian Devil Park! They looked everso cute laying down, flat out on their bellies, but when up and about boy were they viscious! Snarling and chasing one another, they looked more like the cartoon of Taz with their mouths wide open, although they never spun round in circles...
Day Nine I was by myself now, made my way by coach to Launceston and had a mooch about the town. It felt like I was back in Essex or at college as all the young people were in their ultra tight jeans, with their funky hair, wearing odd shoes and being cool etc It was quite funny how the fashion was so similar to Seevic all the way here in Tasmania..."it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world" (oh how I loved that ride at Disney Land...)
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nigelonius
non-member comment
hooray!
you sound like you are having a great time, i miss you like crazy, but on the other hand im so proud of you. i hope your knee is better, then it obviously is because you are so busy! its going to be a short message coz i wanna read your next adition...plus liverpool are on tele mmmmwahh xxxxx pib