Ten days ago (okay, by the time we post this message, another ten days have gone by) we embarked on the Spirit of Tasmania to the little island next to Australia. It was a 10 hour trip to get there. And guess, we've realised that Tasmania is one of the places in the world that we could both live in - too bad it is a bit far away from Europe! The island is absolutely marvellous and offers all you need: local wines and beers, fantastic beaches, national parks, gorges and waterfalls, snowy mountains (at least in winter) and even a couple of nice towns, especially Hobart, the capital. The first night we camped on the stony shore of Sulphur Creek and then went further north west to Stanley and from there we drove down to Mt Cradle NP. The weather wasn't really fantastic but by the end of our 3 hours walk it cleared up a bit and we were able to take some nice pictures (the average rainfall in that part of Tassie is 7 days out of 10 so I guess we were lucky!).
The rest of our stay we had great weather. In the south we visited Hobart and from there we went up to Freycinet NP, an ideal combination of the sandy white beaches of Whitsunday Islands and the long beaches of Cape Tribulation. After returning from our 3 hours walk to the Wineglass Bay, our neighbour on the parking lot advised us we had a flat tyre - our first one (and hopefully our last)! The problem was that our spare wheel is under the car and the bolt to loosen it up is located under the back door, the handle of which had been broken 2 weeks before... With some help of our friendly Aussie neighbours (now sing with us: “Everybody needs good neighbours”), we got the spare wheel out and got on the road again. After all the further hassle of the repair, we decided to stay on the same camping as the night before and... it turned out that our neighbours on the camping were the same ones that had helped us out two hours before. They had even been our neighbours the night before but apparently we had ignored each other ;-)
From Freycinet we continued up north into the Bay of Fires.... Well, pictures say more than words! Last but not least, from the Bay of Fires we went to Low Head to have a nightly encounter with the penguins. A couple of places on Tasmania (and on mainland Australia as well) organise tours to see the little creatures come out of the sea in their kind of nightly parade, but we tried a do-it-yourself recipe. First we enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets ever, and then waited until they came out of the water – and they came, by hundreds! It was one of the most amazing and weird experiences we have had up till now.
One of the problematic issues on our trip is our way of planning what will come next. We plan while travelling, so while still in Melbourne, we were carrying brochures and books about Tasmania and New Zealand with us. Add the fact that the Aussies have specialised in distributing free brochures about, literally, every shit hole in their country with at least a name, a plant and/or at least one inhabitant. You get the picture? Thomas gathering and classifying leaflets, Els trying to get rid of as much as possible of them. Now we have thrown away all our Tassie brochures and are on the ferry back to Melbourne where we are meeting some friends (Rob and Lon, our Dutch friends we met in Sydney and 2 other friends from Thomas) and 4 days later we are taking the plane to New Zealand where we are going to travel around for about one month. We are doing a speedy scan of the Rough Guide – no brochures yet :-)
The rest of our stay we had great weather. In the south we visited Hobart and from there we went up to Freycinet NP, an ideal combination of the sandy white beaches of Whitsunday Islands and the long beaches of Cape Tribulation. After returning from our 3 hours walk to the Wineglass Bay, our neighbour on the parking lot advised us we had a flat tyre - our first one (and hopefully our last)! The problem was that our spare wheel is under the car and the bolt to loosen it up is located under the back door, the handle of which had been broken 2 weeks before... With some help of our friendly Aussie neighbours (now sing with us: “Everybody needs good neighbours”), we got the spare wheel out and got on the road again. After all the further hassle of the repair, we decided to stay on the same camping as the night before and... it turned out that our neighbours on the camping were the same ones that had helped us out two hours before. They had even been our neighbours the night before but apparently we had ignored each other ;-)
From Freycinet we continued up north into the Bay of Fires.... Well, pictures say more than words! Last but not least, from the Bay of Fires we went to Low Head to have a nightly encounter with the penguins. A couple of places on Tasmania (and on mainland Australia as well) organise tours to see the little creatures come out of the sea in their kind of nightly parade, but we tried a do-it-yourself recipe. First we enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets ever, and then waited until they came out of the water – and they came, by hundreds! It was one of the most amazing and weird experiences we have had up till now.
One of the problematic issues on our trip is our way of planning what will come next. We plan while travelling, so while still in Melbourne, we were carrying brochures and books about Tasmania and New Zealand with us. Add the fact that the Aussies have specialised in distributing free brochures about, literally, every shit hole in their country with at least a name, a plant and/or at least one inhabitant. You get the picture? Thomas gathering and classifying leaflets, Els trying to get rid of as much as possible of them. Now we have thrown away all our Tassie brochures and are on the ferry back to Melbourne where we are meeting some friends (Rob and Lon, our Dutch friends we met in Sydney and 2 other friends from Thomas) and 4 days later we are taking the plane to New Zealand where we are going to travel around for about one month. We are doing a speedy scan of the Rough Guide – no brochures yet :-)
Jetzt haben sie viel Staub für ein Meude-quiz.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenwaw, tassie ziet er geweldig uit. En groot gelijk dat jullie minder tijd achter de computer besteden. Ook in nieuw-zeeland moeten jullie je ogen de kost geven aan de natuur. Waar begint jullie trip daar? Noord of Zuideiland? Het is er overdonderend mooi, geniet ervan...
BeantwoordenVerwijderenwim, youna, mauro & wilco