Tasmania

We sometimes fail to see beauty in our own backyard. Many Australians who have thought about going to Uluru or the Barrier Reef have not even thought about Freycinet. Yet the Freycinet Peninsula is a spectacular piece of Tasmanian scenery and geography. It can stand proud when matched with world famous sights. The geography is majestic, the walks are breathtaking and the camping spots rank in our top 5 favourites.

The tent pitches are neatly set out and each had its own private access to the beach. Each pitch is separated from the next by natural vegetation. As another camper was walking by, I hear him say to his wife, “this is as close as it gets to Paradise.” High praise indeed! Even better, it is one of the few places we have encountered where the tent sites are superior to the caravan, camper and RV places.

The walks are great. Yesterday we did a circuit of 12kms. This included a walk to a lookout over Wineglass Bay, then down to the Wineglass Bay beach, across the isthmus, along the Hazards beach and finally a scramble over red granite boulders for a few Kms.

We rewarded ourselves with ice cream and a can of soft drink.

Tuesday
We are heading north towards the boat. While traveling past a church I noticed a crop seeder out the front. I thought to myself, what a wonderful symbol for a church, but ironically the church had closed down.

Currently I am sitting in the car while Hetty is exploring King Solomon’s cave. It is amazing what you find in Tassie. The place names also give us a clue that he was down here 3000 years ago. There is the Jordan River, the Nile, Jericho, Bagdad, Jerusalem (now Colebrook) and others. It only goes to prove how far you can get on a camel!

As I wrote earlier, it was impossible this morning to find a place to worship, but this was not the case for all our fellow campers. The campsite was full of followers of other gods: Holden and Ford. Their worship was up the road at Symmons Plains where the V8s meet. Their incense would be the smell of petrol and burnt rubber. The followers, dressed up in their finery of jackets and caps heralding their faith, and with flags flying, left the camp ground with evangelical zeal and sallied north.

We on the other hand went south and discovered two amazing treasures. In Colebrook, formerly Jerusalem, the RC church was designed by Sir Augustus Pugin. It is a simple gothic building of sandstone, oak and pine. Pugin who designed many of Britain’s important buildings in the C19th in the neo gothic style had time to design a number of churches in NSW and Tasmania. It seems that the Bishop in the new colonies was a mate of his.

In another, even smaller town, Buckland, the Anglican Church has a beautiful stained glass window that reputedly comes from Battle Abbey near Hastings in the UK. The provenance is quite strong.

These are just two examples of numerous treasures in small Tasmanian towns. I have mentioned the Ross bridge, but there are also amazing convict built bridges in Campbell Town and Richmond. There are Georgian sandstone houses, small settler dwellings and buildings such as barracks and government offices converted to other uses. Towns such as Oatlands, Ross and Richmond have main streets that hearken back to the colonial era.

For anyone who likes history and scenery it is hard to bypass Tasmania.

The RC church in Colebrook (top)
The stained glass window in the John the Baptist Anglican Church, Buckland

We camped overnight at Narcissus Bay. The views are stunning: lake, mountains, majestic trees and friendly wildlife. The Pademelons were quite inquisitive There was only one other person there. In the morning after we had packed up our hiking tent one of the incoming hikers found a black snake sunning itself close to where had slept for the night. At least we got a good night’s sleep – in sweet ignorance.

We took the ferry back to the Visitors’ Centre. What took us 7 hours to walk was only a 40 minute boat trip back.

We then drove to Strahan via Queenstown. Today has been a recuperation and clothes washing day. This will enable us to be near each other and not choke.

SOME OBSERVATIONS
1. Tasmanians seem intent on dragging boats from one end of the island to the other. And if they are not pulling a “tinnie” they are hauling a load of firewood.
2. In the future Tasmania will sink by some metres due to the weight of all the camper vans in the state.
3. The amount of road kill is quite staggering. In some places we counted up to half a dozen Pademelons, Possums or Tasmanian Devils in a kilometre stretch.
4. The Roads’ Department could save thousands of dollars not putting up “Winding Roads” signs. That is a given for every Taswegian, and for overseas arrivals they need only one sign as you get off the boat in Devonport.

If you like walking/hiking, Tassie is the place to be. Yesterday we started to trek to Cape Raoul but after 2 hours of walking over boulders our ankles and knees had had enough. We had to turn back but not after having seen spectacular rugged coastline. At every turn it is hard not to give God praise for His wonderful creation. Tassie must be His poster state!

Today, being suckers for punishment, we trekked from the Lake St Clair visitors’ centre to Narcissus Bay- over 16 Kms of walking through densely treed forest with giant roots to trip you up at every step. Interspersed every 500 metres was a muddy creek to cross. I’m sure for seasoned hikers this was a doddle but we found it challenging.

Tonight we are in our hikers tent. The last time I can remember using it was in Sweden last year. This is another reason to be thankful – the privilege of seeing so much.

And we are amazed we have arrived dry and without any broken bones but oh so sore!

The Lake St Clair Visitors Centre’