Tasmania Experience Tour, March 2007

Eager to see more of wild Australia, I booked into a 6-day, 5-night nature tour of Tasmania, organized by Conservation Volunteers Australia.

Day 1 - Hobart to Cradle Mountain

After taking my first (and hopefully last) Jetstar flight, I was met at my Hobart hotel by our tour guide Brad and the 6 other people taking this month's tour. Today was mostly a driving day, as we drove into the middle of Tasmania to Cradle Mountain National Park.
After stopping in Campbelltown for coffee and then Sheffield for lunch, we arrived at the National Park to find less-than-perfect conditions. From sunny Sheffield, it took only a short drive to descend into blustery, biting, near-freezing winds. At the Dove Lake car park, one would generally have a spectacular view of Cradle Mountain, but we were greeted only with clouds and icy mist. I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. The weather swings in Melbourne I had become accustomed to were definitely magnified here. At Cradle Mountain, it could be warm and sunny one moment, and freezing winds 10 minutes later. As we surveyed the grey ooze, we learned of the number of lookouts and lakes in the area which had been named after people who had perished during poorly-planned hikes.

Cold Wind at Dove Lake
As we left Dove Lake, praying for better weather, we spotted a pair of wombats, and stopped to take in their sluggish grazing. The zoo continued once we arrived at our campground, with a rather tame padimelon waiting at our cabin door; a sign of how easy it was going to be to spot Tasmanian wildlife. The 8 of us settled into our bunkhouse cabins and Brad began making the first of what would prove to be many excellent meals. After a freezing walk under an intense blanket of stars, I unpacked my new sleeping bag and got some rest.

Juvenile Wombat

Padimelon
Day 2 - Cradle Mountain
I'm used to gettting up about 11am. This week, it's 6:30am. I wasn't too chipper, especially due to the lack of real coffee. Thankfully, the clouds and moisture had vanished, and it appeared it would be a beautiful, but cold day. The day before, Cradle Mountain was invisible under an uninviting cloud. Today, it appeared perfect; just waiting for visitors.

Cradle Mountain, from the Dove Lake Car Park
Today was a rather intense hiking day, probably more difficult than some of us had expected. Starting from the Dove Lake Car Park, we trekked to Wombat Lake and Crater Lake, and several amazing lookouts. We stopped at Kitchen Hut at the base of Cradle Mountain for lunch, before continuing along the Face Walk, over to Hanson Lake, and back to the Car Park along the opposite side of Dove Lake. In total, it was 8 hours out, over challenging but stunning terrain, through bitter cold winds and hot mountain cliffs.

Wombat Pool

Wombat Pool

Crater Lake

Orange Fungi

Looking back at the Dove Lake Car Park

Paper Daisies

Fornicating Grasshoppers

Resting at the Emergency Hut
The wildlife was hard to spot today, apart from the countless fornicating grasshoppers, but the varied regions of plant life we passed were superb enough to warrant our full attention. Button Grass and Paper Daisies were two of the more unique plants that caught my attention.
Day 3 - Cradle Mountain to Liffey Reserve
Before leaving the Cradle Mountain area, we headed back into the park to take on the 'Enchanted Walk' a short boardwalk tour. Passing a stream and several grassy patches, we found several Padimelons and Bennets Wallabies having breakfast.

Bennetts Wallaby

Padimelon

The Enchanted Walk
Having stretched our legs, we headed out of the park and up to the town of Deloraine, where we took on supplies and had lunch. By mid-afternoon we arrived at the Liffey River Reserve, an area of vulnerable old-growth forest which has been purchased by Bush Heritage Australia, to save it from logging.
For several hours we participated in removal of English Fox Glove, a nuicance weed which basically takes over and pushes out native plants. It was everywhere; and is only one of the many introduced plants and animals that constantly threaten native life in Australia. It was also here that, despite the gaiters, the leeches had a go at us. While only one of the group got a good bloodletting, several of us found these slimy, intriguing pests looking for bare skin. After the weed-pulling activity, we spent a couple of hours hiking through several landscapes within the Liffey River Reserve.
That evening, the accomodations were a bit more 'rustic', as Brad put it. It was a Baptist Retreat just outside of Liffey, set at the base of a stunning forested cliff. A sparse, bat infested cabin, but a nice industrial kitchen, in which Brad prepared an excellent meal, including excellent Lemon Myrtle and Mountain Pepper-spiced sausages. The meal also included Sassafrass tea, from leaves Brad had collected while walking on the reserve.

The 'Rustic' Retreat
Unfortunately, due to drinking bad river water or unwashed fruit, I found myself with an annoying case of gastro that night. No good hiking trip with complete without intestional troubles, but I was a bit annoyed that it was tonight, as the toilet was cold 100 meter walk from my cabin.

Day 4 - Liffey Valley to Coles Bay, Via St. Helens and Bay of Fires

The tired group decided against another long hike today. A walk out to Liffey Falls had been the plan, but instead we decided to take a roadtrip to the Northeast of the state, stopping first in Scottsdale and then for lunch at St. Columbia Falls.

Fish Head Rock

Walking Near St. Columbia Falls

St. Columbia Falls
In the afternoon, we passed through St. Helens on our way to the Bay of Fires and The Gardens. This remote area had some of the whitest, finest sand I had ever seen, as well as nice collections of giant kelp, seabirds and giant boulders.

The Gardens

The Gardens
Heading South from Bay of Fires, we passed a massive stretch of forest which had been the site of bushfires about 3 months earlier. For about 15 minutes, every tree we passed was black. Impressive, but small in comparison to the bushfires which had recently consumed 20% of Victoria.
We continued further South to Coles Bay, our home for the next two nights. After watching an unfortunate Copperhead / vehicle encounter on the road, we arrived just in time to capture the sunset.

Sunset at Coles Bay
Day 5 - Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park

Today our main destination was Wineglass Bay. Located in Freycinet National Park, it can only be accessed by climbing and descending about 600 steps of well groomed trails. On the way up, there is a spectacular lookout of the National Park, including Wineglass Bay. For the 50 people who make it to the lookout, it seemed only about 5 make the trek down to the bay. Once we did, we were quite happy to enjoy the beach mostly to ourselves. We walked to the far end of the beach, passing gulls, albatross, and terns along the way.

Wineglass Bay Lookout
Supposedly, the name Wineglass Bay originates from when the area was a whaling station. Whales would be killed offshore and towed into the bay for processing. The blood involved would colour the water in a most unsettling way.

Wineglass Bay
After lunch, we trekked over the ithmus to Hazard beach, a 30 minute walk to an even more deserted beach littered with dead penguins and starfish. Finally, a 2-hour overland hike returned us to the car park. Along the way, we passed wallabies and several inland mounds of shells which were actually ancient aboriginal waste piles.

Hazard Beach
After dinner, we drove 30 minutes up to Bicheno to participate in a penguin survey for the National Park. Shortly after sunset, we were to quietly wait and record the number of Little Penguins which returned to shore. Unfortunately, the tide and waves were unusually high, and only 4 penguins were spotted out of a suspected colony of 300. Brad suspected that they were coming ashore elsewhere due to the danger of coming onto the rocks with such large waves. Despite the 2000 mosquitoes hoving overhead at all times, it was a pleasant evening and it was nice to see these birds outside of a zoo for the first time.

Annoyed Penguin
Day 6 - Coles Bay to Hobart

We started the day with a brief return to Freycinet National Park, covering the Cape Tourville Lighthouse Walk. The views were spectacular, and included Wineglass Bay from a distance, and several uninhabited offshore islands, basking in the morning light.

The View on the Lighthouse Walk

Islands off the Cape Tourville
We leisurely spent the day driving down to Hobart, stopping first at Kate's Berry Farm, then at several convict-built bridges and the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Australia, all dating from the 1820's and '30s. Closer to Hobart, we visited the Meadowbank winery, where I discovered a very nice Reisling.

Convict-built Bridge

Convict-built Bridge
Back in Hobart, we finished the tour by having a big, fried dinner at Fish Frenzy on the waterfront. It was a fine finish to a week of eating healthy. We said our goodbyes, and I returned to Hobart Airport, which was suspiciously deserted. For a capital city airport, I was amused to find only 2 gates, and aircraft boarding via stairs. Another reminder how sparsely populated this country is.
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 		AIM/MSN - underdunk26 March, 2007