From Glenorchy to Devonport

At 9 February the rest of the family (which is Anne, her mom & dad, her aunt Mirjan and her grandparents) will arrive with the Spirit of Tasmania (ferry) in Devonport. As there isn’t enough room for 5 people and their baggage in the Mitsubishi Challenger (my brothers NSW car), they asked me to come with the Tasmanian car so they have some room during the long drives. And then you have 2 options, you either leave the same morning (read in the middle of the night) to drive about 250km and be in Devonport around 6:00am or you leave 5 days earlier and drive along the west coast and be able to actually see something more of Tasmania. Easy choice, you leave the same night… Well I didn’t.

Monday morning I got up pretty early to head for Cradle Mountain – Lake St. Clair National Park (Lake St. Clair part). Well things didn’t go as they suppose to go. I hunted down almost all outdoor shops in Glenorchy and Hobart for a camping stove as it was the only thing I missed. I already had the cylinders, but it turned out no shop had a stove with the click system available. So in the end I left Glenorchy around noon instead of 9:00am. Bugger.

Finally being on the way I took a short stop in Tarraleah to enjoy the view from the lodge. In the valley below there is a power station that uses the water from the many surrounding lakes to generate power for about 8 times before it sends the water via the pipelines to Hobart (120km from Tarraleah) and its surroundings to be used as tap water. After the stop I continued my journey to Lake St. Clair to arrive there around 15:00. Lake St. Clair (Leeawuleena in Aboriginal meaning Sleeping Water) is with 167 meters depth Australia’s deepest lake and the lake is formed by the melting ice of glaciers more than 10.000 years ago. This side of the park is during the summer months the end of the Overland Track, a 5 to 6 days walk over 80km through the wilderness between Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair. During the winter months you can walk this track also in northern direction as there are less bushwalkers resulting in less people sleeping in the huts along the track. Walking the track is a challenge for me, but that will happen another time. No, today I keep it with a short walk. I took the Figure of 8 track which is a 1,5 h walk combining the Platypus Bay Track and the Larmairremener Tabelti Aboriginal Cultural Walk. And did I see a Platypus? Nope I didn’t.

After leaving Lake St. Clair I took the Lyell Highway towards my destination for the night, a little old mining town called Rosebery. The Lyell Highway is the only road running for 56km through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area towards Queenstown and the west coast. The majority of this road runs through the Franklin – Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and believe me; I’d love to ride this on a motorbike. A long and winding road through wilderness ending with a winding descent to Queenstown alongside a rough rocky mountain.

The next morning I got up early again to take the walk to Montezuma Falls just outside Rosebery. This 9,6km (3h) walk to one of the highest falls in Tasmania (104m) runs alongside the old tramway from Rosebery to Zeehan and it contains a couple of nice views of the small river running in the gorge about 10 to 20 meter below you. Just before arriving at the falls I passed an old mining shaft which can be entered though with caution. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my torch with me so I only entered the first few meters of the shaft. It did sound pretty spooky in there as you could hear the water dripping on the ground and I had to bend a bit. I continued walking for about 5 minutes before arriving at the Montezuma Falls. I must say it isn’t a big fall as it looks like it’s the drop of a small creek, but the height of the fall makes the Montezuma Falls so impressive. The thing I can say about the whole track, even though the length is 9.6km it is an easy track to walk as it is almost a level track with just a few light climbs. And then I didn’t mention anything of the nature you see alongside the track. Funnily enough back at the car I met an elderly though fit looking couple, they were heading for the track but once they saw the sign they decided to turn around. It looked like they missed the first sign 6km down the road at the turn off to the falls, as it stated the same information.

Around noon I left for my destination for the second night. Before heading for the Western Explorer I had to fill up the car with petrol and I took some lunch in Tullah at the same time. Although my tank wasn’t even halfway empty, on the Western Explorer there is no such thing as a petrol station nor mobile service. I would say good luck if you run out of petrol. Just after Reece Dam I took the Corinna turn of and from this point I wouldn’t see any concrete for 130km beside a few steep hills and the Fatman Barge, the 2-car ferry crossing the Pieman River just outside Corinna. The great thing about this ferry is that it runs almost in the middle of nowhere. Driving the Western Explorer is pure pleasure. On the first 56km after Corinna there is a speed limit of 50km/h and this limit is justified. The road conditions can change from day to day and parts of the road are even liable for flooding. Rally drivers would feel at home here. Another advantage of the Western Explorer is that it changes the colour of your car without any costs. I entered the road in a red car and left it in gravel white one.

When I returned to the civilized world (well civilized… a few houses and a shop) I pitched my tent at the Manuka Campground in Arthur River. The reason I would stay the night in this little town, was the fact that I knew I would have the best experience from my stay in Australia so far. Around 18:00 Geoff King picked me up from the campground entrance and he took me to his fisherman’s shack based on the coast line of his 800 acre property. Geoff is the host of a Wild Life tour which he started about 8 years back after he decided to take the cattle of his land and gave it back to nature. He runs these tours 5 nights a fortnight and it enables you to get eye to eye with wild carnivores. The reason he runs these tours on a limited amounts of nights is to avoid that the carnivores become dependant of the tours.

When we left the main road to enter his brothers land he stopped to hang the collected road kills behind his car to create a scent trail towards the shack. After he dropped me he went back to the campground to meet the group of bushwalkers that booked this tour as well. Because of the rough sea and strong wind I decided to take a short walk along the shore to kill the time it would take before the group would arrive. The tour leaders of this group were 2 great young girls of whom the youngest and nicest also could have been Dutch: Phoebe van Doorn. While the girls were cooking the diner, Geoff took us on a short walk over his property while he told about the local Aboriginal history, the nature and the wild life. And believe me, that guy knows a lot! After we returned at the shack and having some food and drinks it was waiting for our dessert. And we didn’t had to wait long before the first carnivore arrived. And it was not just a carnivore, it was the TASMANIAN DEVIL!!! This first Devil ran away upon the arrival of a second Devil and this second one feasted on her freshly served meal. And what about us? We were standing behind the window watching the monkeys… euhm sorry, Devils. Good thing to know is that my brother once said that if you see a wild Devil, you should take a photo of it and put it in a photo frame as it’s quite unique to see one in the wild. Lucky me having not seen 1 but 2 Devils. Unfortunately the photo’s of the first one were not sharp enough, but I did sleep very well that night.

So after a good night rest I got up early again as my journey to Devonport wasn’t finished yet. After breakfast and packing my tent I took a short drive to The Edge of the World and funnily enough meeting the same group again with whom I had the tour the night before. The Edge of the World is known as Tasmania’s most western point and with visiting it I have been at 3 out of the 4 capes Tasmania has. Eddiestone Point (east) in November, South Cape Bay (south) early January and now The Edge of the World. The north cape is located at King Island, north west of the main island. The great thing about the west cape is that there is absolutely nothing than water for about 17000km before you reach Argentina, not even Africa. Just like yesterday it had been good circumstances for surfers as there was much wind and a good surf. Even so that it had been good weather for the turbines at the Woolnorth Wind Farm. These guys don’t get their energy from the water, these guys get their energy from the by sailors called ‘the Roaring 40’s’. The restless westerly winds that are the rulers of earths southern latitudes, just below the 40th parallel. These winds only touch land 3 times during their run around the globe at the southern tip of South America, Tasmania and New Zealand’s South Island.

When I drove towards the Woolnorth Wind Farm I realized that there isn’t many traffic on the road, except cattle on their way to another field… Oh wait, better put the car on the side then. Sadly enough the drive towards the wind farm was not needed as I had to book a tour in advance. A pity because there were really a lot of turbines down at that site. But Tasmania has more to offer, so on my way to Stanley.

As far as I would reckon Stanley is about only known because of The Nut, a tiny piece of rock as big as the town itself which you can see on the horizon from miles away. When I arrived at the hostel I booked a Platypus tour only to find out a few hours later that the hosts cancelled it as there were to less people on it for the day. Well lucky me that you don’t have to book for a trip around The Nut. The summit track of this rock has great views over the wide area and is very easy to do, except when there are a lot of flies buzzing around your head. Which was the case today. But how do you get to the summit of The Nut, you might think. Well a 10 minute climb up a hill so steep that even Lance Armstrong would find it difficult to ride up.

The next morning up early again to head Devonport only to turn off at Ulverstone towards Mole Creek Caves. On the way I had stops at the 2 light houses at Rocky Cape and Table Cape both in the Rocky Cape National Park. At Rocky Cape I had a view at an old Aboriginal cave. On one of the signs posted near the cave there is a story told explaining the link between The Nut, Rocky Cape and Table Cape. You can read the story at one of the photo’s. Table Cape is also a impressive piece of rock. Developed as a volcanic neck some 12 to 13 million years ago it stands 170 meters above sea level. Guess how the view is from here. Last stop before I arrived at the caves, was in Sheffield as I needed to fill the car with petrol again. Sheffield is a nice old town with over 40 murals telling the history of the area. Because I knew the rest of the family would enjoy this town as well and as it was on route from Devonport to Cradle Mountain I decided only to stop for a short break and petrol.

Mole Creek is located in the Great Western Tiers, a mountain range comparable with the Grand Canyon in the US also hosting loads of lime stone caves (a short note, previous visited Hastings Cave is a dolerite cave). This area is by Aboriginals also known as ‘Mountains of the Spirits’. When I arrived at the caves I booked 2 tours, the first one at the Marakoopa Cave which has a colony of glow worms as one of its highlights and the second at King Solomons Cave. The caves are comparably to each other although Marakoopa is a ‘wet’ cave due to it’s underground rivers and King Solomons is called a ‘dry’ cave as it hasn’t such a river. The first cave has a lot of nice chambers and structures and as well the above mentioned colony of worms. In this part of the cave you aren’t allowed to take photo’s as the worms are oversensitive for strong bright light. But to give you an idea, remember the photo of the stars above Freycinet in my previous log? After leaving the Marakoopa Cave, a brief moment above the ground and a transfer to King Solomons Cave I went back underground to see the second cave. This small cave has once been a tunnel with an exit at the other side of the mountain, but after 2 parts of the cave had collapsed there is a limited distance you can get into the cave. In recent history they have digged a path through the first collapsed part to be able to access the best part of the cave. This part of the cave has an acoustic sound where many music venue would be jealous about.

After the caves I took the road to Devils Gullet, a viewing platform at 1100m altitude with a view over the majority of the area. In the Lonely Planet of Tasmania there is some information about this site stating: “Not for the fainted hearted!”. Believe me, this isn’t meant cynical. The viewing platform is an iron platform of 1 by 3 meters mounted to the top of the cliffs. Even before you arrive at the platform there are signs such as: DANGER CLIFFS. And when you are standing on the top of the platform you can hear the wind blow through all the holes of the platform and you can see miles away and about 220 meters down. The first time I looked down I thought I looked at some shrubberies but after looking a second time I realized it really were trees. I’m not easily frightened of heights, but this time I really felt a bit nervous. From the platform you got a great panoramic view over almost all the high peaks of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area including Cradle Mountain and Mt. Ossa, the highest peak in Tasmania.

You might think by now my day would be over… well not exactly. On my way to Deloraine, the place I would stay for the night, I stopped at the Alum Cliffs Track at the other side of Mole Creek. Alum Cliffs (Tulampanga in Aboriginal) is the historic Aboriginal meeting point for the 3 tribes (Pallittorre, Leterre Mairerer en Lee-now-wenne) that live in this wide area. Opposed to the Gullet, Alum Cliffs is located in a gorge towering high above the Mersey river.

The next morning the first thing I did was calling the family as I knew my parents would have landed at Melbourne and Rob, Gerda, Anne and Mirjan would pick them up. It turned out they agreed to be at the airport later that morning as they would have had to leave Tumut around 3:00am. They would get into town before they would board the Spirit of Tasmania that same night. After absorbing the information I left on my last stage towards Devonport.

Firstly I drove south to Liffey Falls in the Liffey State Reserve. Halfway the drive I stopped to take a photo of Quamby Bluff before I went into the rainforest again. I don’t have to say how beautiful the walk itself was. Loads of birds, trees and moss. And the falls itself? Liffey Falls is build up in 4 tiers. 3 smaller cascades and a last big tier which is the nicest part of the falls. To my opinion these falls are the nicest one I’ve seen, but it can be caused by the fact that you have the chance to see the falls from many different angles and it gets pretty much clear sunlight. The only thing I can do is just to refer to the photo’s so you can have an idea about the falls.

After the Liffey Falls I headed back to the coast for my last stop at Narawntapu National Park. In this park alongside the Bass Strait coast you can spot a lot of wild life, such as many bird species and loads of Pademelons. But I came here hoping to spot a Wombat. When I arrived at the visitors centre they told me the best time to spot Wombats would be from around 19:00. The chance to see one during the day would be very small, especially with the current draught. So I decided to take the walk to Archers Knob with a short detour to Springlawn, the lake that didn’t look like a lake at that moment. Normally you can take a look at many species of birds from the hide out but today I only have seen a few birds including some black swans. Talking about those swans. When you see swans in Europe, you see white ones most of the time. Here in Tasmania it seems to be the other way around. After the stop at Springlawn I continued my walk towards Archers Knob. From Archers Knob you have a great view at the western part of the park as well as a great view at Bass Strait, the sea between Tasmania and the Australian main land. On the way back to the visitors centre I took the route via the beach. And if you walk on a beach you just don’t get any idea how far you actually have walked there. The way to Archers Knob took me about 1 hour, the way back over the beach as well, but it only looked much longer.

Back at the visitors centre I took a look over the field and suddenly I saw some animal at the other side of the field. And believe it or not it was a Wombat. I didn’t recognize it as a Wombat from the first moment, but once I took the car and parked it closer to the animal I saw it was my chance to see a Wombat in daylight. So I got out, took the camera and slowly got closer to him taking a photo every few meters I got closer. Just in case it ran away. In the end I got about 3 meters from the Wombat and I took some more photo’s even though he wanted to turn his back on me all the time. When I felt it was time to go I thanked my furry friend for being so patient and giving me the chance to take some photo’s of him.

From Narawntapu it took me about half an hour to get to Devonport and when I arrived at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub & Backpackers I bought my self a nice ice cold beer. I deserved one after such a long and great journey. And while drinking it I enjoy the peace before the storm that would arrive the next morning. Cradle Mountain, Strahan, Historic Railway, Port Arthur, packing (for the removalists), Anne’s 1st birthday, the removal itself, Launceston and back to Devonport in just 7 days time and with the whole family. But that’s another story. :)