Tasmania part II. 2nd – 4thDec

After our third visit to the campervan company we finally got away to the east coast and headed for Swansea and on to scenic Coles Bay. Although the distance was not great, it took hours to reach because, like everywhere in Tasmania, the roads are full of twists and turns, and also full of wallabies (see part I) so you cannot hurry.

This was a very remote village and so the laws of supply and demand were in full force here and everything was three times the price of anywhere before or since. Also, the bakery closed at 4pm, the petrol station/general store/chip shop closed at 6pm, and the local restaurant at 8pm so this was not going to be the place for late-night partying. We got a good night’s sleep to prepare for a day of hiking the next day.

Now the bakery was open I went slightly mad and bought my own bodyweight in great English-style goodies, like Cornish pasties and fruitcake. I justified this as hiking fuel but I’m not sure Dorka quite understood at the time that I had spent a tenth of our daily budget on impulse food. Actually we did eat the whole lot on foot, as we walked a very long way that day. We hiked up to the lookout over the pass to look down into scenic Wineglass Bay, then we actually walked all the way down into the bay. There are different stories as to why it’s a called Wineglass Bay: because of the shape or that the water is clear as glass, or (and this is our favourite) because the water once ran red like wine, with the blood of whales, which were slaughtered for oil and bones at the whaling station there. It doesn’t stink of rotting whale any more, and it is absolutely beautiful. The only downside was the cheeky wallabies. Nobody was taking any notice of the “Don’t feed the wild animals” signs everywhere, so of course these little buggers were hopping around us begging for food the whole time. We had to work hard for this memory though. The whole walk end to end was around 5 hours. Again Lara was in the backpack carrier for most of that period and stayed very happy the whole way.

After so much hiking, we only travelled s short distance, to the town of Bichenot, where I had arranged a penguin tour for us that evening. Only Emma and Andy went, and we took no camera on the tour, as the flash photography can blind little penguins. It was great though and we got really close to the penguins as they sneaked out of the water, across the beach and up through our group and off to their underground nests. The guide was also very knowledgeable, so we learnt quite a lot.

In the morning Dorka had some work to take care of so I took the kids to see the blow hole, a place in the rocky coastline where, occasionally a wave shoots up a narrow channel and spouts up high into the air like a geyser.

To make the best of a lost day, we visited a small zoo. It was actually a sanctuary for Tasmanian Devils which was originally set up by a family of Brits on holiday here, much like ourselves. This place was a lovely surprise. Not only were the displays great (everything from “match the poo in this drawer with the correct Australian animal” to the “Tasmanian Devil trivia quiz” the rangers were also great; we followed them as they fed all the animals and introduced us to kangaroos, wombats and Devils. It was a very educational and extremely personal experience. Later after closing time (we were the last ones to leave) we had a very stirring talk with the head ranger in the carpark. Andrew showed us a baby wombat (also called a joey, by the way – the name applies to all marsupial babies, we learned) wrapped in a jumper that he was hand-rearing. This baby’s mother had died in a road accident, but the joey remained alive in her pouch, and the driver brought it to the sanctuary. Apparently it happens quite a lot, and Andrew told us sadly how on his way to the job for the first time, he stopped at every single accident, checking pouches and collecting. The good news is that animals are recycled in the best possible way – people deliver them to the sanctuary, and they are given to the Tasmanian Devils, who are great scavengers, so they would naturally feed on dead wallabies anyways.

Funnily enough, as Andrew drove off, another ranger walked past, and he too had an animal in his pullover - a lizard called a blue-tounge. Snappy but quite pretty.

We thought it would be easy to drive back a little toward Hobart and stay in the town of Swansea, which has a reputation for great food. Unfortunately we hadn’t reserved a camping space at the campground. When we crawled there about an hour after dark, and of course tired out after an hour on wallaby watch, it was pretty sad to hear that there was no room for us. The owner simply couldn’t believe we could be so foolish. Feeling very irresponsible, we crawled off sheepishly looking for a place to stay. It was so late that we simply decided to camp wild. A huge carpark 10 metres from Swansea bay seemed acceptable for the night. Until about 4am, when I woke up stiff with cold, because of the freezing wing blowing in from the ocean, but at least I could see a beautiful sunrise.

On our final morning we had a picnic breakfast by the beach, repacked our things (found a clean pair of socks, and my toothbrush, yeay!) and then zoomed back to Hobart to catch our flight to Melbourne.

Tasmania Part I. Nov 29th – Dec 1st

We had decided to fly to Tasmania, to avoid a long drive and a ferry ride. It was a budget flight and we had been ultra-cheap and booked the no-luggage option for Dorka to save money. It’s actually pretty amazing that we were able to do it, but we could limit „my” two check in bags to just 19kg, by putting a few heavy books in the pram-bag and packing more stuff into special (quite heavy) cabin bags.

We were all pretty excited as we walked over to pick up the campervan, trying to guess which would be our van, the one we would live in for the next 5 days. Unfortunately it became a horrible moment when we arrived at the office to find it locked and deserted. We were pretty angry, because they had offered to stay open until 9pm, and we were early. It turned out that the company had sent us an email asking my driving license details, 1 day before arrival. When we didn’t reply they just assumed we were not coming (even though we had paid in advance, and they knew we were going to arrive with two small kids!) It was dark and cold and we had nowhere to go, but the night staff at the airport were very helpful. In the end, the policeman on duty, Stewart, was super and drove us all the way to a local motel in his patrol car. This was our first hint that Tasmania is just like the north of Scotland - everything closes incredibly early, so if it’s after 6pm, you can simply forget about buying food, petrol and especially collecting campervans.

The next morning we returned to the office, Britz, to angrily pick up our van. Actually although the service was terrible, the Van was great. It was a Toyota Hiace, which is a high-top van with space for 5 people. (They would have to be 5 very close friends, but it was great for the four of us.) It had a pull-out upper bed, and a nice kitchen. There was no Bathroom or toilet, but these were available at all the campsites we stopped at. Even here, Lara slept in her portable cot, so it seemed logical to have Dorka sleeping next to her on the lower bed, and Emma and I on the upper bed. This was fun (except for the last night – see part 2) as this had the best view. Both children have become incredibly deep sleepers on this trip. Here in the most cramped conditions so far, Dorka and I were able to move around with the lights on, open and close the van doors etc.

So we drove off to the north, but due to some wrong turns, and our flexible itinerary, we ended up at a National Park in the far south of the state. (Hands up who weren’t sure if Tasmania was a country or a state? Oh, just me was it?) We headed off on foot towards Hartz Peak. While we didn’t actually go to the peak, we reached a couple of beautiful lakes, and enjoyed wonderful, if rather windy scenery. The land was all low bushes, so on the ridges, it was like walking into a hurricane. All in all, Dorka carried Lara on her back for 3 hours with no problems, so we were very pleased that we had the backpack-carrier with us. Lara slept a little and just seemed to enjoy the ride. Emma also hiked the whole way, though she was nearly blown off the path in a few places!

That evening we tried to get back North to Hobart, but just before sunset, I felt a problem with the van. It began to shudder and shake and smoke appeared behind us. I pulled off the road the find that the left rear tyre was not just flat, but was completely destroyed! The whole side of the tyre had blown out and I was actually driving on the metal rim for a few metres (hence all the smoke). Two older guys, Roger and John, had noticed us from their nearby and soon came over to help. It was our good luck they did, because the jack was too small for the van, so I really needed to borrow another. Emma and Dorka went off to talk to the guys’ wives, while we men fixed the wagon, before coming to join them for tea. They were all lovely to us and we had a very pleasant evening. They had small dogs too, so Emma was in puppy heaven. This all took place in their campervan, which was a deluxe version of ours, with a raised bedroom, a separate bathroom and toilet, spice rack over the cooker, everything.

It was fully dark when we got moving, so we couldn’t really go much further. We slept our first night “wild” near to Hobart so that we could go straight to the Britz office for another tyre the next day.

We saw animals by the roadside everywhere. Unfortunately they were mostly dead roadkills. Lots of potaroos, kangaroo rats and also quite a few wallabies too. The guys who helped us fix the van explained that this was a combination of two things - a new ban on guns which had reduced hunting, and a the very dry weather which forced the animals to come and eat the remaining green grass right by the roadside. This had a bad effect on us, as it was so sad to see body after body by the roadside. We also had two swerving scares, when we noticed a live wallaby right next to the roadside. Both times it was just luck really, that neither one decided to panic and jump in front of us. They are hard to see, and they move really fast! Unfortunately this meant that all travel after sunset was really slow, with Dorka pressing her nose to the glass, scanning for endangered wildlife and me keeping the speed to a steady 60 kph crawl. With both children asleep in their seats, we were silent on wallaby watch for long periods before Dorka would say “Oh”” and then after I stood on the brake, she would continue with something like “We really must call my sister tonight…”

More about Tasmania in part II...