Tasmania
After 3 weeks back at our home base it was quite satisfying to find that we had worked our way through the ‘to do’ list we had arrived home with. Less satisfying was the further 2 weeks we had to twiddle our thumbs awaiting the sailing day to Tasmania. On balance however I would far rather have been in that position than still with work to do right up to the day we were to leave. Any hiccups & delays in that situation would have been stressful. As it was being back home was all pretty laid back ….. perhaps with one exception which now seems largely resolved. You may recall that MrsTea retired from her lifetime of full-time employment last June. From then until we left to go north, there was much to do keeping us both busy, after which we were travelling with new places & experiences every day. We both felt that MrsTea had adapted to ‘retirement’ exceptionally easily. However with our to do list completed & the thumb twiddling occurring, it became apparent that she was struggling a little with ‘delayed adaptation’. I wont go into detail, other than to say that we both found we were getting a little tetchy with each other, without really knowing why.
A frank discussion about changed roles, particularly around feeling useful & valued in the context of no longer being the breadwinner was helpful. MrsTea is a strong & admirable person but anyone transitioning from a working lifetime to retirement has to ‘re-work’ some of the ways they have been used to seeing themselves & those they love will also need to adapt to the change. All pretty obvious, but nevertheless the ‘delay’, resulting from our travel focus, took us both by surprise. I only mention this as we both thought doing so may be helpful to others approaching retirement. Our ‘relationship re-negotiating’ will be ongoing, but recognising the need before ‘tetchy’ became the defining trait of our relationship has been an important step.
And so the day of sailing came around. All packed, both our travelling rig & our home base, we once again locked the doors, said a few goodbyes & drove away. This time clutching a few ginger tablets & seasickness pills! This was to be the longest sailing voyage either of us have undertaken. 11 hours across a stretch of water known to get pretty rough at times. MrsTea has been known to turn green in far lesser boating experiences & was taking no chances. As it was the crossing was fairly benign & there was no turning green let alone spewing. We ate well on board & thought we slept well too. I say thought because having arrived in Tasmania & disembarked at 6:30 am we both felt as though we were jetlagged for the rest of the day, most peculiar, & the only thing we can put that down to is the possibility that sleeping with the constant vibration of the ship’s big diesel motors combined with a bit of a swell perhaps resulted in a poorer quality sleep. Whether that was it or not we certainly felt a little out of sorts as we did our shopping in Devonport (buying all fresh foods that Tasmanian quarantine laws prevent visitors bringing onto the island) & during the rest of the day.
In spite of our ‘ferry-lag’ our first impressions of this, the only Australian state we have never previously visited were very positive. Everyone we spoke to, without exception, was welcoming & friendly, not just to say ‘G’day’ but to share their time asking about our plans, offering advice etc. The butcher, the supermarket checkout girl, folk in the cafe where we bought breakfast, & even folk who parked next to us & noticed our Victorian rego plates. None were too busy to be generous with their time. This is not to suggest that folk in other parts of Australia are less friendly, but the warm & gregarious nature of Tasmanians has been particularly noticeable. After stocking up with tucker we found our way to a small headland, looking out across the Tasman sea , on the outskirts of Devonport. ‘The Bluff’. The sea was almost flat, no wind & the sun even poked out from between the clouds now & then. It was a good place to enjoy a picnic lunch & to take stock of this new place we found ourselves in. It felt a little different to the Australia we knew , but in a way difficult to immediately put a finger on. It was something to do with an understated but nevertheless pervasive sense of valuing the surroundings. Here on the Bluff there were well kept lawns among thickets of wildness, where tiny Pademelons (A mini pot belled version of a wallaby around 40cms tall), made an appearance now & again before retreating back into the safety of the impenetrable (to people) scrub. The thickets provided privacy for people as well as wallabies within the public space in a manner in keeping with the place’s natural values. This spoke (to us) about how the local people think of the resources they have available to them & we appreciated that. The rocky cliffs, the fresh sea air tinged with the earthy smell which accompanied the thickly growing greenery & the quietness could almost have been in the middle of a wilderness, but poke your head out from the bushes & across the bay stretched the town. For us it was a good beginning.
Driving westward along the coast roads, through country with rich red volcanic soil supporting varied agriculture including crops of opium poppies & pyrethrum daisies making white ‘blankets’ between rows of spuds, cabbages & almost any other vegetable you can think off, informed us that this was a fertile place where folk could make a living on far smaller acreages than is common elsewhere in Australia. Appearances, at least, suggest that ‘factory farming’ has not taken over Tasmania yet….. at least not on land. The place is hilly & the roads winding & narrow. Aussies often suggest that Tasmania is very like England, & for us the drive reminded us of Devon & Cornwall in many ways.
For family & friends back in the UK the following map of Tasmania superimposed over England might offer a helpful perspective. Population is around half a million.
Our first day took us to the pretty little seaside town of Penguin, named after the diminutive Fairy Penguins which inhabit this part of the coastline. However it was not these little birds which drew us there, but rather a generous invitation of a place to stay, together with the promise of some local knowledge to guide us to some spots ‘off the beaten track’ from a fellow travel blogger. Thanks Chris & Dianne. We now have a drive down some of the North west coast’s 4wd tracks on our agenda, but will need to pick our time as it is a coastline exposed to frequent ‘intense’ weather of howling gales & big rains. Parts are very isolated & quicksand comes & goes on beachs where the tracks go. There are parts where travelling alone, as we do is considered foolhardy, so we will need to undertake ‘local research’ as we go.
Rains were forecast over much of Tassie, but the north west looked like it may fare the best, however as their were no guarantees & wet weather plus living under canvas not being a desirable combination, we headed to what we thought a better option – a camping spot with a solid shelter containing a fireplace. That this camping spot was one which had already been recommended to us was a bonus & only around 50kms from Penguin. The drive took us into mountains past many small farms & a couple of settlements, through felled logging coups & the most dense forest I’ve ever seen. Just to walk through such forest would require one’s path to be cut with a chainsaw.
The Leven Canyon turned out to be a magical spot…. especially as the forecast rain missed us! The campground built & maintained by a local ‘Progress Society’ is in a gorgeous little clearing deep in the forest. Lawns are kept manicured by the local population of Pademelons who pop out of the scrub each evening. Great facilities including beautifully clean flush toilets using roof collected rainwater. Pathways have been constructed through the mossy, treefern lined forest, in which huge & ancient trees stand.
The paths lead to the biggest surprise, which remains a surprise until the final couple of feet of steel platform overlooking the Canyon.
Those final couple of feet are without a question a WOW! experience. Photos simply cannot do the vista justice.
Two pathways are joined by a series of 697 steps making descending or climbing through the forest possible for anyone with modest fitness. A nice touch are the many bench seats along the way which have how many steps still to go engraved on them. The whole place is another example of local pride in the surroundings, & that it is available totally cost free to anyone is to be commended. These same communities are those who recognised that they had something special to share & fought & won a 20+ year battle to prevent the entire canyon being dammed & flooded for hydro-electric generation.
At the end of our second day in Tassie we are feeling optimistic & excited about what discoveries the next 3.5 months here will bring. For now though we have decided to stay here another day. There is a means of accessing the canyon ‘floor’ a few kms away which we intend to check out.
The walk along the Canyon floor was a tad more than a walk, it turned into virtually a full blown mountaineering expedition. We managed without ropes & harnesses, but they would have been handy at times. To be fair the sign said “1.5 hours return” & ‘Experienced Bush Walkers Only” plus ‘Risk of death & serious injury”! The return trip took us over 5 hours, along steep moss covered forest tracks, narrow ledges high above ravines in which tannin stained water raged & cascaded among huge boulders below, & up boulder strewn mountains. Each footstep, hand hold & movement required consideration. It was our own fault, we walked/climbed as far as a bend named ‘Devil’s Elbow’ & that was as far as we should have gone, but instead continued past this for a almost a couple of hours, following occasional orange marker triangles nailed to trees, thinking we were still on the way to Devil’s Elbow. What we were doing in fact was following the trail, such as it was, to Gunns Plains, part of an 80km walking trail for young fit & experienced bush walkers, not occasional walking old farts such as us! That I’m sitting here writing this, it’s obvious we survived, albeit with aches & pains which will no doubt be with us for a while……… but boy what great country to see! 🙂
Driving back to the north coast took us up & down dale, lots more steep & narrow roads through lush green valleys littered with more tiny farms. It was good to see that small farms are viable, the fertility of the land allows this. Were I ever to return to farming, Tasmania would be a great choice of place to do it.
En route to Burnie a problem developed with our Redarc digital temperature gauge, & much of the day in Burnie was spent trying to suss out what the cause was & to get it sorted, but after paying an auto electrician’s, a 4wd shop’s & a radiator specialist’s bills we have been left with what we started with. Most frustrating, but we do now know that our vehicle’s cooling system is operating just fine, & a new gauge sensor has been fitted. I have emailed Redarc & hope their support is as good as it used to be. To compound my frustration, whilst at the radiator specialist I noticed our power steering reservoir was loose on it’s mounting & rattling. I must have missed this corrugation induced issue when checking things over at home. Tonight we are camped on the foreshore of the pretty little seaside community at Boat Harbour Beach. If the weather is fine again tomorrow I’ll have to get the spanners out to scrape my knuckles & play at being a contortionist to tighten the bolts before we leave. Whoopee!
Added a bit later: Access for the spanner work turned out to be easier than I’d feared & the task was accomplished quite quickly, so we enjoyed a stroll around Boat Harbour Beach to soak up the beauty whilst the wind had dropped. We also soaked up an excellent latte & double shot espresso at the surf life saving club cafe, along with a couple of scrumptious gluten free cakes.
