Tasmania
On July 18th we boarded on Spirit of Tasmania from Melbourne
This time with me and L. and our car Betsy, there were also R. (an Italian friend of L.) and J. with his van. I forgot to say that J. – the Swedish guy met in Perth at the beginning – came in Melbourne in May and he stayed in my same hostel. He also worked delivering the White Pages with G. ,who he came in Melbourne too, for three weeks after his farm jobs. (in this first post I presented all this characters).
We arrived in Devonport during the early morning of July 19.
We had only one week to travel in Tasmania, so we just did a quick roadtrip, visiting the most important places, and avoiding completely the southern and the western part of the island.
The first day we explored Launceston and the Cataract Gorge, just a short hiking and nothing really special there. The day after we went straight to the east coast, and we saw the beautiful Bays of Fires.
We spent more than three months stuck in a chaotic city like Melbourne and it’s been amazing finally getting back on the road, free, with the only “job” to decide what to do the next day.
In the evening we reached Coles Bay, the door of the Freycinett National Park, one of the most beautiful parks in Australia, in which the day after we did a great hiking in the forest, reaching The Hazards and then Wineglass Bay, perhaps the most famous place in Tasmania.
On the third day we got to Hobart, the capital city of this island, and we stayed for three nights in the very hippy hostel Pickled Frog. In the hostel you can find a reading room, a pool table, a real pub in the entrance (if you like the Facebook page you get a beer!), and some guitars around the hostel that you can play. Also the paintings on the walls of the dorms are really nice and psychedelic.
The Pickled Frog Hostel, Hobart
Snow in july in Australia
In Hobart we started to face the real Australian winter when, during the second day, it stopped us while we were heading to the top of the Mount Wellington, due to a snow storm. But it wasn’t enough, and on the third day in Hobart, another snow storm surprised us while we were trying to get to the Gordon Dam, in the Mount Field National Park.
Unfortunately we had to come back because J. with his van couldn’t pass the slopes covered with snow, and when we came back we found a tree collapsed in the middle of the road. Together with other backpackers, our Betsy wanted to help pulling the tree away from the road. It’s been funny anyway.
After these days in Hobart we left the city to come back in the nature and we got to Cradle Mountain, the highest mountain of the island. This National Park is also famous because it’s crossed by the Overland Track, an 80 km long hiking track, that you can do only in summer. Some people say that this track is the most beautiful hiking in the whole Australia. I don’t know, I can trust them.
In Cradle Mountain we spent a night a really cozy chalet, warm and comfortable. We needed it after the last days in the snow.
In the end, the last night we found another “chalet”, or something like that, in the middle of the forest in Crayfish Creek. We left the mountains and the snow and we came back to the north coast, warmer than the centre.
Nearby there is a place that worth a visit: Stanely Nut. It’s a high cliff on the Ocean with an amazing view from the top, and a creepy cemetery at the bottom of it. I recommend you to get there if you’re in Tasmania.
So in Tasmania we did a quick tour because we had a cheap return ticket and another big roadtrip on the “main land”, but I can say that the Tasmanian landscapes are really stunning and they worth a visit.
During the summer I’m sure it would be a way better, for the nature, for the fauna (we didn’t spot any Tasmanian Devil but only a clumsy Wombat), for the landscapes and the possibility to enjoy the beaches and, especially, the Overland Track, doing hiking in the very heart of this beautiful island.
The artist who played the most in our car in Tassie was this one.
Here is the complete gallery of Tasmania.
To be continued…
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