Month: March 2008

Doing time at Port Arthur

As you probably know, Australia was used as a penal colony, the punishment being that you were sent halfway around the world to a hot, dry, beautiful country (notice how we all pay lots to do that now?). So what happens if you get sent all this way and commit yet more crimes? Port Arthur happens, where prisoners were reformed, or broken in the process (they had to build a lunatic asylum to house those broken men). The worst form of punishment was to be sent to the Separate Prison, which gives solitary confinement a new meaning; the prisoners could not make any noise, nor hear any, even footsteps had to be muffled by grass mats. They were locked up 23 hours a day, and hooded when out of their cell. When we returned late at night for a ghost tour (fortunately no cheesy people dressed in bed sheets jumping out), it was the Separate Prison that was the eeriest, with tales of women being grabbed and pulled into cells as they walked out, a woman who felt a suffocating coldness over her head and shoulders, and women seeing convict ghosts chase them down the corridor. For some reason Caroline held on a little bit tighter as we walked out of there…

Feeling Small

We almost missed Mount Field National park, so thanks to Pete for pointing it out, and I really should pay more attention to the little map of places to visit I spent so long plotting. Mount Field is home to some very tall trees, the tallest hardwood and tallest flowering plants in the world at up to 90 metres (giant redwoods from California are taller, but not hardwood). The trees are proportioned the same as the smaller ones, so from a distance they don’t look any different. It’s only when you get up close or see one that has fallen and taken out half the forest with it that you start feeling tiny in comparison.
Grandness on another scale greeted us at Hobart, with the towering Mount Wellington looming over the capital city. I say capital city in the loosest sense, as it’s got that small market town/fishing port feel to it, but we did visit on a Sunday and hung around the harbour so I may be mistaken. We took a drive up Mount Wellington, for impressive views over the city and even more amazement at the steepness of the mountain that the van actually managed to get up. To make up for all that effort it was time for fish and chips from the floating chippies in the harbour!

More World Heritage

With an impressive 20% of Tasmania set aside as a World Heritage site, it took us a whole day of driving to get to the other side of the Gordon/Franklin River site we visited yesterday. The drive took us past Queenstown, “unashamedly a mining town” that has gorged out half of a mountain in their quest for copper. Rugged mountains and lakes lined the drive the rest of the way and so it’s easy to see why so many people list Tasmania as a favourite place. That’s not to say there weren’t a few walking stops, with Donaghys Hill lookout presenting a 360 degree view over alpine looking hills to green flood plains (school time geography was useful after all!).
We also squeezed in a walk at Lake St Clair, a glacial lake at the back of Cradle Mountain, and Australia’s deepest. It was also the end point of a 5+ day walk from the mountain, and there were plenty of walkers there to put us to shame as we set off on our 1 1/2 hour stroll. Our quest to spot a Platypus continued at the enticingly named Platypus Bay, but to no avail. The views over the lake were great though, so all was not lost.

Totally World Heritage-tastic

With only a little stroll yesterday we were itching for more and so called into the Montezuma Falls, the tallest in Tasmania. I cycled and Caroline walked along the old railway track (read as nice, flat and easy) to the falls, passing through the mossy forest, and occasionally muddy track. I only had enough time to venture out on to the ricketty suspension bridge before Caroline arrived after nearly standing on a snake (got my heart racing and reminded me why you are not advised to walk on your own in Australia! – Caz).
The afternoon was a lot more civilized. Boarding a fast, slick ship we zoomed out of Strahan into the dark waters of Macquarie Harbour and through Hells Gate, named so by the prisoners on their way to Sarah Island (think the Alcatraz of Australia). The ship then motored to the Gordon River, a World Heritage site that satisfies 7 out of the possible 10 criteria required to become World Heritage listed, and joint top of the table with another site in China, so a pretty important place. It’s not so hard to see why, as we cruised up the beautiful mirror smooth waters of the river, passing trees that are up to 4000 years old, and aren’t found elsewhere. The area was also home to Aboriginies that were the most southerly humans and survived several ice ages (average temperature of -14), and not forgetting the unique flora and fauna that Tasmania has.

Cradle Mountain

Within minutes of heading inland from the north coast the scenery changed to dense forests and rough mountainous terrain, giving it that wilderness feeling. Concerned about our petrol supply and chances of finding a petrol station we detoured to a little village only to find their only pump was dry. What we did find was a lush green gorge with a waterfall at one end and forested peaks stretching off into the distance at the other. The Tasmanians certainly have fantastic scenery in abundance, but aren’t afraid to whack a dirty great mine next to it (nor dam it, reforest it and so on).
At Cradle Mountain, after taking a dribble of expensive fuel, we abandoned the van and shuttle-bused it to Dove Lake at the foot of the twin peaks of the mountain. The dark brown lake complements the mountain perfectly, and with the trees replaced by heather, the view of the mountain is unhindered, especially important for taking photos! Arriving a tad too late to walk up the summit track, we took the easy track around the lake then went up a steep path to Lake Wilks to get the blood flowing, and make it feel more like a hike than a boardwalk stroll.
We camped up at Rosebery, site of yet another zinc and tin mine, and also a train line that passes over the campsite but with only one train passing by as we tucked into dinner. It wasn’t until lights out that the strange noises began, a cross between a bird of prey call and a cat being tortured. I’m hoping it was neither, and just the Tasmanian Devils talking to each other, after all it is how they got their devilish name.

Tassie

We’re here! Fresh off the boat this morning. First impressions are good, already we can see how some people might compare it to Scotland with it’s lush green fields (no water shortages here!) and the rolling hills. The slightly cooler climate is a welcome change and we are already feeling more relaxed and at home.
We have become suckers for Australia’s big things and so with the guidebook promising a big platypus at Latrobe, a mere 5km away, we were there. Unfortunately, the big platypus wasn’t up to the usual standard of big things, it was actually disappointingly small (certainly no Larry the Lobster!). All was not lost though, a wee chat with a real Tasmanian in the Tourist info office gave us a plan of action for our nine days here and she also sent us up to a good place to spot platypuses in the wild. Despite our patient searching the platypus remained elusive for today but we have got ourselves a mission for the next eight days; to spot a platypus in the wild and a Tasmanian devil and maybe a tiger, although they may be extinct so I’m not sure we’ll get lucky there.
Our plan for today was to explore the North West coast so the first port of call was Penguin. Named by some imaginative (I’m ashamed to say British) explorer who saw penguins when he first arrived here. The town has, as you might expect, made the most of it’s name and every shop, cafe etc has some quirky name like The Groovy Penguin cafe, as well as some statue of a penguin. The dustbins are also quite quirky with their penguins attached to the sides and of course there was a big penguin, who was actually quite big this time!.

We’re off to Tassie!

With our ferry crossing to Tasmania booked for 8pm we really are under pressure today to drive lots of miles and get to Melbourne in time. A very early start (and an overly excited Si) meant that we did have time for a brief sojourn into the Grampians. Some impressive rocky hills that have a definite Scottish feel to them, especially when viewed through an early morning mist and a wee bit of drizzle! Leaving before the morning fog had chance to burn off may have been a little over zealous, as we arrived 4 hours before the ferry departed, better than 4 hours after though – it was probably the thought of that real bed that made us so eager.
P.S. I know it’s meant to bring good luck, but I don’t think Si found being pooed on by a seagull so lucky!

A journey back in time

It is a long way back to Melbourne but we are in a hurry to get there so that we can jump on a ferry and maximise our time in Tasmania. Which meant there was a lot of driving to be done today, however we did allow ourselves a couple of hours for the Naracoorte caves. During the first tour of Alexandra cave I impressed myself with my recently found knowledge of cave formations as I was able to identify stalagtites and mites, collumns and shawls. It was just as well really as the tour guide was not the most informative. However, it was on our second cave tour that we were to discover why this place has world heritage listing. The Victoria fossil cave was fascinating and we could see first hand the excavation site for fossils of weird and wonderful Australian dinosaur like creatures. The visitor centre had life size replicas of these now extinct mega fauna. Of course they all have very technical dinosaur-esque names but I can’t remember those. The two that left an impression on me were the oversized wombat dinosaur and the squashed headed koalaroo!
Another few hundred kms of hot sticky driving and we have now crossed the border back into Victoria so at least we are now in the right state to catch our ferry.

Farewell KI

We had time for one last KI tourist attraction before boarding our ferry, The Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery. You could smell the head-clearing eucalyptus as soon as you opened the door and the tour of the sole remaining eucalyptus distillery was fascinating, especially considering that the whole business is self sufficient, as in they make their own electricity and water. It was also quite interesting to learn about the many uses for eucalyptus, as a decongestant, for cleaning, as an insect repellant and for relieving bites (the last two sold it for me). The emus and their babies also made a welcome distraction and we were just moaning about our lack of kangeroo spotting to Larry, our tour guide when he opened the door to the shop and introduced us to Rita, an orphaned kangaroo who had been rescued by his wife. Isn’t she adorable!?
It then came time to say farewell to Kangeroo Island as we have a slightly bigger island to get to in a hurry. Spotting a pod of dolphins from the ferry on the way back seemed like a very fitting send off.

An action-packed day on KI

Today was our only full day on Kangeroo Island (KÌ to the locals) which meant we had to drive an almost complete 200km loop of the island to get in all of the attractions. It also means you are in for a long blog (you have been warned!)
It all began with an early start and a drive to Seal Bay, home of the Australian fur seal. A guided tour took us up close and personal to the seals on the beach (close enough to smell their fishy breath!) Their breeding season has just finished which meant it was a pretty safe time to be so close, the bulls were past their aggressive stage and were not likely to mistake us for female seals! It also meant there were lots of cute little pups frolicking around. Some of the younger ones were still breastfeeding while the slightly older little boy seals were playing at being big boy seals with their pretend fights and chasing of the girls for kisses. The girls, of course, were playing it cool, lounging around on the beach. Si’s favourite photo of the day is this young seal surfing the waves with his fin sticking out like an upside-down surf board. It was a pretty hot 45 degrees on the beach (before 11am!) so it was time to move on.
Next stop: Little Sahara, a plethora of huge sand dunes, supposedly perfect for sandboarding. But at 45 degrees that kind of energetic pursuit was not going to happen so we pootled along to Vivonne bay for a bit of a cool down in the southern ocean. This bay was voted the best beach in Australia by a professor at Sydney University. Can’t have been an easy decision as we have seen a lot of impressive beaches in our time here! We got the boogie board out and had some fun cooling off when some dolphins swam along to join in the fun. So Si can now say he surfed with dolphins. I did capture this moment on film but unfortunately my photography skills were not up to scratch (I’ll blame it on the new camera) and the picture is a little out of focus 🙁
After that excitement we headed off to Flinders Chase National park where our first port of call was Admirals Arch, an arch in the rock complete with an impressive array of stalagmites and New Zealand fur seals lounging around and enjoying a bit of shade (they have thicker fur than their Aussie counterparts from this morning, hence the reason they are found here on the shady rocks as opposed to the 45 degree heat of the beach). When Si had got the required number of seal photos (i.e. a lot) we were ready to move on to the piece de la resistance of the day; Remarkable Rocks. A group of wind sculptured granite boulders that do indeed look quite remarkable but once again I am left feeling that the Aussies lacked a little imagination when they were naming the delights of this country.
Almost finished. The original plan was to stay at Remarkable Rocks to watch the sunset but with our campsite being about 100 km away we decided to head off and instead just keep stopping the car for sunset pics. In our prior reading about KI we had been promised ‘abundant’ wildlife, all with slightly different island adaptations. Since we usually do quite well with our wildlife we were a little disappointed with the elusiveness of the land based wildlife here thus far (not counting the roadkill at the side of the road – that was quite abundant!). But after the beautiful deep orange sun had set and darkness had desended we began to learn why there was an alarming amount of road kill. Suddenly the wallabies and the possums became abundant, and they had no road sense what so ever. Si has to be commended for his careful driving and the fact that he managed to avoiding hitting any of these guys who seem to think it is fun to play on the road and then do the startled rabbit pose when you approach! Still no sign of a kangeroo though 🙁
After that long day and the long blog I bid you good night.