Tassie Tour Days 1 and 2

Hey everyone,

I am currently in Devonport and stealing internet. I do not know how long I will have, so I will just post text of the past two days and pictures sometime later. I'm also not posting all the stuff I did today, either, even though it was awesome. I just don't have the time right now.

Day 1:

Well, today was the first day of my Tasmania tour. I was picked up at six in the morning from the hostel and after picking everyone up we headed for Strahan.

Along the way, we stopped for a quick hike through incredibly tall eucalyptus trees. There were small wallabies known as pademelons hopping around everywhere. After a short while we came to a small waterfall, and then followed the river until it dropped off dramatically. Hiking to the bottom, we found ourselves at the base of an incredible waterfall. It was beautiful and perfect.

We continued driving on and stopped off for another hike around part of Lake St. Clair along the very end of the Overland Track, a famous 80 km hike that begins at Cradle Mountain. When we got back from the hike, our guide had lunch waiting for us: a fantastic chicken in gravy with corn and bell pepper and vegies and other amazing things. Apparently, he loves to cook and has even written a book for travellers about cooking healthy on a budget. I am so happy about this trip.

After lunch we stopped at a lookout on the west coast and saw some of the vast wilderness that comprises Tasmania. There were mountains rising everywhere and forests covering everything. It reminded me a bit of Colorado, actually, especially when we passed through Queenstown. Queenstown is an old mining town in the mountains that at one point had 14,000 people, but now has about 1,000 after the mining stopped being profitable. Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?

Anyway, from there we drove straight on to Strahan (pronounced ‘Strawn’). We are staying in a beautiful big home owned by Adventure Tours, and the rooms are so incredibly nice and the mattresses are really thick and the showers are fantastic and the views are spectacular overlooking the lake to one side and mountains on the other. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Day 2:

Wow, it was only the second day but I feel as if I’ve been here for weeks. In a good way, though. Everyone here is really friendly and wonderful and our guide is great. This morning we got up early for breakfast and then had an hour and a half to explore Strahan while the bus refuelled.

A little ways down from our house was a track that led to a waterfall, because you can’t walk two feet in Tassie without stumbling over one. The walk was nice but short, and the problem with Strahan is that there is pretty much nothing there. We were pretty bored by the time we finally took off.

This is how serious crime is in Strahan.

Our first stop of the day was Hell’s Gates, a tiny passage that has caused many a shipwreck. The awesome thing was that we were really at the end of the world: the next beach from here is in Argentina, some 14,000 km away. You couldn’t see Argentina today because it was too cloudy.

After lunch the next activity, which took the rest of the day, was a hike to Montezuma Falls. This is the tallest waterfall in Tasmania and the hike follows an old tram line. Occasionally the boards would be visible from under the dirt. Near the falls, an old horizontal mine led into the side of the mountain, and inside we saw glow worms, cave crickets, and some Tasmanian Cave Spiders.

Finally, we reached the waterfall. It was beautiful, set in the middle of the forest and reaching up 100 metres.

Now we are in a small lodge in Tullah, right on the lake. It is beautiful here and tomorrow morning we are getting up at 5:30 to go canoeing. I am really looking forward to it!