Blogs from Tasmania, Australia, Oceania - page 11

Having made the decision to buy two single kayaks (rather than one tandem kayak) and having researched the topic of kayaks for some weeks, we were pretty much decided on what the plan was. We would aim to buy a second hand Seabird Discovery (and check it out and then confirm it was what we wanted) and then buy another kayak of the same model (possibly new). Of course there were plenty of second hand Seabird Expeditions available locally (some very cheap) but the Seabird Discoveries all seemed to be interstate. Finally, we came across some Discoveries locally but the opportunity came and went. One was too expensive, one seemed right but we found out it was damaged and one we missed by just a short time. After that amount of bad luck, we finally got ... read more

Tasmania is a small island with a population of approximately 500,000. Of course, being an island there are quite a lot of beaches... Sometimes I think there is a beach for each person in Tassie. If you go to a beach, it's "crowded" if there are more than ten people.... We are lucky... Of course, living in Hobart, we spend our summer weekends relatively close to Hobart. There's no point driving a few more hours when you have a huge choice of beaches just a relatively short drive away. There are favourite places we go to for a weekend and we make choices usually based on the weather forecast and what other activities we might plan to be doing. Our favourites include: Orford, which has lovely beaches including Spring Beach and Rheban Wineglass Bay at Freycinet ... read more

It didn't matter which weather report you tuned into, if it was mainland Australia there was one common denominator. They were frying. Hometown Sydney in particular seemed to be ever inching closer to the sun, record temperatures nudging the mid forties. SUFFER! At the same time, under the same national flag, we were piling on the layers to quarantine ourselves from biting winds and mercury struggling to hit double figures. Rain swept in sheets at 10 minute intervals and snow sprinkled the peaks of mountains. One morning low cloud hanging around head height was the sort of stuff that justifies lighthouses and where you might expect Jack the Ripper to come skulking out of. And this is summer. Tasmania may be part of our Great Southern Land but crossing that latitudinal line over Bass Strait can ... read more

Our final day on the trail! We were leaving Retakunna and heading to Fortescue Bay via Cape Hauy. The trail would be about 14 kilometres and would take about My friend and I were known as the two who always lag behind because we would stop and have story time at each 'Encounter' we passed along the way. At Fortescue Bay, there are two shuttle buses to take you back to Port Arthur and by the time we had booked the hike, only the earlier shuttle of 2 pm was still available, the 4 pm one was fully booked. We knew that due to our slow pace that we would have to get up at the crack of dawn to make it in time. Luckily, our lovely bunkmates stepped in. The idea of swapping buses had ... read more

We were up bright and early as was pretty everyone else doing the trail. It was a bit of a brisk morning and there were some large dark clouds in the sky, which we were hoping wouldn't start raining. We made breakfast and once that was finished, we headed out to start our hike for the day. Today's distance was only 11 kilometres, so it would be another fairly easy day. Our backpacks weren't too heavy as we didn't have to carry a tent or cooking appliances, but carrying a sleeping back and three days worth of food was still a lot more than I normally carry. We made our way back from Surveyors to the main track. We were soon greeted with lovely views of the ocean and the peninsula. We could see where we ... read more