Terrific Tasmania - Feb 2005

Margaret and I sailed across The Bass Straits from Melbourne to Devonport on The Spirit of Tasmania.
During our trip, one evening was so wild, wet and windy that the The Spirit was damaged by a huge wave and had to return to Port Melbourne. This same evening happened to be our 5th. under canvas but after that we found accommodation with more substantial cover.

We were free spirits having a car, a tent and no bookings. We “did” the North-east corner, the East Coast, the Freycinet Peninsula, the Tasman Peninsula, Hobart and the Derwent Valley, The Huon Vallley and finally up the main North South highway from Hobart to Launceston

“Did” in our case meant take in all the natural beauty of an area and usually included a good walk. We’d had quite enough rainforest walks by the end to last us a while. These included ancient Eucalyptus, Pine and Myrtle forests. We climbed Mt. Stromach through bush following strategically placed pink ribbons; we tramped the coastal footpaths both north and south of Bicheno; we had an exhillerating walk on the Blue Tier Plateau and accomplished numerous mini-walks to visitor attractions.

There were a couple of things I hated about Tasmania.

1) The numerous road-kills of Marsupials of all kinds( Except the Tasmanian Devil because it’s very fast and if it tries to eat the road-kills, it snatches and runs like billio)

2) The heavily laden logging lorries. Enough on that subject!

If you have, thank you for reading and if you haven’t it’s been a pleasure anyway.

Joan