Tasmania, heaven down under.

Weaponed with a jacket for the cold climate and a fishing rod, that I already kept with me since shark bay but never used, we stepped in a brand new rental Hyundai I20 to drive from Hobart to Launceston along the west. Then we would hire a bike and drive it back to Hobart along the east coast!  It was so nice to drive a normal car with automatic gear, after 3 months hitting my van from 1984. We headed to the Hobart West-side National park for a 3h walk to the top of a mountain. There was a lot of fog but that made the landscape only more magical.


The next day we went to white beach in Porth Arthur. Passi threw the fishingline in the water and shouted, “I got a fish!” Off course I thought it was a joke, until he pulled the 35cm flathead in on land! I was so jealous cause I never caught a fish in my life and it was still on my to do list in Australia. So after putting the flathead,.. euh, to sleep, I threw the line in. I couldn’t pull my line back and said:”Passi, I’m stuck, damn.”  “No, Pieter, you got a fish!” Then I realized it and finally catched my very first flathead! I was so proud, although he was barely big enough to eat.  A local fisher came by and catched a barracuda for us and after throwing his old fish in the water a giant stingray of 2m diameter came by. Wauw!! What a great start of the trip! We took the fish to the barbie and spiced it up with pepper and salt, jummie!

After visiting the old prison we got stuck in fuel. The few pumpstations on the map were closed and we really needed some. So we decided to overnight 500m to the closed station and did some nightfishing in Nubeena. Again the fishes were happy to see us and we catched some mackerel. The fisher next to us gave us some extra smoked salmon for on the road. IS NICE!

The only problem on this trip was that we had to sleep in the frontseat of the car which was so small. Every night at 5-6am it started to get cold and showers were really scarce. With all the fishing and walking the “this-car-smells-like-new-perfum” was hard to find. We sneeked in on a campspot and the next morning we got awake at 6am like usual and started the engine right away, afraid of having to pay. Pascal bet I had never driven a car that quickly after waking up. We waited for the fuel station to open and head back to Hobart to continue the trip.  

In Mount Field National Park we went to Russel falls, horeshoe falls and the biggest trees of Tasmania. After sleeping on the edge of a river we arrived at lake St Claire-Cradle Mountain National park. There we did a 7h hike to Mt Rufus. The way was very steep and Passi said it was one of the hardest physical challenges he had ever done. So that made the reward on the top even better. There we were: in Australia, in Tasmania on the top of Mt Rufus, eating smoked salmon from a guy we met 2 days earlier. Amazing!

So in the evening we arrived in Queenstown where we finally booked in in a motel/hostel and could take our first shower in days. It should have been great, but the “bathroom” was outside and the cold floor and medium cold water did’t brought the expected smile on our face. The stores were all closed and now we finally had some kind of a kitchen we had only 1$ spaghetti out of a can to heat up.

Looking at the big map of Tasmania in the information centre in Strahan after living day by day we decided to make a real plan. Driving back to Hobart by bike would take to much effort in too little time, so we cancelled that crazy idea and moved to the Sand dunes for some little kiting. Later we visited the highest waterfall from Tasmania called Montezuma falls stretching about 97m. I was still exhausted from the hikes before, but this was “only” a 3h walk.  We couldn’t take a shower which made taking our shoes off in the evening the worst moment of the day.

 

 

At Cradle Mountain we did the 3h Marion lookout from where we could see Passi’s mom and 3 or 4 lakes and Cradle Mountain rising in the sky.

On the way back we stopped the car for an amazing view over Mt Ronald. There was a lagoon in the front, cows on the left, sheeps on the right, the mountain in the back, a postcard life on scene...
We arrived in Launceston and after cheap Domino’s we went for a free campspot 10k north.

The day after we wanted to be lazy and recover for part 2 of the roadtrip along the east coast .It was raining in the morning, we went to the information center where the woman told us way to much things to do. We were not in the mood for anything. But we decided to go up north and do a really short stretch-our-legs-walk in the narawntapu national park on the northern edge of the island. On the way we got a bit lost in the forest hanging out of the car like a safari photographer. Finally we arrived and we planned a little tour around the lake after having, again, spaghetti and beans out of a 1$ can. Mjammie.

 

We walked as silent as possible and saw some wallabies hiding in the bushes. On the bird lookout we had a secret view over the lake where a black swan was eating grass out of the water. It was a nice area, caterpillars everywhere and grasshoppers jumping aroung like popcorn. But what followed was a dream…

Halfway of the track the path in the bushes stopped and went over in a big open grassland where we were allowed to walk free without following an exact route on our way looping track around the lake. I spotted a big kangaroo and a little fellow standing on the border of the forest staring to the grassland. I was really excited and took this opportunity to take some shots. I took a shot from the lake which was situated between the forest and the grassland and where we had to walk around now. With no other people around Passi and me, we followed our way through the grassland between more than a dozen kangaroos on just a few meters distance chilling in the grass, laying down, eating grass, feeding a joey and staring at us. Imagine the forest in the back where we walked out, the lake with all the birds and the black swans on the right, the vast grassland with wild kangaroos in front of us, the sun on our face, no single sign of society, only nature, Passi and me.  A magic feeling came down on me, this place was so wild and yet so peacefull and the kangaroos seemed like trusting us.  After 7 months of travelling I was not looking at nature anymore, I was part of it.

 

I literally said: “Pascal: I’m happy! This is why I came to Australia. This is so great. My adventure feels finally complete. I can go home now.”

I spontaneously took my camera and took photo’s all around me:

“Look Pascal: 360 degrees of happiness.”

We kept walking and found a big staff taller then myself. I swear it was Gandalf who lost it there. In one of the holes in the ground I spotted a snakeskin, left by one of the local inhabitants.

 

We drove back to Launceston to a free campingspot. There we met John, Susan and her parents from Cradle Mountain. They’re so warm and nice and I wish I could hang around with them more. We chatted while drinking some tea and eating gingercookies. The end of a perfect day!  In the morning we walked in the gorge and had our 2^nd cold shower in.. too long time.

On the east coast we started at Mount William National park. There were a lot of little grey kangaroos, but the walk to the beach was quite boring and the landscape not that interesting. Or was it just because I was still overwhelmed from the day before?

On the way down we saw a white big eagle on the side of the road nibbling a dead wallabee. He flew away really quick, but it’s always a great experience to meet them. We passed by the Columbus waterfalls and went to the library of St Helens for some free wifi and charging devices. There we met John again! We decided to go to the same campspot in Bay of fires. There was a beautifull sunset and John made us saucages! In the morning we sat on the campfire of the day before and after visiting the local “market” we headed to Bicheno. There we were surprised by diamond island, just on walking distance from the beach.We found a great free sleeping spot, but there was no bbq. When we couldn’t find the bbq sauce for our sandwiches in our little car we had the giggles. Tiredness can do weird things with people! J

 

 

But we slept once more in the frontseat of our little car, with our clothes in our sleeping bag, being cold at 5am, waking up at 6, having muesli in the car and driving away. The Frecinet National Park was supposed to be great, but we were so tired and although we had packed our lunch for a 3-5h hike our bodies resisted and we headed back after 40min after seeing wineglass bay. So we went for some relaxing fishing in Coles bay where Passi catched a leatherjacket.

In the evening we slept already in Hobart at a playground area where we had our 1$ spaghetti out of a can for the last time together with the fish. Finally for the last time we had to sleep in our little car. We were so tired of the crappy shit we eated the last 12 days, the cold car in the night,  the small frontseat to sleep, not being able to stretch the legs that weighted like a tonne due to all the hiking, the lack of a shower and clean clothes, no other place to go in the night than sitting in the car till you fall asleep, the smell of our socks, the smell of fishing gear and the banana in the back, not finding your stuff altought the car is so small, being worried about getting catched by a ranger.  Finally we could go to a nice hostel, but man I will miss that great roadtrip!

Arriving in the hostel meant the end of our roadtrip to Tasmania. But for me it also meant the end of my travelling around Australia. I've met a lot of great people that became friends, saw a whole continent in 7 months, thats 237 days, took more than 7200 pictures, drove approximately +- 13.000 km on the left side, saw the most amazing fauna and flora belonging to our world heritage, had a immeasurable experience and great adventure which I will remember my whole life.

On Thursday I will take a flight to Sydney, 4 days later a flight to Europe, to Belgium, to Antwerp, to my home, to my parents, my father who will turn 60 and get retired, my sister who is pregnant again and asked me to be a godfather, my own godmother, my mother and my older sister, my 2 bro's who I admire and love with all my heart, my crazy fitnesspartner who brings the best out in me, my friends, my life, ..

It is over but I’m not sad, I'm thankfull. Life is great, take it, live it, enjoy it, every day.

Thanks, to all the great people I met and spiced this adventure to what it has become.

See you on the other side,

Enjoy life,


Pieter