The other Australia - Tasmania

Ah Tassie - the one state all Australians admit is nicer than the state they live in. And no wonder, with the higest lakes, most remote beaches, most picturesque coastlines, no flies, few mosquitos, and lovable little Tasmanian devils and wombats, it's certainly got a lot going for it. The apt licence plate motto is "Your natural state".

We rented a minivan so we could save on hostel bills by sleeping in the car, which we actually managed to do once. The easier alternative is the numerous YHA hostels, which usually have a family room for $80 or so.

What is lacking is internet access for our computers. We can get internet cafe access through their terminals, but by and large either they can't let us plug in, or their line is too slow to do Skype.

We stayed in the lovely little hamlet of Boat Harbor on the north coast in a S/C (which means self-contained unit attached to or adjacent to the owners place). The owners grand-daughter was visiting, so she and Josie became instant friends, as Josie seems to do everywhere.

The Nut in Stanley is the coastal equivalent of the Uluru (Ayers Rock) Except being covered with vegetation it isn't nearly so impressive. But it is beautiful, and an amazing rock.

From there we motored down to Strahan on the west coast, a singularly isolated and striking part of Australia. But not before camping out near Tullah, one of the less interesting places we've seen. It appears to be an old company town that somehow is still there long after the ore or trees or whatever are gone. But back to Strahan. The last remaining stands of Huon Pine are in this area. These trees live a long time (like 2000 years) and produce wood similar to cypress. For the most part, there's no more logging of native Houn. So there's quite an industry based on pulling old Huon logs out of ponds and working it into various art pieces or furniture. I'm bringing a piece home to work too.

From there we motored on through Queenstown, which looks like the badlands only steeper, and through the national parks that dominate western Tasmania. There were some lovely stands of Eucalyptus in tussocky wet lands. We stopped to go for a walk, but were detered by a major mosquito attack. Later we learned that wetland is home to one of Australia's more dangerous critters, the tiger snake. One bite and it's lights out. It's the first time we were glad to have mosquitos, or mozzies as they call them here. Somewhere along this road we saw another roadside attraction that claimed to be the largest handcarved wall in the world or some such. Turns out to be quite a work of art, in progress. It was interesting to see the progression from pictures to drawings on the wall to rough carved images to the finished art piece. The artist also had some amazing carvings of things like a pair of work gloves laying on a garden tool that looked totally like real gloves. All his wookwork was in Huon pine.

Then north to a YHA in Deloraine that was quite pleasant, as was the town. Just west of there is a "wildlife" park where we at last got to see (and pet) the signature critters of Tasmania, Wombats and Tasmanian Devils. They are both the cutest little critters you could imagine (at least the tame ones in the park) although wombats have impressive claws and the powerful build of a badger, only bigger,
and the little devils can open theres jaws up as if they don't have hinges and display an array of teeth that would be frightening if they didn't display such comical screaming and carrying on when eating.


And on and on through Launceston, Scottsdale, Derby and at last to the east coast at St Helens. This was a big waste of time and driving energy, as there was really nothing on the east coast of interest and the road through from Launceston to St Helens and south was truly tortuous.

In case you hadn't noticed, we're achieving the dreaded "Tourist Burn Out". We've been so many places and seen so many wonderful cities, beautiful views, great beaches, op shops, whatever, that the thought of going somewhere to see another one is more than a little abhorrent. Stopping and staying at a friend or even a friend of a friend's is a good temporary remedy for TBO. So is WWOOFing. But ultimately I think the only real cure is to not be a tourist. So we say we traveled to all these far off lands to meet the people who live and work here, to live and work with them. It's not our goal to see the seven wonders of the world, or the major tourist attractions of (where ever we are at the moment). Well that's what we say, but it's not how we've been traveling. Consider: rented a car in Hawaii, toured around the north coast, stayed in a motel (after house-sitting for a week); WWOOOFed on French Island, which is on the non-tourist side, but we left after 2 weeks beacause we couldn't easily travel (tour) from there. Then we stayed in a motel again, and a vacation home in a vacation town. After that we drove a tourist road for a couple days, then got to stay with friends (again, to the good). I'm pretty sure we would agree that most of our best times were when we were stationary and somehow connected to someone. So my point is that we're being tourists and not enjoying it. How do we stop?