Tassie Mania

Being able to wind down in Melbourne for a week was really nice; not having any WWOOFing obligations, no work, no camping, just relaxing and getting to know some long-lost cousins. I say long-lost, but Jason had actually never met these cousins, so it wasn't much different than the WWOOFing experience, arriving at a stranger's house that you've only spoken with over telephone and email. We seem to have very good luck though, and we got along famously. We felt right at home in Melbourne, but wanted to get to Tasmania very soon, as the temperatures were dropping rapidly and the rains were coming our way!

The ferry ride cost us a pretty penny, but this was our choice so that we could bring our car along with us. The plane tickets are ridiculously cheap at around $80 each, but we planned on spending the next five weeks covering a lot of ground and camping along the way. So instead of renting a car or campervan or something, we spent the extra money initially and had our transport and sleeping quarters come with us. It still worked out to our advantage financially, it just felt like a blow to the wallet all at once.

We had two WWOOF hosts lined up when we left Melbourne, one in the north of the island and the other in the south. We were set to arrive at our first host the same day we got off the ferry, and this was when we got our first real taste of Tasmanian forests and mountains - but also of Tasmanian roads. The landscape was just breathtaking, and it would continue to amaze us for the rest of our visit. The coast was rocky and sandy all at once, with clear, cool waters, and inland was temperate rainforest climbing uphill until the trees broke and the mountain peaks sat on top in the sun. To get to these beauties however, we needed to traverse some extremely steep and winding dirt tracks. I say track and not road, as often it didn't seem maintained by anyone and sometimes there was even grass growing in the middle of the dirt road! It was a bit stressful to test out our little car through the abundant potholes and rocky terrain, but we did manage to get back to Melbourne eventually in one piece.

We arrived at our first WWOOF after a confusing and stressful drive, and realized when we stepped out of the car that we were in the middle of nowhere, but also in a valley surrounded by forest and looked down upon by mountains and cliffs. It was a beautiful spot, abundant with wildlife we had never encountered before. We soon discovered that there were pademelons everywhere, (a small species of wallaby, that looks like it's crossed with a rabbit) and that the brush-tail possums can make quite a racket on a tin roof. The composting toilet must've had the best view of any toilet anywhere - looking out over the valley and trees, with a cliff face on the left and a mountain peak on the right. I had hoped to learn a lot at this WWOOF, as it was a herbal tea farm, and my tea-obsession had come with me all the way from home. However, this was one of the few WWOOFing experiences we had that was just not our cup of tea. Our personalities, shall we say, clashed with the hosts', the work was menial and unrewarding, and the hours we put in for our keep seemed to add  up long after the work day was over. We were not ungrateful for the quality of the food, as it was almost exclusively grown and processed on-site, and of course was completely organic and delicious. They grew heaps of veggies and herbs, harvested their own honey, and grew and ground their own grains to boot. But, we found ourselves, with the two other lovely WWOOFers who were already there, doing all the cooking, cleaning, splitting and hauling firewood, keeping the fires going, grinding grain, making breads, for everyone in the household. This guy and his son were usually the only ones home, but his wife and daughter were there too. It just seemed an unfair exchange for what we were getting. Did I mention that there was no cell phone reception, VERY limited internet access, and that we did our business outside and slept in a cold and leaky bus? Luckily we did get along great with the other two WWOOFers, one from Germany and one from Spain, and we spent our nights playing board games, reading, and chatting. They were really lovely, and we made sure to share all of our chores as equally as we could.

So weeding peppermint for 5.5 hours a day wore us down pretty quick, and we only stayed with our first host for a week. We then had a week to ourselves to explore some of Tasmania before we were due at our next. We spent Jason's birthday at Liffey Falls, only a few minutes down the dirt track from our first host. Liffey Falls is a state reserve with a lovely walking track from the very top of the falls to the bottom. There are countless tiers where the water flows down to the next level, sometimes gently, and sometimes quite steeply and sudden. We found our way to the upper car park, and spent the day trekking down the trail, exploring the rocks and pools, and stopping at the bottom for lunch. We
made our way back up eventually, but we had all day, and we spent about 6 hours walking in total. We also checked out the Big Tree, and then camped in the lower car park for the night, right beside the river. The next day, we headed into some civilization, a town called Launceston, to use some wifi for the first time in Tassie. Our folks needed to know we were still breathing, and we got some lovely vegan lunch and chai lattes as a little birthday treat. We camped out of town and headed to the Bay of Fires the next day!

The north east coast of Tasmania is home to a beautiful National Park and reserve, Mt William National Park, and the Bay of Fires, which gets its name from the vibrant orange fungus which grows on the rocks along the coastline. The coast was gorgeous, but getting there meant enduring more of Tassie's famous dirt roads, and by the time we arrived at Mt William's the fender on the front end of the car had come a bit loose! We figured that there must have been some home repairs done to it by the previous owner, and it was only held on around the headlight by a couple of bolts. All of the "corrugated" dirt road had shaken it loose, and we only had some rope to tie it back on with! Jason did a well enough job though, and it survived like that until we could fix it properly back in Melbourne.

We spent the next few days checking out some more of the national parks, and fell in love with one called Freycinet, home of Wineglass Bay. The walk down and then back up to the bay was certainly a bit steep, and the stairs seemed to climb forever, but it was a lovely view and we don't mind a work out. After Freycinet we were in for another visual wonder, as we drove through Hobart. This is Tasmania's main city, and houses the majority of its population, which was very evident by the suburban sprawl that surrounded the city and climbed through the hills as far as could be seen. We didn't stop to check out the streets at all, as we prefer the country normally, and we were due at our next host this day, in a wee town called Franklin.

We unfortunately didn't enjoy the time we spent at our previous WWOOF, but Penny and Karim's place was just the opposite of that experience. This couple was so warm and welcoming to us, and although the living quarters in their still-under-construction strawbale house were a bit chilly some nights and very simple, we really loved getting to know these two and learned so much in our time there. Penny is extremely passionate about permaculture and alternative building, as well as food and Australian Idol. Karim is an excellent cook, and made us many gourmet meals, mostly mediterranean and middle-eastern inspired. They were both great for intellectual and personal conversation, and the two weeks we spent there felt so much longer due to the richness of the relationships we built and the amount that we learned in that time. On any given day we would spend a few hours in the garden, with a leisurely break for lunch, planting garlic, building no-dig beds, weeding the strawberries, making compost, and pruning the tagsaste trees. The work was so varied and full of conversation that it was never tedious. Penny was a wealth of information, and she inspired us to also go through just about every book they owned on building and permaculture. They even introduced us to their local pub and billiard bar, and the rest of the evenings were spent watching The Voice or a new episode of A Game of Thrones!

After our time in Franklin, we continued our adventure on Bruny Island, just north east of Hobart. On the island there is a Little Penguin rookery, where about 9000 Little Penguins, or Ferry Penguins, lay their eggs and rear their chicks. Every evening at dusk, these little penguins return from fishing and very hesitantly come ashore to find their chicks. As the world's smallest penguins, they only stand about 9 inches tall, and you can imagine how adorable these guys are when waddling across the beach toward the rookery. We spent hours watching them from the boardwalk, free entertainment and a chance to see a very rare species. While on Bruny Island, we saw another rare species, the White-Bellied Sea Eagle. These are fishing eagles, but as we discovered, they also feed on Little Penguins. We spotted two in a tall tree on a beautiful long walk, and noticed the remains of some of their prey. While in Tassie we were lucky enough to also see five platypuses! They are a very elusive and shy critter, but if you are very quiet and know where to look, you can spot them swimming in Tasmania's creeks. We didn't spot any Tassie Devils in the wild on our trip, but we did see many footprints on the beach while we were in Cockle Creek, the southern most point of the island that you can reach by car.

One of the highlights of our weeks in Tasmania was the trip to Tasman Island. Here we spent a bit of money on a three hour cruise around the island, getting super close to sheer sea cliffs, common dolphin, cormorants, sea lions, Australian and New Zealand fur seals, and massive albatross. Totally worth the money, the cold sea spray and a bit of nausea. Another highlight was a natural phenomenon we encountered in Mt Field National Park. Although it was certainly a chilly night, we ventured away from our fire after dark to take a walk to Russel Falls, where a sign instructed us to turn off our headlamps, hold on to the railing, and follow the path toward the falls. As we got closer, we began to see the glow worms, hanging from their strings and awaiting their prey. We went back to the falls the next morning as well, to view the falling water in the daylight, and were surprised to see a truly breath-taking waterfall. We encountered a couple more lovely falls on our walk that day, and even more as we continued our travels through Tasmania's centre and up to the northwest end. Dip Falls was a bit difficult to find, but so beautiful, and Jason even managed to climb from the bottom of the falls up to where we were camped. Yoga at the falls the next morning was particularly peaceful and rewarding, and we walked away with some fantastic photos.

The last major park on our agenda, and the last critter we still had to find, led us to Cradle Mountain. Here we chose a rather challenging uphill (or rather up-mountain) walk to a place called Crater Lake, and then onward to a lookout point for beautiful views of Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain itself. We were surprised by the variety of colour in the trees surrounding Crater Lake, which looked remarkably like birch, with white and silver bark, and leaves ranging from gold to rust to crimson. There were some lovely small waterfalls and rock pools leading up to the lake, and then ascending above it we were truly aware of the scope of the giant crater. When we reached the lookout point, the views were just indescribable. What really struck us was how many lakes there were, nestled in between different peaks, at different altitudes. There was Dove Lake, at the bottom of our trek, Crater Lake that we encountered about half way up, and then three or four others we could see that were at different levels again. Cradle Mountain was really spectacular to behold, and it was such a clear day that we could see many other peaks in the background as well.

We took a bit of a different route down from the mountain, one that was significantly steeper, and could only be managed by the use of chains and rails that had been put in place along the mountainside. All I can say is that I was very glad we had not taken this way up! When we finally reached the bottom and made our way back to where the shuttle bus would pick us up, a mountaineer tipped us off on where we could find the creature we had come here to see. We took a boardwalk that wound through a grassed and bumpy terrain, dotted with big holes, evident as burrows. After a few minutes walking, we spotted our wombats! And there were many of them. In the distance we could see a mum and her little one, and then several other large wombats, all grazing happily. As we walked back toward the road, we encountered another large wombat who was directly beside the boardwalk, and paid us no mind when we filmed him within inches of his face. We were very glad we managed to encounter some wild wombats before leaving Tasmania, as our time was almost up, and we never did see any more on the mainland, so it was certainly a special experience.

After our five weeks in Tassie we had to get back on the ferry for an unfortunately rocky return to Melbourne. Although it had been quite cold at times, had rained nearly every day, and we never managed to have an indoor toilet or a real bed, we loved our time there, and it was one of the most beautiful places we had encountered thus far. I think it is a well kept secret, as not many travellers, especially those from outside Australia, give it much thought. But we would certainly go back if given the chance, and recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.

Stay tuned for our trip through the Red Centre and up to Kakadu National Park! Heaps of crocs, dingoes, and many other interesting backpackers along the way.