Tasmania's Top Treasures Traversed!

Sunday Nov. 6– Freycinet National Park- Tasmanian Treasure- “Top Ten” Beach

Unfortunately, the brats also got up early and made as much noise as possible doing this. They were leaving as we got up and good riddance. We had breakfast and said goodbye to the group of women, as none of us were spending another night there.

Our objective today was to hike the most popular trail, the Wineglass Bay lookout path. We drove to the trail-head and started our hike behind several busloads of South East Asian tourists, fortunately adults this time. For a popular trail it was surprisingly challenging, with a long ascension along stone steps. There were a few stopping points to look back and the trail wisely forked so that you came and went along different ways. We walked for about half and hour and then hit an area of trail work with the workers on break, watching the hikers trying to catch their breath.

Wineglass Bay close up, brave swimmers in cold water.

The lookout itself had only a small space for gazing out, due to the renovation. More people were quickly going up and having their pictures taken than actually looking around, but I guess that's par for the course. The view was so perfect it was like gazing at a postcard, on a sunny day. Actually, it was a bit too sunny as the summer-like temperatures made for quite sweaty climbing when great elevations are concerned.

We headed down from the lookout to the beach and were preceded by some kids who had chosen to hike the trail barefoot and were probably regretting it, as after the lookout it was clear but rocky and rough. We were also passed by some teenaged boys running past at full speed, obviously some Aussie coming-of-age ritual that we dared not interfere with.

Mom and Joey, unfazed by the paparazzi.

At the beach, some people were swimming, which looked great when you're sweaty from a long hike, but they generally splashed around for a bit and got out, as just a few sunny days does not a warm sea make. The beach was quite deserving of its apparent “top 10 in the world” reputation that everyone kept quoting. The water was a clear blue and the sand was pure white and it made a nice arc along the coast, Australia truly spoils one (ho hum, another perfect beach) after a while. We walked around the rocks at the end of the beach, had a rest and took photos. On our way out, a wallaby with a joey in pouch was poised by the beach while everyone gathered around, snapping shots. So, being good tourists, we did too.

Slowly we started making our way back up the steep slope in the heat of the day. It was long but we were grateful for the downward slope. We headed back to the hostel, grabbed our gear and were on our way to Launceston. We stopped again at Friendly Beach to check out the view of that long piece of sand and then hit the road.

View of Friendly Beach, almost completely deserted.

We ignored the GPS and set our own route along what looked like a more substantial route from our map. Fat chance. The road was the worst one yet, in really rough shape, and kept getting narrower and narrower. Fortunately we met few locals coming the other way, as they tended to barrel along at full tilt. We crawled along the narrow switch-backing roads along cliff faces with dodgy-looking guardrails, sounding the horn around corners to avoid a full head-on collision.

Eventually our elevation lessened, the road straightened and our pace hastened. Meg slept through the worst part thanks to her motion sickness pills, but still took a painfully slow shift behind the wheel.

Ghastly Ghosts of Launceston Town...

We arrived at our comfortable, quiet hostel, the Launceston Backpackers, in Launceston. The evening was full of excitement such as shopping, laundry and food preparation and eating. Then we headed downtown for our much anticipated Ghost Tour.

The walk was a little intimidating, as the town had a rough look to it and walking along the main pedestrian area left us almost completely on our own on a Sunday night. We made it safely and caught some cool public art along the way. They had these huge brightly-coloured fibreglass cushions that said things when you sat down heavily on them. There was probably a spot to record for the cushions nearby, as most of the sounds were kids giggling and making vaguely rude noises.

We showed up at the starting place, a hotel/pub, plenty early and had fancy coffees while we waited. We looked hopefully at everyone who stopped there and eventually were rewarded when a cluster of people gathered and a small, round woman crossed the street and announced herself as being our guide. We were a small group, with ourselves, a family on vacation, a couple from Queensland and a friend of the guide who was getting a freebie. The tour was pretty cool, taking us into basements and dark corners just off lane-ways. The whole thing ended in an old garage which used to be a stable. This area had sound effects and dummies to add to the atmosphere as well as a nice bookend to the first story we heard. There were rolling mannequin heads and a banging coffin, all sorts of good stuff. Many stories were good, and many were just odd, unresolved things that actually sounded like they might have happened. An offshoot of the tour was that it got us walking around a different part of the downtown and we got to see some really nice streets with well-maintained buildings, rose gardens, and nice homes. The town had some lovely architecture! Who knew?

The walk back was dark but ultimately uneventful and it was bedtime by then, so we slept and slept well.

Monday – CLIMBING THE CATARACT/ RASBERRY FARM TREATS

We got up, ate packed and headed out to the Cataract Gorge, a natural scenic spot right in the city. In packing, we were much disturbed by finding that some of the laundry we left on the line the previous night had been shat upon by some nasty Tassie birds. Lacking a gun, all we could do was hand-clean them and drape them over the backseat to dry. After parking the car we hiked up a fairly steep trail that followed the narrow river cutting through the park area to the lake. There were some nice views from the highest point of the trail. We continued on through a developed park area with a pool and across a narrow bridge to return along the other side. It's a great place for the locals, with many people using it for jogging or to visit the adjoining botanical gardens. It was nice for a tourist destination, but far from spectacular. We amused ourselves by poking about in some shallow caves and figuring out the route of the old walkway, which was much closer to the water and much more vulnerable to the floods described at info points along the walk.

We drove for a few hours, stopping off at a raspberry farm Cousin Pam had suggested, for lunch. This was a busy tourist spot along a rural road that had tasty food and a lush setting to while away an afternoon while sipping a raspberry fizz and indulging in raspberry shortcake. However, we had a fair distance to go, so we hastily returned to the car, heading towards Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park. In typical Tasmanian fashion, the roads became narrower, twistier, and rougher as we headed away from major centres. We took a nice break in a small town (can't remember the name) to pick up some groceries, as the guide book warned us that there were few supplies at the mountain and what there was was way overpriced. It turned out to be quite a nice town that had decided a few years ago to become the “town of murals” and had dozens of them around the town. This attraction had made it a bit of a tourist destination, so buildings were spruced up, and a visitors centre rented audio guides to the paintings. The murals on the buildings around the supermarket were certainly well done and depicted various aspects of Tasmanian history.

Cradle Mountain- Dove Lake Loop

After another hour of progressively more dangerous roads, we arrived at Cradle Mountain. We checked into our hostel which was an empty dorm building in a Discovery Holiday Parks Campground with shared facilities. We made a quick stop to the visitors' centre and then headed up to the most scenic short hike in the park, the Dove Lake loop. The drive up was along a road often only wide enough for one car,where you were constantly sounding your horn. At one point we had to reverse to let a bus come the other way. We drove past some ranger stations and little lakes and the road ended at the parking lot for our trail. We entered our route into a logbook so that they could find us if we collapsed into the foliage and set out. It was about 4 pm so we had just enough time to hike the loop before sundown. It was very well blazed, with wooden walkways over the marshy bits and stairs to aid going up and down. Early on there was a short side trail that took you to a rocky outcrop that provided great views over the water and up into the mountains. It rains 7 out of 10 days in the area, so we were lucky to have this clear, sunny afternoon to have our hike. The loop was an easy walk,but with the ever-shifting perspectives of mountains on water as well as the slowly lengthening shadows it was well worthwhile. The famous Overland Trek in the park goes from the Dove Lake area up into the mountains for 7-9 days and out at the other end of the park. We would have loved to have done it but it still got plenty cold at night and we had no proper gear, so the loop was fine. We met a few people along the way, but not many, and everyone was friendly. There were warnings to stay on the trail, as some plants were so delicate that it would take them 30 years to recover from being stepped on. Most people respected this, but a French family ahead of us was going all over the place. It's bad enough for adults to be ignorant, but modelling it with children is much worse and was the only downer of the hike.

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake on our only clear day.

We returned just when we should have and drove back in the gathering dusk. We cooked up a decent meal in our kitchen only to be later offered a free meal from a tour group using the second kitchen who cooked way too much food. The group's arrival meant that we no longer had the whole building to ourselves, but the group must have been on a fairly busy pace, and they all conked out early.

Tuesday – Cradle Mountain- Misty Hiking

We got up in the grey drizzle and headed out after breakfast. It was a 3 hour loop trail that we almost completely had to ourselves. About half of it was along wooden walkways as otherwise we'd have been tramping through marsh the whole way. The trail started in an open field and then followed a waterfall under low bush. It emerged at a lake's edge which we saw later was under spectacular mountains but we could barely make out the other shore through the mist. We scaled a small hill and started the trail back. The walkways were in much worse shape and in several places we had to teeter along the remaining support beams from rotted paths to cross small marshes. We passed a few small lakes and then headed back along new walkways until the loop was completed.

We headed back to the cabin and it was hard to warm up as the power was on a switch that didn't click on until 5 pm. After a busy lunch with many others in the kitchen lunch Meg went into nap mode and I headed out to try the park's shuttle system and a few of the remaining trails. I took the bus out to the same starting point as before but this time I headed back towards the interpretation centre along a 10km walkway. I had just missed a bus and so had to wait 10 minutes for the next one and was still the only one on it. The driver was really nice and talked about all of the places in Australia he had worked at and that the walkway covered up unsightly water and power lines and so was multiply useful. The walkway made for a fast 10k, it took only 90 minutes to cover it. I had it almost all to myself, only encountering a half dozen people close to the centre. The trail went through some nice countryside and it was pleasant to watch the mist slowly lift as the day went on. It went over a few hills and could have been navigated by a wheelchair as long as the thing had good brakes. The walk also took me by a discontinued trail that just followed a muddy stream up over a hill.

At the interpretation centre there was an environment trail which just put mildly informative stations around an uninteresting path. A short path led to the road via a nice waterfall view and the “Enchanted Walk” trail followed a stream up and down from the woods with nice plastic crawl houses with activities for kids. The nicest trail was set off from the rest where you took some steps into a valley and it was like entering another world. The light was dim and the trees were all covered with moss, much of it hanging off the branches. The trail continued for about ten minutes and ended at a large waterfall and then picked up on the discontinued trail, which was a thin unblazed line into the woods.

More typical Cradle Mountain weather.

Back at the centre it was past closing time so I took the bus back to the main office and walked back to the cabin. Meg had slept well and the power had come back on so all was well. The kitchen was again full of people but we managed to reheat and eat. They all seemed to be part of visiting groups except for a German woman who was travelling on her own and we compared notes with her while we ate.