Lane's Ramblings

The Spirit of Tasmania was great, it was an 11 hour.. uhh, float? Voyage? It went from 8pm to 7am, they had bars, restaurants, and a casino on board, they even had a store and an information center. I was able to walk around, go out on deck, go to the bar and read, get a coffee. Plus, I already had a car to get around the island with and for some reason I like the slow travel of boats and trains.

I had a general idea what I wanted to do: a counter-clockwise tour of the island, some hiking, maybe some camping, and end the weekend by checking out the cities. Tassie is covered in national and state parks but I really only had time for small hikes just off the road and I was hoping that would hold me over for a time.

The cars are parked in the lower levels of the ship and they unload one or two levels at a time to avoid congestion and keep the amount of exhaust down. So I'm on level one and they're calling for levels 3 and 5 - that's easy, I just need to wait around, drink my coffee, no big deal. About 10 minutes later there's an announcement over the PA - "would the owner of a blue Corolla, rego #..." SOB - yup, I was "that guy". My car was parked on level 3.

So I'm on the road, flying down a seaside highway on my way to Burnie - I don't know what's there but it does have a junction to head down to Cradle Mt, which is my first stop. Turns out Burnie had some coffee and a vegie pasty (or is it pastie?) for me before I turned south to drive the winding roads through the start of the wild part of Tassie.

Cradle Mountain and it's jagged summit, though not the highest in Tassie, is the iconic symbol of the state. There are signs everywhere pointing out it's location but none that point out that Mt Ossa, the highest mountain, is only 25km south. I had no intentions of climbing the mountain but there were some tracks along the base of the mountain and around Dove Lake that would offer some great views of Cradle Mt and it's surroundings. When I arrived at the parking lot and saw the huge mountain in the distance with it's steep peak jutting out of the ground it only solidified the idea that today was not the day for this. But then there was a sign that said, "Cradle Mt summit.. 6km". I looked around.. 12k return? To that? I can do that.

The decision was made, it was 10:15am and it gets dark around 5pm, sure it's only 12km but look at that thing. So I signed in at the hikers registry, threw every piece of cold weather gear that I had into my pack. Hat - check; gloves - check; coat - check; headlamp - check; extra food and water - uhh, I had a bottle of water and a granola bar.. hmmm... let's do it.

The track leading up to the mountain was not difficult but gained a significant amount of altitude. There were also some great views just from the various lookouts. I was still unsure about the final approach but when I got up there it wasn't too bad. It was a lot of handholds and pulling up but nothing too difficult. Once I made it over the first peak there was quite a bit of snow and it could be easy to slide down into the rocks but luckily that didn't happen. From the summit it seemed you could see all of Tasmania. The walk back was easier than expected too but getting down the rocks was difficult as it can be harder to get down then to go up. Total time - 4hrs. Piece of cake.

From there I was looking for food, there was a 'cafe' just outside of the park but under "Hot Lunches" on the menu on the wall was absolutely nothing. Because it's winter they weren't serving anything so I just got a coffee and a water. From there I was going to drive down to Queenstown to get some food and possibly spend the night, I had my tent but it was pretty cold. I picked Queenstown solely on the fact that the name was printed in larger font on the map than any of the surrounding towns but when I came to a T in the road there was a sign that said Zeehan to the right followed by symbols for hotel, gas, food and then Queenstown to the left but not followed by an symbols at all. But I was confident in the larger font and if there's a problem then I'll just continue on to Hobart. Well, the latter idea was quickly thrown out the window when I saw a sign that said "Hobart - 289km", it was already dark, I'm tired, and these roads are anything but straight and flat, there's no way that I could make it to Hobart. Ahh, Queenstown.

My dreams and confidence of Queenstown being the answer to my hungriness and sleepiness disappeared as soon as I got a glimpse of the town - or, more accurately, the enormous mine splitting the mountain next to the town. Yes, it was a mining town. As I drove down the main street I had the feeling that I shouldn't be there - first of all, I think I was the only one there, the streets were empty, second, I don't think they get too many visitors. A pizza place.. yes it's open.. sweet. I went in to place my order and the place is being run by teenage girls and there are no adults to be seen at all. But I place my order - one cheese pizza - that will take about 35 minutes.. I glance around, you're kidding me, right? I'm the only one here. Oh well. I felt kind of weird just sitting in the pizza place so I walked outside and saw a grocery store across the street - that works, I need some food since I ate my one granola bar on the mountain. This place was being run by teenage boys. What is going on here? Do all of the adults work in the mines and the kids run the town? 40 minutes later I was happily eating my pizza - in my car - and then turned my mind to where I was going to sleep that night. Queenstown has done enough for me for today.

There's a town, Strahan, not too far from there and it has an airport - this place has got to be huge. The road there didn't suggest that. It was about 40km and just turn after turn and I was driving fast - I don't know how I made it - I did see one wallaby though, I'm glad he didn't run in front of my car. This is a problem in Australia, like other places, animals come out at night and run into the street in front of your car so I just knew that a kangaroo or a wallaby was going to become my new hood ornament (imagine returning that to the rental car place - it was there when I got it?) but I lucked out and didn't hit anything. Strahan was lacking my needs as well but now I need something else - gas - and the one station in Strahan was closed - it was 6pm! I couldn't get much further on what I had. Strahan was a bust. Do I sleep in the car? There's one more chance - Zeehan (from before) is not too far from here and there's a road between where I am and there so I don't have to backtrack. I know there's gas, food, and hotels there, the sign told me so. And I can just barely make it there on the gas that I have.

Pulling into Zeehan I had the only close call for endangering any animals as someone's cat ran out in front of me. After driving through town I decided that if there was any town that I wouldn't stay in without a damn good reason, it's Zeehan. This place is dodgy.. I'm not kidding. I guess I can sleep in the car somewhere.. wait.. there's a not so bad hotel. I walked in and asked if they had any rooms available and without even thinking or looking at the book in front her she said 'yes'. "And how much would that be?" "102 dollars." "Sold!"

Then she said to me, "Are you here 4 wheel driving?" "Umm, no." Seemed like a weird question. "Where do I park?" "Out back by the room." As I walked to the car I noticed that it was really getting cold and I was happy to have a room to sleep in instead of my tent or car. Then as I pulled into the back parking lot her question started to make sense, there were 4wd's everywhere and they were all covered in mud. These things were huge and here I am pulling in with my little Toyota Corolla hatchback thinking, "Just please don't tip my car over while I'm sleeping." I really wanted to take some pictures but didn't want the flash to bring any unwanted attention to me so I decided to pass.

So, my first night in Tasmania was spent in a very cold hotel room with a space heater and me lying in bed watching footy on tv and wondering what was going to happen tomorrow...