Seeking The Devil

16th - 31st March 2015

It was a really early start in order to catch the ferry over to Tasmania. It didn't leave until 9am but you could check in from 6.30am. I arrived at 7 as I had no food or entertainment and I thought I would be able to get on early to eat a nice cooked breakfast on board and charge my laptop. Unfortunately, it took forever to get on board! I queued for a little while to get through quarantine where they took away my little gas canisters to pick up at the other side and then I sat waiting in the queue to get on for over an hour before I finally got on.

On the boat

I was starving by this point and quite looking forward to treating myself to a decent cooked breakfast of the kind I had become familiar with on the Interislander in New Zealand. Sadly the breakfast selection was more croissant or cereal, that's your only options. Not a bacon butty in sight. I was very disappointed and reluctantly bought a croissant as I couldn't go back to my car to get anything else.

Goodbye mainland

After an hour we sailed out of Port Phillip Bay and into the Bass Strait and I then settled myself in a corner for the rest of the 10 hour ferry journey. I wasn't as bored as I thought I would be. I mostly watched stuff on my laptop. There was bingo and then a quiz on in the next room but I didn't take part in that. I got into Devonport just as the sun was setting and drove out of town to a small free camping site in a village called Forth.

Cloudy!

The next morning I drove back into Devonport and enjoyed a free hot shower at the beach. I loved these freebie treats you could get around Tasmania. I had a bit of a lazy day as the past week had been a bit crazy with the Grand Prix. I spent most of the day in the library on the internet. I had a bit of a wander around Devonport and went for run. I camped at another free spot not too far from Launceston where I planned to spend most of the next day. This was the first of many great views I would wake up to although it was cloudy when I took the picture.

Not a bad bedroom view

I drove into Launceston in the morning and wandered around there for a bit. There wasn't a lot to see in the city really but just on the outskirts is Cataract Gorge Reserve which was spectacular.

Launceston

Cataract Gorge

The sun was just starting to come out as I arrived here which made the place look truly amazing. I had my lunch down by the river where I had a bit of an issue. There was a particular persistent bee that followed me around for what must have been ten minutes before I could shake it off! I must have looked like such a twat trying to escape it. Whilst I was running around I stumbled into this peacock that was strolling around casually.

Bird

Actual real place!

After dinner I went for a long walk down the gorge which was beautiful. The track takes you past an old hydro electric power station which was interesting. I think they abandoned it after a big flood washed away part of it. There were a few shocking pictures of the gorge which is prone to flooding. They've restored it a little bit and turned it into a museum. I walked back down to the visitor centre where, as I had got a little bit sweaty, I had a free hot shower. Why not! Its free!

Gorgeness

Power Station

Nice place to work

More gorge

I drove for a couple of hours that evening to a small town called Scottsdale which had a very good free campsite with yet another free hot shower. I miss them a lot!

Alien rocks

The next morning I drove into the Bay of Fires where a bright orange lichen has taken over. The clouds were not playing ball so I couldn't get a decent picture of the rocks in the sun but they still looked amazing, very other worldly.

Bay of Fires

A few more hours on the road and I was at Douglas-Aspley National Park where I did another hike to some waterfalls. These weren't the falls I had pictured in my plan. I don't know where that picture was from but it was still a nice walk all the same. I met a very ginger french man at the end and we chatted for a while.

Very chilled spot

Another gorge

A little further down the road I pulled into a rest spot that had been marked on Wikicamps. It was under a bridge! Away from any towns and down a little dirt track there was a little gravel area next to the river. If it wasn't for the bridge it would have been a perfectly normal place to sleep but because I was essentially sleeping under a bridge I did feel a bit trampish. Still, I had a couple of beers and settled next to the fire I made. Not trampish at all really...

Tramp Camp

AWESOME!

The next day the weather was spectacular! I drove into Freycinet National Park and did another hike into Wineglass Bay which looked amazing. It was quite busy. There were lots of people walking around. I thought well that makes sense seen as its Saturday. It wasn't until just before I went to bed that I realised it was actually Friday! Its very easy to lose track of days when you live in a car.

Wineglass bay

Beachy beach

On the way back from the beach a woman in front of me yelped and ran back down the tract towards me. There was a snake! This is the first time I've ever seen a full snake alive in the wild (there was that time a found half a snake!). The husband of the woman got a long stick and tried to pick it up but he failed and it slithered away. I don't know what kind of snake it was, it was just a black snake, but it was definitely poisonous!

Snake!

In the afternoon I drove up to Cape Tourville Lighthouse and Lucky Bay. Both of these gave awesome views of the coastline. Lucky Bay looked like it would be a really good place to snorkel but I doubt the water would have been anywhere near warm enough for that so I didn't try.

Cape Tourville

Lucky Bay

Freycinet over the water

I left the park late afternoon and stayed at a free rest stop a little further along the coastline which had a good view of Freycinet during sunset.

Awesomeness

Next up was Tasman National Park which was even more spectacular than Freycinet. I arrived late morning and after deciding not to pay the ridiculous price to look around the old Port Arthur I drove to Remarkable cave which was....remarkable! At the bottom of the staircase there is a cave where the sea washes in and out of. There is a platform where you can take pictures of the cave. Strangely, the light coming through the other end looks roughly the shape of Tasmania. There was no sign about climbing over the barrier and to be honest even if there was I was going to jump over it anyway. The sea was washing in and out quite calmly so I spent some time seeing how far I could get in before having  to run back to stop my feet getting wet!

Spot Tasmania

I drove further into the park in the afternoon and did what I thought was one of the real highlights of Tasmania, the Cape Hauy Walk. The rugged coastline here was simply stunning. The cliffs must have been 100m high. I kept stopping ever two minutes to get more photos because it was that good but no photos could do it justice. The walk itself was pretty strenuous. I think it was only 4km but it was all steps, up and down, up and down. Very much worth it though.

Time for a selfie

Epicness

Awesome

There's a big column of rock that you can just about see from the end of the walk. They call it the totem pole and you can see if you go kayaking. When I peered over the edge I saw some climbers sat on top of it having a picnic. That must be quite a scary place to be sat even if you are attached on ropes.

Can you spot them?!

Cape Hauy with the totem pole

That's all I had time for that day so I stopped at a little cape site just outside the park which was basically in this guys garden. There was a small field next to his house so he built a toilet block with showers and charged people $5 to stay which is very decent deal. Brilliant business idea.

Sunset in camp

Tasman Arch

The were a couple more things in the Tasman National Park I wanted to see before I moved on so I drove back in and stopped off at the Tasman Arch. There were a couple of other rock formations in these epic cliffs but only the arch was impressive. A little further up the road I saw a sign for Tessellated Pavement so I went for a look and found there was in fact a tessellated pavement. It has occurred natural through water getting in the cracks.

Crazy paving

On the way out of the park there is a Tasmania Devil sanctuary that I was tempted to go in to but it was really expensive. I wasn't particularly bothered about seeing them. I would only go so that I would be able to say that I'd seen a Tasmanian Devil and I didn't think that was reason enough to spend the amount of money they were asking for. Plus there was always that rare chance of seeing them in the wild. I decided to keep me eyes peeled instead.

Mt Wellington

After that I had a longer drive down to the state capital, Hobart. The main attraction here is the view from the top of Mt Wellington so that's where I went first. Unfortunately there was a bit of hazy clouds at the top which spoiled the view a little. I didn't stay up there too long as the was a strong and bitter wind. This was the beginning of a cold and wet band of weather that made it rather unpleasant for the next couple of days. I woke up freezing for a few days.

Top of Mt Wellybob

Sort of a good view

Hazy

I stopped a outside of Hobart on a lookout point up a steep dirt road. I stayed there a couple of nights and spent the next day in the library as it was rather wet. I felt like I was due a lazy day!

Bedroom view

There was A V8 race in Launceston that weekend which meant the ferry back to the mainland was extremely busy. I hadn't booked anything until now and I found that I was going to be in Tasmania a little longer than planned. 5 days longer and even that was lucky. I booked the last spot on that ferry and the next one with space was a further 3 days later! This meant I had to drag my feet a little and try and spread out the rest of my trip. This was a little difficult as the weather had turned a little nasty. I woke up on the morning of the 24th to a temperature of 1.8C!!!

Time for a walk

It was dry, if a little cold, for my trip into Mt Field National Park. This was another highlight of Tasmania as I walked around waterfalls and the second tallest tree species in the world.

This one fell over!

Stunning Russel Falls

Horseshoe falls

I love this photo!

Only the redwoods of California are taller than these swamp gums of Tasmania, also know as Eucalytus regnans. They are the tallest hardwoods and tallest following plant in the world and they are mightily impressive. You can break your neck looking up at these. The tallest tree in the park is 79 metres tall but the tallest recorded was at 98 metres (the tallest living redwood is 110m). I heard somewhere else at some point that these trees could have potentially grown taller than the redwoods had they not been harvested. Now that's been banned we shall see. They are quite a sight! I had a lot of fun running back and forth with the timer on my camera to get a good photo.

The tallest tree in the park

Gordon Dam

I took a detour from my planned route into the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park which was actually pretty cool. Lots of small mountains poking out of forest and the Gordon Dam was quite impressive. I went down the steps and walked along it and it seems extremely high up when you peering over the edge.

Made a friend

A wallaby crept up to me as I set up camp that night. He seemed completely unfazed by me. The next morning I carried on up the road. I stopped off a a lookout which shows just some of the enormous National Park that covers the southwestern corner of Tasmania.

Wobbly bridge

Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Nelson Falls

The last stop off along this highway through the park is at Nelson Falls which, again, was a spectacular looking waterfall in the forest.

Old mine

Next up was the old and semi-abandoned town of Queenstown (no not that one!). The landscape around here was quite rocky and barren with all the mining that had happened in the area. I read an info sign that told me this used to a highly industrialised town that had serious issues with sulphur dioxide. A lot of the rocks are coloured yellow and it said that occasionally there's still a bit of smog that hangs over the town.  Now, the mines are all closed and so is the town. There are more abandoned buildings than there are occupied but I am told the tourist industry is starting to build this town back up again. It was a depressing place really so I got myself a takeaway and left to find myself a camp spot.

Barron

Beautiful spot all to myself

Henty Sand Dunes

The next day was pretty miserable weather wise so I didn't do a lot. In fact most of it was driving. After stopping off at the Henty Sand Dunes, which is a mini desert squashed up against the west coast, I headed back inland. The plan was to do Cradle Mountain but the weather really was appalling so I carried on back to Devonport and had a lazy afternoon there. This is where the extra days in Tasmania turned out to be a good thing because the next day was stunning.

Ready for a hike

I drove back to Cradle Mountain early morning and as I now would have the whole day I decided I would do the summit hike, I like a challenge. The walk starts from the car park at Dove Lake and goes around the western side up towards the mountain. From there its a steep climb getting steeper and steeper until the path disappears and you are just climbing over large boulders. And I mean climbing. Some parts are near vertical and you have to haul yourself up.

Beautiful scenes

Heading up the mountain

Steep climb

Boulder field

Bit of cloud rolling in

SNOW!

The clouds started coming up on one side which was a little annoying but they were only on one side of the mountain. The other side was completely clear and what a ridiculously amazing view there was at the top. Just incredible! There was a tiny bit of snow up there tucked away in corners that I hadn't expected. My only experience of Australian snow (yes there is such a thing). I stayed up there for a good while and ate my packed lunch. This was not just the highlight of my trip around Tasmania, this was a real highlight of my entire travels so far. The fun of the climb rewarded by an incredible view made me feel very lucky indeed that I had got up here on a good day. Apparently its cloudy here for 300 days a year!

Looking south

Hanging off the edge

The cradle

I decided I couldn't stay up there all day and climbed back down the mountain. I thought I would complete the circuit around Dove Lake. I figured it would be just the same as the first half. This was a mistake. It was very rocky with a lot of elevation change and by the end my legs were absolutely broken. Still, more stunning scenery! I worked out that it was 13km of grade 4/5 hiking which is quite an achievement.

Dove Lake

Another random lake

I wanted nothing more than to just sleep but I desperately needed a shower. I drove back to Devonport before heading to Forth where I had spent my first night in Tasmania. I still had 2 days to fill before my ferry so I mainly just lazed about in the library making plans. I applied for a few jobs and actually managed to get one without too much trying. It sounded quite good. Oh how wrong I was but that's a story for another time.

Back on the boat

I boarded the ferry after a much more organised boarding process and waved goodbye to Tasmania. I got the overnight ferry back was surprisingly comfortable. I got a good nights sleep in shared cabin although I did have a few beers.

Goodbye Tas

I was questioning the idea of whether it was worth going to Tasmania but there is now no doubt in my mind that it was a brilliant idea! What a truly stunning place! I did not, however, see a Tasmanian Devil