Eastern Delights

Day 9: We left a sunny Hobart and travelled up the Midlands Highway to another cute town of Ross. Of particular interest here was a sheepdog contest which happened to be going on, a quaint little diversion from clocking up the miles on the road. We cut across to the East coast, heading for the beautiful Freycinet National Park, where the sun was shining and the sea dazzling. It was perfect.

It was an uphill climb in the heat to an overlook for Wineglass Bay, worth every single ounce of effort.

It was then a rocky scramble down to the beach, all the time thinking “We’ve gotta come back up this way!” The beach was amazing though, and the water was absolutely stunning. It was a great spot to eat lunch, chill out and get your feet wet. How relaxed and on holiday do I look in this pic?!

Sadly we couldn’t linger too long and had a tough climb back up countless steps to the lookout and back down again to the car park, where a friendly little wallaby was hanging around as we had afternoon tea and biccies.

More wildlife followed at Natureworld, a nice little park near Bicheno. I guess the main highlight here were the Tasmanian Devils, who are currently under threat through a disease going around, so places like this will prove invaluable in maintaining numbers and coming up with a cure.

There were also a number of birds here, a koala, emus, wombats, snakes, some farmyard animals and, of course, the kangaroos and wallabies, who were tame and enjoyed a good feed.

We stayed in the charming little town of Bicheno, where I searched for some food and ended up (again) with fish and chips, washed down with a few Boags ales as the sun went down and the stars appeared in the crystal clear sky.

Day 10: The supposedly dreary and cold Tasmanian weather continued to stay away (meanwhile Canberra was getting a hailstorm) and it was a drive up the bushfire scarred east coast towns of Scamander and St Marys to St Helens and then onto a place called Cosy Corner in nearby Bay of Fires National Park. If I didn’t have enough white beaches and clear blue seas yesterday I had my fill here. Again, the water was beautiful and temperature just about perfect. I guess it’s not so good on a wet day, but if everyday was like this you wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.

Now the Bay of Fires is so called partly because the Aboriginal People would ward off intruders through fires here, but also the vivid orange rocks which were abundant, and great for a little walk discovering the rockpool life.

The day was that good I even had four young ladies to keep me company!

They then took me to lunch, as we headed inland to the rolling countryside of the north east. Lunch was sat outside at a pub called The Paddock, and it felt just like a perfect English summers day, sat outside having a pub lunch. The guy looking very pleased with himself in the middle is Brian, our guide, who was good fun and very knowledgeable about the environment in which he took us.

Whilst the pub on its own was lovely on a day like today, the star attraction is a pig which drinks beer! She downs a bottle in a few seconds. I think I know some people like that!

Brian then took us on a short walk through some cool temperate rainforest, pointing out the different trees and plants and we spotted an echidna rooting around in the soil.

There was also a waterfall to see here followed by a cool return walk through the trees and back to the bus.

The rest of the day took us across the hills heading west, eventually entering the Tamar Valley and Launceston (oo-arrr), where we settled in for the night, checked out the Tamar River and visited a British pub. Sadly a few people left the trip here, including Brian who was heading back home for a few days. But the east coast had shone in all its glory and truly was a picture postcard two days.

The Wombat's Cradle

Day 11: Carlos was our new driver with a unique taste in music which led to most people towards the end of the trip listening to their own MP3s! He took us from Launceston to Devonport to pick up a few more people, including Kurt, a scary looking, 60-a-day old boozer from Switzerland! An interesting character to say the least.

We stopped in Sheffield, the self styled “Town of Murals”. Not a huge reason to go there, and of more interest was getting some grub at the supermarket as we would be in little lodges in the middle of nowhere come evening. It was a bit more dreary today, with the mountain tops shrouded in cloud cover. However, after checking into our huts (where I was sharing with Kurt!) we drove the short distance into Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, part of the 20% of Tasmania that is world heritage listed, and the clouds began to part. Down by Dove Lake, the jagged peaks of Cradle Mountain appeared, offering a fine setting to eat some lunch.

A few of us walked around Dove Lake, an easy relaxing two hour walk, taking in the view of the mountain around the shores of the lake. As that only took a short time, we then headed across to the smaller Lake Lilla, which was calm and still and offered a beautiful reflection of the mountains.

The path then climbed so that you could see across both lakes towards the ever-present Cradle Mountain, which is much like the Matterhorn in that it demands being photographed over and over again!

It was turning into a splendid walk, taking in two more lakes – Wombat Pool and Crater Lake before finally descending into a lush rainforest gully complete with ferns and the cascade of Crater Falls.

Finally, we emerged out of the forest and into empty plains of buttongrass moorland, with the odd tree scattered here and there. We were now on part of the Overland track, one of the great walks of the world from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair which takes about 5 to 8 days.

It had been a fabulously varied walk in near perfect conditions. The icing on the cake was coming across Mummy and Daddy wombat along with little baby wombat as we neared the end of the walk.

It was with immense satisfaction that we caught the shuttle bus back to our lodges and made a delicious pasta dinner, perhaps with a little too much cheese, but yum nonetheless!

Western waters

Day 12: We bade farewell to Cradle Mountain and headed off towards Strahan, stopping first at Montezuma Falls. It was quite a long, muddy walk through rainforest to the falls, very pleasant, but compared to the variety of yesterday’s walk a bit boring! Still, you shouldn’t complain anytime you are lucky enough to be out in pristine rainforest when you could be at work!

The falls were tall and thin, though not gushing strongly as it is towards the end of summer. There was a little suspension bridge here, which was quite an interesting experience, only taking the weight of two people and having plenty of holes in the floor so you could see many metres below as you rocked in the wind. Despite all the fish and chips, it managed to bear my weight!

We ate lunch in a bit of a bleak mining village before hitting the remote west coast and Henty sand dunes. Now these are big sand dunes and it was fun scrambling up them and messing about up the top. We were just escaping the rain which was brewing up over the mountains and managed to get some time up here before the soaking arrived.

Strahan was wet and wild and there was little to do but stock up in the supermarket and catch up with chores before making some dinner and playing a number of board and card games around our cabins. By this stage however, after seeing so many beautiful things and great weather it was not a problem at all that it was raining and the board games were a good blast from the past!

Day 13: Today the sun was out in the west but we were heading back east, eventually to Hobart. Our first stop was in the town of Queenstown, another mining town with the scars of industry. The town is somewhere in the low clouds which were carpeting the valleys as we set off early in the morning.

We then passed into Franklin-Gordon River National Park, home to some more waterfalls and the Franklin River, source of much of the bottled water in Australia.

Further east, we stopped at Lake St Clair, the end of the Overland track, looking peaceful and still as the cloud rolled in.

The road then wound its way past a series of dams and pipes, transferring water for hydro-electric power. The glamorous site for a picnic lunch was beside one of these power stations.

Here I am at the power station. There is a story behind the star jump…yesterday on the sand dunes a couple of the Japanese girls were trying to get photos of themselves mid-air. The pictures which eventually turned out looked quite good. I wondered if the same would happen here at the power station but I’m not sure I added anything to the already stunning natural beauty of the scene.

Old Carlos was losing us a little, a picnic lunch beside a power station, music getting progressively worse, tiredness kicking in. Thankfully Mount Field National Park perked us up and ensured a fine end to the tour. Here there were some majestically tall trees, beautiful waterfalls (the best of the many we saw on the trip) and wild animals. Walking to the falls, we came across this pademelon, a small wallaby type thing.

There were two sets of falls here, smaller but pretty Horsehoe Falls…


…and Russell Falls meandering down from a decent height.

The weather worsened and traffic got heavier as we neared Hobart and it was with a heavy heart that it was time to say goodbye to a few people, but several were staying on for a day or so and went out for some dinner and drinks. The tour was over and it was a fantastic foray into the highlights of this beautiful island, made even better by some good weather and great travelling companions. However, I had not finished with Tasmania quite yet…

Day 14: A drizzly day (apparently it had been like this in Hobart for the last four) left little option but to visit the Cadbury factory with a few other people who were left over from the tour. It was interesting, the smell at times amazing, and plenty of free samples to get you in the mood! The weather cleared a little in the evening and so we were able to get more fish and chips from one of the yummy barges on the waterfront and visit the bars of Salamanca Place on a Friday night.

Ray Mears World

Day 15: Finally, I was able to use up some vouchers I was kindly given for my birthday and Christmas to go on a scenic flight and wilderness tour of the remote Southwest National Park world heritage area. The day was warm and clear as the small six seater departed, heading off over Hobart and the Mount Wellington massif.

We passed the Huon Valley and several ranges and valleys as the landscape became progressively wilder and more remote.

Nearing our destination, Melaleuca, we turned south at the distinctive form of Federation Peak, which is often in cloud but not on this fine morning.

The plane then glided over the huge Bathurst Harbour, which is joined to the ocean by a narrow channel and remains very calm and reflective.

The plane landed on a gravel strip, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The only sign of anything was a small hut saying welcome to South West Wilderness National Park and a small crate belonging to the Police at the end of the runway. The landscape was pretty barren, buttongrass moorland running up to stony ridges and peaks. From the airstrip a path led to a creek where a tin boat awaited us and took us on a beautiful journey meandering up river and eventually out onto the glassy expanse of Bathurst Harbour. Here we stopped for some morning tea, the peak of Mount Rugby dominating the environment as pink jellyfish curiously wandered over to our boat.

We then powered on out to Port Davey and towards the entrance to the harbour, the landscape very reminiscent of the south west coast of New Zealand, with bays and inlets meeting the sheer walls of mountain ranges.

A scrumptious lunch of fine Tasmanian fare was had on a small gravely beach, overlooking the harbour and mountains, with barely anything but the flies for company. The water is actually quite dark, coloured by natural tannin from the plants growing in the area.

The boat turned round and as the weather began to close in a decision was made to leave a bit earlier than planned. Previously 29 bushwalkers had been stranded down here because the weather was too bad to get them out by plane (the nearest road is 4 days walk away!) I had a flight back home tomorrow so didn’t really want to stay. The flight back was a bit bumpier but took us along the south coast, and the bays of Bruny Island, which was being peppered with showers.

It was with slight relief that we landed safely back at Hobart, avoiding the worst of the weather. Despite being curtailed, it was a wonderful trip into the wilderness – strange to be back in Hobart after being somewhere so remote.

The early finish meant I had time to pack, have a rest and meet one last remaining member of my trip, Kelly, for some nice Italian food. A good dinner at the end of a good holiday, the perfect end to an amazing two weeks of such incredible diversity, great people, fine weather, delicious food, good Tasmanian beer, interesting wildlife and too many fish and chips! Thanks to all who made it so memorable.

All over the place

I’ve been clocking up the miles just recently, taking in the East Melbourne suburbs on Thursday and Friday, but making it back to Canberra in time on Friday night to see a good part of the cricket on TV which, for once, I was glad of! Saturday was spent in Canberra where there was a multicultural festival in the city centre, full of food and entertainment from all over the world – I have never seen Canberra centre so busy or so cosmopolitan come to think of it. You really get used to having lots of space and not having to walk round avoiding bumping into people!

On Sunday afternoon I caught a flight up to Sydney, where it rained and rained and rained! Getting off the plane and on to a bus (a gap of 2 or 3 metres) was enough to get a southern hemisphere soaking. There wasn’t quite enough rain to save the Aussies however, as England miraculously won the one-day cricket competition. I think I am pretty good luck – I was in Sydney when England won the first game against Australia, then in Melbourne the day they won the second and then in Sydney for the third.

I was in Sydney again for some training on Monday and Tuesday and, whilst I didn’t get much time to see the city, I was staying in a quite luxurious room overlooking Darling Harbour.

It was nice to wonder down that way as I hadn’t really been around this area in my trips to Sydney so far in this stint down under.

On Monday night I experienced a pleasant enough meal in Chinatown followed by a cuppa watching the world go by on George Street. Tuesday was mostly spent in an office and then back to Sydney airport again, where the good people of Qantas managed to find me a space on an earlier flight so I could get back to Canberra at a decent hour.

So Canberra is home again, but not for long – Saturday and my two week odyssey to Victoria and Tasmania commences. I can’t wait! This will probably be my last post in a while as I am not sure they have computers down in Tasmania. Excellent! Look out for news and copious lashings of photogenic highlights from down south in a few weeks!

Neilio

The S C Glee

What were the odds? Well about $7 according to the Aussie in front of me who placed a bet on it. It was a beautiful November spring day at Manuka Oval where I saw England set the scene for a summer of despair. It’s been all downhill from there but on Friday night a miracle occurred and I was there to witness it at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Thanks to a combination of factors – a Friday morning meeting in western Sydney and England’s poor form making tickets on ebay easy to come by, I made it to the one-day international between Australia and England. England made 292, a paced innings with a great century by Ed Joyce and some good hitting at the end, Dalrymple with an entertaining 30 in 18 balls. Here’s some of the action shots…

Ooh ahh Glenn McGrath (about time you retired innit?) squaring up Ian Bell.

Here is Joyce towards the end of his knock.

And the Aussies attempting to bat after the break! Gilchrist was out the very first ball of the innings and you could sense the shock reverberate around the SCG (I guess it would’ve been entertaining if he stayed in a bit longer).

By time the sun went down and the lights came on, the game was drawing to a bit of an anticlimax, England taking regular wickets, though at one stage Hayden and Symonds looked like they could reel it in, until Symonds got injured, possibly his stupid hair got in his vision and he got hurt.


Despite this, the low strength beer which was the only one available was starting to set in, the crowd were doing the Mexican Wave (despite it being banned in all cricket grounds in Australia…probably cos it’s Mexican and not true blue Aussie), and sections of the crowd were in competition to form ‘worms’ out of empty plastic beer cups. This was the one closest to me.

And pretty much that was that. The English fans dotted around the place were overjoyed…more relief than anything that they came all this way and at least saw one victory. It was all very good-natured and a fun day and night, setting up a fine weekend in Sydney.

The Victory Weekend

The weather was just about ideal for a weekend of milling about the harbour, taking walks through the bush, eating ice creams and fish and chips and getting slightly red from the sun. On Saturday I met with someone I didn’t even know, Caroline, a friend of a friend of a friend so to speak, but we met without hassle in Bondi Junction and went to check out some of the sights.

First off was a bus which took us down to Bondi Beach then along to Watsons Bay, at the southern tip of the harbour. Here there are lovely views back to the city and sheer cliffs dropping down to the pounding Pacific.

There was time for white chocolate and raspberry ice cream before catching a fast ferry from Watsons Bay to Circular Quay. A quick change onto the ever glorious Manly ferry led us to a spot of lunch and a walk around part of the middle harbour, across beaches and through bush reserves. It was pretty tiring actually, in the heat of the day, so it was nice to cool off my feet in the ocean at the end of the day, have a cold beer, eat some fish and chips and watch the sun go down from Manly Wharf.

The ferry back to Circular Quay as the lights came on was immensely soothing and relaxing and a long tiring day meant an early nights sleep!

On Sunday morning, I caught another ferry (it’s the way to go!) to Taronga, where the zoo is. However, I didn’t go to the zoo, just walked around from there through Bradleys Head, part of Sydney Harbour National Park. On boarding the ferry, I noticed a huge cruise liner docked in the quay, it was so huge it seemed to tower over the Harbour Bridge!

The walk around to Bradleys Head was pleasant, through shady bush with paths leading off to little sandy coves. The view is another good one.



And before you knew it, it was time to head back, the ferry retracing its wake to Circular Quay, passing the sights and the massive cruise ship, taking me onto a bus and a train and a plane and to the dusty heat of Canberra and a well earned late afternoon kip!