Backlog catch-up #2 - April 2007 (Easter) - Tasmania - by Pete

Tassie Baby!

As a farewell to fall and warm weather, we recently visited the island state of Tasmania. Many people told us Tasmania was an odd yet enchanting place to visit; we certainly weren’t disappointed.

Tasmania is just south of Victoria, about an hour by plane or eight by boat. I’m not one for choppy water so we choose the flight on Qantas. We arrived in the second largest Tasie city of Launceston; yes it’s that crazy city that first bred seahorses in captivity (seriously). Aside from Cataract Gorge, we didn’t find much to see or do in Launceston.

That night we drove out to Cradle Valley, our home for the next four days. The drive itself was a little never racking as we encountered numerous Wombats and Wallabies along the road. Apparently, these critters are most active right at dusk. What was a 90-mile drive took almost 4 hours. A big thing in Australia is to check the pouch of marsupials if hit on the road.

The drive was well worth it. Cradle Valley and Cradle Mountain are absolutely beautiful and are not unlike the Sierras in northern California or the Rockies. Cradle Mountain marks the beginning of the Overland Track, a semi famous 80K bush walk. Pictured in the background is Cradle Mountain, standing tall at 5,069 feet. We were extremely fortunate in that all four days were perfect – no strong wind, no rain and no fog which are typical of the region.

We set out on our first full day hike around Dove lake, pictured in the foreground. Unbeknownst to us, our camera battery was nearly dead and the charger was left at home. Don’t mind if we borrow a few pictures from the Internet (all very accurate representations of what we saw though, as the weather was lovely). All of the tracks were well defined yet several somewhat steep for casual day walkers. The views were well worth our effort.

That night we set out on a wildlife outing. It’s amazing to see all the marsupials set out around dusk. Not far from our Hotel, we found literally hundreds of Wombats and Wallabies. We also made a stop by Devils@cradle www.devilsatcradle.com for an after dark feeding of Tasmanian Devils. I always wondered why they were called devils, but after hearing their screeches and howling, it became apparent those little buggers are viscous. Even so, we got to pet a two year old devil that was brought up in captivity. More and more devils are being brought up in captivity as a deadly facial tumour disease threatens to kill-off the species.

The next day we embarked on an eight-hour hike that included a scramble to the summit of Cradle Mountain. Noel got a little scared of the height and stayed back part way up.

After a few days of hiking and climbing, we headed out of Cradle Valley to Hobart on the south side of Tasmania. Along the way, we made several stops for local Raspberries, scones and Cheese…mumm tasty.

In Hobart, we did a mad dash to all the famous sights – Cadburry, Cascade Brewery, MontAlto winery, Larke Distillery, Fish and Chips and Mt. Wellington.

Starting early, we visited the gigantic Cadburry factory where their dairy milk chocolates are made. After that, we headed over to Montalto winery where equally fine wine is produced. A short dash to Lark distillery, the only whisky distillery in Australia, and we were on to lunch. Perhaps the best fish and chips, bar none, can be found at Fish Frenzy in Hobart. I’ve never tasted such good fish - it was as if the fish was just pulled from the sea.

Cascade beer is one of the best in Australia. So it was no surprise that Pete was excited to see the production facilities.

Uluru

Hello Friends & Family! So sorry it's been awhile. We're going to try to catch-up the blog and then keep up with it from now on. Unfortunately, the blog enforces integrity and I can't back-date it, so we'll just pop the month and year at the top ... it may go a bit out of order as well, but we'll get up to date!


June 2007 - Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Our first night in the middle of the country we went on a camel-ride to sunset. Upon arriving at the camel centre we read up on the history of camels in Australia. They arrived in numbers for the building of the railroads. Once complete, their handlers were ordered to destroy them, but they couldn't bring themselves to - so, they were released into the wild. Today Australia has the largest population of wild camels of anywhere in the world. In fact, exporting tamed camels is quite big business! Of course, there had to be a first camel, and we've posted the story below:
If the resolution of that isn't clear, I'll sum it up. The lone camel accompanied an exploratory mission. Unfortunately, the camel was put down due to his 'alleged' involvement in the death of the leader.

We thought perhaps this was a misprint, so we asked our tour leader who explained that, in fact, the camel was blamed for the gun going off and the dying man's last words were "the camel did it" ... or something like that.

Anyway, on to the ride!


That night we went to a 'bbq it yourself' place:



The next morning, we got up REALLY early to see the sunrise over Uluru. It was chilly as well, around 3C.


When the sun came up it was worth it.

From there, we went to the Aboriginal cultural centre where we met with our guide, Elsie, and our translator, James. We leaned about life in the bush and spiritual teachings.

After our lessons, we took off on our own to walk around the base of the rock. It's a long 9km around, but there are so many interesting bits to see, and it looks really different up close. This 1/2 'tunnel' is in the base of the rock - and it's HUGE!

Later that night we had what would be one of our most memorable dinners in Australia. It was called the sounds of silence dinner and as you can tell, it was outdoors under the stars. The food was great, the temp a bit cold but the dining room made up for that. The dinner was capped with an astronomy lesson featuring the southern sky. Using a giant spotlight, we were able to identify that elusive southern cross.

The next day we headed out to the Olgas - another rock formation some 70k away. After our short car ride, we made for a day long hike within the Olgas. While the nights were cold, the days were anything but. By early afternoon, we were quite exhausted.

Some friends told us not to miss another feature in the middle of nowhere. We headed our car into the outback brush and after a three hour drive through absolutely nothing, we arrived in Kings Canyon. The canyon, unlike Uluru, is made of sandstone. Over many thousands of years, the sands shifted, settled and created these huge rock formations. Water eroded some of those formations leaving behind deep canyons. We did a day hike over and through the canyons on the lookout for roos and other local wildlife.
I never would have expected the middle of the outback - the middle of nothing - to be so interesting, so beautiful and so memorable.