West Coast Tasmania: March 31 - April 1

We decided to take a 10-day visit to Tasmania during Easter break. We left on the evening of March 31. We took the night ferry crossing to Tasmania. The Spirit of Tasmania II is a huge ship and there are five levels on which vehicles are loaded. We were on the lowest of the low and had to drive down steep ramps to get to our designated level. After one level is full, the ship lowers a floor which closes it off, and then more cars are loaded onto the next level. It is a long and arduous process. We had a cozy little room which had a big window through which we could see the departing Port Melbourne. Upon arrival in Tasmania, we all had to go through a security check, complete with sniffing dogs to make sure that Tasmania remains pure and untainted! We arrived in Tasmania early in the morning, and immediately began our drive via mountain roads to breakfast in the town of Sheffield. The place became famous for the murals painted on all its buildings throughout the town. Then it was on to Cradle Mountain National Park. This park is accessible only by a bus that drops you off to the remote trailhead of your choice. En route we spotted an echidna (like a waddling hedgehog) and little wallabies called Pademelons (check out our next blog on our amazing encounter with the Pademelons). We spent the day hiking up to the island's highest peak, Cradle Mountain. We climbed half way up to a midway point called Marion's Outlook, but the big mountain was completely socked in with clouds, so the guides suggested that we not go further. Just as we arrived at the lookout, the sun came out for a Kodak moment with the big mountain! As it was, it still took us 5 hours to return home via two lakes and a Wombat Pool! The scenery was amazing!

At night we decided on a “Spotlight Tour” to see wild nocturnal animals. What we didn’t know was that it would be on a bus complete with powerful floodlights. So we spotted wombats, Pademelons, larger Bennett's wallabies and possums, all of which were too far away or too poorly lit to photograph properly. The best part of the tour was a stop at a Tasmanian Devil conservation shelter, where we got to pet a devil as well as see them at a feeding. The little black animals can snarl quite ferociously, which has earned them the name of the Tasmanian Devil. They are currently almost extinct, as they are subject to a facial tumor disease for which there is no known cure at this time. The conservation team is trying to keep them from acquiring the disease right from the outset when they are young, and then reintroducing the healthy ones back into their native environment.

The next morning we awoke very early to travel 1½ hours to Strahan, a town right on the western coast of Tasmania. Once there, we boarded a boat to travel down the Gordon River. This area is a temporate rainforest region, getting rain 300 out of 365 days a year. We lucked into a gorgeous warm day, with the river as smooth as glass and the ocean gently rolling. En route we were treated to a delicious buffet lunch. We stopped at Sarah Island, which was home to one of the first penal colonies established in the 1800’s. We received a guided tour – this was our first introduction to the penal history of Australia and it was indeed gruesome. The convicts were forced to live in subhuman conditions and work at hard labour. Another stop on the cruise was for a walk into the rainforest itself. By now we have visited around 10 different rain forests in Australia and New Zealand. Rick thinks that they are all alike, but in reality they are quite different, each one with a different kind of tree growth. The one along the Gordon River highlighted the Huon pine tree, which produces a very light pine-coloured wood. Rick was even able to be the skipper of the ship for a brief moment! Along the route, we saw some beautiful scenery as well as several fish farms. After disembarking, we received a tour through a sawmill that showed how the Huon pines were cut and made into furniture or wooden items. Strahan is indeed a quaint little village town. Later that evening we attended a local play entitled “The Ship That Never Was”. It was a humourous presentation of the story of 10 convicts who absconded with a ship that was being built on Sarah Island. They managed to escape to Chile in South America for two years of freedom before being recaptured. During the course of the play, the two actors actually build a sailing ship right before our eyes. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean before retiring for the night. The next morning we travelled onward toward Hobart, through the historical railway town of Queenstown. We stopped at several rainforest areas for short invigorating walks to waterfalls or for a climb up to scenic outlooks.