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| From Tassie Road Trip |
Our first day we hiked around Lake Saint Claire and drove to our camp site for the night. We stayed at a site off the road. It seemed like a nondescript place, until we walked around a bit. Not far from the camp site was a big, gorgeous lake surrounded by big, beautiful mountains, with a handful of little islands of trees in the middle. It was like our own private lake. I sat next to the lake watching the waves roll until the sun sank below the mountains. Walking back to the tent I saw my first wallaby, it looked like a baby kangaroo.
The next day we drove to Cradle Mountain and went hiking there. It was an overcast day and rather chilly out. Cradle Mountain is surrounded by several lakes and heavy brush. It wasn't raining when we started our hike, but started about two hours into the hike. We got completely drenched and took cover in some huts. By the time we dried off, we decided not to continue to the top. The mountain was completely covered in clouds and we wouldn't have been able to see anything from the top. It was a really nice hike.
From Cradle Mountain we drove to Launceston. I was pleasantly surprised by Launceston. I didn't really have any expectations, but it turned out to be a great town. They have a free monkey exhibit in the middle of the park close to the hotel that we stayed at, which is enough to put the city at the top of my good list (high standards, I know). Matt and I spent quite awhile watching the monkeys. There's also a gorge on the outskirts of town. It was a nice hike around the gorge. Near the bottom of the gorge is a free public swimming pool.
After leaving Launceston, Matt and I went on a zip line tour. It was my first time on a zip line. It was way fun! I think the highest point was over 150 feet above the ground and you can reach speeds of 50 miles per hour in some places. It was raining the entire day we were out there, but let up a little bit once we got up in the trees. Standing on the platforms out in the trees and just looking at everything was a great part of the whole experience, it was so peaceful out there. There was a sea of green, and a river that flowed through some parts of the zip line tour. I felt adrenaline and nerves leading up to the tour, but wasn't frightened once we got out there.
We left the zip line tour place and drove straight to our camp site for the evening. We arrived to the Bay of Fires in the early evening. It rained all the way there and was far too wet to set up a tent once we got to the camp site. There was a torrential downpour all evening and we ended up sleeping in the car. The next morning it was still raining quite hard and Matt and I were reluctant to leave the dry car. We decided to head into town and figure out what our plan was. The main attraction of Bay of Fires is the beach, which can't be enjoyed as much in the rain. Once we got to the main road to town, we found it blocked off from being flooded over. We talked to some locals and found that all of the roads to town were flooded over, and we would be stuck here for several days! All the area had to offer was one cafe, no other restaurants, no gas stations, no grocery stores. We decided to go to the only cafe in town to get out of the car, and out of the rain. We got some coffees and read in the cafe for several hours. Someone at the cafe mentioned that the fire station was taking in campers and letting them stay there. By the time we left the cafe, the rain had stopped and Matt and I were able to walk along the beach. It was windy, with huge waves, and surprisingly warmer out. After our walk, Matt and I headed up to the fire station, and here we are. When we first heard the news about being flooded in, I was kind of bummed out. But, things have turned out great. We had someone playing the guitar and they just started serving us free barbaque. It's kind of a festive environment, people drinking and hanging out. Plus, they have a shower here! I'm about to take a warm shower, I'm so excited.
Later...
The fire station was so much fun. We ended up meeting these guys from Western Australia, and hung out with them all night. They tried to teach me how to play the ukulele. We spent one night at the fire station and the next day one of the fire fighters came rushing in with a status update early in the morning. He announced that if we wanted to get out of town that we could, but would need to leave immediately. The water had subsided and the tides had gone out, but for only a brief amount of time. The next opportunity to leave would be in several days time. As we had limited supplies and not much to do there in the rain, Matt and I decided quickly to head out.
However, it was not smooth sailing from there, unfortunately. We ran into more rain related problems just down the road. The route we were trying to go had a major road block. Literally, part of the road had been swept away by the rain. The road was beside itself.
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| From Tassie Road Trip |
We ended up having to go over 300 km out of the way, what should have been a 15 minute drive turned into several hours. But, at least we were able to get out of the flooded area, I was expecting that we would be there for several days. We made it down to wineglass bay by the end of the day. It had been raining the entire drive down, but stopped not long after we ate dinner. We were able to walk on the beach and enjoy some sunlight. The next day we went on a five hour hike to wine glass bay, one of the most pristine beaches I've seen yet. The water was freezing, so we didn't do much swimming. We saw some of the most tame wallabies, most likely due to all of the tourists.
From Wineglass Bay, we journeyed to the southern part of Tasmania, down to Port Arthur. Port Arthur is an old prison compound with heaps of old buildings from the turn of the twentieth century. We got a walking tour of the property as well as a ferry tour of the surrounding islands that were also utilized as part of the prison. It was really interesting, I learned a lot about some of the history behind Australia's criminal past.
What a great adventure!
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