Saturday, April 16th to Monday April 18th, 2011
Saturday morning we headed to what Robert refers to as the only reason to visit Launceston (he is clearly from Hobart, the Launceston Gorge (also known as Cataract Gorge). It happens to be home to what is said to be the world's longest single span chair lift.
There are a few of the chairs that make up that chair lift now. It was built in 1972 and spans a natural basin that is very often filled with water from the South Esk River. The chair lift is 457 metres (1500 feet) in length with the centre span being 308 metres long (1010 feet). Usually a tourist attraction that you can use to get a beautiful view of the gorge, it was not running on this day. Just for a little extra information, the 2000 Summer Olympic torch got to ride this chair lift. Lucky torch .
The bridge that we walked across instead of taking the chair lift. As you can see there is a lot of water beneath. It fact it was very flooded.
Another look at the gorge. Normally around here you would see a nice swimming pool (well natural swimming pool) but today this water was not very inviting at all.
One of the very large trees that you will find in the area. The gorge area (like many areas of Tasmania) is also home to some super cute little kangaroo-wallaby type hopping things called Pademelons. I have firmly established that I will never get enough of these cute little things.
The gorge is also home to these guys. Nice view.
Once we left Launceston we made our way through a few other little towns and then made a stop in a place called Sheffield, which is known as a town of murals. It took the idea from a Canadian town called Chemainus, which we visited way back in 1989 (I think), and every building in the town is covered by a mural that tells a story.
One of those murals. Showing some of what Tasmania has to offer, beautiful waterfalls.
I wish I could remember who this is and in all my searching I can't seem to place him. But as you can tell from the mural, he spent many years traveling the wilds of Tasmania.
This is Pedro the alpaca. He was super cute and friendly and for a gold coin donation (that's a one or two dollar coin) you can get a picture with him. His owner uses the donations to care for the alpacas he has on his hobby farm. Pedro liked all the attention.
Yes, that is the name of a town. Nowhere Else. One of many very clever names you will find throughout Tasmania.
Once we left Sheffield we continued on our drive to our main destination of the day, Cradle Mountain. Lucky for us, the sun finally decided to shine on us as well. Sun was necessary because we had a very adventurous afternoon planned. A group of us decided to make the climb up to Marion's lookout to check out the view. It was quite the hike but worth every step.
That's Wombat Pool. A very pretty place. No wombat sightings at this moment however it was a little early in the day. Wombats like to come out at night.
Some of the steps we followed up to the lookout. Not all the hike was as nice as this however. At times you really had to question where the trail was because you would be climbing across shards of rock.
Part way up the hill. You can see part of the trail below. Yes, we were walking down there at one point but are still making our way to the top.
Looking down at wombat pool. Looked just a pretty from up here.
Over my left shoulder you can see Dove Lake. The view from up here......so nice.
It took us about 2ish hours but we made it to Marion's lookout. Like I said before, worth every step.
That's Cradle Mountain behind me. Apparently there is a baby in the cradle.....but I never saw it. Maybe you can pick it out.
The group of us that made it to the top. No boys along for the trip.
Eventually we headed back down. Only took us about 30 minutes and we took the very challenging trail. Let's just say it is a good thing we never attempted to walk up this way. Lots of the time it was so steep and rocky you had to almost abseil down. Good thing there here some rails drilled into the rocks or we never would have made it.
Down by Dove Lake. Really pretty as the sun began to set.
Of course the sun beginning to set meant that it was time to head back to our accommodation and try to spot some wombats. They have a built a boardwalk that you can follow that between 1600 and 1700 you are almost guaranteed to see a few. We saw 9.
How cute are they? I love wombats so much. They are absolutely one of Australia's cutest animals. I wish I could take one home....to live with my koala and wallaby.
There's another one. Just hanging out, munching on some grass. They are very use to having people watching them. They had no interest in any of us.
From there Bibi and I left the rest of the group behind and made our way up to the pub. Most of the group had been cooking dinner at the accommodation but Bibi and I prefer to take our meals in a restaurant with a glass of wine or a beer. On this night we lucked out because Robert also wanted to grab a beer and watch the AFL game that was on. I say we lucked out because we are staying out in the middle of nowhere and there is no transportation and it would have be a very long and cold walk back to the dorm room.
Anyway, after a long and adventurous and sunny day.....we slept good.
Sunday April 17, 2011
Sunday morning started similar to Saturday (and many other mornings) with a cool morning walk along a boardwalk.
Found on our morning walk. Worth the chill in the air. Tasmania......such a beautiful place.
From there we made it back to Dove lake and made the 2 hour hike around it. This walk was pretty flat and really easy compared to the climb the day before. But just as pretty.
Dove Lake looking as smooth and calm as can be. Love the reflection on the lake.
Looking at Cradle Mountain from a different angle.
Eventually we had to leave Cradle Mountain and get back on the road. Of course there were a few stops along the way. We travelled through many little mining towns including Roseberry and Zeehan. We also traveled across many dams. There are around 23 dams in the state which supply Tasmania with about 18% of it's electricity.
We also found this little place......unfortunately it was closed much to the dismay of most of us girls in the van.
We also made a stop at the Henty Dunes, a collection of 30 metre high sand dunes that have been formed over thousands of years. The mixture of mineral grains have been moved around by the "roaring forties" (the name given to the strong westerly winds found in the southern hemisphere that many areas of Southern Australian experience).
Take nothing but photos. Leave nothing but footprints.
A look at where the forest meets the sand. The sand has slowly been taking over the trees. Only those plants that can grow in sand survive. As you can imagine this area is significant to local aboriginals. Evidence of Aboriginal use for thousands of years can be found throughout the area.
The view from the top of the sand dunes. So much vast wilderness remains.
From there we made our way to Strahan, a small fishing town where we spent the night. The water here is interesting because it is a mix of fresh and salt water. Because of that they catch a lot of salmon because they can handle the mix in the water.
A very cute little town. I dare say quaint....but what isn't quaint in Tasmania?
I found him in Strahan. I called him Womby......because he's a wombat and almost life sized. I was going to buy him and send him home but he would have required a really big box.....or his own seat on the plane.
Monday April 18th, 2011
Monday was our final day on tour and we started to make our way back to Hobart. Of course we didn't go straight there. We stopped at a few more stops.
You may not be able to read the sign but it says "Tuts Whittle Wonders". Scott likes to whittle so if he starts practising and finds some large pieces of wood he could start up a place like this.
We checked out a little bit of Strahan before he headed out of town.
This is the old train station. This tourist train travels along a similar route as us.....but takes a really long time and doesn't stop anywhere. Originally a steam train would have run along these tracks but now they hook up a very old looking modern locomotive to make the trip.
From there we made it to one of Tasmania's most famous towns....Queenstown. Unfortunately it is famous for all the wrong reasons. Queenstown is a litte mining town (copper) with a population of about 2,300 (of course that can change with the price of copper). The road between Strahan and Queenstown is really fun to travel on because it is very windy and slow going. It follows along the edge of the mountains. The story goes that when the road was being built the state government offered to pay for the construction but the towns had to pay to build any bridges......so they didn't build any.
Downtown Queenstown. A totally happening place. The biggest attraction......well I think it was us because we clearly weren't from around there. Looks like the copper business is good because there were doing a lot of work on the town (too bad about 3 days after we left a fire ripped down main street and cost about $5 millon damage and destroyed the only pharmacy in the area).
The sign welcoming you to Queenstown. If you look in behind you can see why Queenstown is famous.
Ok to keep you from staring at the picture I'm just going to tell you why the area is famous. Basically the town sells itself as the moon surface on earth. Until the 1920's they did a lot of copper smelting and it killed off all the vegetation and makes it almost impossible for vegetation of any kind to grow on the hills above the town. Pretty much it is a perfect example of what NOT to do.
Another shot of those not so pretty hills. Such a contrast to the rest of the State.
A brand new look-out that over looks one of the pits left after they mine all the minerals or whatever out of it. Below there is a really pretty coloured lake but that is about it.
From there are got away from the non-prettiness of mining and returned to the prettiness that is the rest of Tasmania.
Ahhhhhh, pretty Tasmania. So quiet too.
Bibi and I at Russell Falls. There are quite a few short walks in Tasmania (30 minutes or less) that lead you to places like this. Even on a not so nice day (which you should expect if you visit Tasmania) they are very nice walks.
After Russell Falls we headed to Lake St. Clair which is said to be Tasmania's deepest lake.
Yes the lake was there but mostly I noticed this big pink sign. Guess how much wandering I did? Good guess. Not much. Even in the cold weather I wasn't looking to run into one of these guys. I don't care if they won't attack me. I don't even want to see it.
Robert drying his pants by the fire. He still isn't totally sure how they ended up so wet but there was some story about trying to cross a small creek and a splash and well then his pants were wet.
Some of the large and beautiful trees you will find in Tasmania. Tasmania is home to many a tree plantation. They grow some trees that are not native to Tasmania but that grow nice and straight without a lot of branches and are nice and soft so are perfect for the building industry. This tree.....not part of a plantation but a national park so it will not be turned into a 2x4.
Part of Horseshoe Falls.
Another part of Horseshoe falls.
A look at how big some of the trees in this forest are. This would have been very old when it fell over.
From there we headed back to Hobart. Our tour was over. We mostly headed to a bunch of different hostels and to different travel plans. For me I had a few days left in the area. Bibi had to leave the next day but we managed to meet for dinner one more time. It has been firmly established I will be making another trip to Switzerland to visit her. I never did have fondu when I was there the first time and Bibi figures that just isn't right.
So Tasmania......beautiful and so much better than everyone had told me it would be. Glad I still have a few more days to check it out. I don't think I'm quite ready to leave yet.
Julie
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