Tasmanian Devils
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2009
1
10
17
Trip End
Feb 01, 2010
Devonport, Tasmania, Australia
Friday, November 13, 2009
Tassie is great, very different from mainland Australia. Lots of the scenery could be English, or Scottish perhaps. There's lots of dramatic coastlines, pounding surf, deserted beaches and more Tasmanian Devils than you could shake a pitchfork at. I've stayed with Rob and Vanessa in Hobart for a couple of days, I met them on the Fraser Island tour a few weeks ago. It's fabulously kind of them to put me up. Today, the 16th, I've explored all over the Tasman Peninsula. There are caves, blowholes, forests, beaches, cliffs and lakes all over the place! It's very scenic, but much cooler than I've been used to.
There's lots of history in Tasmania, a lot of it unpleasant. Convicts were kept on the Tasman Peninsula, which is connected to the rest of the island by a very narriow stretch of land, no more than one hundred meters. The military guards had fierce dogs, which were kept hungry to make them more aggresive, chained at intervals across this bit of land to stop convicts escaping into the bush. They even had dogs on floating pontoons in the harbour to stop convicts making a swim for freedom!
The scenery here is just stunning. The north of the island is rolling hills and sandy beaches, the central and southern region is towering mountains surrounded by thick bush and lots of breathtaking lakes, with very dramatic coast lines and countless bays. Truly a stunning place. And there's no-one around! The population of the state only recently topped half a million, and most of those live in the few cities; Hobart, Launceston, Devonport etc. So the countryside is mostly deserted. People here are very friendly, and all want to know what I think of Tas compared to mainland Australia.
On the ferry on the way over, there were twenty or so Porsches making the trip, and having driven around teh island for a week, I can see that it is a dream destination for a driving trip in a sports car. The roads in the centre of the state will have straights stretching for tens of kilometers with incredible scenery either side, then you'll have a long section of tight twists and hairpin bends winding up and down the mountain ranges. I had fun in the old Nissan I hired (for the princely sum of $40 a day), so can only imagine how much fun those guys had in their Porsches.
There's a lot of wildlife on Tasmania, and I got up close to a lot of it. I saw an echidna, which as I'm sure you already know is one of only two mammals in the world that lays eggs. I also saw loads of wallabies, they didn't seem too timid and would let me get pretty close before bounding off into the bush. I almost drove off a cliff one day, when I came around a bend to see two bloody great eagles riding the strong winds, hovering just fifteen or twenty feet above the road. They must have been at least a meter in wingspan, but I couldn't stop for a better look as I had traffic behind me.
So, after a fabulous week made up of one stunning view after another, it's back to mainland Oz. I've decided to fly back; it takes one hour and is far cheaper than the ferry. AFter a few days in Melbourne, it's back to Sydney to collect my new passport, then bring forward my New Zealand flight by a week or so, and start the next phase of the vagabonding.
