Tasmania - Week 1

On Sunday, February 9th at 9am we boarded the 'Spirit of Tasmania', the ferry departing from Port Melbourne to Devonport on the North coast of Tasmania. A little scared by my previous experiences onboard the Kangaroo Island Ferry (which only took 45min!) I (Marlene) popped in a couple seasickness pills to make sure the 10 hour (!) ferry trip wouldn’t become a nightmare. I’m glad I did as the sea indeed was very rough and moving around on the ship was quite a challenge. Therefore we tried to stay where we were - very close to the ship’s main bar ;)

Tasmania's Coast Line

Tasmania’s written history starts in the early 1800’s when the first convicts were shipped to Van Diemen’s Land (as Tassie was known back then). The first prison was built on Sarah Island on the West Coast, which closed when Port Arthur prison opened. Van Diemen’s Land was the most feared destination for British prisoners; such a terrible place that once convict transports were stopped it changed its name to Tasmania to get rid of its bad reputation.

But enough history for now, what did we get up to first? Well, we started our island exploration counter-clockwise, first stop the Northwest Coast with Burnie, Wynward Bluff and The Nut in Stanley, an old volcano. The climb up there was VERY steep but the views from the top absolutely spectacular!

On top of The Nut

The next day we visited the so called Edge of the World near Arthur River, which apparently has the cleanest air on earth as the sea here stretches uninterruptedly all the way to Argentina.

Against the wind at the Edge of the World

Stoked by so much fresh air, we reached Cradle Mountain National Park in the early afternoon; Cradle Mountain National Park is Tasmania’s ‘alpine’ heart with its highest peak (1617m) and deepest lake (200m). The weather this day was just fantastic, warm and sunny, no cloud in the sky (see our blog cover photo as proof) which is very unusual for that area we got told. While in the Cradle Mountain region we did a few shorter walks, spent a day canyoning the Dove Creek Canyon (AWESOME fun!!) and we also climbed Marion’s Lookout (1200m – higher was physically not possible after the canyoning).

We then continued our journey West to Strahan where we boarded a cruise that took us out on the ocean where the Roaring Fourties blow, around Macquarie Harbour and up the Gordon River including Sarah Island (one of the first prisons built in Tasmania) and a rainforest walk. I did look very closely but despite the perfect conditions I couldn’t spot any mushrooms ;)

Stefan as Co-Captain on the Gordon River Cruise

On Saturday, we got up early to first visit Mount Field National Park, Hobart’s local National Park, with yet another walk through lush rainforests to some very scenic waterfalls (and again no mushrooms), and second to catch Hobart’s Salamanca Markets. These markets are only on each Saturday until 3pm and are one of the main attractions in Hobart. At over 300 stalls, you can buy some local produce (cheese, wine, bread, sausages, etc), handicraft but mostly lots of crap really (I’m not a big market fan, would've enjoyed more food less crap). What we did enjoy about the markets though was the nice cool cider in a cafe nearby and the people watching :) While in Hobart we of course also drove up Mt Wellington, ate some delicious seafood at the harbour (oysters, oysters, oysters...) and visited Cascade Brewery (which beers we actually didn’t like too much; we’re definitely Boag’s fans... but more of that in the next blog post).

Russell Falls in Mt Field National Park

Hobart's Harbour

Hobart from Mt Wellington

Sunday was a little highlight for us with a trip to Bruny Island. We took yet another ferry over to the island and then boarded a speedboat to take us around the coast to the most scenic points. Unfortunately the weather was less than ideal with quite a bit of showers and no sun at all – not great for photos :/ The trip itself was pretty bumpy (I did drug myself again, so all good) but good fun; the Bruny Island coast again is spectacular, and as a bonus we also saw lots of sealions and dolphins. We’ve seen so many dolphins in Perth but they’re always a delight, especially when they’re swimming and jumping alongside the boat. On our way back to the ferry we made sure we tasted (and bought some of) the local produce on Bruny, oysters, cheese, jams & chutneys, smoked trout, beer, cider... makes two happy Austrians :)

Narrow isthmus connecting North and South Bruny Island

Getting ready for the cruise

Sealions on Bruny Island

Exploring Bruny Island's Coast Line by Speedboat

Great Ocean Road.. and some more wine!

After more or less safely making it back to the Australian mainland (the rough sea got a tiny bit of much to me (Marlene) our first stop was Victor Harbor. Mainly, to visit the Medical Center day as I couldn't get rid of a nasty urinary tract infection which I've been carrying around with me on Kangaroo Island. If you remember our last post, when we mentioned that we were impressed by the island's toilet facilities - now you know why we got to know them so well... :) The joys of travelling...

Anyway, equipped with some much needed medication we wandered around Victor Harbor which is actually a very nice place, the have a little island where you can do some walks to spot penguins and seals.

The next day led us to another wine region, Coonawarra, where we visited Yalumba, Wynn's (yum, yum, yum) and Balnaves. 

On Friday we joined what felt like a Gazillion Asian tourists cruising the Great Ocean Road. We've had nothing but blue skies the weeks before but of course today the sky was cloudy and not photo-wise not ideal at all. We did conquer all those obsticles (tourists and weather) and had a great day driving along the coast. All in all a very pretty part of the country, nice little towns, great beaches, awesome scenery, we really, really enjoyed it.

Saturday we decided to take a bit of a break from sightseeing and spent the day in Geelong, wandering around the town, along the harbour, enjoying a cold cider, etc AND getting ready for the ferry ride over to Tasmania the next day.

Kangaroo Island

After making our way down through the vineyards of South Australia we have landed on Kangaroo Island. Just 40 minutes off the shore of mainland Australia this island has a lot to offer. Especially wildlife has been thriving here as many "illegal" immigrants like the fox and feral cats have not made it on to the island and thus kept the Australian native animal population intact.

That's how we made it on to Kangaroo Island.

So far we have seen wild kangaroos and wallabies, sea lions, koalas (always a delight for us West Australians ;-) ), a goanna, possums and I have seen a live echidna, Marlene only a dead one on the road :-( There are Koala walks through the Eucalyptus forrests, a tour of Seal Bay, nature walks through National Parks and just lots of wildlife all around. This is definitely one of the great things about Kangaroo Island.

Seal Bay guided walk on the beach

Marlene "finding" a Koala in a gum tree

What has impressed us a lot so far are the facilities that are provided to tourists. There are public toilets everywhere and even shower facilities which are very clean and always equipped with toilet paper, a real treat for people camping in a van like us. You just pay a fee to the "iron ranger" (a booth at the entrance of the camping area) and can camp somewhere in the area close to the toilets and showers (very important for the ladies). This really feels like luxury travel for us after camping in the wild in the Nullabor Desert.

Remarkable Rocks at Flinders Chase National Park

What else to see and do on Kangaroo Island? Well, we have kept it only to the sealed roads and have seen lots. From driving to the numerous great bays with marvellous beaches, lookouts, National Parks to the Seal Bay Tour as mentioned before and a tour of a sheep milk farm to vineyards. We have skipped driving on unsealed roads, gravel roads (Schotterstrassen) to get to great remote camping spots on even more isolated beaches and bays. There would be lots of lighthouses to explore as well which we are not that interested in anymore after seeing quite a few already in Australia. Furthermore there is lots of activities and adventures that can be undertaken, from quad biking, helicopter flights, paintballing, speed boat rides, wildlife sanctuaries, shearing demonstrations, etc. All what we have done already but it is definitely recommended when you spend longer on the island.

A view from above the "Arch" at Flinders Chase National Park

The scenery is definitely great here and for me the walk through the National Park was the highlight. We stood long and quietly on the side of the platypus waterholes but unfortunately were not lucky enough to see any, they seem to be in a kind of a "summer rest" in their hollows. The sheep milk farm was also something new to Marlene and me which was really interesting. Unfortunately the distillery had closed exactly on the day we had planned to visit it, damn.

Tomorrow we will be moving on again back to the mainland and then into the direction of Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road.

Stokes Bay

Wine regions around Adelaide

A few years ago we had spent a long weekend in Adelaide with a day trip to the Barossa Valley. Despite all the reports of previous travellers we had enjoyed the city a lot and hadn't found it boring as so many others had experienced it. There are a lot of good, interesting restaurants and we found a number of cool, special bars that we really enjoyed.

This time we therefore didn't even drive into Adelaide but found a really interesting route circumventing the city and getting the best out of the many wine regions South Australia has to offer. From Port Germein just a 1.5 hour drive we reached the Clare Valley. Definitely a smaller wine region but well organised with a "Riesling Trail" through the "valley" (Austrians would never call it a valley just because a river is running through a town ;-) ) which can be undertaken by foot or bicycle passing a many of the wineries (nearly as we know it from Austrian wine regions hiking through the vineyards from one Buschenschank to the next). A great way to explore the valley if you have a weekend or longer. From Adelaide the Clare Valley is a bit too far for a day trip but with an overnight stay on the weekend this is a great getaway spot. 

Coming into an Australian wine region we of course can recognise some of the big winery names that we had already enjoyed a bottle or more of during our time in Australia. Therefore our first stop was Knappstein Winery and Brewery. I remembered the boutique beer and also the wine turned out to be very good. We bought a bottle of wine and a 4 pack of beers for our trip. On we went for some more tastings in smaller wineries with a local tasting platter, yummie. The end of the Clare Valley made a trip to a big winery we already had lot of bottles of, Taylors. Architecturally not very outstanding (well if you like the 80ies then yes) but staff was great and I tasted so many wines that I was really tipsy afterwards. Marlene had to drive that day.

The next stop then was Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, just 30 minutes out of Adelaide and we practically had to drive through Adelaide to get there. Hahndorf was established by 52 German lutheran families who fled from Germany for their religious believes. They named the township after their captain Hahn. This town really feels like entering an old German town and made us giggle quite a lot. Nobody of the locals speaks German anymore, well, 175 years is a long period of time.. 

However, the bars and restaurants definitely offer a lot you expect in a German restaurant abroad. You can choose from so many German beers and we also enjoyed a Munich platter with Kaesekrainer, Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, Kaessler meat, etc. It was so much that especially Marlene is still recovering from it and can't see, smell or eat any sausages until now :-)

We then drove on to find a spot to stay. Preferably we stay on public camping grounds with toilet faciliies. Equipped with an app called "Camps Australia Wide" (the book version is Camps7, numbered consecutively) it is fairly easy to plan your trip. Unfortunately the camp site in a regional park we had picked was not open and so we had to go and ended in the McLaren Vale.

The McLaren vale is close to a magnificient coastline especially on such hot days.

The next day we then stocked up on supplies for our trip to Kangaroo island which started in the afternoon. Again we had to check out some of the wineries that we had known by name. Firstly we went to Rosemount wines which had a market on with lots of stalls which made it a great experience. It was important that everything was indoors as the heat had been impecable for the last two days, constantly over 40 degrees.

Then we visited D'Arenberg and Wirra Wirra, famous for their Churchblock wine which they had a big bottle of out on the car park.

To give you an idea of the tasting experience here is a picture of a "cellar door" where the wine tastings are happening, here at Wirra Wirra.

Through South Australia

After arriving in South Australia on Wednesday we drove South on to the Eyre Peninsula to Coffin Bay and stayed the night there. Coffin Bay was familiar to us as many oysters sold in Perth come from Coffin Bay. Our first stop in the town was to buy fresh oysters which got shucked in front of our eyes and had them as a starter for an exquisite campervan dinner :-) We actually repeated the same for breakfast, what a delight.

We stayed at a camping ground in the Coffin Bay National Park which is an awesome park that I would certainly recommend as a great spot for camping, fishing and spending a 4WD weekend or longer. 

    View from Point Avoid in the National Park

The next day we drove on to Port Lincoln where we had lunch. The AUD 495.- (about EUR 300) for cage diving with sharks held us off from doing this most famous Port Lincoln tourist experience. We believe that it is more sustainable to see them in their usual habitat when diving rather than in a cage where they are allured by blood and meat.

Our next stop was Tumby Bay and then we drove through Whyalla with a steel making plant which of course made our hearts go sentimental seeing a little brother of our Voest plant. We didn't even stop in Port Augusta and only stopped at Port Germein to stay in a Caravan Park there.

As we were coming closer to the capital of South Australia we had plans visiting some of the great wine regions of South Australia circumnavigating Adelaide. And that's what we did.