Tasmanian Adventures

Southwest National Park Vista


Tasmanian Devils


Port Arthur Prison


Tessallated Pavement


Sleepy Bay, Freycinet NP

Time sure does fly when you travel. It seems only a week ago that we arrived on the apple isle, but in reality, it has been almost two weeks. Where do we begin?

Last Friday we drove up to the Freycinet Peninsula for a weekend of photo classes. Steve is determined to make a photographer out of me, but is having as much success as me turning him into a gardener, but the good thing is I am seeing some amazing places and meeting some really nice people because of this desire, so who am I to complain. We left Hobart in the fog and drizzle, driving north saying to ourselves,

‘we know there is a view out there somewhere”, but we were so socked in with fog, we had no idea what was out there. There wasn’t even any reason to stop and take pictures along the way because all you would see was rain, fog and yuck. But we do arrive up at Freycinet, and have a weekend booked at the lodge where the workshop was being held. Did we learn lots, yes, did we see lots, no. the weather wasn’t the best. That was good in some ways because we could focus more on the classes then. Monday morning we walked up to the lookout at Cape Tourville because it wasn’t raining. We didn’t bother with the longer walk to the Wineglass Bay lookout because it wouldn’t be much in the fog. The good thing is that we are only two hours away, so if the forecast looks good, we can always drive up as a day trip. This is especially easy because the days are so long.

Tuesday we drove down to Port Arthur, which is south down the Tasman Peninsula. Port Arthur was a penal settlement from 1830 to 1877. It certainly wasn’t an easy place, being a penal settlement as well as being exposed to all the horrible weather, some of which we experienced on our day there. Despite that, the site is beautiful with the harbor and mountains surrounding it. After the colony was disbanded a lot of the building were dismantled and sold off, while most of the remaining wooden building perished in subsequent bush fires. The remaining buildings are being rebuilt, and there is such raw beauty about them. Lucky for us, we were there the day before Oprah’s guests arrived. Also on the day we stopped and saw the Tessellated Pavement which looks like the convicts had time on their hands and decided to pave the beach with cobbles, when in reality, the stone has been worn away by the salt and ocean to form the pattern of cobbles. We also saw the Blowhole and Tasmans Arch, more natural rock formations. Even though the weather wasn’t the best, the beauty is simply breathtaking.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, which is a quarantined breeding center for the little devils. We were there for their evening feed, and they are rather cute, but man do they get snarley when it feeding time. Learning about the devils and supporting the research and breeding cause was well worth the stop.

On the advice of a local, we drove up yesterday to Lake Pedder. This lake sits at the top of the Southwest NP, and was enlarged by the damming of the Gordon River. It is said this lake now holds 27 times the volume of Sydney Harbor, and is the largest freshwater lake in AU. There was a huge controversy about damming the River and even now there is talk about dismantling the dam. Time will tell. Anyway, the drive up to the top of the lake is just breathtaking. The mountains are amazing, some being right in your face as you drive up the road. Even more amazing is that the entire time we were on the road, we maybe say five vehicles all up! We practically had the place to ourselves, a bit scary though because if something happened, like the car breaking down or something there is no-one, and no cell service so it would have been a waiting game. It is hard to imagine that Cradle Mountain can beat this as far as beauty goes, but we will find out this weekend because that is where we are headed next.

We have seen some drop down dramatic scenery in the first two weeks and that is even with not the best weather. Hope Steve's pictures do justice to what we are seeing. Enjoy.