It has been such a long time since my last post that I almost forgot that I have a blog. Seriously, between mid-December and the whole month of January so many activities of all kinds were crammed into a relatively short time-frame that it took me some time to get back my lost equilibrium.
Luckily, 2 weeks of holidays in Tasmania that we took over
the Christmas and New Year break were exactly what the doctor ordered. Now, I am back, rested and re-charged and
ready to take 2017 head on.
Neither of us had ever been to this part of Australia which
is a small island in itself about 2 hours flight from Sydney and renowned for
its natural beauty. A few of our friends
went there and absolutely loved it, so we decided to give it a go.
Our first stop was the city of Launceston where we
arrived on Christmas Day. I never
imagined that there would be so many people travelling on that day, the airport lounge was absolutely packed with travellers. Anyway, we landed in 37 C degree heat,
picked up our rental car and headed straight to Peppers Hotel. During the short drive, we didn’t see a
single soul anywhere, the city was totally deserted and looked rather eerie in comparison with Sydney where lots of shops and cafes were open, people milling around and the beach was full of sunbathers.
It was lunch time when we checked in and the lady at
reception informed us that we would not be able to find anywhere to eat
including their own restaurant. She did,
however, suggest that we should take a short drive to Cataract Gorge, one of the many of Tasmania’s natural wonders.
We still had to find food so I suggested a petrol
station. There we were advised that
McDonald's was open and went straight there.
I have to admit, I hadn’t been to Macca's (it is unique Australian way to refer to McDonald's) for more than 13 years but I
was quite impressed by the changes. We
opted to create our own burger which turned out to be delicious. It was served on a small wooden board with
the chips placed in a small wire basket – exactly the way all the gourmet
burger joints do, but for a fraction of the price.
After lunch we went to explore Cataract Gorge which I would
have enjoyed much more had it not been so unusually scorching hot.
We spent a night in Strahan and the following morning were on the road again. I really enjoyed the
pace that we had set for ourselves. Since
the major attractions of Tasmania lie in its natural beauties and fresh
produce, there was no reason for us to rush anywhere in particular, just drive around
stopping at occasional cheese factory or a winery for a wine and cheese
tasting.
A collection of cows outside Ashgrove Farm Cheese shop
For people like us, who live in big cities with all the
consequences that come with it, the change of pace came initially as shock but
over time we came to appreciate the lack of cars and traffic on the roads, the
streets almost devoid of people, the absence of shopping centres and malls, how
all the activities died down as soon as the sun disappeared over the
horizon. We enjoyed the fresh
air, the green rolling hills, the mountain and the lakes and our lungs welcomed the clean, fresh and unpolluted air. The
only thing that we found quite difficult to adapt to was the lack of mobile
coverage to a point that we couldn’t even follow the Google maps and had to
rely on the road signs for directions.
Luckily for us, there is only one major highway that criss-crosses the
island and it is almost impossible to get lost there.
The distances between the places that we planned to visit
were no longer than 2 hours drive which is just about enough for me to endure and soon we arrived at our
next stop – Cradle Mountain that forms the north end of the National park in the Central Highlands region
of Tasmania and is one of the most popular natural areas in Tasmania. It is quite a remote area
isolated from everything including the mobile network so the only thing was
left to do is explore it, which was quite ok with me except that the weather turned its back on us and sent us quite a bit of rain but despite it we were determined not to let it
ruin our holiday and dampen our spirits, so after we checked in into our lodge at Peppers, we unpacked our rain ponchos, laced
up our hiking boots and set off for a long walk into the woods. After being in a car for quite some time, the
walk was really enjoyable. This kind of
environment is totally different to the one can find around Sydney and we were
fascinated by the flora and fauna of the forest.
Walking in the woods
Walking in the woods
The next day we continued to explore the area and following
the advice of friends, we took a short drive to nearby Dove Lake and take a closer look at Cradle Mountain, its jagged contours, streaming creeks and its alpine flora. Sadly, the rain continued and the view of the
nearest mountains was partially obscure by mist. The temperature dropped and I was relieved
that the time came to say goodbye to the wilderness and return to
civilisation.
The next morning we packed our bags, got in the car and
following the route which we had prudently mapped the night before with the help of
the hotel staff, sped off towards Hobart where we were going to spend New Year celebrations. But I will save this story for the next post,