Van Dieman’s Land

We took the day crossing from Port Melbourne and enjoyed a calm ride for the 10 hours we were on the boat. With delays of the incoming ferry, we ended up docking in Devonport at 10.30pm and found camp a few streets away from the dock at a local race track.
After the comforts of our friends’ homes for the last few weeks, this was the start of real life, so we decided to spend the day organising ourselves and getting some shopping in before heading West. Generally, I try to limit the time the kids spend on electronic devices as their behaviour (and my mood) tends to go downhill quite rapidly. So far, with all the distractions of friends and activities, they haven’t really asked for them. Today was no different, Reo’s horses and tubes of bubbles we’d brought with us gave the kids ample, back to basics fun and they played happily together and care free all morning.

We did manage to sneak in a trip to the House of Anvers, a chocolate factory with plenty of tasters. As we bought some treats in the shop Reo innocently asked the lady behind the counter if she made the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, don’t think she’d had that question before!
The following day we got on the road, turned right and headed to Boat Harbour. We were greeted with a spectacular view as we descended the hill to the beach. This is a little gem of a place, unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who knew about it! Last time we traveled Australia we found it incredibly hard to find any free camps. All land generally belongs to someone and with fences delineating ensuring people didn’t stray, we felt like herded cattle allowed to follow one route only. That was 12 years ago. With the social network movement that’s now in force and apps galore sharing information, its now a completely different landscape. It’s a curse and a blessing.

The free camp was set between trees and a quiet laneway to a few houses. As we drove up the lane, there was caravans packed next to each other like sardines. We were fairly late in the day arriving so not really an option to try find an alternative. As we drove further up we spotted a free patch of land away from everyone else, this was our gem! Nestled in between trees we managed to seclude ourselves a little and have a great camp and our first fire. The kids wanted to explore closer to the water. Lexi was wearing her swimmers, just in case the water beckoned. Lexi can’t help herself when she’s near water, it’s like a moth to a flame. After ‘just a paddle’ the urge took over and she stripped to her swimmers and dived in. Reo on the other has no need to plan, he basically went in the water FULLY clothed! The land belonged to the surf club and we happily gave a donation to the lifeguard who came collecting to enable us to stay. The land behind was being developed and some of the houses looked like they would be expensive real estate. I’m wondering how much longer the camp will be there; it’s gonna to be disappointing having a lush view from a house with a line of pikey campers littered in front of it!!

The following day we ventured off to Stanley to explore The Nut, a sheer-sided bluff from the remains of an ancient volcanic plug. Arriving around lunchtime, we hunted out the local fish and chip shop to ensure we’d had enough sustenance for a walk. There was a chairlift up to the top for the less hardened walkers (read The Towns Clan!) and before long we found ourselves at the top of Nut Hill. Lexi strode off like a champion yet when Reo realised that there was a “walk” to be done, he began protesting and from the start, like a broken record, proclaimed “I hate this walk”. He did crack a smile when a lady walked past him about 15 minutes in and agreed with him! It actually wasn’t a long walk, a loop of 2-3km, and was quite amazing to see how diverse the landscape was. As we started, the land was a big flat expanse displaying fabulous views out to sea and as we got around 2/3 or so, we were suddenly walking through a canopy by trees. Parts were very overgrown and in one area as branches and creepers had becomes entwined a cubby hole had developed. Alex and I decided this made a perfect hobbits home which then sparked a lot of discussion about what hobbits are and how they lived! It might be a while before they are allowed to see Lord Of The Rings, but “tick” school topic covered for the day!

While Van Dieman’s Land was once a place of horrors for those who stepped on the wrong side of justice, today Tasmania is an ideal place to explore some of the densest national parks on the planet. The next step of the journey as we continued anti-clockwise round the island was to explore The Tarkine Track. The scenery really is breathtaking; flat land morphing into thick, lush green forest with trees standing majestically tall, like spears of asparagus shooting into the sky. The photos we took really don’t do it justice. After The Nut walking experience I decided we needed to be a little more creative with any walks we wanted to do. As we drove round The Tarkine Track and came to stops with short walks/views, I began asking Reo if he wanted to take ‘a stroll’, it worked the first couple of times, but he soon saw through me. The kid is smarter than I give credit for! The irony is that once he gets out and becomes distracted with what we find on the walk/stroll, he really gets into it and thoroughly enjoys it.
We continued down the West Coast. Driving around Tassie can be slow going, the roads are windy and you really don’t want to rush so you can take in the rugged landscape. Having not been to Tassie before, I’d only heard how amazing it was and all my impressions had been taken from other opinions. The West of Tassie as we’d been told, is certainly not to be missed. It’s harder going on the driving but so worth it. We continued south towards Strahan and had to make a choice of whether to take the main road which was a longer route but an easier drive, or the ‘scenic’ road. We chose the gravel road that weaves like a flowing river along the edge of the Tarkine forest.

This route took us through Corinna, a tiny township located in true west wilderness. There was one catch taking this route, we needed to cross the Pieman River on a little chain ferry. There had been signs detailing maximum weights and measurements of vehicles and looking across to Alex to say “do we fit?” he replied “we’ll be right”…. We fit, just. Having such a heavy rig and the river at a very low level Alex and I had to stand right on the edge of the ferry to give it the ‘lift’ it needed to move from the river bank – I believe it was Alex’s weight that tipped it!  haha

As we continued off the ferry, we saw it, the elusive Tassie Devil!!! Black as soot and as quick as lightening it dashed across the road straight in front of us, if you’d blinked you’d have missed it. It was a bit of a blur but it didn’t matter, we’d seen one and were very happy about it. We continued the slow path down to Macquarie heads. This campsite was more our style, pockets of land to camp with trees intermingled so you couldn’t really see your neighbours. We arrived late (!) and as we were setting the trailer up Reo sneaked off through the bushes. He’d seen a campfire and wanted to take a closer look. The guy sitting by said fire got quite a shock; turning to the rustling in the bushes expecting to see a little marsupial he saw 2 big blue eyes staring up at him. An instant friendship was formed and Reo became Kerry’s ‘little helper’ for the next few days. Fishing was on the agenda and Reo got straight into Kerry’s tinny to help him prepare. Over the following days Kerry put in some yabbie pots to try and get us a feast, alas they weren’t biting, but it didn’t take the fun away from us having a ride on the boat and seeing sites that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

We booked a boat trip from Strahan down the Gordan River to sail into the World Heritage listed arena. Thankfully it was a calm day, so we first ventured out through Hells Gates of Macquarie Harbour, on windy days waves rise 4-5m and the sea is incredibly rough. Get lost here and head in the wrong direction you hit the Roaring Forties and there’s no land until you reach Argentina! Thankfully there was no need for us to brush up on our Spanish. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Wilderness Area recognised for its unique glacial formations, unspoilt temperate rainforests and extensive range of flora and fauna. Much of this terrain is only accessible by boat and boy, even if you get the worst motion sickness, it’s worth the sail.
We stopped at the renown Sarah Island where the worst of convicts were sent from the UK & Ireland for extremely harsh punishment for what we would consider petty crimes today. Life was incredibly tough, conditions primitive and escapes ‘near impossible’. There were various ways of how the guards tried to keep order; none were pleasant. For a short time it became the largest shipbuilding operation in the Australian colonies using the invaluable, copious Huon pine from the surrounding area. The tour guides brought the history and environment to life and told vivid stories capitulating the kids, wide-eyed with a mixture of agitation and horror, back in time to what it was like to be a convict. We finished off the day back on shore watching the play ‘The Ship That Never Was’, bit like a pantomime, completing the story that had been started on Sarah Island about the last boat that was built in the penal colony and how 10 convicts escaped off the island. There was a lot of audience participation although the normal enthusiasm of my two dwindled into complete shyness and neither were keen to partake in a starring role, so it was side-line activities for us. It was belly laughing entertainment and we all got to participate in the water fun towards the end as the ship got stranded in the high seas and plummeted to the depths and resting bed.

Time was ticking and we needed to continue on our journey if we were to get round other parts of the island before our return ferry. Cradle Mountain is synonymous with Tasmania and this is our next destination.