Tasmania day 6 - Cradle Mountain

In the morning we had to get up early because we didn’t have much time to explore Cradle Mountain. We had to return the campervan in Launceston by 4.30 pm. We did a 2-hour walk around Dove Lake, and after that it was time to head back. Cradle Mountain was really nice and the weather was sunny and warm again. It would have been nice to do a longer walk all the way up to Cradle Mountain, but it takes 6-8 hours and we were running out of time…

Before we left, I imagined Tasmania to be full of forests, mountains and lakes. This proved to be right, but it’s also so much more, and so much more beautiful than I expected. The landscapes actually reminded Finland a lot. The East Coast is full of long white beaches with no tourists ruining the landscape. I never could have imagined that I would find that in Tasmania! The west is green wilderness with forests, rivers and mountains. To discover Tasmania properly, you need at least a month. 6 days is nowhere near enough. People also told me that Tasmania would be freezing, but it was hot and sunny. Maybe we were just lucky, I don’t know. Staying at beaches was nice; going to sleep listening to the waves hit the shore and waking up to the same sound, so relaxing… :) Renting a campervan turned out to be a good solution, cheap, and you can stay wherever you want without having to worry about time and places we have to be. In fact, we stopped checking the time after day 1. 

Perfect holiday spot, but we didn’t have enough time. Beautiful landscapes and incredible wildlife! Tasmania is especially perfect holiday spot for those who enjoy bushwalking (heaps of walking tracks with nice scenery), wineries and unruined landscapes.

What can I say… To my friends at home or wherever: You have no idea what you are MISSING OUT! There is no place on this earth like Australia. It’s the most amazing continent on this planet with its AMAZING AND SO UNIQUE scenery, climate and wildlife. It really makes you see how amazing the world around you really is and appreciate it. I’m so happy I came here, I think everybody should!  So… QUIT THE RAT RACE! Quit it with the excuses, it’s about prioritizing! Make travelling a priority! You only live once! carpe diem!

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end, it’s already tomorrow in Australia!

‘The world is a book and those who don’t travel read only the first page’

Tasmania day 5 - Tamar Valley wineries

In the morning we had a long drive ahead of us; We had to drive from the east coast all the way to the west. Cradle Mountain is the ‘must see’ tourist attraction in Tasmania, so we didn’t want to skip it. Tasmania is small and the distances are not long, but the roads are really winding and hilly, and that makes the drive much longer. Once we got to Launceston, the second biggest city in Tasmania, we drove the Tamar Valley Wine Route for awhile. Tamar Valley is really famous for its wines and on the wine route there are at least 23 wineries, I counted. We only visited two because of the time restrictions, but still we tasted at least more than 12 different wines :) 

We finally got to Cradle Mountain after 7 pm. There was just one campground, and it was quite expensive, 27 dollars for a night, but it was definitely the best campground I’ve ever stayed at. After not having showered in two days, a nice hot shower felt pretty good! The facilities were really nice, and there were even two fireplaces in the camp kitchen. We had dinner with some wine and cheese and after that we went for a walk in the dark with the torch, to look for night animals :)

And after a short walk, what do we see! A Tasmanian Devil right in front of us! I had some bread with me so I tried to lure it to come closer. And it did, almost so close that I would have been able to pat it, but then it got scared and disappeared in the bushes. Anthony was holding the camera, that’s why we don’t have a photo of it. So we kept walking and ran into a strange little creature:

It looked like a big fat rat with a possum’s head but it was jumping like a kangaroo. If anyone knows what it is, let me know :) Tasmania has a lot of native animals so it was probably one of them.

The stars were amazing once again here in Australia; You never see that many stars in the northern hemisphere. The sky was FULL of stars. You really have to see it for yourself, it’s so amazing… I don’t think you can really say you’ve seen anything until you’ve seen what the night sky looks like down under!

Tasmania day 4 - Bay of Fires

The weather had gone cooler during the night and it was cloudy and windy in the morning. Friendly beaches were nice, white sand again, as far as the eye could reach. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to go for a walk along the beach, since we had to hit the road again to reach our next destination, Bay of Fires. 

Friendly Beaches

But before we headed to Bay of Fires, we wanted to check out the lighthouse that was also in the Freycinet National Park. The previous day at lunchtime people had spotted whales there. But when we got there, we could hardly even see the ocean because of the fog. :(

Bay of Fires is ranked as the world’s hottest holiday spot 2009 by Lonely Planet, so we had high expectations. Unfortunately the weather was quite chilly, but Bay of Fires was amazing! White sand and crystal clear, turquoise water, we couldn’t believe we were in Tasmania! Long white beaches one after another as far as the eye could see! And once again, it was just us on the beach and sometimes a random fisherman here or there. Definitely worth of its ranking in Lonely Planet. If only the weather had been better, it would have been perfect! I haven’t seen as nice a place anywhere in the Mediterranean or elsewhere during my travels. See, in the pics, they are all different beaches:

 

We drove all the way to the other side of the bay until the beaches FINALLY turned into rocks. After that we picked a beach where we would stay the night. It didn’t really matter; They were all long, gorgeous, full of white fine sand. Anthony wanted to go fishing on the beach. I grabbed a bottle of wine to keep me warm. Anthony’s been telling me what a great fisherman he is, but after he was using the previous night’s pasta and carrot as bait, I wasn’t so sure anymore… The wind was also really strong and the waves big, so I got a good laugh of his fishing attempts. We stayed fishing on the beach until it got dark and the wine bottle was empty.