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Published: November 13th 2008
wineglass bay
amazing vistaWe arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, having left Sydney for the last time. It was lovely to see Zoe, Larry and Lily again, and amazing that Lily has grown so much in 1 ½ years!!! The last time we saw her, she could hardly sit up, and now she is running around like a Duracell rabbit!!!
The immediate thought on exiting the plane was “shit this is cold!!!” We had endured temperatures of 30C and now we were down to about 10C!!!! Still, we were eager to get into our campervan, so started looking for the Apollo rental office. We looked around and ……well, it wasn’t there!!! We asked at the office…..and no one knew!!!!! So we rang them, and the manager said “yeah mate, you have to get a taxi to us!!” Now, having spent around $1000 for this trip, we expected 1- that the rental company would be at the airport (as was actually mentioned in the contract) and 2- if they were not based at the airport, they should at least send someone to pick us up (as we had expected). So, we begrudgingly got into a taxi, and I asked the driver “do you know where this
sleeping in the campervan
our first night in our campervan rental company is?” and told him the name of the road. The look on his face was a picture!! Not a clue!!!!! We had been given directions, but the driver said there was nothing there. And so began a calamitous event where we were put on hold trying to get back in touch with the rental office (which by the way, is in Brisbane, and they have to put you through to the Hobart branch (no number given)), running out of credit on the phone, finally being phoned by the office, and getting a bill for $40 (for a $10 journey), and the office just saying “bad luck mate, they should have known this place”, even though they only opened 2 weeks ago, thereby accounting for the fact that no one knew where they were, not in the phone book, and the fiasco that resulted!!!!
So it was not a good start to the trip, but we finally got under way, and headed straight up to Coles bay and Freyscinet National park. I have to say that these Hi-top campervans are really designed very well, and have everything you really need for a camping experience.
So, having spent
notly gorge estate vineyard.
home of exceptional wines!!! our first night (and it was a cold night by the way) in our campervan, we awoke with a fresh and bright day. The sun was out, and we took one of the many splendid walks through the park. The jewel in the crown of Coles bay is Wineglass Bay. This is a little cove, shaped like a red-wine glass, and has been voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Its easy to see why too. Apart from being freezing cold (which we will duly ignore), the scene was really picture perfect. The colours of the water were amazing, it was quiet, and there were even little wallabies that were grazing nearby. The walk took us about 4 hours to complete, and took us on an amazing tour, with cliff faces, amazing vistas, and meanders through shrubs and growths.
The next day we travelled up to the north east of Tasmania. This drive brought back memories of beautiful England….no, not the London kind!!! It’s the beautiful rolling hills and green farmland. Lots of sheep and cows, beautiful winding roads, which, even in a campervan, was a thrill to drive through. We drove through the amazing Tamar
Valley, known for its wine producing qualities. We stopped at a couple of wineries, and sampled some of the fantastic wines. If you fancy a tipple from here, Pinot Noir or Chardonnay (Annie are you listening) are the things here.
We drove through Launceston, not stopping here as our campsite was situated further up towards Exeter. It’s a shame really, because Launceston is definitely worth a stopover. Its’ Tasmania’s second largest town, but has a more laid back feel, and in fact reminds me of Jersey!!!! Ahhh………I miss Jersey!!!!!!!
Enough reminiscing!!! We continue up through Exeter, and down to Wynham and along to Deloraine. This part of the country isn’t very populated at all, and is more farm land than anything. In fact, looking at the house prices, $89000 gets you a little house, and $300000 get you a 3 bed house with loads of land space!!! (if only I knew something about farming!!). We were a bit early for the craft fair (which I am told is a hugely popular event), so we continued on to a place called Mole Creek. “Mole what” I hear you ask…well, yes!! It’s actually even smaller than Deloraine, but is really
the place you come if you want to see the walls of Jerusalem. This we wanted to see, but we were told we were probably not prepared enough, as we needed to have a compass, a map of the area (on sale for $10), and the track was mostly covered by overgrowth, so it was best to go with a group, as it took a whole day to get there and back (if you left early enough…..and didn’t get lost!!!). Since we had nurtured the art of getting lost in the easiest of places, we decided that we would probably give it a miss, as we needed more planning for this trip!!! So we headed on.
On our way to Cradle Valley, we stopped off at a place called the devils gullet. The drive up here was on an unsealed road, and I made a decision to dismiss the fact we were told not to take the camper on unsealed roads, and visit this site. It was only 15 kms after all!!! It was 15 kms of winding, unsealed road, with sheer drops on one side, and we had flashbacks of my near fatal experience in Thailand!!! “Keep you
hells gate
not where gordon ramsey lives, its where ships enter the tasman sea!!!! eyes on the road” Carmen shouted as I looked on in awe at the amazing views on offer as we traversed this road. We got to the site, and walked the 5mins to the top, where we saw something akin to the passage between heaven and hell. If ever there is such a place, then we may well have seen it in this life. It was such an amazingly jaw dropping view that I had to take a movie of the area. Have a look yourself.
We got to cradle valley at around 1800. Now given that we had been driving for most of the day, you could be forgiven for thinking that we had done around 400-500 Kms. Travelling around mainland Australia, this was what we were used to doing on a daily basis. But we had only done 200Kms!!!! It’s the winding roads that take time to maneuver, and the stop start of sightseeing takes time!!!! Still, we had come to see the holy grail of Tasmanian tourism……Cradle Mountain.
We stayed overnight at the discovery tourist park, and being some 2000M up, it was bloody cold!!!! We had been given a couple of dooners (aka duvets)
by the rental company, and up until now, had been doing us great. However, here we needed to get the sleeping bags out, and sleep with a woolly hat and thermals! Yes it was that cold, and we had not experienced anything like this since the Blue Mountains, some 20 months ago!!
The bags worked great, and we woke up warm and refreshed. We bought our passes for the park, and began the walk from the visitors centre towards the mountain. You can do this walk (some 8.5 kms), or take one of the many buses to the lake (at the foot of the mountain). Its then a 6km trip around the lake (taking you to the base of the mountain), or you can take one of the daring trips up to the mountain (some 1500M up). We decided to take the easy option of the 6km lake circuit, and this was amazing. The mountain, at first, was draped in low cloud, and you could hardly see the cradle. But, as if by miracle, the cloud lifted, and we beheld the beauty of Cradle Mountain. We have seen some amazingly beautiful places in our trip, but this had to
rank amongst the top. Capped in snow, the mountains held a beauty and magnificence like no other I have seen yet. The cold was biting, but it was worth the pain. We even managed to have lunch at the base of the mountain, which was amazing!!! We returned (in one piece), and proceeded on to our next destination….Zeehan. No this is not a movie, its actually a place!!! A very quiet place, but a place none the less. What’s more, now that we had descended, it was warmer (a little warmer), and getting in and out of the shower was a slightly better experience!!!! If Mole Creek was quiet, this was dead!!! In fact, I was sure that I saw some hay rolling past (as in the ok corral).
Next stop was Stretham. This place is cool, only for the amazing sand dunes here. You can go sand boarding, which is like snowboarding, except on sand. However, because it was raining, the sand was wet, and therefore trying to sandboard on this was like trying to drag your arse on sandpaper!!! Yeah…. So we moved on to Derwent bridge, and lake st. Claire National Park. This place, yet again,
came up with an amazing walk, in search for the platypus. I had never seen one in the wild, and we were going to be very, very lucky if we were to find one here. However, the place is done very nicely, which hiding holes, so you can view from a hidden angle. Apparently, if they see you, they get so scared that you won’t see them in that spot for a long time after. Days in fact!!! So hiding holes are a necessity in order to allow people to see them, and not scared the light out of them!!! Unfortunately we didn’t see any (not for the lack of trying). But we stayed around at the campsite there, and did another walk the following day. The rain seems to be ever present here, and it started to make the walks that much harder.
Alas, our time was nearly up in Tassie, and we arrived back in Hobart for some final sightseeing. We met up with Karen (a former colleague), and ate fish and chips on the harbour. Very nice it was too, and a big thanks to Karen for inviting us.
Hobart is nice, clean, comfortable and
with nice people. It has a real Island feel here, much like Jersey, and we have really enjoyed ourselves in Tas.
One final note thou!!! Its now been 3 weeks after, and Apollo have not returned our deposit. They returned it to the wrong account, and I guess that sums them up perfectly really!!! I guess if you want to take your chances with an impolite and quite frankly shoddy rental company, go for Apollo. If you want something a little more professional, go for someone else!!! NZ here we come!!!!!!!!
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