Time here has flown by faster than a Tasmanian Devil!
Yes, these are Tasmanian Devils. I haven’t shared this image elsewhere because I have mixed feelings about the conditions under which it was taken. In Huonville I stayed at the only campground in town, it so happened that they also promised Tasmanian Devils, along with a campy “farm show” (they milked a cow by hand and handed out baby chicks and ducks for people to hold). Devils are endangered and thus there are breeding programs and the camp owners are basically a retirement home for Devil breeders past their prime. That’s all good and well, but Devils are nocturnal and I didn’t really appreciate the owners forcing the Devils out during daylight hours for audience entertainment; hopefully the extra money they collected went to the protection and breeding program as advertised.
Ultimately, I had the privilege of adding the Tasmanian Devil to the list of amazing creatures I have seen here; all others observed in the wild. I’ve observed Tasmanian Pademelons, Bennett’s Wallabys, echidnas, platypus, possums (no ‘o’), Tiger Snakes, smaller unidentified snakes, Eastern Quoll, hedgehogs, wombats, and one kangaroo! I’ve also seen many funny and interesting birds, but the thing that will stay with me the most is the creepy cackling call of the Kookaburra!! Give it a Google…
The three weeks I planned on Tasmania have only allowed me to see a portion of the island. It is much slower going than I expected and I never made it to the east coast nor the northwest corner of the state. Why was I covering ground more slowly than expected? One reason is that much of what I wanted to see on the west coast involved going 100km down dead end roads to reach my destination,which also meant a lot of time backtracking. I mostly combatted this by hitchhiking back out of places I had ridden into. Comparisons to New Zealand are impossible to avoid both because I just spent three months in NZ and prior to my arrival so many people had told me that Tasmania was a lot like NZ, landing somewhere between NZ and mainland Australia. I haven’t been to the mainland yet, so I can’t speak to that, but I do know NZ pretty well! The roads here are steeper, it has been a lot colder (many days and nights near freezing), and there is a lot less infrastructure than in NZ. Outside of a few major cities there are no hotels or hostels, just Air Bn’B type accommodations which are never a good deal for the solo traveler, which meant I was mostly left with camping regardless of the weather. This also meant keeping my phone (aka my navigation device) charged was more challenging. Food resupply was also tough in remote areas. More then once I ended up at a local mercantile that did not have a single fresh ingredient, just a bleak supply of dried goods. And fish n’ chips takeaway, always fried takeaway…
It has also been my experience that many of the locals are gruff and somewhat resistant to communication. There re always exceptions, of course, and I don’t doubt for an instant that if I were in need of help almost every person here would stop and help, but there isn’t much overt friendliness either. I felt like many of the people working in the service industry (say running a small remote cafe) were doing it not because they had any interest in working in the service industry, but with the increase in tourism perhaps it was the only way they could make a living. If that is the case, I have empathy for their plight, but still… That said I met some very *interesting* locals when hitchhiking. About a week ago I was up in the central highlands when a storm came in and I woke (in my tent) to a mixture of snow/rain/sleet. 30-40F and precipitating are some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions. I had a huge downhill ahead to get off the plateau, which meant no way to generate heat and I was not at all keen on the situation. I bundled up in all my clothes and went and stood on the side of the road with my thumb out. Not many cars were coming by and even less appropriate cars were coming past; basically I needed an ute (pick up truck). After about 40 minutes I told myself just wait for one more ute and if it doesn’t stop it’s time to start pedaling. When the next vehicle that passed me was an empty ute with a female driver I gave up hope and started pedaling; fortunately the rain had started to dissipate a bit. I didn’t make it 50 meters down the road before I saw her coming back! She explained that she was running late for an appointment a couple hours away, but after she passed me she just could not leave me standing out there in the rain and cold and turned back to get me. Kathy was a lovely woman who spends her summers (a relative term here) walking many kilometers every day with a tank of pesticide on her back and spot killing invasive species, such as thistle, along the roadside. She was incredibly knowledgeable and pointed out much of the flora and geography to me as we spend along off the mountain. She loves her little patch of island and has never desired to travel or live anywhere else!
My trip started with wonderful hosts (friends of friends, more on that in a future post) in Hobart which is a lovely city. I was fortunate to be there on a Saturday for the famous Salamanca outdoor market and a bagpipe band was playing.
From there I headed up along the backside of Mount Wellington, following a track shown on my mountain biking app. Ha! It was an insanely steep firebreak road and I *literally* pushed my bike uphill for hours. Welcome to Tasmania. I made such slow progress that day that I had no choice to bush camp near my high point, the evening was getting cold fast. The entire day had been steep and rocky terrain, but a magical flat spot near a water source appeared just when I needed it. That night my water bottles froze and I later learned that Wellington is famously cold and steep. Ha! Welcome to Tasmania.
I made my way down to Southwest National Park (NP) which, combined with a hike, led me to the southernmost part of all of Australia! It was beautiful, powerful, and peaceful down there.
Next I used logging roads to work my way across a mountain range to Mount Fields NP. I highly recommend both its lower altitude tall tree and water fall hikes as well as the alpine hikes. There are many species of Eucalyptus trees (aka gum trees) here, including some of the tallest trees in the world. Though not as tall as the mighty California Redwoods!
Following Mount Field was my cold and windy traverse of the central highlands, described above, to meet up with my friend Shane on his new land near Deloraine (my favorite small town in Tasmania and a bit of a hippy enclave. Coincidence I like it…? Hmm.) After a great visit, delicious food, and delicious Tasmanian wine I headed for two more National Parks: Walls of Jerusalem and Cradle Mountain. Though the next day headwinds were so fierce that it took me about four hours to cover the only flat 35km of my entire trip. Ha, thanks Tasmania!
Clearly Walls of Jerusalem was not the original Aborgine name for the area and the rock formations. The information on the map mentioned the cruel treatment of the Aborginal people at the hands of the British, but made no mention of original names of the rock formations. It’s quite possible that the names have been lost since the British literally hunted the Aborginal people to extinction in Tasmania, but that should have been addressed explicitly in the description.
By the time I made it to Cradle Mountain winter conditions had returned. Temps were in the single digits (Celsius) and it was forecast to rain all night. Luckily I managed to get an affordable spot in a bunk house and stayed warm and dry for two nights. Exploring during frigid, but not raining, daytime conditions.
Cradle Mountain was the final location I had time to visit before heading to Devonport to wait for my ferry across to Melbourne. Devonport was a fine city and I enjoyed the sights until the rain started up again. I spent my last day hanging around town looking like a drowned rat and waiting for my night time ferry. It was my first time ever sleeping on a boat which was sort of fun!
Tasmania was beautiful but challenging for me. I’m sure the fact that I feel so ready to go home player into my perceptions. On the mainland I will primarily be spending time with friends and having more Type 1 fun (urban culture, music, and day hikes and bike rides). I’m very excited about this phase of my travel and even more excited to return to Santa Barbara for a few months on March 24 (Coronavirus willing).
* Thanks for continuing to be patient with my lack of editing and imperfect prose. Writing and uploading photos on the phone continues to be challenging. ❤️